By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
Mario Lemieux, right, watches Penguins practice last week at Neville Island.
The neck-jerk response is to turn and gawk at Mellon Arena Suite 501, at Mario Lemieux's inner sanctum, and seek out a tangible, if not giddy, response to the latest good fortune raining upon him and his franchise.
A Stanley Cup final berth.
A new arena under construction.
A veritable Seen Column of celebrities congregating in his owner's box.
A populace re-energized about its local hockey team, the one stocked with high-numbered, high-flying stars still in their 20s -- not so different from when he was down there, on the ice, a decade and a half earlier for the last late-May march of the Penguins.
"I think he's in a great place right now," said Bob Errey, his onetime winger and current FSN broadcaster. "I don't know how you could have written a better script, really."
"He's probably smiling like a butcher's dog right now," Penguins voice Mike Lange added. "Probably is."
"He's like the rest of the organization: We're not in any way finished," continued Penguins president David Morehouse, with the club one game into the 2008 final that began Saturday night with a 4-0 loss at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. "We're happy we've been able to have success ... but we're not done yet. And I don't think he's smiling yet."
It is indeed unfinished business to Lemieux. He should know. He raised the Cup twice as a player, in his seventh and eighth seasons. This is the closest he has come to it in his nine years as franchise rescuer from bankruptcy, owner-CEO, owner-player and then back to the relative privacy of owner status once again. All of which raises the questions: How would it feel if he could hoist the Cup both as a player and owner, and could he become the first owner to, like he did as a player, let the bowl wallow at the bottom of his pool?
But that is getting ahead of the deal, and Lemieux in his second career has learned much about deals.
"Don't forget, it was really bad at one point," said friend Pierre Larouche, himself an ex- Penguins star from Quebec. "It could've gone real bad, real quick. We were getting beat badly almost every night. It was awfully close to the Penguins moving. There were some iffy moments. It was a lot of work."
With the city bankrupt and two new stadiums arising on the North Shore, local politicians were none too eager to talk about a potential new arena, even if Mellon Arena long was the oldest barn in either the NHL or NBA. There was the proposed sale to Lemieux's friend Boots Del Biaggio in 2005 that basically ended, over golf, on the July lottery-pick day Sidney Crosby fell into their mitts. There was the sale to magnate Jim Balsillie that was scuttled by NHL bosses in 2006. There was what the owner and Penguins types perceived as foot-dragging by local government officials who pledged to help them in 1999 coming out of bankruptcy.
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Mario Lemieux goes to the locker room to congratulate the entire team after beating the Senators at Scotiabank Place, Ottawa Canada.
"Getting Sid, that was a major change of direction," Larouche said of the 20-year-old to whom Lemieux serves as boss, landlord, mentor. "The building could've gone the other way. So many things could've gone wrong. He kept digging and digging and got it done. The same way as when he was playing:"
"Now he's in the business world," added former teammate, longtime personal trainer and FSN analyst Jay Caufield. "Now he's trying to reach the pinnacle in that. He has to be the best in whatever he's doing."
In January 2006, Lemieux retired as a player and relinquished the title of CEO, though he didn't step too far into the shadows. He went on the trip to Kansas City to discuss possible relocation there. He met with Gov. Ed Rendell along with other state and local politicians.
At long last, on March 13, 2007, before a Penguins victory against Buffalo in front of a standing-room-only arena, Lemieux stepped into a spotlight and offered, "Tonight, I'm proud to announce that your Pittsburgh Penguins will remain right here in Pittsburgh, where they belong." Then he receded, saying little publicly since, while Crosby and the boys surged to the playoffs last spring and to the final this one. Lemieux has regularly declined comment -- one team official joking referred to 1,137,642 interview requests in a single week -- because this particular owner prefers that his players and coaches share the limelight nowadays.
That's one reason why he makes only rare appearances in the locker room, such as him and co-owner Ron Burkle offering congratulations after series wrap-up victories. Friends joked that most of the times Lemieux entered the dressing room this season were merely as an escort to his son Austin, who wanted to chat with Crosby.
"You don't see him much [around the team]," Errey aded. "But I think he likes being on the outside a little bit. He doesn't want to be a vocal guy, much like when he played. He's got a nice, balanced life right now."
"He's come in after big series, giving guys some high-fives and congratulating us," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "We see him on TV [up in his box] all happy after we score goals, so it's cool."
This rush of postseason success also means the owner's box has become a hip, cool place. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger long has been a guest. Steelers owner Dan Rooney popped in amid the Eastern Conference final against the Flyers, as did Atlanta pitcher John Smoltz.
"I'm just happy to be there myself," friend, lawyer and Altoona Curve co-owner Chuck Greenberg said of that suite.
"I guess the farther we go, the more famous the people who will show up," Whitney kidded.
Larouche, who enjoys a nice glass of wine like Lemieux on occasion, teased about switching to champagne in the event of celebratory Cup sipping. If Lemieux could deliver that hardware a third time to Pittsburgh, Larouche said, "I told him the other day 'You'd wind up going back in the Hall of Fame as a builder.' "
First published on May 26, 2008 at 12:00 am
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