Everyone knew Mario Lemieux was good his first time around the NHL. But few thought he'd be a-goal-and-two-assists good in his first game back after a three-year absence.

ESPN's Bill Clement and Darren Pang had front-row seats for Lemieux's performance against Toronto on Wednesday – Clement as the analyst for the ESPN telecast and Pang as a rinkside reporter.

Bill Clement

He was great. His legs were there in the first period, his hands came around in the second period, but the thing that you can never take from somebody like Mario is how smart he plays the game. He never put himself in a position to be hit, so his smarts are always there. He and Wayne Gretzky are the two smartest players to ever play the sport. The other thing I noticed is he's planning on leading this team by example. He backchecked more in this game than probably 75 percent of the games he played before. And one thing that this team has done is underachieve in the work-ethic department – and I thought Mario was wonderful in that area as well. So this was a script written in heaven that was followed to a T. I like his schedule. He's got two days off before his next game and then four days off before his game after that, so I think he's going to be able to hit a rhythm early without feeling any dropoff. I think if he had three games in four nights he'd be exhausted and there would be a real recovery point and a time when he might hit a valley, but I don't think that will happen. I think he's really committed and he seems to have a passion for the game that I'm not sure he had the last two or three years he played. It's almost as if he didn't know what he had until it was gone. Pittsburgh absolutely becomes a factor in the East. And look what it did to Jaromir Jagr. Here's a guy that wanted out of here. Mario announces his comeback and Jagr gets two goals and two assists. Jan Hrdina looked like a world beater out there. There were so many players that had terrific jump out there, simply through osmosis of Mario's greatness being in the room. Every player wants the chance to play with other great players and a chance to win. They are getting both of those chances with Mario in the lineup.

Darren Pang

I'd be wrong if I said I expected this to happen. I think we were all trying to be careful not to put too much pressure on this Hall of Famer returning after 3½ years. I even had NHL players call me and say "not too much pressure on him. We want him to stick around for a long time, it's great for hockey." So for him to accomplish what he did in game one, it's just a springboard of things to come in my opinion. All great combinations create time and space, and what you saw tonight, and why Jaromir Jagr had so much success is because Mario buys him time. Players go to Mario or Mario lures players to him and he's able to pass the puck. So Jaromir isn't getting the puck with three guys on him, he's getting it in open space and moving his feet. That's a big difference.