Mario Lemieux's arrival in Pittsburgh in 1984 changed the city and the course of hockey history.

Lemieux became one of the League's all-time greatest players and helped establish Pittsburgh as one of the best hockey cities in the United States. His skill and size was unprecedented, and eventually Le Magnifique led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992.

His 1992-93 season became one of the most remarkable for a professional athlete in the history of organized sport, not just the one played on ice with a puck and some sticks. Lemieux had missed more than 100 games with back problems in his career, but on Jan. 12, 1993, the Penguins announced their 27-year-old superstar center had cancer.

On March 2, Mario Lemieux finished his first game back after radiation treatments with a goal and an assist, though the Penguins lost to the Flyers, 5-4. The goal came 1:54 into the second period against goaltender Dominic Rousell, and Lemieux added an assist on a Kevin Stevens goal 95 seconds later.

When Mario Lemieux returned in March, he trailed Buffalo Sabres forward Pat LaFontaine by 12 points for the NHL scoring lead. Lemieux finished the season with 30 goals and 26 assists in 20 games -- a 229-point projection over the course of a full season -- to pass LaFontaine and capture the Art Ross Trophy by 12 points.
Lemieux finished with 69 goals and 160 points in 60 games.

The Penguins were a League-best 29-11-2 before Lemieux's absence, and he was on pace to challenge Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 216 points. They went 11-10-2 without Lemieux, but his return sparked an NHL-record 17-game winning streak before a tie against the New Jersey Devils in the final contest of the regular season.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are arriving early for the Anaheim Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes, say their coaches.

Due to a scheduling quirk resulting from building issues and other factors involved in the compressed 48-game NHL season, the Ducks and Coyotes will play each other three times in five days, starting Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. They also play Monday in Glendale and finish the three-game set Wednesday in Anaheim.

The teams won't play again until the final day of the regular season, April 27.

"I don't think the first game is treated any differently, but after the first game, depending on the result, you figure out how you treat it," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau told NHL.com. "But I always liken [home-and-home series] to doubleheaders in baseball, and what you want to do is win the first game of the doubleheader, because if you don't, it makes it more paramount to win the second game. This is a tripleheader and the other team is right in your division. You can have an eight-point lead on them and that could be dwindled to two in a matter of five days."

There were plenty of terrific performances to choose from this week. Below are three of the most exciting moments from the last seven days. After you watch these videos, be sure to vote on what play you think deserves to be the Bridgestone Performance Moment of the Week.

NOTE: Poll is on the right. Results will be revealed next week.

Chara's spin-o-rama goal: On Sunday, Boston captain Zdeno Chara pulled off a sensational spin-o-rama move prior to scoring a top-shelf backhand goal. After entering the Panthers zone, Chara spun around a Panthers defenseman, went wide and scored the B's second goal of the game.

Kopecky's first hat trick: Panthers winger Tomas Kopecky frustrated the Pittsburgh Penguins all night Tuesday, netting his first career NHL hat trick to lift Florida to a 6-4 win.

Bishop's endgame: Senators backup goalie Ben Bishop proved why he was named the NHL's "Third Star" for the week ending Feb. 24. He made 44 saves to help the Sens beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in a shootout at Scotiabank Place.

The grind of a fantasy hockey season is just that: A grind. When you consider all the details, big and small, all the nuances and all the possibilities, you're still left with roster setting and juggling, trade offers and rejections and day-to-day focus and attention. But ain't it great?

To get fantasy hockey owners to where they want to be, NHL.com fantasy insider Sergei Feldman brings you his weekly piece highlighting various players who have increased or decreased their value after each week and suggesting which players to buy or sell moving forward. In the end, you'll have a clearer picture of the marketplace and be in perfect position to enhance your fantasy hockey portfolios.

When the 48-game 2012-13 season began, everyone had a theory as to how things would unfold.

Speculation ranged from injuries dominating early headlines to veterans finding their name atop the scoring list, and everything in between. The uncertainty that came with a compressed season had various fantasy implications.

Will the recognized big names remain the powerhouses we've expected them to be?

Will those young studs break through and lead the new wave of fantasy impact performers?

What to make of it all?

Well, as the halfway point of the season approaches, it's as good a time as any to examine where we stand and what to expect from our current crop of the game's best.

In sports, whether individual or team, there's always talk of creating a legacy. Everyone wants to succeed, thereby making a name for themselves.

Except what happens when your name has already been made -- by another player, in another sport? And what if that player was widely considered one of, if not the best athlete, of all time?

Enter Michal Jordan.

Throughout his burgeoning career, the 22-year-old Czech defenseman has faced a unique set of circumstances borne from something beyond his control: his name. When he was born in Zlin, Czech Republic, on July 17, 1990, his parents had no knowledge of his basketball-playing namesake, who had just won his fourth-straight scoring title in the National Basketball Association.

The Chicago Blackhawks are off to the best 20-game start in NHL history -- they are the only team in League history to get points in each of their first 20 games. But in terms of where they rank among the best-ever 20-game segments, regardless of when they occur in a season, they're a step behind the best.

No team has won 20 in a row -- the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins hold the record with 17 consecutive wins, two of which came in overtime. The Blackhawks improved to 17-0-3 by beating St. Louis 3-0 on Thursday, giving them 37 points, one short of the most ever in a 20-game segment at any point in an NHL season. The Montreal Canadiens went 19-1-0 (38 points) in a 20-game segment of the 1967-68 season, still the best of any team in that number of games. Four other teams went 18-1-1 for 37 points; only the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings did so after the re-introduction of overtime. Seven more had 36 points; two were 16-0-4 and five teams went 17-1-2.

NHL Network and TSN analyst Craig Button believes one of the biggest mistakes a general manager can make at the draft is underestimating the value of smaller players.

"You have to have the courage to be right," Button told NHL.com. "Knowing you could be wrong but having the courage to be right is the way to go. The majority of mistakes made at the draft are based on overestimating the bigger players and underestimating the smaller guys."

For seven seasons, Button served as the director of scouting for the Dallas Stars, and then two seasons as the director of player personnel with the organization. He went on to serve as vice president and general manager of the Calgary Flames from 2000-01 through 2002-03, and was also a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2004.

Stamkos pulled no punches with his comments about the way his team played in a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers, its third straight defeat, fourth in the past five games and ninth in regulation over the past 13 games.

The Lightning were outshot 20-3 in the first period, 35-11 after two and 42-25 overall.

"It's embarrassing, the first 20 minutes," Stamkos told NHL.com seconds after tossing the final scoresheet out of his hands. "I mean, 20-3 in shots, we need to wake up. There's really nothing else. Our goalie kept us in the game, thank God, but it's embarrassing."