Toronto – Today is the 45th birthday of the most talented player ever to lace up a pair of skates: Mario Lemieux. Now I know, a lot of you will argue about Bobby Orr or Wayne Gretzky but hardly any of you have seen Orr play and you can’t honestly say someone who took this picture would be considered the best ever:

Instead of petty arguments, lets just take this time to celebrate Le Magnifique

On the heels of Lebron Jame’s decision, it’s amazing to see how much Mario has done for the city of Pittsburgh. Not only did he not leave Pittsburgh at any point of his career, Mario purchased the team when it was bankrupt, helped rebuild the team, got a new arena and in the process, won a cup as an owner. Now Pittsburgh is back where they belong, on top of the Eastern Conference, beating down on the Capitals.

I still remember when the Penguins were making their first run at the Cup in ’91. During the second round of the playoffs, I made a bet with my cousin Steve that the Penguins would win the cup. The bet was $10. That was two months allowance. So when they crushed the North Stars 8-0 in game six, I was laughing like a maniac. The North Stars were so embarrassed they had to move to a city where no one knew anything about hockey – Dallas.

I also remember being very very pissed off when it was announced Lemieux had Hodgkins Disease during 92-93 season. He was going to break Gretzky’s points and goals total that year. He had 160 points and 69 goals in 60 games that year, a bunch of which was after chemo. You do the math over 80 games. He even spotted poor Patty Lafontaine like 30 points after he came back, but took it back like a bully in a school yard. Sadly, that season will be forever ruined by David Volek.

Here are some awesome Lemieux plays:

Did you know that Lemieux once scored all 5 types of goals in one game? Regular, Powerplay, Shorthanded, Penalty Shot, Empty Net? Try to do that in NHL 11. It’s impossible. Also, he slept with your mother afterwards:

Oh ya, he also scored a goal on his first shift. in his first game. on his first shot.

Remember the 2002 Olympics? Right after the 1998 Bobby Clarke, Rob Zamuner fiasco, the Canada team had lots to prove. Led by Mario, they won the gold. People often forget that Dominik Hasek was incredible during this era and people were scared he’d lead his team to gold again. What does Mario do? score two goals on him. Let’s not forget the gold medal game. This is the best ever non-goal player by a hockey player:

So yeah.. Happy Birthday!

(also Patrick Roys birthday. no one likes him though)

Toronto – I’m interrupting the flow of things here with my list of top sport moments of the year. This has been a banner sports year for me, as both my Penguins and Steelers won their respective championships, much to the dismay of almost all my friends. I was probably quite annoying from February to June, and probably had the emotional stability of a 14 year old girl (or Chris Brown) during their playoff runs, but it was probably worth it. My Penguins have not won the cup since I was 12, and the Steelers have not won a championship since I was 27. Anyways, here are my favorite moments of the year (random order):

Evgeny Malkin scores a Hat Trick vs Carolina
I think I jizzed all over the bar at the Tap when I saw this goal. It was right before the Au Revoir Simone concert, and the Pens were putting the finishing touches on the Hurricanes. Beautiful backhander few can even think of doing, and even fewer can do.

Federer Shot thru Legs
My current roommate Pux is an avid tennis fan, I guess he wants to be a stiff upper class white man when he grows up. Either way, whenever you mention Roger Federer to him, his eyes light up like a teenage girls does when you mention Robert Pattinson. He just swoons over this guy. Regardless of this fact, this shot between the legs was fairly impressive.

“The Save” Fleury denies Lidstrom
Quite possibly the biggest save in Fleury’s career, and maybe even the Penguins. It reminds me of Star Wars, when Luke Skywalker had to shoot those missiles into that lil hole to blow up the Death Star, only in complete reversal.

Ryan Clark decapitates Willis McGahee
As a die hard Steelers fan, it is my job to hate every Raven, Bengal and Brown in existence. So it was pretty satisfying to see the Steelers put an emphatic end to the Ravens playoff run by hitting them where it hurts. This was revenge for Ray Lewis taking out Mendenhall earlier in the season.

Superbowl – Two plays
James Harrison does the improbable and takes Kurt Warner pass all the way back to end the first half. You can insert some sort of black man running for his freedom joke here, if you want to.

This Larry Fitzgerald run was simply impressive.

Polamalu 1 handed interception vs Titans
The only highlight from an uber disappointing 2009-2010 campaign from the Steelers.

Patriots gamble 4 and 2
I HATE the Patriots. Just like I HATE Detroit Red Wings. Those two organizations are extremely well run, well coached and well managed. However, Belichuk is an old man and simply, his arrogance in this game will be forever remembered as the ‘jumping of the shark’ of the Patriots. Soon enough, Randy Moss will be late and quit on games and Tom Brady will start thinking he needs to get in on the Giselle action before she gets old.

Finally
This is simply awesome.

Other sports highlights:

• my ball hockey team having an undefeated season and unlike the Pats, actually winning the championship
• Confederations Cup was good
• Twins vs Tigers playoff game was amazing, sorry Alli
• Canada vs Russia, World Junior Championship Silver Medal game

Heres hoping for another good year of sports!

Toronto – This time it’s personal – Troy Polamalu suffered a strained MCL (under going MRI soon) and will be out 3-6 (possibly more) after Algie “Buffet Eatin” Crumpler fell on him when picking up football following a missed field goal. Luckily, before that play, we got this ridiculous 1 handed interception by Polamalu:

Click here for more information about the Madden Curse.

I hope that Larry Fitzgerald doesn’t go down either, as he is on my fantasy team.

Thursday June 18

Spiral Beach – 6 Pm – Cutesy young band is probably playing Yonge-Dundas because they are still too young to enter a bar. Don’t let their age fool you though, their take on cutesy indie pop is quite good and you will be impressed if you check them out. I say, go to Chipotle, grab a burrito and then go listen to these kids.

http://www.myspace.com/spiralbeach

Melissa Au Der Maur – 8 Pm – Former bassist for Smashing Pumpkins and Hole is fronting her own band. The myspace page has a lot of black and red, which makes me think she’s turned goth. The myspace song doesn’t reveal much so it may be interesting. Sadly, the teeny boppers coming out of Forever 21 will probably have never heard of SP or Hole, and only knows Billy Corgan as the guy who dated Tila Tequila for about two weeks.

http://www.myspace.com/aufdermaur

Black Lips – 10 PM

These Atlanta garage rockers are one of the main headliners for NXNE and are known for having ridiculously insane rock shows. It’ll be interesting to see if they will tone down the show since it’s in such a large public space and their might be little kids and grand ma mas in the audience. They recently released The Drop I Hold EP, which features the single ‘The Drop I Hold’ guest starring Wu-Tang Clan’s The GZA. Guess what? GZA is in NXNE. Hmmm.

http://www.myspace.com/theblacklips

Just look where Sykora’s (#17 at the bottom) head is, not to mention the spooning going on in the upper left.  This photo is both dumb and ridiculous…

LETS GO CAPS!!!!

Courtesy of the best hockey blog site on Earth – Pens Blog