I hate Burnside, but this is Great...

[SLY]

If you took place in any of the numerous threads about the "travesty" that took place between the Pens/Isles, then please read this and comment

Goodness, Hall of Fame owner Mario Lemieux is a delicate flower, isn't he?

After hiding behind what must be a weighty cloak of self-righteousness and refusing to speak publicly for long months at a time about the game he professes to love so much -- bam! -- Lemieux emerged and dropped a bomb on the NHL's lap Sunday afternoon.

"Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn't hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that," Lemieux said in a statement released Sunday afternoon, the day after the NHL assessed a series of suspensions and fines for Friday's fight-filled debacle between the Penguins and Islanders.

"The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed."

Leon Halip/US Presswire
Outside of appearances at the 2009 Cup finals and 2011 Winter Classic, Mario Lemieux has rarely spoke publically in the past few years.

We must say, it helps to read all these bits aloud in a very deep, Zeus-like voice to get the full import of this great chiding from on high. It would all be great theater if it weren't so nauseatingly contrived.

Lemieux apparently didn't mind the state of the game so much when Matt Cooke, a player his Penguins signed to a new contract this past summer, put Marc Savard's career in jeopardy last season with a blindside check a thousand times worse than the one that recently felled Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby.

And Lemieux must have been too busy working on his short game last week to defend the game he loves when Cooke was suspended again, this time for four games, for drilling Columbus defenseman Fedor Tyutin headfirst into the boards.

Nope, Lemieux was pretty much silent on that one, too. Funny.

"We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players," Lemieux wrote in his first public statements since the Winter Classic. "We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action."

What actions is he talking about? Fighting? His team leads the NHL in major penalties by a wide margin. The Penguins also lead the league in penalty minutes per game. Still, sure enough, folks rushed to laud Lemieux for being brave, for telling it like it is, for standing up and laying a wallop on the NHL.

You go, Mario.

How dare the league not do what Lemieux wanted? But what exactly did Lemieux want or expect the NHL to do? We'd love to know.

Should cowardly New York Islanders forward Matt Martin have earned more than the four games he did for his sucker punch on Pittsburgh forward Maxime Talbot in Friday's game? Of course.

But Trevor Gillies received nine games for his equally cowardly elbow to Eric Tangradi. The Isles also received a $100,000 fine. Pittsburgh forward (and former Islander Eric Godard) received 10 games for coming off the bench.

You think the Islanders liked how this played out? Sources tell ESPN.com the Islanders were saying Sunday that they were the ones getting done over by the league and this was a conspiracy on the NHL's part to protect the Penguins.

So, just what else did Lemieux want or expect?

Even when you suspend cannon fodder like Martin and Gillies (they have a combined three goals this season; would anyone notice if they were banned for the rest of the year?), does it really strike at the core issue of respect?

It's not hard to see where Lemieux's outburst comes from. The Pens have lost four of five games, including Sunday's 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers. They have been without Crosby for more than a month with a concussion and there is no timetable for his return or even any guarantee he will return this season. Evgeni Malkin is gone for the season with a knee injury. Half their forward contingent has been sidelined by injury.

And so, a team that looked to be primed for another long Stanley Cup run at the end of December looks to be significantly less than that now. The 9-3 loss Friday and subsequent pounding by the Islanders were humiliating, and Lemieux is right on one count to call it a "travesty." But that wasn't the only travesty to come out of the Isles/Pens "Slap Shot" revival.

Want to have intelligent debate on the issue of violence in hockey, or what to do about head shots? We're all for it.

Want to have a meaningful debate about whether the NHL's handling of supplemental discipline deserves an overhaul? We've been saying that for ages.

Having someone like Lemieux weigh in would be a significant moment, just as it's crucial to hear from players like Crosby and Jonathan Toews and Chris Pronger and the rest of the game's leaders, especially when it comes to changing the climate of disrespect that continues to plague the league.

But this wasn't a call to action; it came off as a petulant child stomping his feet.

Lemieux threw the NHL under the bus Sunday. Not that the league doesn't need the occasional adjustment, but this is the same league that worked shoulder to shoulder with Lemieux to get him his new arena, keep his team in Pittsburgh and, oh yes, get his millions out of the team.

Even if he had decided to give the league a little goose about how it handled L'affaire Long Island, OK. If it made Lemieux feel better to vent, fair enough; he's earned some leeway, we suppose. But then, there was the threat to pick up his golden puck and go home.

"If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to rethink whether I want to be a part of it," Lemieux concluded in his statement.

Gee, get over yourself.

