The Curious Case of the Penguin Fans and Jaromir Jagr

The Curious Case of the Penguin Fans and Jaromir Jagr

- Joe Bartnick 10/8/13

Pittsburgh Penguin fans need to stop booing Jaromir Jagr and embrace him.

Jagr is the 2nd greatest Penguin of all time and one of the best players to ever lace up a pair of skates. In Jagr’s prime , when he was a Penguin, he dominated the league and won the MVP and numerous scoring titles. Crosby and Malkin need to win another Cup before they can even be considered for runner up to Mario Lemieux as second all time greatest Penguin.

Jagr scored an insane amount of goals in the clutch and grab era. Jagr’s legendary work ethic made him impossible to get off the puck.  When he planted his Kardashian size ass into you, you couldn’t knock him down. Jagr was a witch with the puck, possessing skills that made you go jump out of your seat, his Billy Ray Cyrus mullet flying in the breeze as he wrists one by a helpless goalie. Jagr captained teams always made the playoffs, Pens fans now think the playoffs are a right, they are a privilege.

I’d like to think the fans who boo Jagr are the bandwagon fans who found out about hockey after Pittsburgh won the Sid lottery because as a die hard fan who remembers his first game and his brilliance during the nineties, booing him not only shows your ignorance of hockey but also a lack of respect for what he did the Penguin franchise and the city of Pittsburgh.

Even if you throw out Jagr’s excellence for over a decade that puts him behind only Lemieux in every meaningful Penguin offensive statistical category and garnered him the title best player in the world in the 90’s he still authored two of the greatest moments in franchise history.

Game 1 1992 Stanley Cup final , Pens down 4-1 Jagr danced through, around and over a Chicago Blackhawks team that was on a 11 game winning streak and backhanded the puck over Ed Balfour’s shoulder  putting the Pens on the comeback trail and on the road to their second consecutive Stanley Cup.  Mario called it the greatest goal HE had ever seen.

Easter Conference Quarter Finals 1999, Pens vs Devils. Jagr took a team half full of AHLer’s and beat the heavily favored New Jersey Devils literally all by himself. He scored the tie breaker with under two minutes left in regulation, then netted the game winner in overtime against the Hall of Famer goalie Martin Brodeur. Even bigger than the win itself was the team was on the verge of bankruptcy and NEEDED the extra playoff games to remain solvent.

Penguin fans love to state they’ve had the best players in the game for roughly thirty years. Well Jagr is the reason. He’s the bridge form Mario to Sid and Geno.

At what did Jagr do to piss you off so much. I know he played for the Flyers, but NOW he doesn’t. I hate the Flyers more than anybody but it’s no reason to hate Jagr forever for it. Mark Recchi, Keven Stevens, Paul Coffey, to name a few played for the Flyers and are beloved in Pittsburgh.

Jagr gets booed like he did something dastardly to the Penguins. He didn’t score a goal to crush a dynasty like Islander David Volek did. Jagr never cheapshotted  and injured a Penguin superstar like Adam Graves did to Mario or David Steckel did to Sid. Those guys, Volek, Graves, Steckel deserved to be booed mercilessly. Not Jagr.

Jagr was traded to Washington because the organization was broke. It’s not Jagr’s fault GM Craig Patrick didn’t get a bag of pucks back for him. So he didn’t stay in the 412 and become God like Mario or have a combination of skill, leadership and class like Ron Francis. Jagr scored tons of goals, many of them spectacular and has NEVER said a bad thing about Pittsburgh or the team. He was in fact extra classy when the Pens knocked his Rangers out of the playoffs in 2009.

The only thing Jagr did was spurn the Pens offer three years ago the go to Philly. That is what’s making Pens fans act like spurned lovers. Get over it. If you’re going to boo anyone it should be Benedict Arnold Max Talbot.  Jagr went from Pittsburgh to Washington , New York and Europe before went to Philly. Max Talbot didn’t finish his beer on the Southside before he was in orange and black. Talbot was also a legend because of his exploits against the Flyers. Boo Talbot, Shush (Talbot’s infamous gesture to Flyer fans)  the fans who boo Jagr.

Jagr is going in the Hall of Fame. He is going in as a Penguin. His number will and should be retired. The faster Pittsburgh accepts and embraces that fact the better for everyone. Jagr deserves your love and you should be proud he was a Penguin.