League Benefits From Lemieux Too

Here’s one vote for Mario Lemieux as the league’s most valuable player. Sure, he’s only five games into his comeback after 3 1/2 years away from the ice, but we’ve got our reasons. Three of them, in fact.

First, Lemieux has 14 points in his first five games. That’s truly remarkable.

Second, he has linemate Jaromir Jagr smiling again, which is no small feat. Jagr said after a particularly frustrating November loss to the Boston Bruins that he was “dying alive.”

Third, it’s all Mario all the time on cable these days, another significant accomplishment for Lemieux.

ESPN and/or ESPN2 have shown each of Lemieux’s first five games. Fox Sports Net 2 will show the Penguin-Mighty Duck game from Mellon Arena next Monday at 11 a.m.

In Canada, CTV Sportsnet plans to have Lemieux isolated on the screen from start to finish of tonight’s game against the Bruins. That’s also available in the U.S. on DirecTV and some digital cable systems. When he’s on the bench, spitting and mopping his brow, there will be a split-screen shot of the action on the ice.

How many professional athletes these days can command that sort of attention? Which goes to the heart of our contention two weeks ago that Lemieux’s comeback isn’t all about playing hockey. It’s about saving a franchise--on the ice and off.

However, the bottom line for today is that Lemieux, 35, still dominates the game the way the big kid at the end of the block toys with the younger, smaller children. It’s no contest. He seems to be gliding along, just waiting for an opening to work his magic.

Like many greats, Lemieux has made those around him better. No one has benefited from Lemieux’s return more than Jagr, who had a rather pedestrian 31 points in his first 31 games.

In scoring 11 points in his first five games after Lemieux’s return, Jagr has shown he’s capable of so much more. He also has six goals and 14 points in his last eight games.

“I’m having fun,” Jagr told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday. “I have reasons to have fun now. We’re playing good hockey, and I feel comfortable with the way I’m playing. Everything feels good.”

The next order of business for Lemieux is to get the Penguins on firmer playoff footing. They are seventh overall in the Eastern Conference with 45 points in 41 games.

Pittsburgh still has issues, primarily finding better goaltending than Garth Snow can provide. But for now, all anyone seems concerned with is “The Super Mario Show.”

THE EAGLE LEAVES THE NEST

Goalie Ed Belfour only added to his reputation as one of the game’s leading flakes when he got into a weekend argument with Dallas Star Coach Ken Hitchcock over a morning skate. Belfour, who took his gear and went home, has been suspended by General Manager Bob Gainey and isn’t expected to be reinstated until the team returns on Friday from a four-game trip. Belfour will meet with Gainey and Hitchock today in Atlanta, where the Stars next play, to discuss his future.

Belfour was known as “Crazy Eddie” long before his arrest last March for scuffling with police and security guards at a Dallas-area hotel. According to police reports, he was drunk and vomited on himself after he’d been put in the squad car. He then offered officers a bribe of $1 billion if they would forget the whole thing.

Hitchcock is well liked by some reporters because he’s a good talker and fills their notebooks without much prompting. Here’s another man’s view:

Hitchcock makes the sweet music of sticks slapping pucks and skates turning on the ice sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. His win-at-all-costs style has produced some of the ugliest hockey in recent memory. He has stolen the creative life from brilliant offensive players such as Brett Hull and Mike Modano. Defensemen Derian Hatcher and Richard Matvichuk are the league’s biggest hatchetmen.

What’s more, Hitchcock should have been fined and suspended by the league early last season for his juvenile calls for revenge after Modano was injured when Ruslan Salei of the Ducks shoved him in the back.

It’s tough to pick a winner in this spitting match, but we’ll side with Belfour in this case. Belfour becomes a free agent after this season. Don’t expect him to remain in Dallas if Hitchcock continues to coach the team.

NEILSON 2, CANCER 0

Ottawa Senator assistant coach Roger Neilson showed again Monday why he’s probably the toughest man in the league. Three days after undergoing cancer surgery for the second time in less than a year, he returned to his team’s practice.

Neilson, 66, who last year underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, was told Friday he has a malignant melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer. Doctors in Philadelphia removed a lesion from behind his right knee. They also removed lymph nodes from his groin, which will be tested to see if the cancer had progressed.

In the meantime, Neilson hopes to join the Senators for a three-game trip that begins Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.

“I feel real good. There’s no reason why I can’t go,” Neilson told reporters Monday in Ottawa. “It’s important to get going again. The last thing you want is people to feel sorry for you. I’ve still got a great job here and a top team. I’ve got unbelievable support. You put it all together and I think I’m one of the lucky ones.”

BAD PLANNING AT EXIT 16W

When the New Jersey Devils had to postpone Sunday’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes because of the Giant-Eagle NFL playoff game across the Meadowlands’ parking lot, it put the Coyotes in a terrible spot.

The Coyotes play at Detroit tonight, then face the Devils in the rescheduled game Wednesday. They have Thursday off, then play at Toronto on Friday and at Montreal on Saturday.

That’s four games in five nights, all because the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority couldn’t get the football fans out of the parking lot and onto the Jersey Turnpike before the hockey fans showed up for a 7:30 p.m. faceoff.

Is it any wonder the Devils are looking to build a new arena?

LINDROS STILL AWAITING A DEAL

Eric Lindros, feeling better and better after suffering a concussion last spring, remains a man without a team. Talks between the Flyers, who own his rights, and the Toronto Maple Leafs have broken off, according to reports in Monday’s New York Post.

The next logical guess for Lindros’ eventual destination would be the New York Rangers. Or so goes the conventional wisdom that has Lindros playing in a major market for a team that’s not concerned about spending big bucks on him.

It still appears to be a risky investment, considering Lindros’ history of concussions. He has had six in a little more than a two-year span.

TALK ABOUT A CALGARY FLAMEOUT

The Calgary Flames’ recent 8-2-1 streak brought them within a victory of reaching the .500 mark last week, so naturally inquiring minds asked Coach Don Hay for his thoughts about possibly reaching the break-even point at the season’s midway point.

“If you start talking about .500, you might be putting a hex on yourself,” Hay said.

Naturally, the Flames were tied by the Ducks, 4-4, and defeated by the Kings, 5-0, in their next two games and are two games below .500 at 14-16-8-4.

KICK SAVES

Tampa Bay’s Steve Ludzik became the sixth coach to be fired before the season’s midway point. Ludzik joined Ramsay, Pat Burns of Boston, Alain Vigneault of Montreal, Terry Murray of Florida and Craig Hartsburg of the Ducks.

Butch Goring of the Islanders, Paul Maurice of Carolina and perhaps Alpo Suhonen of Chicago are next on the list of endangered coaches.

Ottawa’s Radek Bonk had three goals and three assists in a game last week, an impressive night’s work until you factor in the opponent: Tampa Bay, which has given up 142 goals, second-most in the league.