Mark Madden's Hot Take: 20 years later, Mario Lemieux's comeback still unmatched

Somebody could break Wayne Gretzky’s scoring records.

Somebody could score five goals, five ways again.

Somebody could score three goals in 20 seconds. (Bill Mosienko did it in 21 seconds. Look it up.)

Outstanding feats come and go. They are matched or bettered all the time. Somebody wins the Stanley Cup, scoring title and all of the NHL’s individual awards every year.

But 20 years ago this month, Mario Lemieux did something that won’t ever be done again.

It was announced Dec. 11, 2000. It commenced Dec. 27. Lemieux resumed his playing career after three-and-a-half years off. He had retired at 31 after battling cancer, back issues and a whole lot of clutching and grabbing. Bankruptcy made him the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now he was the team’s owner, captain, star player and gate attraction.

Lemieux was also immediately the NHL’s best player again: 35 goals and 41 assists in 43 games. (He absurdly finished just third in MVP voting.)

Duplicate that. It would be easier to score five goals, five ways. The circumstances of Lemieux’s comeback season can’t be matched, let alone bettered. It will be unique in perpetuity.

Lemieux was trained for his comeback by ex-Penguin Jay Caufield, who was instrumental. Lemieux and Caufield allowed me to attend their private workouts at RMU Island Sports Center. I was on the bench. Bearing witness to that was a privilege and lots of laughs.

Three-on-three games were part of most sessions. The nets were pulled closer, but Lemieux created lots of open ice. He blistered five or six shots in a row past an ex-collegiate goaltender, each perfectly placed. During a break, the goalie asked for scissors. He then looked at his reflection in the rink’s Plexiglas and trimmed the bangs out of his eyes.

Cue raucous laughter from all present, including Bob Errey: “I’ve heard a lot of excuses for getting lit up by the big boy, but this is the first time for hair in the eyes!”

On Dec. 27, Lemieux played. Sound had feel that night at Mellon Arena. The NHL’s goalies apparently had problems with their bangs, too.

I broke news of the comeback first. No one wants to remember that, because I’m a jerk. But my longtime friend Dee Rizzo worked for Lemieux’s agents, Tom and Steve Reich, and fed it to me for my radio show.

I could have broken it a lot sooner.

Several weeks before the announcement, I ran into Tom Plasko at a gentleman’s club. Plasko, who since has passed, was Lemieux’s massage guru.

It would be subtle and polite to say Plasko felt no pain. It would be more accurate to say he was hammered.

Plasko, always gregarious, spouted a few badly slurred sentence fragments: “Big guy. Coming back.”

The question begs: How could I not figure it out? The question was: Why would I suspect? Lemieux’s return was unthinkable. I also never have been good at listening to drunks. That usually has been to my benefit.

Not this time. When Rizzo told me the amazing news, I broke into a beatific smile, then thought, “Oh, my God. ‘Big guy. Coming back.’ “

Then time stood still.