The Stanley Cup playoffs ended this afternoon for the NY Rangers and Jaromir Jagr. This is sad, mostly because it seems like Jagr might be going somewhere else next season.
To me, Jagr is an acquired taste, much like pickled herring (sill) and screeching monkey candy (djungelvrål). He grows on you. I took me a long time to accept his greatness. For most of his career I have felt that he did not try hard enough. He was playing good, scoring lots of goals and so on, but it often seemed as he could play harder and with more intensity.
Not until mid-season last year did I start to enjoy his game. It was at the time when he refused to take shootouts because, well, he felt like he would miss. (He got over this issue a few games later.) It all fell into place. Jagr is extremely neurotic. And pretty smart. He is the Larry David of hockey. Read more about how Jagr thinks.
The picture below is from 1997, at least 6 years after the mullet became a fashion faux pas.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
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