kazzman Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 http://www.nhl.com/news/2005/07/231234.html 2:48 PM EDT, 07/29/2005 Lemieux caused a draft day scene when he snubbed team he'd one day own (CP) - Sidney Crosby says he'll gladly don a Pittsburgh Penguins sweater at the NHL draft in Ottawa on Saturday, which is something Mario Lemieux refused to do 21 years ago. It was a shocking snub. Lemieux's agent at the time, Gus Badali, was bent on getting him the best possible contract as the No. 1 pick. Talks had stalled so the two made a point of letting the Penguins know they were steadfast in their demands by staying in their seats when Lemieux's name was announced. Hockey fans who'd filled the Montreal Forum applauded the selection. After all, Lemieux had grown up in the city. The clapping soon turned to lip-wagging when everybody realized that Lemieux wasn't moving. With CBC televising the draft for the first time - that's how strong the Lemieux hype had become - there was heightened interest nationally, and fans' jaws dropped across the country. There would be no traditional walk to the arena floor to don a team sweater and shake hands with general manager Ed Johnston. There would be no courtesy call to the team's table to meet the coaches and the scouts. In Pittsburgh, 4,000 fans in the barn they call The Igloo booed lustily. They were outraged. How could this kid be so audacious? "I didn't want to go to the table because negotiations aren't going well," Lemieux said at the time. "I didn't want to put on a Pittsburgh sweater because they don't want me badly enough." It wasn't Lemieux's first cantankerous caper. He'd refused earlier that year, 1984, to play for Canada at the world junior tournament. He didn't want to miss any of his games with the Laval Voisins because he was bent on smashing the QMJHL scoring records of his boyhood idol, Guy Lafleur. The Quebec league was going to suspend him but he took it to court and won a court injunction to keep playing. He went on to amass 282 points including 133 goals in a 70-game season with Laval that year. In the 70th game, he needed three goals to erase Lafleur's record. He scored six. Ten days after the 1984 draft, Lemieux signed with Pittsburgh. It would take five years for the Penguins to surround Mario Le Magnifique with good enough players to lift the team into the playoffs, but he was on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame and international stardom. The ultimate irony of this story: Lemieux snubs the Penguins on draft day but winds up owning the team and gladly welcoming into the fold 21 years later the most ballyhooed forward to skate out of the QMJHL since Lemieux himself. Lemieux wears 66 - the flipside of Wayne Gretzky's 99 - on his back. Crosby wears 87, which is his birth year. Their QMJHL backgrounds and double-digit sweater numbers are about the only things they have in common, although they will be sharing the desire to return Pittsburgh to the upper echelons of the NHL, and they'll probably be skating on the same line. The dream tandem became possible when Pittsburgh finished last in the league in the spring of 2004 and assured itself of the maximum number of balls in the draft lottery - three in the 48-ball bin. It would be too outrageous to suggest GM Craig Patrick orchestrated the 2003-2004 collapse just to get a third ball among 48. But back in '84, accusations flew fast and furious. There was no lottery at that time. The last-place team picked first. Did the Penguins tank to get Lemieux? Johnston, now assistant GM, will deny it until his dying day. Still, with the Lemieux Sweepstakes sizzling, the Penguins went 7-34-1 down the stretch. While Lemieux wouldn't accept a Penguins sweater on draft day, Crosby has already advertised his, complete with autograph, in a contest on his Crosby87.com website. The Lemieux-Crosby link has an intriguing footnote. When Lemieux went No. 1, a QMJHL goalie named Troy Crosby was selected 240 spots later by Montreal. He's Sydney Crosby's father. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/kazzman/lemieux1984_tall.jpg Initially, Mario Lemieux wasn't so sanguine about donning the Pens' yellow sweater. He eventually warmed to it in a big way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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