BraveCanadian
Registered User
- Jun 30, 2010
- 14,837
- 3,792
Is it really BC?
I am a Pens diehard and watched/remember most of Jagr's years pretty darn clearly. While there were a handful of years where he led the team in scoring, there were also numerous times where he came up short or unimpressive in series if you factor in the entire scope of a hockey game. Jagr took some really stupid penalties over the years in the postseason for Pitt and more than once was near tops in PIMs.
I watched them too and had actually forgotten just how consistently Jagr produced in the playoffs. His problem is the same one Lindros had on the 97 Flyers. No depth.. heck Jagr had even less than Lindros did when he was at his best in the late 90s. The Pens were in firesale mode.. the opposition could key completely on Jagr and if he couldn't beat them mostly single-handedly the Pens were done.
He was often playing through injuries in the playoffs as well due to the attention he was getting.
I never felt like Jagr was a real leader and had the ability to raise his game to or even beyond his regular season production. On the stat sheet he looks pretty decent some years but Jagr wasn't a guy who had "it" when it came to the vast majority of key situations.
From the outside looking in, I think he matured and is probably a much better teammate now than in the past, but if you don't think he had "it", I'd love to know where he was missing it.
The Penguins franchise would definitely have one less Cup in its history without Jagr.
Now by the very late 90's and early 2000's the Pens were very average and often below average, but he was gone after 2001 anyway.
So when was he supposed to have demonstrated "it"?