Avalanche’s Lemieux Comes Off Suspension

While his Colorado Avalanche teammates were battling the Florida Panthers in the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals, Claude Lemieux pedaled from Denver to Miami on an exercise bike.

“You have to work out and be prepared,” said the feisty right wing, serving a two-game suspension for what the NHL termed a premeditated cheap shot against Detroit’s Kris Draper in the Western Conference finals.

And although the Avalanche has a 2-0 lead--and is 4-0 this season in games Lemieux missed through suspension or ejection--he will return tonight, when the series resumes at Miami Arena.

“Claude’s a huge part of this club,” Coach Marc Crawford said. “He did a terrific job in the [locker] room, being a leader. . . . It’s nice to have the knowledge you’re going to have such a competitive guy coming back.”

Lemieux, the most valuable player in last year’s playoffs with the New Jersey Devils, is hated by opponents because of his questionable hits and relentless hounding. He knows league officials will watch him closely for more transgressions, but said he doesn’t intend to change.

“They’ve been looking at me for 11 years,” he said. “It’s no different now. I have to go out and play my game.”

Nor does he have any regrets about his check on Draper, who told the Detroit Free Press he might take legal action against Lemieux.

“The timing between making a hit and changing your mind before the point it happens might be a hundredth of a second,” Lemieux said. “If I had three minutes to figure it out, if you’re going to hurt somebody, most of the time you can come up with the best answer. If you give five body checks a game, you’re safe. If you give 30, odds are you’re going to hurt somebody.”

Lemieux, traded to Colorado in a three-way deal after he contested the validity of his contract and lost, has always thrived in the playoffs, when checking gets tighter and hits get harder. He had 10 goals in the Montreal Canadiens’ 1986 Cup run and scored 13 last season, most of all playoff scorers. He had 39 goals this season playing on the right side of Valeri Kamensky and Peter Forsberg and has four goals and 11 points in 17 playoff games.

Lemieux can become the first player to win the Cup in consecutive years with different teams since Al Arbour won with Chicago in 1961 and Toronto in 1962.

“I have no complaints,” he said. “There’s not many things I haven’t achieved. I have not much envy for anyone, except the guys who make five or 10 million dollars.”