If your a penguins fan who saw this every night most of his scoring and play was effortless its as if he knew he would score and not have to try as hard as others those one handed side goals were easy for him with an 8 or 9 foot reach

That was Mario, … looking casual! I saw him in Montreal around 1986 he looked half-effort skating faster than anyone - took a casual slap shot from inside the blue line (right in front of my seat) and scored off the crossbar and in the net beating Patrick Roy…. It was INSANE! And it was all done casually! Best player of all time!

@@johnrencheck2283 I guess he was always cocky. My mom went to the same highschool he went to (after him) and his old teacher said he really didn't care about doing any work. He would just say "I don't need to because I'm going to play hockey" I'm paraphrasing a bit here. It's been decades since she told me the story. I was just a kid then but I still remember it.

Where’s Jagr though?

@@conorwreckoner Kladno.

Mullitude

Lol

Is the mullet inducted to the hockey HoF yet?

better than Gretzky..

@yannicnoah4948 Nobody was better than Gretzky. Lemieux was number 2. I saw both play in their prime.

Yep some of the young folk around that see moves today have to remember Lemieux invented most of em!

@@keithfloydjr4014 100% he was innovative, big, smart, and talented.

@@1bls I think its hard to understate how important his size/reach is. All the skilled players of today have a MUCH shorter reach at 5'10 to 6'2. It's almost unfair to be that much bigger

@@keithfloydjr4014 Tbf Lemieux didn't invent this one, Kenta Nilsson did it a year before in the world championships and he learnt it from Ulf Sterner in the swedish leagues

Hasek and Orr ….jk but I like those two the best for innovative both we’re

gretz and doug smail

Yeah. I guess the thing is, Mario did everything so you can't really name anything specific after him.

More like Forsberg did the Mario

Peter Foreskin

more like mario did a nilsson- kent nilsson did that in 1989, in an actual game not in a skill competition

Kent Nilsson did it before Forsberg and he played during the same time as Gretzky and Mario.

I know he’s a center…. Cherry-pick much

Couldn’t take their eyes off of Mario’s flow

@@MaliceInWonderlandx1 Sooo mesmerizing impossible to turn the camera away

I read a stat that said mario missed 761 total games in his carer due to injury /sickness/retirement . He averaged 1.8 points per game in his career, I think it definitely would have been alot closer if lemieux didn't miss so many games. It's possible he could have overtaken in total points. It's one of those What ifs we will never know.

If Peter Stasny had arrived 8 years earlier... he would have beaten them both...

@@edmourgagnon1504 if the GREAT russian players would have been allowed to play in their prime, i.e. fetisov, they would have dominated..along with gretz and mario.

R F - Gretzky has a higher points per game average (1.92) than Lemieux (1.88) DESPITE playing in 7 more seasons past his prime. After 915 games (the same number Lemieux played), Gretzky’s PPG average was 2.4 which destroys Lemieux’s over the same number of games.

micheal pratt - Canada Cup 1991, Gary Suter, anyone? That one almost ended his career with a herniated disc that immediately dropped him from a 160+ point player to a 120+ point player. (And I can give you many more examples with linked sources if you like.)

Hands down!!

I have Gretzky, Howe and Orr ahead of Lemieux. I rank Lemieux 4th best ever.

Mario tied Gretzky with assists with 114 in 89 Gretzky's first year without the superstars & 70 of those went to Bernie Nicholls

I agree with your comment BUT Gretzky was the greatest passer.... Ever. If Gretzky never scored a goal in the NHL he would still have retired as the time leading scorer on assists alone. Pretty crazy when you put it in that perspective.

just imagine the 2 of us playing in the same line line-u... wait ... canada cup ! :)

@@patientmental875 ....and Mario scored 85 goals to Wayne's 54 that year....It was also 99's last 50 goal season

@@JAYJason6666 Gretzky never put up better numbers than Lemieux after he left Edmonton unless Lemieux was out due to injury!

FourOne Two lol is it chelios?

@@bgduqc6876 Shayne Corson probably on coke

@@bgduqc6876 Non, c'est Shayne Corson. 😊

Shaythan MacCorson

Nice

Check out games played , if Lemieux was healthy there would be no debate.

@@donriley6732 - I am talking about head to head games, as I said. They played exactly the same number of games against each other.

