It looks like the time has finally come to say good-bye to seeing Mario Lemieux on the ice....one of the greatest, if not the greatest, hockey player of all-time retired today from the Pittsburgh Penguins after a 22-year career....I was in the 11th grade when Super Mario came on the scene.....I am now 37-years old....
In his youth, Lemieux was just as dominant as Wayne Gretzky.....he helped bring back-to-back Stanley Cup titles to the Steel City....and he personally took it upon himself to keep the Penguins afloat when it looked for certain that the team would go bankrupt and end up elsewhere....
As great a player as he was, we will never really know how much more he could have done because of injuries and Hodgkin’s Disease....Lemieux was plagued with an assortment of ailments including a bad back.....but the diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Disease stripped away his best years....and in the end, a heart ailment led to him leaving the game for good....
Unfortunately for Lemieux, he also had to play at the same time as Gretzky’s career was winding down.....and being that Gretzky was the e
lderstateman, Lemieux had to share the spotlight....No one knows if the Penguins will be in Pittsburgh in the near future despite having a young and up and coming star in Sidney Crosby......but no matter where the franchise goes or how well Crosby does, Lemieux has left his mark with the city of Pittsburgh and its fans -- and a statue of him should stand in the center of the city....
Over the next couple of weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, I will be reliving some of my favorite Super Bowl games......
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