Trust the guy who once rode shotgun: Nobody Jaromir Jagr has ever seen drove like Mario Lemieux.
“With all due respect for [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin, I don’t think they are Mario Lemieux,” said Jagr, preparing to go to Pittsburgh, his first NHL home, for tomorrow’s night second-round opener between the Rangers and Penguins.
“I say that with all due respect because the game has changed.
“The gap between the best and worst players on a team [today] is very small. The gap between Mario and the rest of the guys when I was in Pittsburgh was so huge he was able to score 20 points in one series. I don’t think those kids are able to do it. If I am wrong I am going to apologize and [say], ‘Great job.’
“There were games we won 6-5 that Mario scored six points. The next night, 5-3, he scored five. [Crosby] can do it once in a while but not every game like [Lemieux].
“Some nights you can’t tell who is first line and fourth line in this new NHL. [Wayne] Gretzky in the ’80s was far better than anyone else. So was Mario in the ’90s. You came to watch the individual because they were so much better. I love to watch highlights of when great players dominated.
“I wish I could do it. It’s not working anymore.”
Jagr means a guy has to work harder anymore, especially when he is 36 and has slipped from 123 points in the first season of the post-lockout, call-every-little-hook-NHL to 71 points two years later.
“I don’t feel old, don’t act old,” Jagr said. “It’s not about age, but it’s all about how you act.”
Against the Devils, he acted like he was offended by reports of his decline, continuing a late-season surge with eight points.
Jagr still could trigger a one-year contract renewal clause with a Conn Symthe Trophy. Or, with a long Ranger spring run, make a case for a new $5 million-$6 million, one-year deal.
If, indeed, he wants that, he will have to earn it in this series while getting booed each time he touches the puck in Pittsburgh.
“It was the place I was playing my best hockey, the place I learned everything I know about hockey from Mario, keeping my eyes opened watching the best player in the league.”
There never has been such a combination of skill and size on a hockey rink as Lemieux, ranking with Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull as all-time, top-five, game-changing figures. But might there be some comparison between the swift, lanky, inventive, dead-eye Malkin and a swooping, powerful, young Jagr?
“He has better numbers than I had at my age, that’s for sure,” said Jagr. “I didn’t have that many responsibilities until Mario retired for three years.
“[Crosby] and [the Caps’] Alex Ovechkin are truly one-two best players in the league. The game has changed to their advantage. [Crosby’s] going to have a great 15 years ahead of him, probably.”
And that’s because he has some Jagr in him?
“I think he has more than that,” said Jagr, then smiled.
“Maybe not this week.”