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
When you have a three-or four-week break in the season, you're starting I would say from zero.
I wouldn't say the effort wasn't there, we just didn't play smart enough. Not many teams play the trap against us. It's something new we have to learn ... It looks like they're already starting to play playoff hockey.
We've got five months before the season starts. Hopefully, if there is any surgery it's not going to be complicated and I might start practicing next month.
We have a lot of rookies in the lineup. More than anybody, I would say. Its going to be something new for them. They have to understand that it's totally different hockey in the playoffs. Starting with the fans, the intensity of the game, every mistake counts.
We didn't start very well. Since then we have been playing pretty good.
It wasn't a good start for us, for sure. The whole game, we had to chase it. The only good thing being down 3-0 was that we had 55 minutes left to try to get at least a point.
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.