It certainly was an eventfull holiday season to say the least.
Let’s start with the biggest sports story of the past month, the return of Mario Lemieux. I know everyone has talked about this ad nauseum, but this is the first chance I have gotten to express my views on this.
In my opinion, Lemieux was and still is one of the greatest hockey players to have ever laced up a pair of skates. He has proven that in the games since his return on Dec. 27. He has faced a lot of adversity in his career from back problems to fighting Hodgkin’s disease.
If those problems couldn’t slow him down, three years away from the game most certainly would not. He has shown no rust or ill effect of his layoff from the game.
Many people have questioned Lemieux’s reasons for coming back saying that he is doing it for the money. Although I believe that is part of the reason, I don’t think that it is the main reason. He still genuinely loves the game and it shows in the way he is playing.
I hope, for the sake of the game, that Lemieux will stay healthy and perhaps even lead Canada at the next winter olympics in 2002. Ah yes, what a sweet win that would be, Lemieux and the rest of the Canadian team with gold medals around their necks. One can only hope…..for now.
Speaking of medals, how about a nice round of applause for our Canadian Junior team. It may not have been the color they wanted, but they did come home from Moscow with a Bronze medal.
We can take pride in the fact that team Canada is the only team to have won medals in the last three tournaments, all bronze. By medal standards we may not be the best but we sure are consistent. And don’t forget that we did win five in a row not too long ago.
We can always look at it this way, they may not have won this year but they are saving that for 2003 when the tournament will be held on our native soil in Halifax.
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