CRANBERRY, Pa. -- To fully process the feeling, one would've had to have followed our city's NHL franchise for, oh, the past few decades or so.
To fully process the unmistakable feeling that, from the moment Jaromir Jagr moved forward with that puck from center ice, the following outcome was a foregone conclusion ...
... complete with a kissing clang off the right pipe.
If I hadn't been there, as a great man once pontificated, I wouldn't have believed it.
Except that, honestly, I would've.
This was a practice. A get-the-legs-loose drill early in the Penguins' practice on this Saturday morning at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, this on the eve of his No. 68 being formally raised to the PPG Paints Arena rafters before the game against the Kings. And Mike Sullivan, in concert with management, arranged to have one of the giants in NHL history, one of the giants in Pittsburgh sports history, partake in 15-plus minutes of exercise that's intended to be trying for twentysomethings, let alone a middle-aged man who's likely still a little jet-lagged from a transatlantic flight.
"Heavy shot," Alex Nedeljkovic, the victim, would assess. "Know how some guys just shoot hard? This was heavy. That's how it comes off his stick."
Jagr's fifty-freaking-two, my friends. Just celebrated his birthday Thursday at a Downtown hotel.
He once told me, a long, long time ago, he'd still be playing when he's 50. I laughed. He didn't.
He's still playing, in a 36th professional season, for the Kladno team he owns in the Czech Extraliga, and he's doing so with a stated mission: Kladno's win on Feb. 15 ended a 17-game losing streak. The team is stuck in last place and, without a stunning turnaround, faces relegation to a lower level, one that'll hurt in more ways than one, both the operation and the modest mining town of 70,000-plus. So, as he told the Associated Press' bureau in Prague earlier this week, he's playing out of "a responsibility to the fans, a responsibility to the town, a responsibility to the club, that’s all."
That's all?
No chance.
I've had to watch him from afar, like most Pittsburghers, since his infamous "dying alive" trade demand burned so many of our 446 bridges, but it hasn't taken much to see that something more drives him. Whether it's been through his historic achievements here -- 11 seasons, 1,079 points, a Hart Trophy as MVP, five scoring titles and, of course, those two Stanley Cups as a mullet-headed teen -- or all of his subsequent NHL stops or Siberia or back for more in the NHL or back to Kladno, where he debuted as a 16-year-old -- the drive to prepare and perform at peak level's always been the trait that's stood the tallest.
It did in this session, as well.
“Well, I’ve never coached a 52-year-old. I'm not much older,” Sullivan would muse with a smile, a couple weeks before he'll turn 56. “If you think about how difficult this game is physically, to get up and down the ice, the fine motor skills it takes to execute at such a high level and at a high pace, it’s not just that he’s playing. He’s playing at a high level. It’s just remarkable. It speaks volumes ... about his love for the game and his passion.”
Yeah, that.
It's the sole reason that the NHL's No. 2 all-time scorer -- only Wayne Gretzky's untouchable 2,857 points top his 1,921 -- isn't yet a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Because there's a mandate that a player's got to be five years into retirement.
Heck, he might never get in.
I asked Evgeni Malkin, a future first-ballot pick himself, if he'll still be lacing 'em up at Jagr's age:
"Please, no. I want to spend more time with my family and my kids," he came right back. "But he's special. You're not seeing many players playing at 50. I'm not feeling right now that I would like to play at 50. But who knows? Sometimes you can only play hockey, it's hard to find a job after hockey and do something where you have positive vibes after hockey."
Brief pause, then a broad grin.
"I don't want to be coaching, for sure."
Turning serious, he added of the experience, "Legend on ice. It’s, like, crazy. I’m excited to skate today with him. Great memory for myself. Growing up, I watched how he played. It's a great day."
That's how the other resident superstar described it:
"Yeah, definitely," Sidney Crosby replied when I asked how important it feels for the Penguins to connect with their own collective legacy and lineage. "When you look at the history of hockey, he's somebody that you're always going to think about. The fact that he played here and had the impact that he did here, what he was able to accomplish over his whole career, it's incredible. I think we all feel pretty fortunate to be a part of this. You don't know when you're going to have opportunities like this. There's a lot of pride that comes with playing for this team for a lot of reasons, and he's one of them."
Beautifully worded. I could end the column right here.
But I won't because I'd love to share that, for all else I'm looking forward to witnessing on this day, the assembly of people around Jagr through the ceremony will top the list. He'll have his friends from Czechia, such as Marty Straka and Jiri Slegr, on hand. He'll have former fellow champions, such as Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Phil Bourque and Jay Caufield. He'll have teammates from his individually dominant seasons, like Matthew Barnaby and Ken Wregget. He'll have Craig Patrick, the GM who engineered all the cloak-and-dagger that went into the best player in the 1990 NHL Draft somehow still sitting there with the No. 5 pick. He'll have members of the Nemec family, the Czech billet family that hosted Jagr during his early years in Pittsburgh.
The Traveling Jagrs, those nutcases from his brief time in Calgary, stopped into our Downtown HQ/shop Saturday:
DALI KOVACEVIC / DKPS
The Traveling Jagrs and the Boss, Downtown, Saturday afternoon.
Dali loved it. They told her there's a bunch more of them, as well, all wearing the various sweaters from the many teams he's known worldwide.
Oh, and you'd better believe he'll have 66.
In fact, he'll have the Penguins' other two retired numbers represented in Mario Lemieux and the late Michel Briere's son, Martin, the elder having been killed in a car accident in 1971, soon after a promising rookie season.
It was Mario who first dropped this figurative puck seven years ago, disclosing at the NHL's 100th anniversary gala in Los Angeles that, as owner, he'd see to it that Jagr's 68 would be retired here someday. Mario sold, obviously, but wound up with the primary assist as Kevin Acklin, now the team president, invested the hardest work in pulling this off, particularly in convincing Jagr that Pittsburgh wouldn't still show some of the scars from the past.
Here's betting, based on the passionate reaction of this packed facility upon his emerging onto the ice, it'll be plenty fine:
And yeah, did I mention Mario?
I did?
Oh, cool:
MATTHEW BARNABY / TWITTER
Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Saturday night at a Mount Washington restaurant.
Look at that trio, huh?
That ... that's what's always got to be protected.
Because see, that's how this sort of thing happens. Meaning all of it. All the championships and celebrations and tributes and parades 'n' at.
Precisely the way Sid spoke it.
“It’s well deserved,” he'd add to the above sentiment. “This is a player who's done so much for the team, the city, the organization. So we just hope it’s the best celebration possible.”
