Jaromir Jagr
Jaromir Jagr
Jaromír Jágr; born February 15, 1972) is a Czech professional ice hockey right winger currently playing for the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League. He has formerly played in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils, serving as captain of the Penguins and the Rangers. After leaving the Rangers, he played for three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey Leaguewith Avangard Omsk before returning to the...
NationalityCzechoslovakian
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth15 February 1972
CityKladno, Czech Republic
Tom is a great guy. He's not only a good coach but I think he understands the life of the hockey player and how important it is off the ice to treat the players. The chemistry on the team is great and, so far, it's been fun for everybody here.
Sure, he does. So does every other veteran player and the coaching staff.
Nothing happened. The coach put me out there for the last 20 seconds, but I didn't even try. I just stood there. That's not what we wanted to do, embarrass the team.
I don't like teams where the general manager or coaches are separated, ... Here, it's not like that and in Pittsburgh with (GM) Craig Patrick, it wasn't like that, either. Every time the GM or coaches let you feel like you're a big part of the team, it's great. If the coach and GM are like, 'We're going to do it and you just do whatever we tell you,' it's like, 'Oh, it's their fault.' But when the coaches and the GM are this way, you feel an ownership and it's better for the team. You give more.
When you have a three-or four-week break in the season, you're starting I would say from zero.
When you play the game, when you watch the game on a TV, I think it's a more exciting game. It's more skating, up-and-down hockey. For offensive players, you can get more scoring chances and shots. Plus, the offensive zone is a lot bigger and it is better on power plays.
We made a bad change and he shot from the side of the net. It happened. I took the risk on one side and they scored on the other side. It's hockey. But we shouldn't be in this position - 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go, we shouldn't play overtime.
The players don't play the position game as much as we used to play. A lot of young guys go up and down, shoot the puck, go for the rebounds. You're getting tired quicker because the body has to react where the puck is going to go. You cannot read it, because you don't have the puck on your stick.
We were talking too much and we flipped the puck over the boards. We deserved those penalties.
We're never going to have the experience like Detroit that has a lot of veteran guys. But you have to play differently. You have to be smart and maybe bring more energy.
We knew it was not going to be easy for him. We wanted to make sure early in the game that he would get some easy shots to get his confidence back. It's not easy when you don't play for such a great time. And he did a great job. And we did a great job, too. They didn't get that many chances. I thought we played good.
We knew it was going to be big, these four games. That was probably the easiest thing to do, try to stop the losing streak at home. We've been able to play good at home and that gives us extra confidence in the playoffs.
Why? Because it's after practice. You should've seen me before.
We had a chance the last four games against easier opponents than Ottawa. It's not a playoff, but it's almost like a playoff game.