the NHL community grappled with the loss<\/a> of one of that era\u2019s most respected and notorious players.<\/p>\nSince his rookie season, Lemieux was known as \u201cPepe\u201d \u2014 a reference to Pep\u00e9 Le Pew, the dashing but putrid cartoon skunk.<\/p>\n
\u201cA strong, powerful player,\u201d said Liut, who Lemieux often ribbed for allowing the Game 7 winner. \u201cHe played with a tremendous amount of force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemieux grew up in Mont-Laurier, a small town in western Quebec, pretending to be Larry Robinson and Guy Lafleur as he played street hockey. A few weeks after scoring the Game 7 winner, Lemieux played in the Stanley Cup Final, alongside an aging Robinson and a group of rookies, such as Patrick Roy. During a pile-on brawl near the end of Game 4 against the Calgary Flames, Lemieux bit Jim Peplinski\u2019s finger \u2014 launching his reputation as one of the game\u2019s dirtiest players.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a bulldog,\u201d said Doug Gilmour, remembering Lemieux\u2019s imposing force in the 1989 Stanley Cup Final, when the Calgary Flames beat the Habs. \u201cA pain in the ass to play against, you want him on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Farber, who covered Lemieux for the Montreal Gazette and later with Sports Illustrated, saw him as a player who broke rules tactically.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed that he didn\u2019t have to monitor his own behavior. He thought that was the referee\u2019s job,\u201d Farber said. \u201cHe was not immoral \u2014 he was amoral. And that\u2019s an important distinction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemieux was known for diving on the ice, embellishments that drew the anger of opponents, Farber said, and often his own teammates. But in interviews, Lemieux never apologized for the way he played the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things I appreciated about him,\u201d Farber said. \u201cHe was remarkably self-aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was always a clear distinction between the morally ambiguous, hyper-competitive player on the ice and the person he was off the ice.<\/p>\n
After the New Jersey Devils lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1993 playoffs, the team went out for drinks to commiserate. Lemieux, who had a few, asked teetotaling rookie Scott Niedermayer to drive him home. When they arrived in the early morning hours, Lemieux told the 20-year-old defenseman to take the bedroom. The eight-year veteran crashed on his own couch.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big crier. A big softie,\u201d said Brendan Shanahan, who headlined the Detroit Red Wings through a bloody rivalry with the Colorado Avalanche in the late \u201990s, which was sparked by Lemieux hitting Kris Draper with his head down in Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference final. Lemieux left Draper with a fractured jaw, broken cheekbone and a broken nose.<\/p>\n
To those who knew him, Lemieux could be surprisingly vulnerable, Shanahan said, noting the friendship Lemieux forged with Red Wings enforcer Darren McCarty despite multiple fights in their careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSort of hidden behind that reputation on the ice, he was a very sweet and sensitive man.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he was younger, Lemieux was often heard singing songs by Ginette Reno, the popular French-Canadian artist known for her emotional ballads. On road trips, if there was a microphone in a piano bar, Lemieux would find it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not a shy guy in any regard,\u201d said Niedermayer. \u201cHe loved being in the spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the ice, Lemieux had a special knack for finding that light, especially in the playoffs. While descriptors such as \u201cpesky,\u201d \u201cagitator\u201d and \u201cdirty\u201d led headlines throughout his career, Lemieux was also one of the NHL\u2019s best playoff performers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a winner,\u201d said Daniel Briere, who played alongside Lemieux with the Phoenix Coyotes near the end of his career. \u201cIf you needed to find a way to win, he would go through hoops to do anything possible to win that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In more than two decades in the NHL, Lemieux won the Stanley Cup four times \u2014 with the Canadiens, Avalanche and twice with the Devils. He was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1995. He scored 80 playoff goals, ninth most in NHL history, before retiring for the first time in 2003.<\/p>\n
Lemieux always stayed close to the game. In the mid-2000s, Lemieux and Filion, his minor hockey teammate, reunited in Phoenix, where they launched a hockey school. Lemieux had three sons and a daughter; his youngest son, Brendan, was a high-level player, and Lemieux coached him, alongside a rising star named Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n
Lemieux made a brief NHL comeback in 2009, at 43, with the San Jose Sharks \u2014 before finally retiring for good. But the showman never really hung up his skates. Later that year, Lemieux dazzled fans as a contestant on CBC\u2019s \u201cBattle of the Blades,\u201d ice dancing alongside figure skater Shae-Lynn Bourne. During the competition, Lemieux recorded a version of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah.\u201d His voice fell across a silent rink as Lemieux and Bourne twirled in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Later, Lemieux became an NHL agent, representing Andersen and other current players such as Hampus Lindholm and Moritz Seider. He also represented his son Brendan, who played seven seasons in the NHL, emulating his father\u2019s reputation as an agitator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you dad!,\u201d Brendan wrote in an Instagram post<\/a>, with a photo on the ice with his father, holding his infant son. \u201cMy son\u2019s favorite person is going to watch from above for a while. We will see you.\u201d<\/p>\nOn Thursday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office told The Athletic that deputies responded early to a suicide attempt at a furniture showroom, which state records show is in Lake Park, Fla., and is owned by Lemieux and his wife, Deborah.<\/p>\n
The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office later confirmed Lemieux\u2019s death but declined to release any records, citing a Florida statute exempting suicide cases from public records requirements.<\/p>\n
Lemieux\u2019s former NHL colleagues shared disbelief at the reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurts,\u201d Niedermayer said. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if I believe it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filion\u2019s calls with his old friend grew more sporadic in recent years, after Lemieux moved to Florida. But it was never too long before they\u2019d reconnect, he said \u2014 and never a thought they wouldn\u2019t get the chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just the same guy,\u201d Filion said of their final call.<\/p>\n
The last time Filion saw Lemieux was on the screen, ahead of Game 3, walking through a dark tunnel at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n
Lemieux entered the bowl, roars stirring like a restless sea. A hero\u2019s welcome, a villain\u2019s tribute. He raised both his arms, as though he\u2019d just scored an overtime winner. Torch held high, Lemieux smiled, seeming as large as he\u2019d ever been.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2014 Chris Johnston, Michael Russo and Arpon Basu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n