UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (11/30/97)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

A special era has ended

They met one final time during the 1996-1997 regular season, on March 24 at Madison Square Garden. But if either Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux had failed to show for the date that represented the end of an era, it would have been fitting. Have there ever been two shooting stars from the same galaxy who have shone so brightly simultaneously, but have so rarely crossed paths - on or off the ice?

In the course of some 12 years, No. 66 of the Pittsburgh Penguins and No. 99 of the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and currently the New York Rangers were scheduled to meet 34 times, but only on 24 occasions did they actually set foot on the ice and face off. Never did they play each other in the playoffs. And only once, in the memorable 1987 Canada Cup, did they play meaningful games on the same team.

Off the ice, they were never close either.

Gretzky told The Hockey News (THN): "We never spent time together in the off-season, we never became close friends, not like myself and Hullie (Brett Hull of St. Louis) or Mess (old Ranger teammate Mark Messier, who was also his pal for so many of those formative Edmonton days), or whoever Mario spent his time with." He added, "Just for whatever reason, our paths never really crossed."

"I wouldn't say we had a lot in common," Lemieux told THN. "He played most of his career in Edmonton. I played in Pittsburgh. There's a bit of an age difference. Maybe it was a little surprising to some people, but our lives just took different directions, that's all."

But last season, as Lemieux played out what was his final NHL season, the projected 25th and last regular season meeting between the game's two greatest hockey minds took on added significance, a rare opportunity to reflect on what never was and what might have been for two players whose careers, in spite of everything, were inexorably truly linked.

The opportunity was there, or so it seemed, for Gretzky and Lemieux to become something other than rivals. The year was 1981, and 20-year-old Gretzky was represented by player agent Gus Badali. Badali and his associate in Montreal, Bob Perno, also represented 16-year-old Lemieux, who was set to begin his major junior career in Laval. Gretzky was in Montreal that August for Team Canada's training camp for the 1981 Canada Cup when Badali and Perno insisted Gretzky come see the young phenom play.

"I remember Bob Perno saying to me, 'You've got to come see this kid play. He's going to shatter all your records,'" Gretzky said. "I went to see him, and he just dominated. He was that spectacular at that age. I remember saying to Gus and Bob, 'You're right, this kid is going to shatter everything.'"

"The one thing they bragged about on the way there was, 'Watch this kid's puck sense, watch his skill level.' The thing they didn't really talk about was his size, which was such a factor. Until that time, we hadn't seen a guy come into our sport who was 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5, who had the kind of hands he had. All the guys with those kinds of hands were the size of a (Guy) Lafleur or (Marcel) Dionne. He was the first to be special that way."

Even now, Gretzky couldn't help but marvel at Lemieux's wingspan. As much as Gretzky has accomplished with a body that had no business being in the NHL, he has always wondered what it would have been like to be as big as Mario.

"I've never made any secret of that," Gretzky said. "Since he came into the league, I've always told the guys, 'God, I wish I was his size. I mean, the things he could do with the puck, the way he saw the game, it was so spectacular, but I wish I had that reach.'"

Take a poll to name the greatest player of all time - The Hockey News is doing precisely that - and Gretzky will receive a fair share of No. 1 votes. Lemieux, unlike Gordie Howe or Bobby Orr, is not nearly as likely to get the same consideration.

That's a shame, really, but not all that surprising. Lemieux, from the time he came into the league and refused to wear the Penguins' sweater on draft day, was the anti-Gretzky. Dark and brooding, Lemieux shielded himself from the public and, for that matter, the game itself. Gretzky, all air and light, allowed the game to embrace him, and he loved it right back.

For years the biggest complaint directed at Lemieux was, simply, that he wasn't Gretzky. He didn't win championships like Gretzky. He didn't put up points like Gretzky. He didn't sell himself or the game like Gretzky. He didn't display the same passion as Gretzky. It was a situation tailor-made for resentment and, make no mistake, Lemieux was resentful if not of Gretzky himself, then of those who expected him to be like Gretzky.

"I don't think (the resentment) was the way some people made it out to be," Lemieux said. "I think most of it came from the fans and media. I really believe we both just went out to do the best we could.

"Sure, we competed. I knew what I was doing, I'm sure he knew what I was doing. I'm sure we pushed each other to do better. But there were never bad feelings between us. Wayne was always one of the players I looked up to. I learned a lot from watching him," Lemieux commented.

But there were bad feelings nonetheless. Lemieux bristled at comparisons he felt were stacked in Gretzky's favor because of No. 99's tremendous supporting cast on an Edmonton Oilers' club that became a dynasty. Lemieux was seen by many as the poor country cousin who was a great talent, but didn't know how to win. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton in the 1980s; Lemieux none in Pittsburgh. It wasn't until the Pens won it all in 1991 and 1992 that Lemieux finally got his due.

