Is Mario Lemieux pushing himself too much?

This season opened with Penguins' management expecting 70-or-so games worth of work from Mario Lemieux. Lemieux, who has sat out a few practices but hasn't missed a game yet, has said he'd like to play as many games as possible and compete for another scoring race, a battle he currently leads by nine points.

Is it a wise move? Should Mario sit down ... or should everyone else just shut up?

Mario, sit down By Mike Heika Mario Lemieux needed to have a huge first month of the season. He had no choice, really. As leader of a cash-strapped Penguins organization that has lost Jaromir Jagr, Darius Kasparaitis and Robert Lang in the past two seasons, Lemieux was stuck with a team that nobody believed in. So he set about breathing life back into the franchise -- and succeeded wildly. In registering 27 points in the first 11 games, he led Pittsburgh to a 7-2-2 record. But maybe he tried to do too much too fast. In the past five games, he has been held to two goals and two assists and the Penguins are 0-3-1-1 in that span -- and a trend is developing. Mario Lemieux can't do it all. He can't be the leading scorer and the top spokesman for opening up the game and the best real estate developer in Pittsburgh (new arena, anyone?). He needs to pace himself or we'll see a repeat of last season when he shut things down after the Olympics. Lemieux has two potentially draining games with Montreal this week and then plays back-to-back games Friday (at Atlanta) and Saturday (vs. San Jose). In a couple of weeks, the Penguins will play five road games in a span of eight days. It's time he starts taking a few nights off. It's time he stops pushing his well-worn 37-year-old body. It's time he stops pushing his overworked mind. Lemieux can win the scoring title while playing 65 or 70 games. What's more, he can keep himself fresh for the playoffs -- and that's when this league really needs his skill and his sales pitch.

Everyone else, shut up By Chris Stevenson There probably isn't a player in the NHL who is more in tune with the rhythms of his body than Mario Lemieux. After all he has been through over the years -- the chronic back trouble, his successful battle against cancer, and most recently, his hip trouble last season -- Lemieux knows all about having his body betray him. Is he pushing it too much by playing in all 16 of the Penguins' games so far this season? Nope. Given his history of physical problems, he's taken a preventative course of action, working out maybe as hard as he ever did last summer. His teammates have remarked on his commitment to working out and his enthusiastic presence at practices and even morning skates is an indication of how he's feeling this season. His therapy/massage guru Tom Plasko is always around to monitor things. He played back-to-back games earlier this season. He took a puck in the mouth, got 27 stitches and came back to score the winner against the Washington Capitals Oct. 28. Lemieux has more of a physical edge about him this year. He learned from last year and went out and did something about it. As long as he is feeling as well as he is, why shouldn't Lemieux keep playing?

Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.

Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.