Lemieux gets Canadian crowd roaring at 4 Nations Face-Off

Talk about a proper homecoming.

Before the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off at Bell Centre on Wednesday, Montreal native Mario Lemieux participated in a pregame ceremony and received a warm welcome – to say the least – from the Canadian crowd as he made his way onto the ice.

Lemieux waved back to the crowd, then after the ovation faded out, signaled for Sidney Crosby to join him as the two Pittsburgh Penguins shared a moment on the ice.

Lemieux was one of the NHL legends who, pregame, introduced the four players serving as team captains during the best-on-best tournament: Crosby (Canada), Auston Matthews (United States), Victor Hedman (Sweden) and Aleksander Barkov (Finland).

After all four captains were introduced, the crowd erupted in a “Mario!” chant for Lemieux.

In addition to introducing the captain of Canada, Lemieux announced the team’s starting lineup in the locker room before the pregame ceremony.

During his playing days, Lemieux led Team Canda to a gold medal in the 2002 Olympics, as well as a gold medal in the 1987 Canada Cup and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. He was selected first overall by the Penguins in the 1984 NHL Draft and won two Stanley Cups with the team as a player (1991, 1992) then three more as an owner (2009, 2016, 2017).

Honoring the hometown hero was quite the Magnifique start to the tournament.