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Mario Lemieux is retiring again.. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=152104&hubname=">http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=152104&hubname=</a><!-- m -->

This has to be it for the man, its a shame after such a great career that he has to go out like that, he deserved better.

Thanks for the memories Mario!

Man, with him and Palffy off the books they've cleared up a lot of cap room in the past two weeks!

I guess dropping $10 million or so in salary makes the team look more attractive to potential buyers.

cferneyh Wrote:Man, with him and Palffy off the books they've cleared up a lot of cap room in the past two weeks!

I guess dropping $10 million or so in salary makes the team look more attractive to potential buyers.

They made some poor choices in the off season, all the Crosby hype must have clouded their judgement. First you cant win in this league without a solid goalie, taking Thibault to be no.1 that was dumb, LeClair is useless and Recchi is washed up. Gonchar has dissapeared, and Palffy, well he's been so bad he had to retire, I feel bad for Mario but that was just poor judgement in their part.
I cant fault them totally on Gonchar and Palffy, who knew they would play like that, but going for all veterans and older players and not getting a top end goalie was a big mistake. I hear one of the potential new destinations for Pittsburgh (if the team is sold and moves) is Winnipeg, probably wont happen but that would be sweet if it did happen.

LizardKing51 Wrote:

cferneyh Wrote:Man, with him and Palffy off the books they've cleared up a lot of cap room in the past two weeks!

I guess dropping $10 million or so in salary makes the team look more attractive to potential buyers.

They made some poor choices in the off season, all the Crosby hype must have clouded their judgement. First you cant win in this league without a solid goalie, taking Thibault to be no.1 that was dumb, LeClair is useless and Recchi is washed up. Gonchar has dissapeared, and Palffy, well he's been so bad he had to retire, I feel bad for Mario but that was just poor judgement in their part.
I cant fault them totally on Gonchar and Palffy, who knew they would play like that, but going for all veterans and older players and not getting a top end goalie was a big mistake. I hear one of the potential new destinations for Pittsburgh (if the team is sold and moves) is Winnipeg, probably wont happen but that would be sweet if it did happen.

Palffy was bad? He was averaging a point a game and was a + rating on a horrible team. C'mon man - just because Cherry hates a guy doesn't make him horrible.

I'll be the first to admit I thought the moves they made were going to make the Pens a playoff team at worst. (Hell, in our keeper pool someone offered me Phaneuf for Thibault and I turned it down. OUCH).

Anyway, I don't think anyone could have seen how bad Thibault was going to be. He'd always been an average goalie so signing him to hold down the fort until Fleury came of age made sense to me. And who the hell knows what happened to Gonchar? It's like the ghost of the Larry Murphy Leaf Years invaded his body.

Ziggy had 11 Goals and 31 Assists, not real terrible, but I read somewhere that he felt he wasn't playing like he wanted to and was underperforming, so I guess I should of said he felt he was playing poorly. Also he was hurting with the shoulder problem. Either way the team is playing poorly, and I just felt bad for Mario, I think he had high hopes for this season. Not that I want Pittsburgh to win the cup or anything but it would of been nice for Mario to retire on a high note for a change.

Palffy wasn't bad no. He was putting up a point per game, and the Pens were praising him for his committment to defense. He wasn't quite the offensive force he was in LA in recent years though, even though he was putting up the points at a fairly consistently. I expected a HUGE season from him, which is why i drafted him quite high in my pool.

As for Mario, thanks fo the memories!! He's one of the greatest talents ever to play the game and i was really hoping he'd be able tot come back and play out the season. Sucks to see him go out this way.

I thought very highly of Pallfy, I picked him 5th overall actually in one my pools. The shitty thing is that I also had him in my 2 other pools. It'll teach me of putting all my eggs in one basket.

I also thought that Pittsburgh would be a contending team at the beginning of the year. Tarnstrom has played like crap when he's not hurt. As someone mentionned earlier, Leclair and Gonchar's better days are behind them.

Maybe next year when Malkin joins the team.

Does this mean Mario gets two pensions?

Thats like me downie, i picked Palffy in my main hockey pool. I took him with my 3rd round pick (there are only 9 people in this pool), and i too thought he'd put up some big stats this season. I also then pick him in The Guardian's newspaper pool & in my fantasy team on yahoo...but at least i could replace him in each of those.
I'm in 2nd place in my pool though, which is pretty impressive consiering Palffy isn't playing any longer, Toumo Ruutu is out for the season and only picked me up 4 points, Jermey Roenick has done nothing/been hurt, Petr Nedved only has 12 points....and right now i also have Pavol Demitra and Cory Stillman injured.

Well, I'll miss seeing Lemieux play. He was one of the best.

Even better, during his second stint in the NHL, he became the ambassador for the game and the leader in representing Canada in international play that he should have been all along. This makes his career complete, and I'm thankful he fulfilled these goals.

It's just a shame that his departure is not entirely his own choosing... that health concerns have to take him from the game again.

Thanks Mario!

Imagine what he could have done if he was healthy!!