Comments on: Video: Gagner’s great, but Mario was magic

By: lsxphotog

lsxphotog — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:20:27 +0000

Game-for-game, highest impact player of all time.

By: stakex

stakex — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:45:06 +0000

No franchise ever produced a player of that caliber. Mario, Gretzky, Howe, Messier…. they all just had something special and no team can simply “produce” that. Teams just get lucky to land them at the start of their career.

When it comes to Mario, the Pens were just bad enough the previous season, perhaps on purpose depending on who you ask, that they earned the 1st pick in the 1984 draft. If New Jersey loses a couple more games, or the Pens win a couple more the year before and Lemieux would have been a Devil… and the Devils would have deserved little credit for “produceing” him as a player.

By: blacksabbathrulesall

blacksabbathrulesall — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:51:32 +0000

Cheers to that!!! Lemieux was one of a kind for sure.
Getting to watch him in person was always special.When he was one the ice you had to stare at him because you just knew something awesome was about to happen and it usually always did.
But you always have to wonder if he had been healthy his whole career what numbers he would have had. Astronomical for sure.
Lemieux is a hockey god and to think some asshat said the other day on this forum that he was a flash in the pan.Idiots.

By: florida76

florida76 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:11:36 +0000

Good point, tk1966. A healthy # 66 would have certainly achieved numbers very close to Gretzky, and won at least another Cup for the Penguins sometime during the 1990s.

Gagner did have a spectacular night, but these records have more value when they are achieved by the legends of the game. Mario is acknowledged as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, and has turned out to be a tremendous owner as well(something you can’t say about some other elite players).

And while teams like Chicago, New York, and Toronto had a roughly 40 year head start as franchises, none of them ever produced a player of this quite this caliber.

By: tk1966

tk1966 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:59:16 +0000

Just imagine what he could have done if he didn’t have to fight debilitating back problems, cancer, and the introduction of the neutral zone trap

By: fleurysteeth

fleurysteeth — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:25:55 +0000

O Captain! My Captain!

By: 1943mrmojorisin1971

1943mrmojorisin1971 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:31:53 +0000

That second goal was filthy. A penalty shot would’ve been called 3 times over on that play today.

By: jpelle82

jpelle82 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:19:41 +0000

5 goals, or 8 points will happen again but no one will ever score 5 different ways again