Jagr may eat his words?

Neil Becker is one of our staff writers so I like to showcase some of his stories. We look forward to your comments.

In a week to ten days from now, New York Rangers star forward Jaromir Jagr just might regret what he said in the newspapers. Jagr, who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins and won two Stanley Cups  (1991, ’92), enjoyed his most productive seasons while playing alongside captain and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux. Once regarded as the most popular athlete in Steeltown, that quickly changed in 2001 when he asked to be traded and ended up with the Washington Capitals. A year later, Jagr who today is still second overall in Penguins franchise history with 1,079 points, went to the Rangers who coincidently enough are playing the Penguins in the quarter- finals. After beating the New Jersey Devils in the preliminary round, Jagr made some bulletin board comments about the Penguins young dynamic duel of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Jagr who is rumored to be thinking about retiring and playing back in Russia next year, said that neither of the two can match the numbers of Mario Lemieux from the early 90’s. “With all due respect to Crosby and Malkin, I don’t think they are Mario Lemieux” Jagr said. “ He was able to score 20 points in one playoff series. I don’t think those two are able to do it. Maybe I’m wrong. If I’m wrong I’m going to apologize and say “Great Job!”

In all professional sports, athletes and coaches are often on guard about what they say about their opposition because it’s considered a cardinal sin to say something that might make the opposition that much more mad and motivated. Coming into his own, this season, Malkin produced 9 points in 5 first round playoff games while Crosby has 10 points.

Pittsburgh, who are drawing a lot of comparisons to the young Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 1980’s, are also getting some stellar goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury who in a first round sweep against the Ottawa Senators posted a tidy 1.88 GAA. The Penguins have also received secondary scoring in the playoffs from Ryan Malone (7 points), Pascal Dupuis (3 points) and Jordan Staal (2 points). On defense, the Pens are stacked with their offensive gun Sergei Gonchar and defensive specialist Hal Gill who will be all over Jagr in the series.

This young team also has some sandpaper and veteran leadership in players such as Gary Roberts, who is a former Stanley Cup winner with the Calgary Flames, and enforcer Georges Laraque. Challenged by Jagr, watch for Crosby and Malkin to pick it up offensively, as they will be lead the Penguins past the Rangers in five and eventually into the Stanley Cup finals.

     

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