Imagine Jack Lambert lining up on defense for the Cleveland Browns.
Or Willie Stargell hitting the ball over the fence for the Cincinnati Reds.
It's no less difficult to picture Jaromir Jagr skating for the Washington Capitals, but that's what Pittsburgh's hockey fans faced yesterday when the Penguins traded one of the most accomplished athletes in the city's sports history to their perennial playoff rival.
That's how Dejan Kovacevic began the lead story on the front page of the July 12, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Whatever became of him?)
"It's a little sad Jaromir can't finish his career here," said general manager Craig Patrick. "He did so many great things for Pittsburgh, for this franchise. It's been a great ride for all of us."
Jagr was traded with Frantisek Kucera for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek, Ross Lupaschuk and future considerations, which turned out to be $4.9 million. Jagr was scheduled to make $20.7 million over the next two years, while Kucera had a contract for $1.2 million. The three 20-year-old prospects were much cheaper, although Patrick said the payroll was supposed to go from $31 to $34 million. He would be able to re-sign Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang.
The Capitals' first visit to Pittsburgh would be Dec. 21.
"It's difficult," Patrick said. "Jaromir's been here 11 years, accomplished so much in this city. ... But, by the same token, he wanted to be moved out. It wouldn't have been in the best interest of the team to keep someone here who didn't want to be here."
Kovacevic wrote:
Jagr, 29, is coming off what he has called the worst season of his career. Off the ice, he was frequently moody and pouting, in part because of personal problems, including some bad investments. On the ice, despite winning his fourth consecutive scoring title, his performance was questioned by coaches and teammates. His most vocal critic was Mario Lemieux, also the team's owner. Lemieux chastised Jagr during the recent playoffs and after the season, making it clear he was not in favor of giving nearly a third of his team's payroll to a player whose attitude was less than exemplary.
Patrick claimed to be happy with the deal: "We got exactly what we wanted."
To the suggestion that it was a salary dump: "They're mistaken, if that's what they think. We've gotten great value in this deal. Time will show us that. I know I can't convince people of that right now, but all three of these guys are going to be big contributors here."
After the Penguins lost the conference final to New Jersey, Patrick talked to Jagr as the team left for the summer.
"He asked me, 'What's going on with me?'" recalled the general manager. "I said, 'I don't know. I have to sit down with the owners and see what our budget is and how we can keep everybody.' He said, 'No, no, you don't understand. I don't want to be here.' That was the first point I knew something had to be done."
In the July 13 PG, Kovacevic asked Jagr what he thought the reaction would be when he took the ice in Pittsburgh: "Honestly, a lot of things went wrong in Pittsburgh, and I think a lot of people were judging me the wrong way. It's tough to defend yourself when the media is judging you, when the media controls how people look at you. Fans just believe what they read because they don't have any other choice. They don't have a chance to meet you, so they think negative things if that's what they read.
"I know it's going to be tough for me in that arena. But right now, there's nothing I can do about that. I'm just going to try to make sure the fans in Washington don't see me the wrong way. I have to be more careful with what I say, how I say it. Sometimes, as you know, I can say things just for fun. But some people can print it a different way and make you look bad.
"I had great years in Pittsburgh. The fans made me. They made me into what I am, and I know that. People were nice to me there for 10 years before the media came after me in my 11th year. ... I hope I don't get booed. Maybe you can write something to tell the fans not to boo me."
At the time, Jagr was the Penguins' all-time leader with 806 regular-season games played and 140 playoff games. He was second to Mario with 439 goals, 640 assists and 1,079 points in the regular season, as well as 65 goals, 82 assists and 147 points in the postseason. He'd won five Art Ross Trophies and one Hart Trophy.
By the time December 21 came around, the Penguins had bigger concerns than their former star. They had lost their last four games, all at the Igloo, guaranteeing them their worst five-game homestand ever. The Capitals were under .500, as well.
Jagr was ready. "If they're going to boo me, I'm going to understand that. I'm competing against the Penguins."
Dave Molinari noted that, "Mellon Arena crowds have a history of jeering returning alumni, with the striking exception of Ron Francis."