"That was a little difficult for me to accept," Lemieux said. "In my mind, I knew I had to win a championship to be recognized with Wayne. But that was unfair, too. The team I was on in Pittsburgh, it was difficult for us to compete. Wayne had lots of big-time players with him in Edmonton. I was just starting out in Pittsburgh. It was difficult for me to keep up with him."

The honors would suggest as much. Gretzky has won 10 scoring titles and nine Hart Trophies (league MVP), compared to Lemieux's six scoring titles (including the Art Ross Trophy in 1996-1997) and three Hart Trophies. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton; Lemieux won two in Pittsburgh. Gretzky has all the most meaningful records (not only career but single season, too): 215 points, 92 goals and 51 consecutive games with a point, compared to Lemieux's personal bests of 199 points, 85 goals and 46 consecutive games with a point.

Yet the numbers are misleading, and Gretzky is the first to admit it. "If he hadn't gone through all the back problems and the cancer, he might have been the guy who statistically could have shattered all my records," Gretzky said. "I mean all of them, 215 points, 92 goals."

Lemieux won his first Art Ross Trophy in 1988. Then he won five more (through the 1996-1997 season). How many more would he have won if not for his back woes and cancer-related absences and fatigue? Put it this way, since 1988, during any season in which Lemieux played 60 or more games, he won the scoring title. It's quite possible a healthy Lemieux could have had as many as 10 scoring titles to as few as eight for Gretzky. Who knows how many more MVP trophies that would have translated into?

What if ...

"Sometimes I think about it," Lemieux said. "But I like to think everything happens for a reason. I think about the back problems, my sugeries, the cancer and what I might have done. But the important thing for me was to win the cup. I won two cups. As long as I live, no one can ever take that away from me."

Lemieux would be kidding himself, though, to suggest he and Gretzky haven't pushed each other - sometimes unknowingly. An example: Lemieux, unaware of potential history in the making, scored two goals against the Phoenix Coyotes last February 1 to come within one game of equalling Gretzky's record for fastest 600 goals. Gretzky reached that milestone in 718 games; Lemieux did it in 719.

"That's why we got to be the athletes we are in our career, because we have pride and we want to excel, but I have to tell you there was never any point that either of us would hope the other guy wouldn't do well," Gretzky said. "If Mario got 215 or 216 points, I'd be the first one to send him a telegram."

The bottom line, though, is Lemieux never got 215. He never even got 200 - but not for lack of trying. During the 1988-1989 season, when Lemieux scored 85 goals and 199 points, he thought he might surpass Gretzky's bests of 92 and 215, respectively.

"I thought I had a shot at it, but my production dropped off the last 15 games of the season," Lemieux said.

Gretzky thought his marks might fall that season, but figured them to be in extreme jeopardy the next year, when Lemieux was on his 46-game point scoring streak.

"I figured he wasn't going to break my records that year so much as shatter them," Gretzky said. "I was at a movie one night and I came home and turned on the TV and saw that Mario had injured his back and that ended his streak. I said then, 'If there's one guy who could (break single-season records for goals, points and consecutive games with a point), it would be Mario. I mean, there are some guys, say Peter Forsberg, who might get 160 assists, but he won't get 93 goals. Then there's guys like Hullie, who might get 93 goals, but won't get 160 assists. A guy like Mario, though, could have gotten 93 goals and/or 160 assists and that's why I always thought he'd be the one to shatter my records.'"

Didn't happen. Super Mario has called it a career. He admitted the game didn't hold the same allure for him in his last seasons like it did before, but he denied that he always lacked a Gretzky-like passion for the game.

"I had (passion) for most of my career," Lemieux said. "The last two or three years, yeah, it did slip away from me. Maybe it was the back injuries. Maybe it was the Hodgkin's, because having cancer does change your priorities. Whatever it was, I didn't feel the same as I did in the early '90s. The last couple of years was a struggle at times to get up for games. That's why I knew it was time to step aside."

Now that he's retired from the game, Lemieux clearly has a better grasp on his relationship with Gretzky than he did when the two were in competition. At this point, they're no longer a threat to each other. Each one's place in hockey history has been determined. It's a little like the relationship between basketball arch-rivals Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, who battled so hard for so long that they couldn't bring themselves to have a relationship until they were both set to leave the game.

And yet Gretzky-Lemieux is nothing like Bird-Johnson. Time and again, Bird and Johnson crossed paths, starting with the NCAA showdown between Bird's Indiana State team and Johnson's Michigan State squad. From there, they became the National Basketball Association's two marquee players on the two marquee teams, Boston and Los Angeles. They waged war on an individual basis, and their teams battled for NBA supremacy.

"Wayne and I never even met in a playoff game," Lemieux said.

Still, there's a parallel. It's not as if they became bosom buddies, but both said shared moments at last year's All-Star Game in San Jose were special.

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