A day after Jaromir Jagr scored the signature goal of his seismic NHL career — an inventive, daring dash across the ice while weaving through multiple members of the Chicago Blackhawks before besting Ed Belfour with a backhand shot late in regulation in Game 1 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Final at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena — Penguins coach Scotty Bowman spotted Mario Lemieux in the players’ lounge. Bowman asked Lemieux how Jagr’s goal compared to any of the many breathtaking ones Lemieux had scored in his career to that point.
“Mario said, ‘Scotty, that’s the greatest goal I’ve seen a player score in my life,’” Bowman said. “That’s from Mario, the greatest player I’ve ever seen.
“Guys like Mario can see it. He saw it in Jagr. And if you ask me, Jagr wanted Mario to see it. That was his hero.”
GO DEEPER
The Pittsburgh stories that built Jaromir Jagr’s legend
Lemieux and Jagr were teammates for only seven seasons. But they’re forever linked in Pittsburgh and hockey history, even if their relationship has always been mostly mythical. Almost every important moment in Jagr’s career was either with Lemieux as a teammate, a mentor, a boss or a friend — and Jagr’s long-awaited jersey retirement by the Penguins will be their first since Lemieux’s went to the rafters in 1997.
Lemieux and Jagr rarely played on the same line during the latter’s iconic 11 seasons with the Penguins. Teammates say they were friendly but hardly hung out off the ice. Coaches recall infrequent lengthy conversations between the two on the ice. Theirs was not the close-knit friendship akin to their generational successors in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“I just think when you think of our franchise, those are the two guys you think of first,” Crosby said. “Like, it doesn’t get better than Mario and Jagr, right?”
In Jagr’s Penguins tenure, he and Lemieux combined to win the Art Ross Trophy nine times, the Hart Trophy three times and the Stanley Cup twice. When Lemieux retired for the first time in 1997, Jagr succeeded him as the sport’s dominant scorer and face of the Penguins. When Lemieux returned in 2000, Jagr finished his Penguins run by winning the last of his five scoring titles, and they were finalists for the Hart Trophy.
“When you’re telling the story of Jaromir Jagr, you need to understand how much he idolized Mario,” said Mike Lange, the longtime voice of Penguins broadcasts. “He would watch him and he would tell me, ‘I want to be just like him.’”
They’re different people. This is the common refrain from those who know Lemieux and Jagr — if it’s truly possible to know either man. Each marches to his beat, but Lemieux does so privately, whereas Jagr has always relished the spotlight.
Lemieux was born in one of hockey’s flagship cities, Montreal. Fiercely proud, he famously refused to don a Penguins sweater at the 1984 NHL Draft, when he was the top pick, because of a contract dispute. He wore No. 66 to distinguish himself from but also challenge Wayne Gretzky, who wore No. 99.
Jagr is the son of Kladno, brought up in Communist Czechoslovakia. He wore No. 68 because of the Prague Spring in 1968, a brief period of political liberation and mass protest. That his 68 and Lemieux’s 66 appear so similar at first glance is a coincidence not fated by the hockey gods, though a lot of people in Pittsburgh would prefer that the hockey gods brought them together with intention.
Lemieux is seven years Jagr’s elder. Their cultural references and preferences are different. Englebert Humperdinck was one of Lemieux’s favorite childhood musicians, and Jagr was drawn to metal bands. Lemieux collected fine wines, and Jagr wanted Kit Kats. Lemieux rarely practiced, and Jagr never left the ice. Lemieux was a right-shot center, and Jagr was a left-handed player on the off wing. One thing they had in common was an ability to astonish peers with individual brilliance.
“Mario looked graceful when he was beating you. Jags was raw power just taking it to you,” said Bob Errey, a former Penguins player and broadcaster. “They did things different away from the rink. Jags, I remember, was a rockstar in Pittsburgh. Mario was something like royalty.”
Errey and other former Penguins teammates of Lemieux and Jagr said the public comparisons of Jagr to Lemieux were driven by media and fans. Jagr became known as “Mario Jr.,” in part because the nickname is an anagram of “Jaromir,” but also because he too was a one-on-one wonder. But “it wasn’t a secret Mario was Jags’ favorite player,” said Troy Loney, another former teammate of both players.
