[ad_1]
The Pittsburgh Penguins lastly retired Jaromir Jagr’s No. 68 on Sunday earlier than their sport in opposition to the Los Angeles Kings. It was a protracted overdue honor for one of many franchise’s most vital gamers and one of many biggest gamers in NHL historical past. Jagr capped off the weekend celebration by truly leaping into uniform and participating in pregame warmups with the group.
Each Penguins participant additionally wore a No. 68 Jagr jersey, with a number of of them — together with present group captain Sidney Crosby — sporting Jagr-themed mullet wigs to pay tribute to his coiffure of selection early in his profession.
The 52-year-old Jagr was nonetheless enjoying hockey professionally within the Czech Republic as just lately as this season.
Given Jagr’s health stage, in addition to the dearth of manufacturing from the decrease strains of the Penguins’ lineup, there’s a probability he would possibly truly nonetheless be extra productive than a handful of gamers within the lineup on Sunday. If nothing else he would possibly be capable to repair their energy play unit that has been one of many league’s worst items.
Jagr is the third participant to have his quantity retired by the Penguins, becoming a member of Michel Briere (No. 21) and Mario Lemieux (No. 66). Lemieux and Jagr helped type some of the dominant duos the NHL has ever seen.
Jagr spent the primary 11 years of his NHL profession (between 1990 and 2001) with the Penguins and helped lead the group to 2 Stanley Cups (1991 and 1992) and at occasions single-handedly dragged them to the playoffs towards the tip of that run. He was ultimately traded to the Washington Capitals after which spent the rest of his profession bouncing round between the NHL, KHL (Russian league) and his native Czech Republic.
He’s second on the NHL’s all-time factors with 1,921 factors (trailing solely Wayne Gretzky) and fourth on the all-time targets listing with 766 (trailing solely Gretzky, Alex Ovechkin and Gordie Howe).
He scored 439 of these targets and recorded 1,079 of these factors with the Penguins, whereas additionally successful 5 scoring titles and an MVP award with the Penguins.
[ad_2]
Source link
