Boston's aging Jagr set to face his old team

Associated Press

WILMINGTON, Mass.

The speed and scoring touch that made Jaromir Jagr one of the NHL’s best players are gone. Even the famous mullet that flowed from beneath his helmet disappeared many moons ago.

But his passion for hockey remains.

Now he’s bringing that back to Pittsburgh, the city where he won Stanley Cups in his first two seasons. More than two decades later, the 41-year-old right wing can help the Boston Bruins win their second title in three seasons.

First, they must beat the offensively potent Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals. The first two games are in Pittsburgh, with the schedule to be announced after the Western Conference semifinals end tonight.

“I don’t really remember the last time I was in this position,” Jagr said after practice Tuesday. “It doesn’t happen very often and the players should realize that. It’s not automatic to make the playoffs or automatic to be in the last four teams to play for the Cup.”

Jagr was just 18 when his rookie season began in 1990. He was on the Penguins team that beat the Bruins in six games in the conference finals. A year later, Pittsburgh swept Boston in the same round, winning the first game on Jagr’s overtime goal. The Penguins went on to win their first two Cups those seasons.

Way back then, he didn’t concern himself with how long he might keep playing.

“I don’t think you think that way at all,” he said, but “if you love something, it doesn’t matter what it is. If you love your job, you love your wife or somebody or something, you just want to be with that all the time. So, to me, I love this game. So as long as I can play, I want to play. That’s the reason I’m playing. I just love it.”

That desire has taken him to six NHL teams, with a three-year break from 2008-11 to play in Russia. He brought it to the Bruins, who needed an offensive boost, when they obtained him from the Dallas Stars on April 2.

But Pittsburgh is the city where he established himself.

“A lot of people still remind me (of) that, but it happened 13 years ago, the last time I played for them,” Jagr said. “So it’s a long time and 23 years ago was my first game.”

But what if someone had told him when he was starting out that he’d be playing for the Bruins against the Penguins in the playoffs all these years later?

“I don’t think anybody would have told me that,” Jagr said with a laugh. “I was 18 years old so I didn’t think that far ahead. I was kind of thinking, ‘What’s going to be tomorrow?’ not ‘What’s going to be 20 years later?”’

He’s already won a playoff round this season against a former team. The Bruins won the conference semifinals in five games over the New York Rangers, where Jagr set the club’s single-season record with 54 goals in 2005-06.