“My impression was, Mario recognized Jags’ talent and that Jags could be this missing piece for us to win it all,” Loney said, “and he knew Jags was watching everything he did so he tried to lead by example and only say things here and there. But I do know, if Mario said anything to Jags, it was gospel for Jags.”
Bryan Trottier joined the Penguins for Jagr’s rookie season. He centered a line featuring Jagr and Loney as wingers. As Trottier transitioned into an assistant coach, he witnessed Jagr skate huge strides and emerge, as had Lemieux, as a scoring threat on every shift. It was in practices, when a chronically injured Lemieux was able, that Trottier witnessed arguably the apex of the Jagr-Lemieux on-ice relationship.
“Iron sharpening iron is what I’d call it,” Trottier said. “Mario was the best player. Jags wanted to be the best player. By the mid-90s, Jags wanted to be the best, Mario wasn’t looking to give it up, and they pushed each other to become better. Not in obvious ways. It wasn’t an open competition. But I did see times when Jags would do something spectacular, and a couple of shifts later, Mario would do something just as awesome, if not more.
“They were friendly. Were they friends? I think so. How close, I don’t know. Mario tried in his way to guide Jagr. He told me, ‘Jags is going to be the best player, and when he does it’ll be for a long time.’ I think Mario took pride in helping Jags get there.”
Loney surmised it was “probably hard to be friends when one guy is at such a different place in his life.”
“Jags was just starting. Mario was already a legend,” Loney said. “And Jags wanted to actually be Mario. If you think about it all playing out, he kind of became Mario.”
Like Lemieux, Jagr collected scoring titles and kept the Penguins afloat on and away from the rink. Like Lemieux, Jagr took a break from the NHL, only to return with much hype. Like Lemieux, Jagr became owner of the hockey team closest to his heart.
Unlike Lemieux, Jagr experienced adulation turning into bitterness from Penguins fans.
A 2000-01 season that began with optimism that the Penguins could compete for the Cup turned sideways on Jagr by November 2000. He could not hide his frustration with his and the team’s underperformance. A misinterpreted quote (“I feel like I’m dying alive”) coincided with Lemieux’s surprise return as an owner-player. The Penguins’ rally from a poor start to reach the Eastern Conference final was credited to Lemieux, not Jagr, who won the Art Ross for a fourth consecutive time.
Revenue-strapped, the Penguins faced a choice after that season: keep Jagr and trade almost every other quality player, or keep most of those players with Lemieux and get something for Jagr.
Jagr was traded to the Washington Capitals on July 11, 2001.
Upon his first return to Civic Arena and later when he played at its successor, the now-named PPG Paints Arena, Jagr was booed by Pittsburgh fans who once mimicked his mullet hairstyle, asked him to autograph body parts, wore his jersey, bought jars of peanut butter that he endorsed and awoke early to hear him provide weather reports on a popular FM station’s morning show.
“It bothered him a lot,” said Darius Kasparaitis, who played with Jagr for the Penguins and later the New York Rangers. “When we would have a game in Pittsburgh, he’d always say, ‘They hate me there’ — and I could tell how much it hurt him when they booed.
“He loved playing in Pittsburgh. I know he thought he’d play there his entire career. Like Mario did, you know?
“I asked him once to explain it to me. They traded him. It was a money thing. But he was the bad guy. And he said, ‘The fans think I let Mario down, and I did.’ I think he meant by not winning the Cup that last season when Mario came back. But I also think maybe Jags thought leaving let Mario down.”
Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux in 2000. (David Maxwell / AFP via Getty Images)
When he learned of Lemieux’s comeback — a secret guarded so close that then-general manager Craig Patrick said he was unaware until a day before news broke — Jagr asked for a sit-down with his idol. He offered Lemieux the Penguins captaincy.
“He told me Mario smiled, winked and patted him on the back,” Kasparaitis said. “I think that’s how they communicated when I was there. Jagr talked. Mario listened. But Mario didn’t talk a lot. With Jags, it felt like he didn’t need to talk.”
Former assistant coach Rick Kehoe, who ran the power play when Lemieux and Jagr were on the top unit, described the plan of attack.
“Ronnie (Francis) would be in the faceoff circle, Jags would skate over to Mario, say a few words, Mario would nod or wink, Jags would skate back to his spot for the faceoff,” Kehoe said. “Ronnie’s job was to win the faceoff. The other guys were to get open.
