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Rangers' Jagr, one of a kind, should keep playing

Mark Herrmann

May 2, 2008

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What would Einstein say about a situation like this? That is actually a question that would run through the mind of Jaromir Jagr. He likes to think of himself as a thinking person's hockey player, to the extent that he keeps an Einstein biography prominently propped up in his stall at the Rangers' practice rink.

The book, a gag gift from one of the beat reporters, is itself more of a prop than anything. It's a conversation- starter, as if there ever is a need to jump-start conversation with Jagr. What it symbolizes is the fact that Jagr has a lot on his mind.

He had more than usual last night in Game 4 against the Penguins at Madison Square Garden - nostalgia, fear, uncertainty. Jagr had thought out loud after Game 3 that this could be his last game as a Ranger. That is the kind of thing that goes through any mind connected to a 36-year-old hockey body.

As he came out for warmups last night, he was greeted with signs from fans pleading with him to stay.

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Everything that happened for the rest of the night made a case for him to do just that. Jagr was the best player on the Rangers, the best player on the ice. He ought to come back for at least one more year.

He was fresh enough afterward - after scoring two goals, getting knocked flat after one of them and registering an assist - to say he wishes the Rangers were playing Game 5 tonight instead of Sunday afternoon.

"I'm 250. I've got a lot of energy," he said, referring to his weight. "I know one thing: I know I'm going to be tired, but those guys I'm playing against are going to be more tired than me."

That is, it's all in the mind. "In playoffs," he said, dropping the "the" in his verbal Czech shorthand, "you don't really think about yourself much, but you have to believe you're in better shape than the guys you're playing against. You don't have to feel great, but you have to keep telling yourself 'I feel better than the guy I'm playing against.' That's the whole key."

His iron will is basically the only thing that has kept the season alive. It was clear last night that the only time the Rangers were going to do anything worthwhile was when Jagr was in the middle of the play.

Jagr, who has pondered the idea of playing in Russia next season, was the one who broke the scoreless tie in the second period, taking a shoulder to the head from defenseman Brooks Orpik just as he let the shot go. "I couldn't celebrate it," Jagr said, adding that he had planned to go into his "Jerry Maguire dance."

Jagr has been a real character since he came into the league 18 years ago - for good or bad, mostly good.

Personally, I get a kick out of recalling asking the rookie about the photo of Ronald Reagan he kept in his schoolboy notebook as a protest against the Communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia. He wears 68 in honor of the 1968 Prague uprising.

It is hard to think of an NHL without Jagr, the guy who once was asked his opinion of Nassau Coliseum and told me it was at the top of the list of his favorite arenas - if you turned the list upside down.

I got a kick out of hearing him talk about hosting then-rookie teammate and countryman Petr Prucha and taking Prucha to American movies. When he was asked how Prucha, with limited English at the time, could understand the dialogue, Jagr said, "Who cares if he understands as long as I can understand?"

Yes, we know his departure from Pittsburgh might have been a little selfish. Granted, he didn't have the greatest attitude with Washington. But he is a very rare star professional athlete who is open enough to be human, human enough to be open. There always is something going on in that brain of his.

The thought of leaving New York and quitting the NHL ought to be the last thing in there right now.

It doesn't take an Einstein to figure that out, although Jagr did remind us this week about the figure looking down from his locker: "He always had a power play. He was smarter than everybody."