How many cups does lemieux have

In , the Stars tried to see if Lemieux could weave some playoff magic one last time. The move was for naught, as the Stars lost to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who made it to the Finals that year. In the process, Lemieux registered a lone assist in seven playoff games.

He played in 18 regular season games for San Jose that year as well as one of their six playoff contests against Anaheim in an opening round loss. Lemieux skated 12 shifts, delivered two hits, and put a shot on goal.

His penalty-minutes are third highest for a playoff career. When it comes down to it, the most telling statistic of all for Lemieux is this: the man scored 19 game-winning goals in his playoff career. That ties him with Joe Sakic for third all-time. Only Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull scored more game-winners in the playoffs. Hate Lemieux as much as you want. Hate him for his hit on Draper or for the way he played the game in general. No matter how you slice it, no one can deny that he created wins and championships and that makes him more than a character player on a great team.

To score the decisive goal in 19 playoff games is an impressive feat. He decided the outcome of hockey games when it mattered most. The likelihood of Lemieux being inducted into the Hall of Fame is rather slim.

There is too much against him, including the fact that he has long been portrayed as a villain. When hockey fans think of Claude Lemieux, his accomplishments come secondary or tertiary to the perception of his character and the way he played hockey.

Saying that, the facts in his favor are real and tangible. Those 19 career game-winners will not be duplicated anytime soon, if at all. Four Stanley Cups in a career is especially difficult these days, although there are a handful of players closing in on that achievement. Sure they could, but the stars would need to be aligned in their favor. It was inevitable that Lemieux would be compared with Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player of his day.

Lemieux played for Canada in the World Junior Championships bronze medal , World Championships silver medal , Canada Cup championship , Winter Olympics captain, gold medal and the World Cup of Hockey captain, championship. Fifty years after their last Olympic title, Canada won the gold with a victory over the American team.

Lemieux had a stellar NHL career which began with him being drafted first overall in by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lemieux would go on to record points in NHL games. As an owner, also with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he won the Stanley Cup in , , and We will start off with a more detailed look at the Stanley Cups he won as a player, including his personal stats.

And then, we will look at how his ownership of the team was instrumental in helping Pittsburgh win their next three cups. The opponent was the Minnesota North Stars, who were an unexpected opponent after upsetting a few highly favoured teams.

The series was closer than expected, but Pittsburgh ended up winning in six games. He would miss the 3rd game of the series due to a back injury, but still managed to get 12 points in 5 games. Lemieux worked his magic in the series and captured the Conn Smythe trophy as Most Valuable Player in the series.

During the series Lemieux scored one of the prettiest, most memorable goals you will ever see. It still gives me chills when I watch it. The Penguins made it back to the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in a row as they defended the title against the Chicago Blackhawks. All of the games were close, but the Penguins ended up winning the series in four straight. Mario, again, had an excellent finals as he became only the second person to win back-to-back Conn Smythe trophies!

It is said that Mario Lemieux saved the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise twice — once as a player and once as an owner. When Mario was drafted as a player the Penguins franchise was nothing more than an afterthought in the NHL. They had little success winning on the ice or getting fans in the seats to support them. Lemieux changed all of that by lifting the franchise on his shoulders and carrying them to two consecutive Stanley Cups.

The Penguins franchise hit hard times again after Lemieux retired the first time. The Penguins could simply not compete with the salaries being paid to the stars in the league by the wealthy franchises like Detroit, Colorado and the New York Rangers.

The Penguins would actually end up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November