Lemieux back to his old tricks

Super Mario is back. The savior of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the man with the highest points per game average in league history, the survivor of leukemia, hip surgery, and back pain so bad that at some points before his first retirement he had to have someone else tie his skates up.

Mario Lemieux has 31 points in the first 16 games of the season, and although his Penguins are mired in a five game winless streak, he is the only reason the team has climbed to a respectable 7-5-3-1 record after missing the playoffs last year.

Many claim the reason for Lemieux's resurgence lies in the NHL crackdown on obstruction. But in the Nov. 6 game against the Florida Panthers, which the Penguins lost in overtime, 4-3, only two minor penalties were called. Despite the dearth of penalty calls, Lemieux still managed to escape with a goal and an assist.

Complaints about the failure of yet another NHL "crackdown" should hardly be news to any hockey fans. This is the league's sixth crackdown on obstruction, and let's just say that the NHL doesn't keep creating them because the other ones worked.

The theory was, and it was a good theory, that if the league made sure the rules on clutching, grabbing, snagging, and sticking were actually enforced, the game would open up and the players with skills would be able to use them.

The first games of the season went great, and many a fan praised the increased speed, tempo and scoring in the NHL. However, players are starting to give signs that the newest crackdown has already gone the way of the previous five.

Luckily, not all teams have been affected by this not-so-surprising development, with teams like the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars on four game winning streaks. And some teams were just going to be bad anyway.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are still not going anywhere. Fans were excited for the return of ex-Leaf goalie Curtis Joseph when the Detroit Red Wings played there last week, but that was about all they had going for them. The game was another loss for the 6-10-2 Maple Leafs. There were probably some Leaf fans plotting on how they could kidnap him and stick him in net to bump aside struggling Ed Belfour. In a hockey mad city like Toronto, Belfour has not risen to the expectations that Joseph left, with some calling for General Manager Pat Quinn's head over his failure to sign a quality starting goaltender.

Although Boston apparently doesn't need one of those. Goalies Steve Shields and John Grahame are both still doing just fine, and the Bruins have improved to 11-2-3-1, demolishing almost anyone in their way. And former starting goalie Byron Dafoe just might be finishing his hiatus, as there are rumors coming from Atlanta that the Thrashers have come to a contract agreement with the unrestricted free-agent goaltender.

It is about time for the 4-10-1-1 Thrashers, who should have taken the step a long time ago when current starting goalies Milan Hnilcka and Pasi Nurminen were playing as poorly as they were. Hnilcka is 0-9, and has a 4.16 goals against average (GAA). Nurminen then took over the starting job to go 4-3-1 and have a 3.45 GAA.