KoozNetsOff 92
Hala Madrid
- Apr 6, 2016
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Fair point. Though I would argue
As soon as he had that responsibility?
The first time was in 1994-95. As far as I'm aware, there were no rumblings about attitude issues.
In fact, I don't think there were any until a year or two before the 21st century. By that time he had already won 3 Art Ross trophies.
Even if there were, it certainly didn't affect his on ice performance.
As for
Jagr wasn't a superstar with any expectations going in to 94/95. He had never even received a hart vote in his career or been top 4 in RW AST. He was good, very good, and expected to develop further with Lemieux out, but it wasn't anywhere close to the level of expectations/pressure a real franchise player has. He became a superstar that season but then Lemieux obviously returned and he was shielded again.
Of course in general it didn't really matter what happened off the ice because Jagr was so great/talented. He was going to "get his". Against 99.9% of players in history I wouldn't even bring it up because Jagr is that much better. But OV is just as great and has a list of individual accolades/records which is just as great (actually longer/better). When the players are that close, the little things like attitude, etc matter.