Where do you think Mario got inspiration for his style of play?

[Big Phil]

We always hear about certain things players picked up from the stars before them. Gretzky noticed how Bobby Clarke stood behind the net making passes out front and he turned it into his own namesake in "Gretzky's Office". We all know he idolized Howe, but Gretzky's style is nowhere near his.

Mario was a Habs fan and would have watched Lafleur in his prime and yet their styles are different.

No one in NHL history has had a style quite like Mario's. Between his quick release, accurate shots in the top corner over the goalie's shoulders, his toe drags, his deking in between the legs of a defenseman and even his positioning on the power play, I am wondering where he got that style from because no star played like that.

The best I can come up with is Beliveau who probably was the most skilled player in NHL history up until that point. It is crazy how similar a prime Beliveau can look from a graceful standpoint like Lemieux. Stickhandling, etc., and passing and with the soft hands.

I am wondering if anyone knows where Mario picked up so much of what he did. My guess is a hybrid of players but there are so many things he popularized that weren't being done before.

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[Canadiens1958]

We always hear about certain things players picked up from the stars before them. Gretzky noticed how Bobby Clarke stood behind the net making passes out front and he turned it into his own namesake in "Gretzky's Office". We all know he idolized Howe, but Gretzky's style is nowhere near his.

Mario was a Habs fan and would have watched Lafleur in his prime and yet their styles are different.

No one in NHL history has had a style quite like Mario's. Between his quick release, accurate shots in the top corner over the goalie's shoulders, his toe drags, his deking in between the legs of a defenseman and even his positioning on the power play, I am wondering where he got that style from because no star played like that.

The best I can come up with is Beliveau who probably was the most skilled player in NHL history up until that point. It is crazy how similar a prime Beliveau can look from a graceful standpoint like Lemieux. Stickhandling, etc., and passing and with the soft hands.

I am wondering if anyone knows where Mario picked up so much of what he did. My guess is a hybrid of players but there are so many things he popularized that weren't being done before.

Bigger and more skilled than his peers, Lemieux simply played the way he did because he could.

 

[The Panther]

I know very little about Mario Lemieux's childhood around Montreal. I would love for him, or a great biographer, to write a really detailed book about his life, but he just seems like the type not to want to have such a book written. Very low-key guy.

Anyway, when are we most influenced by hockey stars? I say around age 10 to 13. That's Mario c. 1975-76 to 1978-79. So yeah, Guy Lafleur was probably one of his heroes, for sure.

I agree that his playing style seems hard to easily compare to other players. That's partly because there were so few huge guys with speed and amazing hands. They're before my time, but I'm thinking maybe Gil Perreault and Jean Beliveau are somewhat akin to Mario's style. But I dunno.

Vincent Lecavalier, in his brief prime, is a later player whose style somewhat reminded me of Mario's style.

(All those guys are lefties, though, and Mario a rightie.)

 

[hitman9172]

A great Lemieux biography is “Mario” by Lawrence Martin. Mario wasn’t interviewed for it, but friends and family from his youth were.

 

[sr edler]

Gilbert Perreault?

 

[bobholly39]

Guy Lafleur was Lemieux's idol growing up. So I assume he took after him, somewhat at least.

But also like Canadiens1958 said - maybe he just played the way he did because he could?

 

[Canadiens1958]

His older brother(app. 4 1/2 years), Alain Lemieux:

Alain Lemieux Stats | Hockey-Reference.com

A lot of what you saw had elements of an older sibling playing keep away with a younger.

 

[The Panther]

A great Lemieux biography is “Mario” by Lawrence Martin. Mario wasn’t interviewed for it, but friends and family from his youth were.

Thanks, I had a look at that on Amazon.

 

[biotk]

I read the Lawrence Martin book, but it was so long ago I don't remember it. I know that Mario always talked about how much he completely idolized his older brother Alain as C1958 mentioned. Certainly Lafleur was a player who Mario loved and badly wanted Pittsburgh to pickup, but I don't feel there was a lot of similarity in their style. Believeau would have been a great influence if the time periods matched, but Jean retired when Mario was around 5.

