Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux has maintained a low profile all season with the media. He has let other members of the front office speak out on club issues. That was until yesterday.

Lemieux held a 12-minute press conference prior to the start of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday. Looking tanned and rested, Super Mario offered his opinion on a variety of subjects, including young Penguin superstar Sidney Crosby, the post-lockout game of hockey, and the chances of his team in their return trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

Here are his comments on Crosby:

The Pittsburgh Penguins owner – and one of the greatest NHL players of all-time – indicated that Crosby is much better at age 21 than he was. Lemieux thinks the team’s captain is a lot more mature, too.

“He’s a special kid,” Lemieux said Saturday night. “He’s a better player than I was at the same age, for sure. Some of the things that he does on the ice, his strength, skating ability is incredible. His passion for the game and his will to be the best each and every shift.

“His work ethic, he’s got it all.”

Crosby has lived with Lemieux since entering the league four years ago and has become like another member of the family. The two men speak about hockey “all the time,” according to Lemieux.

He added that the overall play in the league has been great this season, and this is coming from someone who called the NHL a “garbage league” of players clutching and grabbing the elite superstars in the neutral zone. Lemieux hopes his team follows the same path of the 1984 Edmonton Oilers. The previous year, they lost the finals to the New York Islanders before winning the Stanley Cup. He feels both teams were built similarly, with two elite players headlining an up tempo offensive-minded team.