In game number one in his quest to play all 52 of his team’s Czech Extraliga regular-season games, Jaromír Jágr recorded one point. It was an assist on Matyáš Filip’s power-play goal early in the third period to cut Rytaři Kladno’s deficit to 4-1. They ultimately lost 5-1 to league powerhouse Dynamo Pardubice in a highly-anticipated opening-night showdown between the Czech Extraliga’s best team and the best Czech hockey player ever.
After tearing his hamstring in mid-August while off-ice training, it looked doubtful that the 52-year-old would return to the lineup in time for opening night. But he suited up for Kladno’s final pre-season game and, in the first game of his 37th season as a professional hockey player, Jágr logged 14:26 of ice time, including 4:02 on the power play. In addition to his assist, he had one shot on goal and was a minus-1 in the game.
The game itself, however, did not possess much drama. Pardubice scored twice in the first and twice in the second, outshooting Kladno 28-22 in the game. Martin Kaut, a former Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Shark, led the offense with two goals and an assist. Roman Červenka, Lukáš Sedlák and Robert Kousal had two points each.
While Jágr’s Kladno team barely stayed in the Extraliga by winning a promotion-relegation series last spring, Pardubice had the Extraliga’s best regular-season record last season but fell just short of the title, losing game seven of the finals at home in double overtime to four-time defending champion Oceláři Třinec.
This year, Pardubice clearly means business and has stacked its roster that already included Kaut, Sedlák and Libor Hájek with the off-season acquisitions of Červenka, Jiří Smejkal and Andrej Šustr. The club also coveted free agent Filip Zadina, who ultimately signed with HC Davos in Switzerland even though his father coaches the Pardubice team.
“For the first five or six minutes, the other team was more active and skated better,” Pardubice coach Marek Zadina said after the game. “Maybe the expectations and pressure got to us but, over time, we improved and took the initiative. We won the first period 2-0, which calmed us down and we started playing the hockey we know we can. We played a good game.”
One of the game’s storylines was the matchup of Jágr and Červenka, former teammates from Avangard Omsk in the KHL and the Czech national team for many years.
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