“There wasn’t a plan. Mario knew what he wanted to do. Jags knew what he wanted to do. They knew what each other was seeing because they both saw four, five plays ahead.
“They had a special language when it came to on the ice. They didn’t need to talk.”
They didn’t, at least for a long time after Jagr’s departure. Then, at the World Championships in May 2011, word spread that Jagr planned an NHL return after three years of playing in Europe.
Suddenly, a reunion with the Penguins seemed possible — and a phone call between Lemieux, by then fully retired but still a majority co-owner, and Jagr took on a life of its own. Amid speculation about what was said, many people in Pittsburgh and within the hockey world took that call to signal Jagr would return, with a lot of people presuming it was a done deal.
“I’m not privy to the conversation so I don’t know, but a lot of drama comes up about that call,” said Tom McMillan, a former Penguins beat reporter who became an executive with the team. “Jags, if I remember, said he would play for the minimum for Mario — and I think people thought, in the organization, that he would sign here.”
GO DEEPER
Yohe: Jaromir Jagr, Mike Lange and bus rides that forged a bond
After a month of Jagr-to-Pittsburgh wishful thinking, the Penguins made an offer but pulled it a few hours before Jagr signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. There was a presumption that Lemieux was upset.
Like a lot of things when it came to Lemieux and Jagr, presumption differed from reality. It still does.
“My recollection is a lot of people thought there was this unspoken thing with Jagr that he would come back because of Mario,” said Ray Shero, then the Penguins’ GM. “Mario didn’t get that involved. They talked. But what does that really mean? Mario didn’t push for it. When I told him it probably wasn’t going to work, Mario was like, ‘Oh well.’
“It would have been a great story. The narrative was, Mario was his idol and Jagr would come back and play for the minimum and blah, blah, blah.
“The idol part is probably true, but playing for the minimum wasn’t.”
Jagr’s likeness was removed from the Penguins’ home dressing room ring of franchise legends, leading to increased speculation of a rift between Lemieux and Jagr.
“Never was one,” said Eddie Johnston, the Penguins coach in the mid-1990s. “That was people reading into things. A lot of people say things on Mario’s behalf. But that doesn’t mean Mario ever said it or thought it.
“With Jagr and Mario, a lot of people say things, but none of that is how it is true between them. Those guys got along. Always did. Still do.”
Toward the end of the 2010s, as Jagr’s second NHL run was winding down, he granted Penguins broadcaster Paul Steigerwald a lengthy interview for a documentary about the franchise’s first 50 seasons. McMillan said that the interview began to thaw any perceived icy relationship between Jagr and his original NHL team.
Nothing had ever frozen between Lemieux and Jagr, though.
“Around that time, I called Mario and said, ‘We should talk about retiring Jagr’s number,’” McMillan said. “Mario said, ‘What’s there to talk about? When can we do it?’”
Almost seven years later, it’s happening. The reason it took so long is that Jagr’s return to the NHL lasted parts of seven seasons. Then he returned to play for the club he owns in Kladno, and a pandemic happened.
“A lot of it was just trying to work out the timing,” McMillan said. “Mario always wanted Jagr’s number up there with his. But Jagr is still playing. We had to get him over here.”
Around 30 former teammates and coaches will attend Jagr’s jersey retirement on Sunday night. Among them is expected to be one person who could steal the spotlight, especially because he hasn’t been seen publicly at a Penguins game since the franchise was sold to Fenway Sports Group a couple of years ago.
In a way, Jagr’s special night in Pittsburgh will bring his relationship with Lemieux full circle.
Jagr once told other teams he would not come to North America if drafted, while also informing the Penguins he would because, as Patrick said, “Jagr wanted to play with Mario, his idol.” Almost four decades later, it’s the official reunion of Jagr and the Penguins that will draw Lemieux back to the organization with which his surname is synonymous.
“He’ll be there,” Johnston said. “Jagr means so much to our team. The team means everything to Mario. And he’ll want to be there for Jagr.
“It will be Jagr’s night. But nobody will be happier for him than Mario. When Jagr’s number is up there next to Mario’s — that’s how it is supposed to be for the Penguins.”
(Top photo of Jagr and Lemieux: Denis Brodeur / NHLI via Getty Images)