The talk of the NHL is the derring-do of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Every goalie in the NHL knows all too well the damage they have been doing since Lemieux ended his 3 1/2-year retirement 14 games ago and took his old linemate Jagr along for the rampage.
There will be a seven-day respite from that starting Wednesday when the Penguins will take an extended NHL All-Star break.
But Lemieux and Jagr will remain in the limelight, only this time they’ll have an adversarial relationship: Lemieux will play for Team North America and Jagr for Team World in Sunday afternoon’s All-Star Game in Denver.
This will be the fourth time the All-Star Game has pitted the best players from the U.S. and Canada against their counterparts from Europe. North America leads the series 2-1.
But who cares? The outcome isn’t what modern All-Star Games are all about. The games have turned into showcases for the top scorers in hockey, and defense has been doing a disappearing act.
Not surprisingly, Lemieux has put on some of the most sensational scoring shows in the history of the game that began in 1947 in Toronto, where the Blackhawks’ Doug Bentley scored the goal that gave the NHL All-Stars a 4-3 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Maple Leafs.
In 1985, the 19-year-old Lemieux became the first rookie to be selected the All-Star Game’s MVP when he scored twice and assisted on a goal to lead the Wales Conference All-Stars to a 6-4 victory over the Campbell Conference All-Stars.
In 1988, he had a record six-point night consisting of three goals and three assists, and the Wales All-Stars won 6-5.
In 1990, he recorded the second four-goal game in All-Star history to highlight the Wales Conference’s 12-7 blast.
Neither Lemieux nor Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig would be surprised to see Jagr steal the show Sunday. Both consider the 28-year-old right wing from the Czech Republic to be the best player in the world. Lemieux has been saying it will take a couple more months for him to reach his linemate’s level, and Kolzig recently told The Hockey News that “Jagr is a much better player.”
Kolzig won’t have to worry about either one. Colorado’s Patrick Roy, New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur and Phoenix’s Sean Burke are the goaltenders for Team North America, and Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek, Philadelphia’s Roman Cechmanek and San Jose rookie Evgeni Nabokov will tend goal for Team World.
Show me the money: All things considered, Phoenix center Jeremy Roenick is having a bad season. He didn’t make the North American All-Star Team and The Hockey News gave him a grade of C on his first semester report card.
But that isn’t stopping the ex-Hawk from trying to get a megabucks contract when he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
“I’ll be looking in the $6.5-$7 million range,” Roenick said. “That’s what I think I could get on the open market. I would prefer to stay here [in Phoenix] permanently. But I can see where that may not be possible and they may might have to do something.”
Roenick’s current contract pays him $5 million a year.
Welcome back, Roger: Ottawa assistant coach Roger Neilson, who is fighting his second battle with cancer in less than a year, was greeted with an outpouring of emotion when the Senators went to Vancouver, the scene of the greatest achievement of his coaching career.
The Canucks’ management gave fans thousands of white towels to wave and saluted him with a scoreboard video presentation during the first timeout. The fans embellished that salute with a towel-waving standing ovation.
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The tale of Neilson and the towels goes back to the 1982 Stanley Cup semifinal series with the Blackhawks. Neilson was incensed with the officiating when the Hawks were 4-1 winners in Game 2 in the Stadium, and as time wound down he grabbed a white towel and began waving it.
“I remember that game like it was yesterday,” Neilson said. “The officials needed to be sent some sort of message.”
When the best-of-seven series returned to Vancouver for Game 3 the Canucks’ fans brought thousands of white towels to the old Pacific Coliseum and began waving them as a symbol of solidarity with Neilson’s team. The Canucks responded by winning the next three games to advance to the championship series, where they lost to the New York Islanders.
Not only did the Canucks’ management and fans honor Neilson when he came back to Vancouver with the Senators, but he also received a gift from broadcaster John McKeachie. It was the ripped old white towel that hung from the antenna of the team bus after the game in Chicago 18 years earlier.