Lemieux’s Motives Run Deep

Superstar winger Jaromir Jagr has done more feuding with Coach Ivan Hlinka than scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season.

Tough guy Matthew Barnaby recently was suspended four games for scuffling with an elderly South Florida fan who looked old enough to be Barnaby’s grandfather. Rest assured, most of the league probably was rooting for the old-timer to pound Barnaby.

Aleksey Morozov has been held without a goal in 20 consecutive games. Rene Corbet, Robert Lang and Kip Miller have one goal apiece in 11 games.

Is it any wonder Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux has decided to pick up the ax and lace up the blades again? Look at it this way: Lemieux had to do something to keep the Penguins’ good name alive and well in Pittsburgh.

Certainly, it’s a cynical view of Lemieux’s comeback, which begins Wednesday night at Pittsburgh against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a mind-boggling 3 1/2 years after he called it quits. Sure, he’s only 35 and everyone seems to agree that he left too soon.

Interest in the Penguins, a .500 club with little chance of winning the Stanley Cup this season, suddenly has soared around the league.

“I wish we didn’t have a game, so I could watch him play,” said Teemu Selanne, right wing for the Mighty Ducks. “I’m so pumped. It’s a great day for hockey. It’s a great sign for hockey, a great sign.”

However, Lemieux’s return can be viewed another way, one that has more to do with dollars and cents and less with goals and assists.

You’ll recall that Lemieux helped rescue the financially troubled Penguins by buying the club, keeping it in Pittsburgh and out of the clutches of towns such as Houston and Portland, Ore. At one point several years ago, there were rumors that the team couldn’t pay its hotel bills on several occasions and had abandoned the Marriotts and Westins most teams call home on the road for Days Inns and Motel 6s in order to save money.

We haven’t had a look at the Penguins’ financial records, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the small-market team barely is getting by in an arena that looks as if it were among the top 10 rejected designs for Disneyland’s original Tomorrowland. Mellon Arena, better known as “the Igloo,” seats 16,958 and has few luxury boxes. A new Penguin rink is not in the plans.

So, when Lemieux sounds like Michael Jordan and tells interviewers from near and far that he misses the competition and being around the guys, we wonder if there is more at stake than Lemieux’s personal enrichment.

In separate interviews in the last few days with a Pittsburgh newspaper and ESPN, Lemieux has been asked about his possible impact to the team on the ice. He made no promises, but ESPN and ESPN2 have taken extraordinary steps to juggle their broadcast schedules to show Lemieux’s first five games back. It’s a good bet few viewers Wednesday will be concerned about Morozov’s goal-scoring slump. Or Barnaby’s suspension.

“I have a lot of confidence in my ability to come back and play at a high level,” Lemieux told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in Monday’s editions. “I’m going to have to be patient, probably, the first few games, but I intend to get there by the playoffs, to be at the top of my game.

“That is my goal, to gradually improve my game in the next few weeks and get to the level where I can really help this team.”

The Penguins, 0-3-3 in their last six and coming off an 8-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, could use Lemieux’s help. Jagr, who has carried the team through thick and thin since Lemieux’s retirement, hasn’t been his overpowering self. In fact, he has been labeled a selfish baby by the media for his ongoing dispute with Hlinka.

Jagr took the high road when asked about Lemieux’s return, however.

“To tell you how he’s going to play, I don’t know,” said Jagr, who has 36 points in 35 games and trails Alexei Kovalev by a point for the team scoring lead. “We’ve got to wait for a game where there is contact. But the way he skates now, the way he plays, he’s doing everything the same.”

Perhaps that’s so, and we’ll find out for certain in the coming days and weeks, but it’s difficult to shake the feeling that Lemieux will be skating with more at stake than his desire to slap the puck around again.

THE GRINCH STRIKES AGAIN

Bobby Clarke, general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, must have a heart that’s two sizes too small. How else can his hurtful comments to a Canadian TV interviewer last week about former Flyer coach Roger Neilson be explained?

Clarke said Neilson, now an assistant with the Ottawa Senators, went “goofy” after taking a leave of absence to undergo cancer treatments last year. Clarke went on to say that’s why the Flyers let Neilson go as coach.

“We didn’t tell him to get cancer,” Clarke said. “It’s too bad that he did. We feel sorry for him, but then he went goofy on us.”

Clarke fired Neilson’s replacement, Craig Ramsay, earlier this month. He also angered unsigned free agent Eric Lindros with hard-line negotiating and unsympathetic comments about Lindros’ history of concussions.

The classless comments about Neilson make it a hat trick this season for Clarke, one of the heroes of the Flyers’ Stanley Cup championship teams of the mid-1970s. A whopping 71% of 3,396 readers who responded to an on-line poll believe Clarke should be fired for his remarks.

“[Clarke] is under a lot of pressure right now,” Neilson tactfully told the Ottawa Sun. “Look, I’m happy to be here, and I was happy this opportunity came along [in Ottawa]. I don’t even think about [Philadelphia] anymore.”

LAST GASP FOR THE RED WINGS?

Scotty Bowman, coach of the Detroit Red Wings, has been around long enough to know the signs of a fading league power. He also can read the NHL standings, which is why he gave his players a simple message last week.

“Let’s stop cutting corners,” Bowman yelled during a practice Thursday.

Duly inspired, the Red Wings on Friday threw everything they had at the Ducks, who were without left wing Paul Kariya (broken right foot) and center Steve Rucchin (dizziness stemming from a broken nose and cheekbone). Selanne limped through the game with a groin strain. The Red Wings ended up with a 44-17 advantage in shots but needed overtime to pull out a 2-1 victory.

It’s not a good sign for the 1997 and ’98 Stanley Cup winners, who have been pressed this season by younger, fresher Western Conference teams such as the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues.

At the Christmas break, the Red Wings trailed St. Louis by three points in the Central Division and were four points behind conference-leading Colorado. San Jose was only a point behind Detroit and Dallas was four points back.

SLAP SHOTS

Here’s all you need to know about the state of the Montreal Canadiens, last in the Northeast Division with 24 points: They couldn’t even lure Stephane Richer, 34, out of retirement. It’s believed Montreal’s offer was for the league minimum of $150,000. Richer continues to skate on his own.

The Chicago Blackhawks, off to another poor start with a 13-18-2-2 record, apparently are looking to trade top scorer Tony Amonte. The Phoenix Coyotes are rumored to be interested in swapping Keith Tkachuk for Amonte. The Coyotes want to break up the Tkachuk-Jeremy Roenick union, which has grown toxic.

The Atlanta Thrashers get our vote for the league’s most-improved team. The second-season Thrashers are a victory away from matching their total of 14 last season. Said defenseman Steve Staios: “A lot of people are waiting for us to drop off. It’s not in our plans.”

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Point Men

The NHL will get a much-needed shot in the arm with Mario Lemieux, right, returning to the ice in Pittsburgh and Wayne Gretzky taking over the boardroom in Phoenix. They hold the top 16 points-per-game seasons in NHL history:

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Player Team Season Points per game Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1983-84 2.77 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1985-86 2.69 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1992-93 2.67 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1981-82 2.65 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1988-89 2.62 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1984-85 2.60 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1982-83 2.45 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1987-88 2.33 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1986-87 2.32 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1995-96 2.30 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1987-88 2.18 Wayne Gretzky Kings 1988-89 2.15 Wayne Gretzky Kings 1990-91 2.09 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1989-90 2.08 Wayne Gretzky Edmonton 1980-81 2.05 Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh 1991-92 2.05

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