Super Mario (Lemieux) To Return From Retirement

No, I'm not talking about another sequel to the Nintendo game, this is the real deal. I'm talking about an imminent comeback from the one of the greatest athletes to ever play the game of hockey.

Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux. These are perhaps the first three players that pop into anybody's mind who knows a little about hockey. On Monday, Mario Lemieux, who is currently the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins and a member of the Hall of Fame, will likely announce his return to the team after retiring at the conclusion of the 1996-1997 season.

"Super Mario" recorded his tenth career 100-point season that year, which is second to Wayne Gretzky's record of 15. In his last two seasons he won consecutive scoring titles, and has totaled over 600 goals and 800 assists in his career. Now, after almost a four-year absence from the ice in favor of the owner's box, Lemieux is ready to give it one more go.

At the age of 35, he is certainly no youngster, but what Lemieux may lack in physical shape he will more than make up for in his mental capacity. He has had to be strong mentally to survive in the game for as long as he has; after all, this isn't his first comeback.

If you ignore the fact that Lemieux played hockey, he would have more health problems in his life than most average people. Even if you add the fact that throughout his career, the objective of most teams he played against was to take him out and make him pay for the schooling he gave their goalies, Lemieux has suffered more injuries and illnesses than most of us could take.

His nickname "Super Mario" carries a lot of more weight than just the great plays he made on the ice. To be more specific, let's take a look at everything the Hall of Fame member has had to overcome in his playing days.

After playing five seasons of relatively healthy hockey, Lemieux missed 21 games in the 1989-90 season due to a herniated back. Okay, that had to hurt, but it got a lot worse. The following season, he missed the first 50 games recovering from a rare bone disease resulting from a surgery-related infection. Despite all of this, he went on to win the playoff Most Valuable Player award and to lead the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup championship.

So he went the entire 1991-92 regular season without getting injured or sick until Game 2 of the Patrick Division Finals, in which New York Ranger Adam Graves slashed and broke his left hand. That's a big ouch at a bad time. However, Lemieux recovered quickly and missed only five games, returning in time to earn yet another playoff MVP award, and yet another Stanley Cup championship.

Up to now you would have to think that you couldn't drag this man away from the game he loves. But, in January of 1993, Lemieux was diagnosed with a nodular lymphocytic form of Hodgkin's disease, and underwent radiation treatment for all of February. Once again, though, Lemieux returned quickly and won his fourth scoring title even though he only played in sixty games. It's obvious by now that this guy is the Mario in the Nintendo game after he finds the star ‹ he's truly invincible.

The following year, Lemieux announced that he was going to take the season off due to fatigue from the radiation treatment he had recently received. After sitting out again and also undergoing a second back surgery, he returned in the 1996 and 1997 seasons to win back-to-back scoring titles, and retired on top.

So after all that this guy went though, what would make him want to come back to the game? In my mind there are two major reasons as to why Lemieux would be interested in coming back to hockey, and one prerequisite.

During his playing days, Lemieux was a superstar from the day he was picked first in the 1984 draft by the Penguins. I don't believe that he would come back if he was just going to be a mediocre player. So I think Lemieux will only return if he is going to have a good chance at resuming the superstar form he had four years ago. This is very similar to when Michael Jordan made his comeback to the NBA. He knew that he still had the stuff to be the best player in the game, and in all likelyhood would not have returned if he wasn't going to be able to dominate the rest of the league.

That leads to the first reason Lemieux is probably thinking about returning. The new crackdown on the infringement of the rules in the NHL will make the game a lot more fun for him, as he won't be allowed to get beaten up as much. In addition, the rule changes will allow for more potent offensive attacks throughout the game ‹ especially for Lemieux. And although in years past the rule changes haven't been enforced extremely well, his return will certainly spark the league's interest in starting to take the rules seriously.

There are some rules, however, that could slow the process of his return. A few years ago the NHLPA refused to let Mike Barnett, who was a team owner, represent Wayne Gretzky, saying that there was a "conflict of interest" in his intent. Lemieux's issue would be whether or not owners are allowed to play. But according to the spokesman of the league, Frank Brown, there are no specific rules that would stop Lemieux from making a comeback and maintaining his ownership simultaneously.

The other major reason Lemieux wants to join the NHL once again is because of the team that would be around him. Current Penguin star Jaromir Jagr, who makes $10 million a year, would have somebody to pass to at center who could finish. This year, Jagr is in the midst of a big slump and is not playing anywhere near the level he is capable of. Perhaps a big reason for this is because he is frustrated by the fact that he doesn't have somebody like Lemieux to play with.

Jagr recently said to Espn.com, "[Lemieux] said he had a good feeling about this team and he felt like he could help the team."

To say he would help the team is a huge understatement. The Penguins are currently one point behind New Jersey for first place in the Atlantic Division. The addition of Lemieux would make Pittsburgh almost unstoppable, and they would have little trouble winning a Stanley Cup championship this season. Most recently, Lemieux has saved the Penguins from bankruptcy by buying the team in September of 1999, and now he will lead them straight to the top.