The greatest individual season in hockey history turns 30

The greatest individual accomplishment in NHL history turns 30 this winter.

As we follow Alex Ovechkin’s stalking of Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goals record, we may have Wayne on the brain and assume the seminal feat belongs to him. He’s the most dominant player ever to walk the Earth, owner of countless untouchable records, from a 92-goal season to a 215-point season to 50 goals in 39 games to 2,857 career points. He’ll always get my G.O.A.T. vote.

But he didn’t give us the greatest single-season performance of any hockey player, ever. Nor did Bobby Orr during his run of eight straight Norris Trophies. Nor did Dominik Hasek when he won the Vezina Trophy, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and Olympic gold in 1998 within four months.

Nope. The greatest year the sport has ever seen came in 1992-93. And it was made all the more improbable because it came despite a shocking diagnosis midway through the campaign.

Mario Lemieux entered that season at his absolute apex, turning 27 the day before Game 1. His Pittsburgh Penguins were back-to-back Stanley Cup champs, working on a dynasty, loaded with future Hall of Famers, from Jaromir Jagr to Ron Francis to Larry Murphy. Lemieux had won consecutive Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP. He set the tone with two five-point efforts in his first four games of the 1992-93 season and was off.

By the 40-game mark, he had already exploded for 104 points. Having missed two games, his pace put him on track to threaten Gretzky’s single-season scoring record. In early January, however, 30 years ago last week, Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a form of cancer that attacks the lymph nodes. the team announced the news on January 12, 1993. Radiation treatment for the affliction, which was caught early, was set to begin in February 1993. Lemieux underwent 22 grueling treatments. The side effects included severe exhaustion and weight loss.

Incredibly, just one month later, Lemieux wrapped up his treatment and rejoined his awestruck Penguins teammates for a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 2. Unbelievable. The fact that he returned just a month after beginning radiation was stunning enough. But what he accomplished on the ice in the two months afterward was simply not of this planet.

The Pens lost his first two games back…then embarked on an NHL record 17-game winning streak that still stands today. During that run, Lemieux had two four-goal games and a five-goal game. At one juncture, he scored 26 goals in a 13-game span. He ended up going off for a downright silly 30 goals and 56 points in 20 games to finish out the season. He had trailed the Buffalo Sabres’ Pat LaFontaine by 12 points in the NHL scoring race upon returning and ended up leapfrogging LaFontaine’s total by 12.

Still: I’m not being hyperbolic enough. Lemieux didn’t just fight off cancer in the middle of a season to lead his team on a record-breaking winning streak and capture the Art Ross and Hart Trophies. He fought off cancer and played as well as any NHL player, ever, all in the same season.

The NHL schedule was 84 games long in 1992-93. But for the sake of comparison to Gretzky’s records, we’ll extrapolate Lemieux’s scoring pace to 80 games.

Lemieux 80-game pace before cancer treatment, 1992-93

Lemieux 80-game pace after cancer treatment, 1992-93

Lemieux 80-game pace, entire 1992-93 season

Picture any famously unbreakable single-season record in pro sports. Now imagine an athlete producing at that prodigious pace while pausing for cancer treatment mid-season. You can’t. We’ve never seen anything like it in pro sports before or since.

Don’t worry, Gretzky defenders. I belong to your team. I’ll forever ride or die with 99 as the best player ever. But 66 had the best season ever, dominating the game like he never had while his body and mind endured hell.

And it all began 30 years ago. Here’s to you, Mario the Magnificent.