Before he was Magnificent in the NHL, Mario Lemieux shattered records in the CHL

By Will MacLaren

Mario Lemieux ranks no. 1 on the CHL’s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years

They say all records are meant to be broken. That doesn’t mean all records are created equal. Because if anyone in the CHL even remotely approaches the heights that Mario Lemieux reached in the spring of 1984, they will become appointment viewing of the highest order.

The QMJHL has always carried a reputation as high scorers of the trio of CHL circuits. Lemieux reenforced this notion during his three seasons with the Laval Voisins. After leading all ‘Q’ rookies in scoring as a 16-year-old, Lemieux nearly tripled his goal production and doubled his point total to 84 and 184, respectively, as a sophomore. With his NHL Draft year looming, the talk of the league entering the ’83-’84 campaign was centered on how far the big, talented center, who one NHL netminder would someday call “an albatross”, could go.

By the time the children of Laval were trick or treating, the answer the that question was stopping the hockey world in its tracks. Lemieux had amassed 36 goals and 83 points through 20 games entering November. Two seemingly unreachable marks seemed within reach; Pierre Larouche’s 251 points and Guy Lafleur – the idol who Lemieux watched personally on Montreal Forum ice – and his 130 goals. On March 4th in Trois-Rivieres, Lucky Pierre’s points record fell. The goals would be trickier. Entering the final game of the regular season, on March 14th at home against Longueuil, Lemieux needed three goals to tie The Flower. A daunting task until you realize, firstly, number 66 had already fired home an unfathomable 20 hat tricks on the year already and, secondly, his Laval teammates would be feeding their captain the puck at every possible opportunity. The hat trick tally came 1:18 into the second period. The historic fourth goal, just under six minutes later. He would add a couple more in the third period.

133 goals and 282 points. It’s the type of season that helped coined the term “video game numbers”. And that was just the regular season. Most players would find a 29-goal, 52-point regular campaign to be rather successful. Lemieux would post those numbers in just 14 playoff games as the Voisins took home the Q playoff title. From there, it was off to Pittsburgh as the first overall selection in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft and more dizzying heights and inspirational feats.

From the moment he hit the ice in the NHL – literally scoring on his first shift with his first shot – Lemieux put the hockey world on notice. He was a slam dunk Rookie of the Year winner and NHL All-Star Game MVP. And he would eventually drag the Penguins to the top. Before leading the Pens to back-to-back- Stanley Cups (and winning back-to-back playoff MVP titles) in 1991 and ’92, the man who more than lived up to the nickname “Le Manifique” put together the most dazzling non-Gretzky season of all time with 85 goals and 199 points.

But it was the 1992-’93 season that transformed Lemieux from a superstar to a hero. In mid-January, while leading the Penguins to their most successful regular season to date, Lemieux announced he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer. He would miss nearly two months of the season while undergoing 22 radiation treatments. On the day of that final treatment, March 2nd, Lemieux travelled to Philadelphia, suited up, scored once and added an assist and even earned the applause of the usually unforgiving Flyers faithful. Trailing in the scoring race by 12 points on the night he returned, Super Mario levelled up, posting 56 points in his final 20 games to capture the Art Ross Trophy by a 12-point margin.

Simply put, Lemieux was artistry on ice. On the day of his first retirement in 1997, he had laid claim to six scoring titles, three Hart Trophies, three goal scoring crowns, two Canada Cups and the adulation of fans around the World. He was granted immediate induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. And he wasn’t done. After saving the Penguins from certain doom upon his arrival in Pittsburgh, Lemieux would return again, first as part of the team’s Ownership group, then back to the ice itself in December 2000. He would put in parts of five more campaigns, capturing an Olympic Gold along the way as captain of Team Canada in 2002.

Upon his final retirement in 2006, he had authored 690 regular season goals, many of which defied belief. He would then capture three more Stanley Cups as Penguins’ Owner, passing on the legacy of hockey in the Pitt to guys named Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Letang.

From the days at the Centre Sportif in Laval to feats of wonder inside Pittsburgh’s Igloo, two things remained a constant for as long as Mario Lemieux laced up his skates. You never knew what he was going to do next. And it always exceeded your expectations.