In the year 2000, Pittsburgh Penguins star Jaromir Jagr was dominant. And in this THN Archive story, Jagr was profiled.
Hockey legend Jaromir Jagr's impact on the game is astonishing. And 25 years ago -- in THN's Jan. 21, 2000 edition (Vol. 53, Issue 19) -- then-senior-editor Mike Brophy penned a feature story on Jagr as he chased the NHL's Hart Trophy as league MVP:
JAGR’S HART POUNDING
By Mike Brophy
It was one of the best games the Tampa Bay Lightning had played all season. The type of competitive performance, against a decidedly stronger opponent, that caused rookie coach Steve Ludzik to stop glaring at his players with contempt.
But Lightning captain Chris Gratton had a sinking feeling the ultimate outcome would not favor his club. When you play for one of the NHL’s worst teams, you get used to that feeling, but this time it was a little different.
Even after the Lightning pulled even at 3-3 with two quick goals midway through the third period, Gratton and his mates were haunted by the presence of an unstoppable force. Namely, Jaromir Jagr.
“We fought really hard to tie it,” Gratton recalled of the Dec. 23 game. “And we had the momentum. But after we tied it he kept calling and calling and calling for the puck. You can see it in his eyes, he wants to be the guy who decides it. We all knew he was the guy we had to watch, but it didn’t matter. And you know what, he set up (Darius) Kasparaitis for the winning goal. You just can’t stop him.”
That isn’t exactly a news flash. Jagr entered the NHL in 1990-91, the fifth pick in the 1990 entry draft, and immediately embarked on a steady climb to superstardom. Now, with Buffalo Sabres’ goalie Dominik Hasek sidelined with a wonky groin and two-way force Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche slowly regaining his form after shoulder injury, Jagr is the undisputed best player on the planet.
And although there are a number of notable success stories, from the re-emergence of Phoenix Coyotes’ center Jeremy Roenick to the continued strong play of Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie Curtis Joseph, Jagr is the The Hockey News’ choice as mid-season Hart Trophy winner as the league’s most valuable player based on his performance through the first half. Jagr won his first Hart last season after claiming his third scoring title (second in a row) and is clearly en route to repeat as MVP.
With 32 goals and 68 points in 37 games, the league’s leading scorer was on pace to establish a personal best for goals in a season with 70 and he’ll surely challenge his career-high of 149 points. And these projections, based on his first half, may not do Jagr justice. It scares the rest of the league, but his best may be yet to come.
Consider: Jagr had 20 goals and 42 points in 24 games under coach Kevin Constantine, who was fired Dec. 9. That’s an average of .83 goals and 1.75 points per game. It includes his franchise-record of scoring in the first 15 games, notching 14 goals and 35 points.
Playing for Constantine’s replacement, Herb Brooks-who promised to open things up to better utilize Pittsburgh’s freewheel-ing forwards-Jagr had 12 goals and 26 points in 13 games, an average of .92 goals and two points per game.
It’s no secret Jagr was frustrated with Constantine’s defensive scheme. Jagr understands defensive hockey equals winning hockey, but not necessarily championship hockey. Much the way Mark Messier felt Roger Neilson’s defensive approach would never produce a title in New York with the Rangers, that’s how Jagr felt about Constantine’s approach.
Messier won a power struggle with Neilson and the Rangers captured the Cup a year later under Mike Keenan, who didn’t abandon Neilson’s defensive ideas altogether, but allowed Rangers’ forwards more offensive freedom.
Jagr, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound native of the Czech Republic, wanted more emphasis on offense. And since Penguins’ owner Mario Lemieux often complained about restrictions in the game that took away from his ability to dangle, it wasn’t a hard sell for Constantine to be turfed and Brooks, architect of the Miracle on Ice in 1980, to be promoted from his scouting capacity.
So far, so good: Pittsburgh started 9-4-0-1 under Brooks and had increased its per-game scoring from 3.04 to 3.69.
Upon being hired, Brooks said all the right things, starting with: “We’re going to play an up-tempo, dynamic game,” which surely was music to Jagr’s ears.
Brooks continued: “It’s ice out there. It isn’t blacktop, wood or dirt. We’ll play the type of game that fits the abilities of the players we have.”
Or at least the abilities of the team's electrie leader. Jagr is pleased with the new direction.
‘To me personally, it has made no difference,” Jagr said. “I pretty well did whatever I wanted to (under Constantine). But for the other players, they now have the freedom to play hockey; to try things with the puck.”
How good has Jagr’s season been to date? Dan Diamond, editor of Total Hockey Encyclopedia, suggests Jagr is on pace for the best goal-scoring season of the modem era (since the introduction of the red line in 1943-44). Diamond has come up with a mathematical formula that attempts to facilitate crossera comparisons for goal-scoring by putting a weighted value on each goal scored compared to the number of goals scored in NHL history.