"I did think a lot about it a lot after I was traded," added Jagr, "but it's kind of old news now. There's only one thing that's important to me right now, and that's to play the best hockey I can to help this team win. That's what matters to me. It doesn't matter if I'm playing against Pittsburgh or not. We're still under .500 and we shouldn't be there. We are a better team than that. If we would be 10 games over .500, it would be a different story. But we're not. It's just a hockey game."
And it was another bad game for the Capitals. Although Lemieux missed his 16th consecutive game with a hip injury, the Penguins managed a 4-3 win. After a scoreless first period that featured two fights (Stephen Peat-Krzysztof Oliwa and Chris Simon-Dan LaCouture), Simon scored at 8:10 of the second period. Pittsburgh answered with three goals, by Darius Kasparaitis, Andrew Ference and Toby Peterson, to take a 3-1 lead after two. Jan Hrdina scored a minute into the third period, before Peter Bondra (on a rebound of a Jagr shot) and Sergei Gonchar scored power play goals to bring Washington back within one. But that was as close as they got.
Jagr had two serious scoring chances. At 8:02 of the first period, while on the power play, he hit the crossbar with a shot that caromed into the stands. Then, at 13:50 of the second period, he broke in alone through the left circle, but Johan Hedberg stopped his shot. Jagr ended up with one assist, two shots and a -2 rating in 22:18 of ice time.
"I didn't have many chances," he explained. "The whole team didn't have many. I had a couple of shots, and Moose made the big saves on both of them."
Kovacevic described the scene:
In many ways, the reaction was pure Pittsburgh.
Tough on the outside, soft and mushy on the inside.
From the moment Jaromir Jagr hit the ice for warmups before his first game as a visitor in the big steel dome he called home for the previous 11 years, he was greeted with boos. That didn't let up in the slightest when he was announced as a starter for the Washington Capitals. And it seemed to pick up steam each time he touched the puck after the opening faceoff.
But late in the first period, when the Penguins began airing a tribute to Jagr's career on the video scoreboard, the tide began to shift.
First came an overtime goal against the Devils in the 1991 Stanley Cup playoffs, then that spectacular, beat-all-the-Blackhawks effort from the final the following year. The cheers slowly mounted. Next was the point he registered to win his first scoring title. Cheers turned to roars. Then came the one-of-a-kind, on-his-stomach, batted-out-of-the-air, goal against the Flyers. And the decibel level soared.
The video concluded with the message, "Thank you, Jaromir," and the overflow crowd stood and created a din, almost unanimously. The players and on-ice officials who had started to line up for the next faceoff stepped out.
And Jagr, as emotional as he is gifted, melted. Tears welled up in his eyes as he blinked repeatedly, alternating between watching the scoreboard and keeping his head down, as if to hide his face.
"It was very nice, from the fans. I thought it was going to be a lot worse. I expected the worst. It was nice from them. They stood, and they clapped. I appreciate it."
When it was over, Jagr stood and waved his stick enthusiastically to the crowd.
After that, there was still booing when he would touch the puck, but there was less of it.
In the locker room, Jagr described how he felt during warmups. "It was different. I was kind of shaking. But after five minutes or so, it was OK."
As far as the game went, "It was ... it's tough. When you spend so much time in the same city, you play in one place for such a long time, it's kind of tough to play against this team."
And his message for the fans was, "Right now, it's too late to say something, probably. You know, I spent a lot of years -- a lot of great years -- here. Some people might say I wanted to be traded, but you have to understand that hockey is not only a sport. It's a business, too. Even if I wouldn't leave this year, I would leave, for sure, next year. At the end of the day, I think it worked for both teams."
Jagr was wrong about that. He was unable to lift the Capitals to the next level, and eventually moved on to the Rangers. After 3 1/2 seasons there, he spent three years in the KHL before coming back to North America and stints with Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, New Jersey, Florida and Calgary. He's third in NHL career games and goals, fifth in assists, and second in points. But his only two Stanley Cups were in his first two years in Pittsburgh.
The three players the Penguins received did very little for them or anyone else. After making the playoffs during all eleven years of Jagr's Pittsburgh tenure, the team became bad enough to merit high draft picks. With Marc-Andre Fleury, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, the Pens were able to put together another team that could win Cups.
And now that Jagr is playing in Kladno, his next visit to Pittsburgh will most likely involve cheers as his number 68 makes its way to the rafters.