Mario Lemieux will miss the rest of the season after hip surgery next week, but he doesn't plan to retire.
The six-time NHL scoring leader and two-time Stanley Cup champion hasn't played for the Pittsburgh Penguins since injuring his left hip Nov. 1 against Boston.
Lemieux has since tried therapy and rehabilitation, but an MRI test performed Tuesday showed no improvement. Lemieux, who also owns the last-place Penguins, will have arthroscopic surgery Jan. 13.
Lemieux, 38, also missed most of the 2001-2002 season with a right hip injury that also required surgery. Lemieux had that operation shortly before helping Canada win its first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.
He also led the NHL in scoring for most of the 2002-2003 season, before finishing with 91 points in 67 games. He did not score a goal in his final nine games, after the rebuilding Penguins traded most of their other veteran players.
Lemieux injured his left hip three days after becoming only the sixth player in NHL history to reach the 1,700-point mark. He had one goal and eight assists in 10 games and had an eight-game scoring streak just before getting injured.
The Hall of Famer said in a statement released by the team that his ability to bounce back quickly from the right hip operation is one reason why he plans to play again.
"The encouraging thing for me is that the surgery in 2001 was successful, and I have had no problems since then with my right hip," Lemieux said.
Lemieux's comments about his health were his first since mid-November, when he began declining requests to talk about his condition. He has since regularly attended practice to undergo conditioning drills and talk to his teammates -- but he never spoke to reporters.
Lemieux's setback comes with the Penguins mired in last place in the overall NHL standings, a season after they were 29th in the 30-team league. Without Lemieux, their biggest drawing card, the team's attendance has plunged by about 3,000 per game, to its lowest levels since before the team drafted Lemieux in 1984.
With no real scoring threats and a threadbare, mostly young lineup, the Penguins are unlikely to dramatically improve their record without Lemieux.
He was injured early in the season despite undergoing what was, by far, the most strenuous offseason conditioning program of his retirement-interrupted career. He retired after the 1996-1997 season, but unexpectedly began playing again in December 2000 and led the Penguins to the Eastern Conference finals that season.
"We'd been hoping to get him back in the lineup, but I know he's been frustrated by the lack of improvement," coach Eddie Olczyk said. "It's very unfortunate, because he worked so hard in the summer and was in such tremendous shape to start the year."
Hurricanes 2, Blues 0
Kevin Weekes made 19 saves, and Danny Markov and Kevyn Adams scored first-period goals to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 2-0 victory Tuesday over the St. Louis Blues.
"It's mind-boggling that we have to sweat that out 2-0 at the end, but at least we were sweating it out and it wasn't 0-2," said new Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette.
"We've still got a ways to go, we still have to get better at a lot of different things. When we do, I think we'll just keep improving."
Weekes' fifth shutout of the season helped the Hurricanes snap a three-game losing streak.
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