It's more than a little rich that Lemieux is threatening to walk away from the game now that he's got a shiny new arena and presumably all the millions he was owed all those years back when he hated the game but saved the team in Pittsburgh nonetheless. Was this even Lemieux's doing, this "statement," or did it come from somewhere else in the posh offices at Consol Energy Center? Regardless, the statement has Lemieux's name attached to it and he must wear it.

We can only assume Lemieux will get a little dose of the same medicine Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi received awhile back. Lombardi mouthed off about the integrity of the NHL's hockey operations department and took a $50,000 shot in the jaw for his troubles. We're guessing Lemieux will have to answer to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, et al, with his checkbook, as he should.

Big picture? How about this: Lemieux could apologize for going over the top on this one, or he could actually become a meaningful part of the debate on how to make the game he insists he loves better.

Very well said... And I agree with it all.

 

[h X c Chris]

OMG BURNSIDE IS JUST A PITTSBURGH HATER AND WHY DOES HE BRING UP MATT COOKE HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING HE WASNT EVEN PLAYING IN THE GAME, EVERYBODY HATES US WAHHHH

Good luck.

 

[TiLoBrown]

WOW...he must have really not liked his comments, he didnt even diss the Devils once.

 

[beantownmaniac]

I wonder if Scott Burnside reads threads here at SportsHoopla because a lot of what he wrote was the same things I and a few others said when discussing this same topic yesterday. Hey Burnside "gimme my two dollars!"

 

[SLY]

OMG BURNSIDE IS JUST A PITTSBURGH HATER AND WHY DOES HE BRING UP MATT COOKE HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING HE WASNT EVEN PLAYING IN THE GAME, EVERYBODY HATES US WAHHHH

Good luck.

Sidney, that you?

 

[h X c Chris]

Sidney, that you?

They call me Crysby, Cindy Crysby.

 

[SLY]

lol

 

[dash]

They call me Crysby, Cindy Crysby.

C'mon Chris, we left the swamp to get away from these types of posts.

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

Can't say I disagree with a word of that

 

[dash]

Can't say I disagree with a word of that

Yeah, I don't generally find myself in agreement with Burnside articles, but I think the blind squirrel found a nut this time. I will say that I like the fact that somebody as prominent as Mario addressed this topic, but the timing and the words he used were not the best. As Eddie said yesterday, I wish Mario would have called out Colin Campbell directly or phrased it in such a way to suggest that the way supplementary discipline is handed out needs to be revamped instead of the blanket statement 'the league' .

 

[loki604]

Yeah, the NHL is responsible for that new arena. Okay.

And the Isles crying conspiracy? Yawn.

 

[TOX1]

Can't say I disagree with a word of that

+1

 

[awaz]

i agree 100% with what mario said.. up until the 'leaving the game' bit.. gilles/martin/haley should've been punished more severely.. but it comes across bad when you are the owner of the team that got assaulted and you end with the childish sign-off that he did

i'm surprised burnside wrote this, in fact i'm in disbelief.. he normally loves on the pens

 

[evolver115]

i agree 100% with what mario said.. up until the 'leaving the game' bit.. gilles/martin/haley should've been punished more severely.. but it comes across bad when you are the owner of the team that got assaulted and you end with the childish sign-off that he did

i'm surprised burnside wrote this, in fact i'm in disbelief.. he normally loves on the pens

I'm not surprised that Burnside torched Mario.

He wrote a pretty nasty article about Lemieux a couple seasons ago because Burns felt he wasn't vocal enough in the league. I think Bursy got a chapped ass when Mario turned him down for an interview... take a look:

Hey Mario, why haven't we heard from you? - NHL - ESPN

I'm not going to comment any further on this whole debacle other than to say Burnside is clueless when it comes to the NHL. I said what I wanted to in the aftermath of the game, and the subsequent suspensions.

It's over and done with. Time to move on

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

I was expecting some members of the media to do this. I'm surprised we haven't seen more.

I'll be surprised if Lemieux pays with his checkbook though. I think the league just wants this to go away. Mario's comments aren't going to allow that to happen.

 

[h X c Chris]

C'mon Chris, we left the swamp to get away from these types of posts.

whoa whoa, you guys can gang bang the Phoenix Coyotes but I cant make a little Crysby joke? O_O

 

[SLY]

whoa whoa, you guys can gang bang the Phoenix Coyotes but I cant make a little Crysby joke? O_O

Beastiality is illegal.

 

[h X c Chris]

Beastiality is illegal.

Depends where you're from >=D

 

[SLY]

lol

 

[beantownmaniac]

whoa whoa, you guys can gang bang the Phoenix Coyotes but I cant make a little Crysby joke? O_O

That's why we use these---> :p