Jaromir Jagr Questionable For Friday
Jaromir Jagr is an ageless wonder. He’s still a legitimate NHL player at the age of 43. He’s not just a nostalgia act by any means–in eight games this season he has six goals and four assists. That puts him in a tie for 6th place on the goal scoring ranks ahead of–among others–the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane. He’s now the #5 goal scorer in NHL history with 728 goals, 3 back of fourth place Marcel Dionne. That’s pretty good.
Jagr was forced to leave Florida’s Tuesday night game against the Colorado Avalanche with what was described as a ‘lower body injury’. The team hasn’t released specifics but what was considered a possible week long absence might not be more than a few days. Jagr reportedly skated for part of Thursday’s practice after not skating on Wednesday. He’s listed as ‘questionable’ for Friday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
During his prime Jagr was always considered one of the ‘softer’ players in the NHL but there’s nothing soft about his attitude now. A 43 year old man willing to ‘play hurt’ less than 10 games into the regular season is a warrior and deserves our respect. Jagr is hoping he can go on Friday night but won’t rush it if it doesn’t feel right: “We’ll see what happens. I was feeling good early, then it got sore. Every 24 hours makes a huge difference. My side is kind of off. It’s not just my leg. I don’t know if I got hit or something. … I want to play every game but I have to be able to play. I’ll go in morning skate and see what happens.”
Jagr has also had pain in his ribs but has been playing through it to ‘help the team’. Hockey players are indeed a different breed–a legend with 728 career goals in the NHL can afford to take a night off but Jagr still approaches the game like he’s a borderline minor leaguer trying to hang on with the big team: “I haven’t been able to skate but I was still scoring so I wanted to keep playing. At least I could help the team somehow. Then I went for acupuncture and the pain was a lot less, but my muscles kind of got weaker. I had no support on that side so I had to leave. If I kept playing I think it was going to get worse and then you’re looking at three weeks.”
Hopefully Jagr recovers soon and continues being the national treasure (of several countries) that he is.