Another great NHL career is coming to an end in a quite unceremonious way. Mario Lemieux will now join players like Brett Hull, Ziggy Palffy, and more than likely Dave Andreychuk as veteran players who started this season but will not finish it.
As a result of an irregular heartbeat that has kept him on the sidelines since December 16th, Lemieux will hang up his skates, probably for good this time. He did retire once in 1997 due to a number of ailments, including cancer.
Boy, one would have thought that Penguin fans had a lot to look forward to after getting the chance to draft Sidney Crosby. First, their 2004 first round draft pick, Evgeni Malkin, decided to stay in Russia instead of coming to the NHL, then the team got off to a bad start losing 10 of their first 11 games, then coach Eddie Olczyk gets fired, then Mario has this heart condition and goes on IR, then their second leading scorer Ziggy Palffy retires mid-season, then Mario announces that the team is up for sale, then there is always the threat that the franchise will move to a new city because they cannot get a new building built, and now the team's owner/star player is forced to retire again because of an irregular heartbeat. I almost feel sorry for the fans.
ANYWAY, things are happy-happy in Rangerland right now. Tonight they have a chance to move within 5 points of the Conference lead currently shared by Ottawa and Carolina, and within 3 points of the Atlantic Division leading Flyers.
One thing in the news did make me a little nervous. Larry Brooks spoke to Tom Renney, who indicated that Sather and Maloney were doing their due diligence around the league looking to address team needs. I am just going to put faith in them, though, because thus far they have not made a move that has undermined the youth movement (despite what some people said about the Sykora deal). As Renney said, I like what we have here.
Of course, the Rodent made me nervous again.
John Dellapina writes about the praise Jagr was getting for playing a two-way game on Sunday, and Andrew Gross discusses Jagr and his Czech line.
Henrik Lundqvist was named the NHL's defensive player of the week.
Tonight, it's the Sabres and the Rangers in MSG. I would think Lundqvist would be in net. The puck drops at 7:00 pm EST. Enjoy the game.
HDH
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