Thinking about tall players who could skate well, were great with the puck and produced a lot of points, I wondered about Pete Mahovlich who was a 6'5" C who had a couple 100+ point seasons. So I looked it up and his two 100+ point seasons (around 5th in the NHL) occurred with the Canadiens when Mario was about 10 - 12 years ago. I have no idea what Pete's style was like, so I went to youtube and the first video that came up made me feel like I was watching Mario again.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Lemieux simply played the way he did because he could.

That pretty much sums it up. I'm sure lots of players would have loved to play a style that included laser-accurate shots and the softest hands anybody has ever seen.

 

[Nick Hansen]

I wonder where Datsyuk learned his stuff. Never quite seen anyone play like him. Brett Hull said something to the effect of that he had played hockey his entire life and his dad was freaking Bobby Hull, yet neither of them understood what Datsyuk was doing and where he had picked up that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I wonder where Datsyuk learned his stuff.

Russia?

 

[Big Phil]

I wonder where Datsyuk learned his stuff. Never quite seen anyone play like him. Brett Hull said something to the effect of that he had played hockey his entire life and his dad was freaking Bobby Hull, yet neither of them understood what Datsyuk was doing and where he had picked up that.

With Datsyuk you can definitely see things Mario did. The toe drag, cradling the puck, that trademark goal where he waits the goalie out on the breakaway, that's Mario in a nutshell. Other than that, I am guessing the KLM line was a big influence for him.

Gilbert Perreault?

Yeah, he definitely has shades of Beliveau all over him and we know he was a Habs fan growing up which coincided with Beliveau's entire career. I could see Mario picking up some moves from Perreault though as well. He was a rare breed.

That pretty much sums it up. I'm sure lots of players would have loved to play a style that included laser-accurate shots and the softest hands anybody has ever seen.

I think it is a little more complicated than that. The stuff he did predated other stars. He took it up a notch where no one did it before, or since, quite like him. I always shake my head when I see shootouts and the players skate in slow as molasses and on an angle. That rarely works and I always tell myself the only player who did that regularly was Mario. He was good enough to just wait the goalie out and the second he bit and made the first move he either roofed it top corner or deked him with his long reach.

For example, with Lindros I can see shades of Messier in him, except Lindros was bigger and able to be even more physically dominant. We know that Lindros idolized Messier as well. With Mario you wonder where he picked up this stuff. Who curled the puck like that before him? Who could roof the puck top corner to that extent? Who was able to pull off those moves 1-on-1 like that? I get that Lemieux was just simply better, but he had to have practiced that stuff and as a kid he had to have learned it somewhere.

It is possible that he saw what people like Orr, Perreault and others did and just took it up another notch better than anyone else in NHL history. But I don't think Mario gets the credit for being such an innovator with his moves.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I think it is a little more complicated than that. The stuff he did predated other stars. He took it up a notch where no one did it before, or since, quite like him. I always shake my head when I see shootouts and the players skate in slow as molasses and on an angle. That rarely works and I always tell myself the only player who did that regularly was Mario. He was good enough to just wait the goalie out and the second he bit and made the first move he either roofed it top corner or deked him with his long reach.

For example, with Lindros I can see shades of Messier in him, except Lindros was bigger and able to be even more physically dominant. We know that Lindros idolized Messier as well. With Mario you wonder where he picked up this stuff. Who curled the puck like that before him? Who could roof the puck top corner to that extent? Who was able to pull off those moves 1-on-1 like that? I get that Lemieux was just simply better, but he had to have practiced that stuff and as a kid he had to have learned it somewhere.

It is possible that he saw what people like Orr, Perreault and others did and just took it up another notch better than anyone else in NHL history. But I don't think Mario gets the credit for being such an innovator with his moves.

I just don't see anything in his game that's different than what any other player would like to do if he had the ability. We'd all like to be able to curl the puck and roof shots and play the puck between other guys' skates. I'm sure guys wanted to do those things in the 1920s. Mario did it because he was huge and fast and had incredible hands.

