We'll Miss You!
As a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I've been through this before. It doesn't hurt quite as much as it did the first time around, but honestly more than anything else it hurts that Mario will never have the complete respect that he deserves. He's 7th on the all-time scoring list. What no one seems to realize is that he's not even in the top 100 in games played. Wayne Gretzky played 21 seasons in the NHL. This year would have been Mario's 21st season. If you take Mario's current points per game, not even the 2 points per game that he retired with the first time, just the 1.88 that he currently has and extrapolate that out over 21 seasons, he eclipses Gretzky's scoring by almost 400 points. 400 points. And yet, he's rarely if ever considered the best player in the world. Anyone who has seen him move on the ice knows the fluidity of his game and the softness of his touch. To see him move in a healthy fashion with Sidney Crosby would have made the Penguins a force to be reckoned with. Mario, I will miss you and you have my respect. Maybe someday you'll have everyone else's as well.