PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – As his former teammate and current Pens broadcaster Phil Bourque tells it, Jaromir Jagr has finally let it go. Any bad feelings about Pittsburgh seem to be in the past and he was finally ready to reunite with the Penguins.
The relationship with the Pens fan base had been strained since he said he was ‘dying alive’ in 2001 and wanted out. While he was dying alive, he was still leading the NHL in points for a fourth consecutive season. Jagr has explained he knew the team at that time was going nowhere and he knew they wouldn’t be able to afford him. He wanted out and felt like he fell on the sword to an extent for an organization that wouldn’t be able to keep him anyway.
When he would return as an opponent, he would be booed. That really bothered Jagr. He felt like he wasn’t loved in Pittsburgh. As Bourque put it, he didn’t understand that fans were mostly booing him for being on rival teams-Flyers, Rangers, Caps, Devils, Bruins. It became more personal when he decided in 2011 to sign with the Flyers instead of an offer to reunite with the Pens.
That made it more than just a legend who wanted traded, but a Pens legend who signed directly with the chief rival instead of coming back home.
“The one thing he made clear to me,” Bourque said in conversations with Jagr. “It wasn’t an excuse but a reason why he went there. He was over in Czech and he thought people have forgot about me so much they don’t care if I’m a Flyer. For us in Pittsburgh that doesn’t compute, but in his mind it did.”
There was also a matter of playing time and playing with Jake Voracek, who was from the same hometown as Jagr.
“He went to Philadelphia because he wanted to play and be on the number one power play unit,” Bourque said. “All the things that were important to him because he thought his career was teetering. He was about to lose those important minutes and he didn’t want to be a third-line guy and that’s what he thought he would be in Pittsburgh.”
Bourque was recently over in the Czech Republic and said Jagr is legitimately happy to talk about Pittsburgh because the 52-year-old probably sees the end of his remarkable career is close.
There is a pride Bourque feels as a former teammate and still a part of the organization to play a role in this reunion happening. He said Jagr is a big part of their history.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Bourque said. “The scoring championships and all of the individual trophies. Those are the obvious. He brought a level of excellence. Yeah, the other Hall of Famers had (it), but the only one that was at Mario’s level was Jagr. He was a level above the others.”
“That makes it unique. Playing injured and playing hurt, he knew of the importance of that. I don’t think a lot of people realized what he did for the organization to keep it where it needed to be and a big reason it is still here.”
There were several skills that made Jagr so great. Remember, only one person in the history of the NHL had more points in a career than Jagr. He had 27 goals with Florida as a 43-year-old. When he was 44, he played all 82 games with the Panthers with eight power play goals.
“You talk to anyone who has ever played against him, the one thing that separated him from anyone else, his ability to get that dump truck of a rear end and that reach that he had and the strength,” Bourque said. “To try to get the puck away from him… you are talking the greatest league in the world and you are talking about a player that can dominate at that skill level and then have all of those other things that he had, the vision and the IQ, that separated him from everyone else.”
Now was separated him from the team that drafted him and where he spent 11 years winning a pair of Stanley Cups seems to be mended. ‘Celebrate 68’ Sunday with Jagr’s jersey going to the rafters at PPG Paints Arena should be another great day for hockey.