Cannon Firing Line
Lemieux And The Penguins
Let's Get Real
By Ellis G. Cannon
PSR Publisher

Coming off a weekend of nearly endless sports talk centering around how Mario Lemieux has deliberately undermined his team's playoff chances and financial future, it's time to turn our attention to reality: The Penguins are not a very good hockey team and Mario's priorities very well may not have changed that.

From my perspective, it appears that those upset at Lemieux premise their thoughts on two points: (1) Mario is healthy, or at least healthy enough to make a difference, and (2) Mario would, in fact, have made a difference in the outcomes of several recent games.

I'm not so sure that either of those thoughts could be supported.

Here's the deal. Mario is not stupid. He is not naïve. He has been around the sport his entire life and knows good talent, poor talent, overrated talent and scorned talent. He knows exactly how much money is in the bank account and he has a pretty good sense of whether Craig Patrick has enough leverage to save a season.

Mario may have brought on a firestorm of complaints by handling of the Olympics vs. Penguins situation honestly, but that doesn't take away the fact that he doesn't play for a very good team. If anything, his team is overrated, as hard as that is to believe. The Penguins simply don't have the balance, identity, talent or systems to play at the level they have in the past. To suggest that Mario, at his age, is somehow The Answer to all of that is nonsense.

This isn't ten years ago, folks.

The facts, believe it or not, extend beyond those six games (Mario played in five) that made up a modest January winning streak. That streak is endlessly cited as proof the Pens are somehow fully capable of repeating their success of the early '90's. Nonsense. The reality is much different.

The Penguins played Calgary, Edmonton, Philly, Tampa Bay, New York Islanders and Atlanta during the stretch of games extending from January 17 through the 26th. The Pens won each game, the last two in overtime. Four of the teams (Calgary, Edmonton, Islanders, and Philly) would qualify for the playoffs if they started tomorrow, although the Flames are clinging to the eighth playoff spot out West with a record that is one game below .500.

Three of the teams the Pens faced in this vaunted stretch are a collective -31 games below .500. Tampa Bay is now six points behind the Pens and ten games below break even. Atlanta is the worst team in the league and 20 games below .500.

While the other six teams are +31 over even, you get the drift: this wasn't exactly the most difficult of lineup of teams the Pens have ever played. It was a little of this and a little of that - at most.

On the other hand, some would have you believe that what has happened in the seven games since the winning streak must be laid at the feet of Lemieux.

To the extent that he is the captain and most skilled player, at least historically, he has accountability. But to suggest that the team is floundering because of Lemieux' priorities misses out on the fact that these seven games presented a completely different challenge to the Penguins.

Pittsburgh is 0-4-1-2 in these seven games. They played the Flyers, San Jose, Carolina, Montreal, New Jersey, Rangers and the Senators. Each of these teams is above .500, ranging from the Canadiens (+1) to the Flyers (+18). Three of the teams are in first place Philly (Atlantic), San Jose (Pacific) and Carolina (Southeast). Ottawa, New Jersey, New York and Montreal would be slotted from the fifth to eighth positions if the Eastern Conference playoff puck was dropped tomorrow.

Get the point? Think that maybe the Pens have played some better competition of late? That maybe they were more tested in that stretch than they were in the mixed bag of six games that preceded it, but with the same talent on their roster?

What's unsettling about the fans' reaction to this situation is that somewhere along the way somebody forgot Mario was out of the game for 44 months. Somebody's forgotten that if you take your kid to the game and see Lemieux on the ice, you're lucky. Most of us thought we'd never see it again. That's not to say 66 can act irresponsibly and shirk his responsibilities, but it is to say that maybe some people have gotten a little selfish with their expectations. Remember, he told you this would happen. He told you about the nights off. He told you about coming back for a shot at the Olympics.

He didn't say a shot at the Olympics only under certain circumstances. He said he was coming back, in part, to play in the Olympics. Nothing's changed there. What's changed is what surrounds him on the ice, but he's not letting that change his original goals.

That was OK to most fans when he announced his comeback and, later, gave you a heads-up on his plans. Most people didn't complain and, despite the rancor, I sense that most are still willing to give Lemieux the benefit of the doubt he deserves.

The bottom line is that the Pens have not been able to turn their game up a notch because they don't stack up against the best teams in the league. That's the case if Mario is in the lineup or not. You may believe he would have made a difference, but you also probably think that he's been healthy since he returned from hip surgery.

That's not been the case. Rather than complain about Mario's priorities, you may want to consider some alternatives. Like maybe Mario knows something you don't know - about himself, his teammates and what chances his team will improve at the trade deadline.

If you're listening - really listening - it's quite possible Mario's telling you something.

The "Pittsburgh Sports Report with Ellis Cannon" can be heard weekends, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1250. Mr. Cannon is also publisher of the Pittsburgh Sports Report and can be seen as a regular panelist on KDKA-TV's "#1 Cochran Sports Showdown".