Noticed this back in 1990 when it originally aired....on the NBC telecast, it showed only the Lemieux vs Gretzky part of the relay. I recorded the game (still have it on DVD - over 20 futture Hall of Famers in this game! I was 11 and watched Gretzky cheat and not get called out for it. Didn't want to make himself look bad, I guess... Cheating will get you nowhere Wayne....now bow down to the true GOAT, Mr. Lemieux.

alexei27pens g - actually they said at the time there was no rule against not taking the puck around the cone. And without a rule, there is no cheating. Just another example of a genius move by Gretz that no one else thought about.

@@michaelgriffiths8068 it's still cheating.

@@michaelgriffiths8068 it's still cheating.

alexei27pens g - He found the cheat code. Genius as usual.

Edmonton guy here, who grew up watching the glory day Oilers as a kid. Lowe was a good defensive d-man, but was not in the same league as guys like Housley when it came to the offensive game. Housley was silky smooth and also had a sneaky good shot. I remember him and Hawerchuk standing out with the Jets.

I'm surprised Lowe did that well, he wasn't far behind. As Slugger said, they're different types. Oh, and a really good skater is just as fast if not faster without doing so many strides, he just lets it slide so well.

hmm 66 1723 points in career 99 1723 points in less than 9 seasons thats dominance

@@kidpoker9408 Did gretzky have to take a break from his prime because of cancer, and back problems? No. That's what I thought..... bozo

They are and will always be besides lemieux scored 5 ways in a game even short handed power play empty net and penalty shot....i gaurantee it will never occur in a game ever and thats lemieux!

Good job Lowe!

Certainly if its 1990s style hockey

Gretzky outscored Lemieux in the 1987 Canada Cup in the same number of games, and also outscored him in head-to-head games with his assists alone (and this despite outscoring Lemieux in goals as well in head to head games). Lemieux has a 1.88 PPG average in 915 games vs Gretzky who had 2.33 PPG after the same 915 games.

@@michaelgriffiths8068Lemieux was 40 at game 915, how old was Gretzky at his 915th game. When both of them played from 1984-1997, Gretzky’s PPG was 1.95, Lemieux’s 2.02.

@@tomislavgrozdanic- Gretzky played about 600 games after age 31, whereas Lemieux only played 170 games after age 31. Of course Gretzky’s PPG average suffered way more than Lemieux’s as a result of those extra 400 post-prime games that Gretzky had to play. The fact that Gretzky still somehow finished with a higher PPG than Lemieux is insane in this context. Lemieux should have blown him out of the water.

Gretzky had whey more icetime in the Canada Cup and only like 4 points more then Lemieux.@@michaelgriffiths8068

Can u imagine what would happne if the played together in their primes in the same team. I legit think each would have 200 points and shatter any goals an point record held by a team

@@mafiacaptin9918 oh man, a dream of dream team. Would probably have like ten straight championships.

@@1bls do u think they would hit a 100 goals each I definitely think so

@@mafiacaptin9918 heck ya they would. And each would likely have 100 assists

You forget about Orr and Howe.

how was wayne less skilled where he demolishes anyone in all stats

@@kidpoker9408 Like I said, Gretzky wasn't far behind at all, and nobody else was close to either of them in the skills department. But Mario was simply other-worldly at times. Had he stayed healthy he would have challenged many of Gretzky's records. Gretzky played with a few all stars at all stages of his career. Mario played with a bunch of fire hydrants for his first few years. But both players made everyone around them better. Gretzky had better vision, but Mario was close behind.

@@tomboston9669 other worldy yea avg 199 over 6 seasons is other worldy his totals over 6 seasons is 500 points behind marios career total

passing wise mario was very far behind

and twice as good...

99 1723 points in 9 seasons thats why he isnt

Forsberg played in a defensive era so we have to factor that in. But calling him the goat may still be a stretch. The guy never scored more than 30 goals in a season. He only scored 885 points in his entire career. Gretzky has over three times that.

It’s not Howie…. It’s Gordie Howe the best ever. He take these guys to school.

The Best players of all time? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e6xna6xjkqiweoE.html

Forsberg isnt as close as complete as Crosby sorry

Gordie Howe too strong for both of them

Mario would have hit 1000 goals if he stayed healthy.

iCoolaxe - If Gretzky had not had his back destroyed by Gary Suter in the 91 Canada Cup, he would’ve had a 1000 goals too. And if you took away the 94/95 lockout, along with no back injury, he definitely would have had well over 3000 regular season points as well...

