MARIO LEMIEUX : Penguins’ Star Is Getting Plenty of Attention, Not to Mention Abuse

It is Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1986--Mario Lemieux Day in Allegheny County, Pa.

For Lemieux--star center, heart and soul of the burgeoning Pittsburgh Penguins--it is also a rare day off in midseason.

Big deal.

The county and the Penguins have failed to adequately spread word of Lemieux Day, an honor accorded for his work with the Allegheny chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation of America.

There is no dinner in Lemieux’s honor, just a reading of the proclamation during an autograph session at a suburban nightclub.

The day off is less successful. Lemieux gets up at noon, which sounds cushy until you realize the 21-year-old athlete is an incurable insomniac. He spends most of each night replaying games and reviewing business decisions and sleeps well only in daylight, on airplanes or in cars.

After a shower he has lunch with his live-in companion, Nathalie Asselin. Then the pace quickens. A trip to the airport, where he picks up his agent, Bob Perno, who has flown in from Montreal to see Lemieux honored by the county.

Back home, they’re met by a television crew taping a feature for a Penguins’ telecast. The interview is completed and Lemieux, ever a gentleman, invites the crew members for dinner. They accept.

A few minutes later, a gray limousine pulls up in front of his home to take him to Oldies, site of the Lemieux Day celebration.

For the first 15 minutes in the dance hall, a converted high school in suburban South Hills, Lemieux actually relaxes. The next five minutes comprise the honor: Penguins’ announcer Mike Lange reads the county commissioner’s proclamation. Some 75 fans cheer and Lemieux responds with a few articulate, gracious remarks.

For the next hour, Lemieux works on behalf of the foundation, which is selling Lemieux Legion T-shirts and sweatshirts. He signs them. He also signs pieces of paper and the left front linings of jackets--so young female fans can fold his name over their hearts.

“Do you think he would sign my bra?” asks a busty older woman.

“I don’t know,” she is told. “Why don’t you ask him?”

“Nah,” she says, “he’d just get writer’s cramp.”

At 7:45, Lemieux is pushed into the limousine. Another nightspot on the other side of the city expects him at 8. Lemieux persuades the driver to stop for a six-pack. He doesn’t drink hard liquor and that’s all that is stocked in the limousine bar. A team official following the limo is furious: “No more pit stops! Get going!”

There is traffic, construction, rain and a missed turnoff. Lemieux arrives late at the Park House, but the fans don’t mind.

For the next 75 minutes, Lemieux signs more autographs, poses for more pictures and accepts a small bouquet from a beauty queen. He gets a five-minute break to find the men’s room.

At 9:20, he is finally allowed to leave. He enjoys a beer and a video game with his agent on the way home. At 1:30, Lemieux begins to wrestle with his nighttime demons.

At 9:30 a.m., he is back at work, at practice.

Some day off, huh?

“I enjoy doing it,” Lemieux says. “Not too much--once a month or whenever I have free time. I think it’s part of the job to go out there and meet the fans, talk to them. They pay your salary by coming to the games.”

Last season, Lemieux finished second to Wayne Gretzky in scoring--and with 241 points tied Gretzky’s point total after two NHL seasons. For most of this season, he was again among the NHL’s leading scorers--and the league’s leading victims of abuse.

“Every team we play, they have a checking line on me, or one guy on me all the time,” Lemieux says. “It’s tough to get away from that. I get whacked all the time.”

On Nov. 12 at home, Dwight Foster and Steve Kaspar of the Boston Bruins tackled him late in the game to prevent him from scoring. Two nights later, he set up a goal while three New Jersey Devils hung on his back and arms.

Jan Erixon of the New York Rangers has hit him in the groin. Erixon’s teammate, Kelly Miller, also has gone after the third-year pro.

Another hard hit was delivered Nov. 1 in St. Louis when Brian Sutter of the Blues used two hands to slash Lemieux on his shooting wrist. No bones were broken, but Lemieux lost so much arm strength he irritated his shoulder. Then the Washington Capitals took their turn, landing shots to the injured wrist and shoulder.

Finally, on Dec. 20 against the Flyers, he was checked hard into the boards and hurt a knee. He’s been out since and is expected to be sidelined two more weeks.

Lemieux, though, hesitates to complain, avoiding the whining Gretzky was accused of early in his career.

Lemieux’s role as victim is ironic. Still growing at 6-4 1/2 and 211 pounds, he is one of the league’s largest players.

“He’s a large, large target out there,” agent Perno says. “It’s easy to grab and hold on to a big guy. It’s not easy to fight with him, but it’s easy to hold on to him. . . . It’s a way of evening up the difference in size.”

With loping strides and a long reach, Lemieux is reminiscent of former Montreal Canadiens great Jean Beliveau. But statistically, Gretzky is the only player with whom Lemieux is compared.

Partly because of Gretzky’s tenure and elusiveness--and mainly because of his bodyguards on ice--the Edmonton Oilers star has escaped the abuse directed at Lemieux.

Gretzky, barely 170 pounds, is better able to spin out of potential physical encounters.

“Gretzky’s a darter,” Penguins’ General Manager Eddie Johnston says. “He’s the kind of guy who’s got great anticipation.”

His skills not yet equal to Gretzky’s, Lemieux has long heard his edge in size may make him the game’s most dominant scorer. But he longs for similar protection.

“Until we get guys who can settle things like this, it’s going to continue,” Lemieux says. “We have a few guys coming up who are able to take care of it.

“My first year in the league, I had Warren Young on my left wing. He fought a lot of times because of me and that kept maybe a few players away from me. Right now I have Terry Ruskowski, who’s a good guy and who wants to protect me as much as he can. But he’s only 5-9. He’s pretty tough, but he doesn’t scare their people like Warren did because he was tall.”

Johnston suggests Lemieux “just keep skating and force them to pull him down a little bit.”

Lemieux’s other option is to settle the problem as he did in junior hockey.

“I fought a lot in juniors,” he says. “But it’s not my job to whack people out there, to fight. I have to stay on the ice, keep my concentration. I think the team needs me more on the ice than in the penalty box.”

Or on the disabled list.

“If I fight and I hit somebody in the helmet and break my hand, I’ll be out for a month,” he says. “And that wouldn’t be good.”

Because Lemieux walks away from confrontations he has been accused of lacking intensity. He does not. What he does have is remarkable self-control.

“I get mad,” he says. “But I have to keep my cool.”

But it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to do so.

“We talked about it,” Perno says. “He says to me, ‘It’s coming.’ He says, ‘I’m going to have to straighten somebody out. They’re all over me. I know it’s going to happen very soon. Somebody’s going to have to pay the price.’

“That’s part of the game,” Perno adds. “There comes a time when you have to draw a line and say, ‘This is my yard and don’t come play in my yard.’ It did happen one time last year in Washington, when he had a fight with Bobby Carpenter, and after that he did notice that guys gave him a little more ice, hooked him a little less and did a little less stick work. . . .

“Sometimes, you’ve got to stand up and do it yourself, and I’m sure Mario will know when the time comes.”