Until last night, the “C” on the left shoulder of Jaromir Jagr’s jersey could just as well have represented his grade for the season’s first 10 games as the symbol of the Rangers’ captaincy.
But last night at the Garden, with the Rangers enmeshed in yet another defensive struggle through 40 minutes against the Lightning, Jagr carried his team to a 3-1 victory that at least for the moment serves as validation of the team’s commitment to the dirty work necessary to survive when the puck’s not going in the net.
For it was meat-and-potatoes hockey from a lights-camera-action franchise that ultimately got the job done, and the work force was led by a determined Jagr, who never missed a beat after suffering a fat upper lip and losing a handful of teeth on his upper left side when hit by a puck approximately six minutes into the second.
“Jaromir is our leader,” said Scott Gomez. “For him to take a puck in the face and then dominate the way he did after that was pretty amazing.”
Jagr, who launched the right wing power-play shot that may or may not have deflected off Brendan Shanahan’s skate for the winner at 10:45 of the third – NHL officials were attempting to sort it out late into the night – before Shanahan scored from in front on another PP to salt it 2:44 later, was a bull on the puck throughout; impossible to knock off the play.
If it wasn’t the vintage, dipsy-doodling Jagr of days gone by, it was the power-forward Jagr he believes he must be to succeed in this league at this time.
“I wish I could play differently, but I can’t,” Jagr said. “You kind of change your game, but you have to because the other way is not working.”
Unlike Saturday when the Rangers buckled against Toronto, the Blueshirts last night kept their poise when Vincent Lecavalier beat Henrik Lundqvist on a penalty shot at 6:28 of the second for a 1-1 tie.
The penalty shot came on the same shift that Jagr lost his teeth, just seconds after losing the puck on a breakaway of his own.
When someone asked Jagr what he was thinking about the immediate reversal of fortune, the captain laughed. “I wasn’t thinking,” he said. “I was looking for my teeth.”
The Rangers, meanwhile, were just looking to score. They found it on a power play that had scored on just one of its previous 21 chances before Jagr’s drive hit the back of the net, and they found it the old-fashioned way, by shooting and going to the net for screens and rebounds.
“After Saturday, Jaromir and I sat in the locker room until 12 o’clock, talking about changing the power play, and then [Sunday] we practiced it,” said Shanahan. “Jaromir really takes it personally, being here, and winning.”
Lundqvist was outstanding again. Ryan Hollweg had a mighty fine game going up and down the wing. Chris Drury was more involved in the action than he’d been since the opener. The defense played a simple game. The Rangers got pucks in and pucks out and Jagr got a puck in the mouth.
Someone wanted to know whether Jagr lost his original teeth.
“A gentleman never tells,” he said, with a Jack-o-Lantern grin. “But I think if I paid $20,000 for them, they’re mine.”