I think it would have been alot closer if mario didn't miss as many games as he did, his career total was somewhere near 761 games missed.

@@iCoolaxe no he wouldnt have your going to tell me he would score 40 goals per season in his late 30's keep dreaming gretzky had just under 700 goals his first 10 seasons mario less than 500

@@RF-vg5kv yea but the 761 games missed would not account for past prime. which wayne had to deal with along with the suter hit which brought his production down almost 50 percent post 91 canada cup

LOL Wayne crushed Lemieux every time they went head to head. Get your facts straight.

Gretzky outscored Lemieux in head to head games with his assists alone, and also in goals as well.

Technically Gretzky didn’t cheat, as there was no rule against not taking the puck around the cone. The rule was just the skates. So once again, 99 outsmarts everyone…including Mario.

Actually there was no rule against that, so Gretzky was just being smarter than everyone else as usual.

@@michaelgriffiths8068Wow. Big advantage, but if it was allowed, then good for him!

Moo - yes, Mario had a head start on him, so Gretzky probably did it so he could catch up!

sanfordsson Yeah and Lemieux is 6'4" and weighed 230 lbs...

Gretzky owned Lemieux in pretty much every statistical respect, not just skating. Gretzky has 8 of the top 10 highest scoring seasons of all time (including the top 4). Points per game average, they always say. Well Gretzky has 10 of the top 15 highest PPG average seasons of all time (including the top 2). And don’t even get me started on the playoff domination - Lemieux doesn’t even come close.

@@michaelgriffiths8068 Are you mad....? Mario was filling up arenas since he was 8 years old. At 14 he was already a household name in Quebec. By age 18 he had shattered pretty well every junior hockey league record known to man. At age 23 he beat out the greatest player ever by 31 points (all goals) to run away with his 2nd straight NHL scoring title .(Wayne btw was 27/28 yrs old at the time and in the prime of his career) . Often injured, 2 of Mario's run away scoring title wins he missed a 1/4 of the season each time.. At age 37 Mario was still dominating the NHL.....99 was the game's best player from 80-85, Mario from 1986-2003. Imagine Lemieux on those Oiler teams during that high scoring early-mid 80s era,, he would of had 100 goal/230 + point seasons every year . Once 99 left the Oil dynasty at age 27 and in the prime of his career, his points per game #s with L.A were much closer to Stevie Y's , then they were to Mario Lemieux's.

@@michaelgriffiths8068 ....and how many times did 99 come even remotely close to a 70+ goal/ 200 point season once he left EDM in the prime of his career? How many 50 goal seasons did he have again the last 10 years of his career ? Not only didn't 99 ever have a 50 goal campaign from 1989-1999,, but he never even came remotely close to having one...

JAYJason6666 - you do realize that Gretzky annihilated Lemieux in 1986, right? (You state he was only the best player till 1985.) In 1986 he outscored Lemieux 215 points to 141 points (74 point difference). Gretz destroyed him with just his ASSISTS alone (163 assists is still 21 points more than 141 points, even if you take away every single one of Gretzky’s 52 goals). And has Mario ever led the NHL in scoring with his assists alone? Gretzky did that 4 times. Gretzky not only did that 4 times, but on one of those occasions (1986/87), he did something Mario wouldn’t have been able to do in his wildest imagination: He led the league in scoring with his assists alone while *simultaneously* leading the NHL in goals. Total madness. Let’s see Mario do that! Would never happen. By the way - interesting how you use Gretzky’s SEVENTH worst season (1988/89) to compare against Lemieux’s best ever season. Talk about cherry picking, old boy....

Mario tied Gretzky with assists with 114 in 89 Gretzky's first year without the superstars & 70 of those went to Bernie Nicholls

PatientMental I didn’t say Lemieux was bad at getting assists.

@@_c3a3m_88 Right but Lemieux could pass just as good if not better

PatientMental that is definitely not true lol he was a great passer but not nearly as good as gretzky. Gretzky is hands down the best passer of all time. If he had no goals, his assists alone would still carry him to the top of the all time points list.

@@_c3a3m_88 Whos the last guy whos name isnt Gretzky to record 100 assists in a season? Put Lemieux on that Oilers team & you would have seen a 100 goal 250 point season!

wow a man in trouble