Jagr a Favorite With Penguins

He came to Pittsburgh at age 18, barely able to speak English, a remarkable yet raw talent. He became an instant fan favorite with his boyish good looks, long hair and wondrous offensive skills.

He is not Mario Lemieux.

He is Jaromir Jagr, and anyone not familiar with his impact on the Patrick Division finals need only ask the New York Rangers. They’re on their 52nd consecutive summer vacation without a Stanley Cup because of one grievous error in their six-game loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

When they put Lemieux out of the series with a broken hand in Game 2, they thought the Penguins were finished. But Jaromir Jagr was only getting started.

“I am very jealous of Jaromir Jagr,” teammate Gord Roberts said after Jagr’s one-man, two-goal demolition of the Rangers in the Penguins’ go-ahead 3-2 victory in New York in Game 5. “To be 20, to be so big and strong, to be able to do the things he can do, how can you not be jealous?”

Jagr plays like a Lemieux clone. At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, he’s a mirror image of Lemieux physically, with tireless legs and so much energy he thrives when other players are spent in the third period.

With a reach that seems to extend from blue line to blue line, he can grab loose pucks that others can’t, make passes that others wouldn’t even try. His two goals buried the Rangers in Game 5, but his “Wow, did you see that?” one-handed pass to Troy Loney for the tying goal in Game 4 was almost as important in deciding the series.

Now, Jagr’s no longer a secret. He will be asked to elevate his level of play again in the Wales Conference finals against Boston beginning Sunday.

That’s why Jagr has just one request -- let him be Jagr, don’t ask him to be Lemieux.

“Mario’s the best player in the world,” Jagr said. “He means a lot to us. He will come back (against Boston). I hope he does because I love to watch him play. I look at him in practice and know I can never be like him.”

Yet Jagr is often just like Lemieux.

“Jaromir’s so quick ... he’s 20 years old and has so much talent,” forward Rick Tocchet said. “I mean, to pencil him in on the right side for the next 10 years, the Pittsburgh Penguins -- they’ve got to be excited about that.”

Almost as excited as Jagr was last spring when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. Here he was skating around with the Stanley Cup above his head, barely three months after he turned 19, 10 months after he moved from Kladno, Czechoslovakia, to Pittsburgh with the normal teen-ager’s naivete.

Penguins coach Bob Johnson immediately fell in love with him and increased his ice time as Jagr adjusted to the NHL and to life in America. The Penguins even traded for a fellow Czech, Jiri Hrdina, to accelerate Jagr’s adjustment.

Penguins general manager Craig Patrick, who stole Jagr with the fifth draft pick, watched from afar with a bemused smile.

Jagr took it all in megadoses, wowed by the fact he was getting paid so much money for doing something he loved, amazed by the American way of life, amazed by being the second-leading vote-getter to Lemieux on the Wales Conference All-Star team.

“I love America! I love Pittsburgh! I love California!” he said in the few times he was coaxed into using English.

Now that’s he more comfortable with a new language -- much of it he learned from TV sitcoms -- he’s giving post-game interviews and delighting reporters with one-liners.

“He’s got a lot of developing to do, but that’s probably the most interesting thing about him,” goaltender Tom Barrasso said. “He could get better for quite a long while.”

“They got him with a No. 5 pick?” Tocchet said. “Unbelievable. He’s a No. 1 in any year.”

Jagr readily admits he still has much to learn, on and off the ice. He is rarely penalized but drew a 10-game suspension earlier this season for a stick infraction that was more ill-timed than ill-conceived.