My guess is he simply watched and played a lot of hockey as a kid, and did the same things he saw guys like Perreault and Sittler doing. Just way better. A lot of the eye-popping stuff he did was common-sense in a way (like shooting from sharp angles or skating through 3 guys) and the shocking part was simply that he was good enough to actually do it.

 

[Big Phil]

I just don't see anything in his game that's different than what any other player would like to do if he had the ability. We'd all like to be able to curl the puck and roof shots and play the puck between other guys' skates. I'm sure guys wanted to do those things in the 1920s. Mario did it because he was huge and fast and had incredible hands.

My guess is he simply watched and played a lot of hockey as a kid, and did the same things he saw guys like Perreault and Sittler doing. Just way better. A lot of the eye-popping stuff he did was common-sense in a way (like shooting from sharp angles or skating through 3 guys) and the shocking part was simply that he was good enough to actually do it.

I know that when the Soviets came to town in 1972 we saw things from them that even Bobby Orr wasn't necessarily doing. Skating through the neutral zone, not liking what they saw, hanging onto it and skating back the other way to re-group. Honestly, that was never done in the NHL. Orr did stuff like that just simply to kill a penalty, not for the heck of it.

I'll stick to what I said earlier, Mario took a lot from different players and did it better. The curling the puck though and cradling it, that was new. I honestly can't think of someone who did that before him. By the way, if there is a clip in the 1970s of someone doing it once this isn't what I mean, I mean on a regular basis.

 

[Canadiens1958]

I know that when the Soviets came to town in 1972 we saw things from them that even Bobby Orr wasn't necessarily doing. Skating through the neutral zone, not liking what they saw, hanging onto it and skating back the other way to re-group. Honestly, that was never done in the NHL. Orr did stuff like that just simply to kill a penalty, not for the heck of it.

I'll stick to what I said earlier, Mario took a lot from different players and did it better. The curling the puck though and cradling it, that was new. I honestly can't think of someone who did that before him. By the way, if there is a clip in the 1970s of someone doing it once this isn't what I mean, I mean on a regular basis.

Basic offensive skill into the seventies. Remember being shown how to do it in pee wee.Lemieux had old-style coaching in southwest Montreal.

Points.

By the eighties it was so old it was new in the shortshift, move the puck quickly era.

The skills and techniques to counter the move had mainly disappeared.

 

[Killion]

Basic offensive skill into the seventies. Remember being shown how to do it in pee wee.Lemieux had old-style coaching in southwest Montreal.

Points.

By the eighties it was so old it was new in the shortshift, move the puck quickly era.

The skills and techniques to counter the move had mainly disappeared.

... Cradle 2 Grave... with Lacrosse, as much a way of handling your lacrosse stick & the ball as its a philosophy, a dictate, that you never stop cradling the ball, your upper or far wrist constantly moving while the lower anchored in closer to the center of your body until you pass it or lose possession... and ya, as old as the hills... one of the first techniques kids begin to experiment with when they pick up a hockey stick & begin playing a ball or a puck if theyve a brain beyond just whacking it as far and as hard as they can.... Cradling part of the toolbox. A considerable number of hockey players (Orr, Gretzky, Gilmour etc) who were expert at it, more proficient than their NHL counterparts who in most cases were also quite capable in that department had played Lacrosse as kids. No idea if Mario played it as a kid, not mandatory, a skill, technique that one becomes proficient at during free play, shinny, road & floor, roller hockey as well. You did see less of the "silk skills" like that, dropping off with the arrival of Hull & the Slapshot. More about the glamour, the power of the Slapshot. Far less dangling, curling, cupping & cradling.

 

[hitman9172]

The craziest thing about Lemieux to me is that he dominated to such an extent (282 points in 70 games his last season of major junior with the Laval Voisins) while never training or eating right.

His diet consisted mostly of burgers, fries, and shakes and he practically never lifted weights or went running. He couldn’t even budge the bar when asked to bench press 180 lbs his first day of Penguins training camp. He also smoked a ton of cigarettes.