In other words, in an era when goals come easily, each goal might be weighted at less than one for the purpose of seeing how it compares to other years. Conversely, in times when goals are scarce, as they are today, each goal would be worth more than one.
At his current pace and considering the formula is based on a player appearing in all 82 games (Jagr has missed one), Diamond projects the big right winger’s goal total at 71. That’s one less than he’s actually on pace for, but let’s not quibble. Since there was an average of 5.43 goals per game through 551 games this season-that’s lower than the NHL’s overall annual season average of 6.17-Jagr’s adjusted total translates to 80.
That’s the best ever. Better than Phil Esposito’s adjusted total of 78 when he scored 76 goals in 78 games in 1970-71 with the Boston Bruins. And better than Wayne Gretzky’s adjusted total of 76 when he had 87 goals in 74 games in 1983-84 with the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky’s 92-goal season in 1981-82 translates to 74.
But you don’t have to tell the players assigned to shadow Jagr that he’s having a great year. They know already.
“I’ve noticed he has a better shot this season,” said Buffalo Sabres’ center Michael Peca, who often slides over to the left wing position after taking the faceoff to guard Jagr. “He was always great in tight because of his size and strength, but now he’s shooting and scoring from the outside.”
Samson had his locks sheared in the off-season, but rather than lose his strength, he gained. Through his first 37 games, Jagr produced eight multiple-goal and 18 multiple-point games.
His most explosive outing came Dec. 30 when he fired three goals and seven points against the shell-shocked New York Islanders in a 9-3 Pittsburgh win. Jagr, who turns 28 Feb. 15, became the sixth player of the 1990s to record a seven-point game. Countryman Zdeno Chara, who once had the pleasure of playing a little pickup hockey with Jagr back home and was mesmerized by what he saw that day, was equally starstruck Dec. 30.
“The most amazing thing was, he only played 17 or 18 minutes (19:57 actually, well below his average of 24:14) and he did that much damage,” said the 6-foot-9, 255-pound Chara. “Everyone was trying to stop him, but when we’d get too close, he’d pass. Then if we gave him room and covered his linemates, he’d shoot. The only way we could have stopped him would have been to kill him.
“I said to him, ‘Stop scoring.’ He said, ‘I can’t do that… stop hitting me.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that either.’ He was unbelievable… amazing.”
With a healthy 16-point lead over Owen Nolan of the San Jose Sharks, Jagr was on pace to win the scoring title by 42 points (Philadelphia Flyers’ right winger Mark Recchi was on target for 107). That would be the largest margin of victory ill since the 1986-87 season, when Gretzky outscored Lemieux 183-108.
The more the Penguins rely on Jagr’s talents, the better he plays. He lost Lemieux to retirement after the 1996-97 season and center Ron Francis left as an unrestricted free agent prior to last season.
So Jagr has made stars of those who remain. His center, Martin Straka, enjoyed a breakthrough last year with 35 goals and 83 points, though he has been snakebitten this season. On the left wing is sophomore Jan Hrdina, who has seven goals and 19 points in just 26 games. Meanwhile, perennial underachievers Alexei Kovalev and Robert Lang, without having to face top checking lines, are each averaging nearly a point per game.
Jagr? He just continues to excel.
“People talk about his size and his strength, but what you rarely hear about him is how competitive he is,” said former NHL defenseman Ken Morrow, a pro scout for the Islanders. “Night after night he comes to play. He plays hurt and he plays a lot. It doesn’t matter if it’s at home or on the road, he plays the same way.”
Icing the league’s best player comes at a heavy cost. To accommodate Jagr’s $10.4-million salary and still turn a profit with an eye toward paying Lemieux some of the millions he’s owed in deferred salary, the Penguins have had to be very selective about the supporting cast.
There was no way they could afford to re-sign captain Francis when he became an unrestricted free agent prior to last season and blueliner Kevin Hatcher was dealt to the Rangers for defenseman Peter Popovic in an obvious salary dump.
But Brooks is still convinced the Penguins can compete with the NHL’s best. “I don’t believe in forcing players to do things that take away from their natural skills,” he said. “Obviously, when you don’t have the puck you have to bust your ass to get it back in an intelligent way. But when you have the puck, try to create an environment that pulls out the best from the player.”
Brooks said he is amazed at the mauling Jagr takes on a nightly basis. But the big winger just shrugs it off.
“Obstruction?” Jagr said. “I don’t pay attention to it. I’m too into the game, I don’t even feel it. I don’t get angry about it. It could be worse. It’s hockey, not basketball.”
True, but Jagr’s still the slam-dunk choice for MVP.