By most standards, Jaromir Jagr’s start to the season has been a positive one. He’s registered three points in four games while playing 15:10 a night alongside two of Philadelphia’s youngest, brightest stars — 22-year-old James van Riemsdyk (1G-2A-3PTS) and 23-year-old Claude Giroux (3G-2A-5PTS).
Jagr’s 39 and currently the NHL’s fourth-oldest player. Most 39-year-olds would be pleased with that.
Of course, Jaromir Jagr isn’t most 39-year-olds.
Today, CSN Philadelphia’s Tim Panaccio wrote a piece entitled “Jagr’s Game Still a Work in Progress.” In it, several things come to light: Jagr’s still figuring out how JVR and Giroux play, he’s adjusting to the smaller NHL ice after spending three years on the larger European sheets, he feels he’s burning too much energy in the neutral zone and — get this — Jaromir Jagr says he’s not a good goal scorer.
Yeah. The same guy who, over a six-season stretch from 1995-2001, put up goal totals of 62, 47, 35, 44, 42 and 52 says he’s not a goal scorer.
“At my age , it doesn’t matter if I score. If the team wins and the lines score, that makes me happy. We got scoring chances. But it comes in cycles.”
Jagr was playing with reporters about “not being a goal scorer.”
“I like to play one-on-one on the boards,” he smiled.
You scored 62 goals once, he was told.
“Yeah, but I was good back then,” Jagr laughed. “If I had been a good goal scorer, I would have had 80. Trust me.”
I’d like to steadfastly disagree with Jagr’s assessment by entering the following into evidence:
That is all.