And yet he still dominated some of the best athletes of his generation.

The true epitome of a “natural”. His first skating coach also has a story about how the first time a 3-or-4-year old Lemieux practiced with a stick and puck, he skated in on the goalie, who he deked out with a cross-crease move before scoring. The kids were still a long ways away from being taught how to stickhandle and deke, but the toddler Lemieux must have seen the move on TV and copied it to a tee on his first attempt.

 

[The Panther]

I agree that Lemieux was a "freak of nature"-like natural. In addition to being a bit chubby and on the poutine-diet, he left the NHL at age 30 to lounge on the golf course, and then came back at 34 and dominated just as before, albeit in patches and he was slower. But I mean, who does that? It's actually insane, and can only be the result of a unique and hockey-ideal physiology.

 

[Canadiens1958]

The craziest thing about Lemieux to me is that he dominated to such an extent (282 points in 70 games his last season of major junior with the Laval Voisins) while never training or eating right.

His diet consisted mostly of burgers, fries, and shakes and he practically never lifted weights or went running. He couldn’t even budge the bar when asked to bench press 180 lbs his first day of Penguins training camp. He also smoked a ton of cigarettes.

And yet he still dominated some of the best athletes of his generation.

The true epitome of a “natural”. His first skating coach also has a story about how the first time a 3-or-4-year old Lemieux practiced with a stick and puck, he skated in on the goalie, who he deked out with a cross-crease move before scoring. The kids were still a long ways away from being taught how to stickhandle and deke, but the toddler Lemieux must have seen the move on TV and copied it to a tee on his first attempt.

Urban legend.

Mom Lemieux, took the just turned 3 Mario to the park with outdoor rinks including a kiddie rink with monitors. Chatting with other moms when one mentioned that Mario was skating.

 

[Canadiens1958]

BTW,further to Killion's lacrosse post. Unlike Gretzky, Mario Lemieux never played lacrosse -no youth leagues in his area.

 

[JackSlater]

I think that most people in here already have the answer. What exactly is Lemieux's style of play anyway, other than just a skill game played at basically the highest level? His hero was Lafleur but they didn't really play the same way. If anyone was as big as Lemieux and had basically every offensive hockey skill at the highest level... wouldn't that person want to play pretty much the way that Lemieux did?

 

[Jim MacDonald]

I would've loved to have seen what Beliveau was like as a player (if he was a 50's-60's version of a "Super Mario"). If he had the same hands, same strength, vision, good passer etc. I wonder if everyone back then was "in awe" of someone big (like Mario) being so smooth/finesslike with the puck etc. Any HF members happen to have watched Beliveau in the 60's etc? Were Mario and Beliveau both on the Quebec Remparts in Juniors?

 

[Big Phil]

I would've loved to have seen what Beliveau was like as a player (if he was a 50's-60's version of a "Super Mario"). If he had the same hands, same strength, vision, good passer etc. I wonder if everyone back then was "in awe" of someone big (like Mario) being so smooth/finesslike with the puck etc. Any HF members happen to have watched Beliveau in the 60's etc? Were Mario and Beliveau both on the Quebec Remparts in Juniors?

Beliveau documentary. Always thought that goal he scored at 12:25 was classic Beliveau. So yeah, he looked like Mario to an extent in the effortless, skilled, graceful type of way.

 

[Big Phil]

I think that most people in here already have the answer. What exactly is Lemieux's style of play anyway, other than just a skill game played at basically the highest level? His hero was Lafleur but they didn't really play the same way. If anyone was as big as Lemieux and had basically every offensive hockey skill at the highest level... wouldn't that person want to play pretty much the way that Lemieux did?

Yeah perhaps so. He just took it up a notch. I know people on here have talked about cradling the puck and such but he was the first guy I saw doing it regularly in an NHL game, we aren't just talking about Pee Wee here. He would do that to deke around a defenseman and to protect the puck. I just never saw someone do that until him. Not in the NHL.