The Joker Among the Penguins : Success is Fine, but Czech Star Jaromir Jagr Also Wants to Have Some Fun

The mood is casual, the strides unhurried as the Pittsburgh Penguins glide onto the ice.

It’s just another practice and as the players skate around the frigid rink, they yawn and stretch, regaining the feel of ice beneath their feet. Another day, another set of boring drills--until Jaromir Jagr emerges from the dressing room to break the monotony.

His long, curly hair stirring in the breeze created by 20 moving bodies, Jagr joins the circle of skaters. He says nothing, but his brown eyes gleam mischievously.

One by one, his teammates see him and erupt in laughter, for Jagr has taken a roll of black friction tape--the kind players use on the blades of their sticks--and plastered strips along his jaw and sideburns, giving himself a “beard.” It’s his way of needling his whiskery linemate, Petr Nedved, and Steve Bovino, the Penguins’ bearded media relations representative.

Though it’s a small gesture, Jagr’s prank instantly lightens the mood.

“Those are the things that he probably wouldn’t have done a couple of years ago,” Coach Ed Johnston says of Jagr (pronounced YA-gur). “He’s having fun.”

Asked about his taped-on beard, Jagr assumes an exaggerated look of innocence.

“What tape?” he asks, then breaks up.

“Oh, I don’t know why I do it,” he says. “We just have fun. With all these practices, you have to have fun sometimes. No one likes to practice, so you must try to have some fun too.”

Pursuing fun and points have been Jagr’s favorite pastimes since he left his native Czechoslovakia in 1990 and joined the Penguins. He has been resoundingly successful on both counts.

Never mind the speed limit on the Parkway, the road leading from Pittsburgh’s airport to his suburban home. Jagr was young, had places to be, things to do, video games to play. His motto was “Speed thrills,” and he was on a first-name basis with more than a few highway patrolmen.

During a contract dispute in 1992, he declared he didn’t consider the Penguins his team anymore, adding, “If they have no money, trade me. I want to be traded where there’s beaches. . . . I don’t need more [Stanley Cup] rings. I just need money and beaches and girls.”

Outrageous? He was. Although calmer now, at 23, and settled in with a five-year, $19.5-million contract and a Pittsburgh home he shares with his mother, he still dances along the line separating charming from childish. Now and then, he leans the wrong way.

Keep an appointment with a reporter? Now? A few words and he’s gone. Another minute of his time the next day? “No,” he says, brushing by.

His failure to score on a breakaway against the Mighty Ducks last week is easily explained.

“It was a lousy stick,” Jagr tells the stick company’s salesman. “Or it was the ice. It was not me.”

He grins. It is all a joke, all in fun. No insult intended.

He can be exasperating, but it’s impossible to dislike him. He’s certainly not mean or malicious, teammates say.

“I don’t think he feels overly comfortable with the language,” linemate Ron Francis says of Jagr’s reluctance to give interviews. “And he’s not one of those guys who likes talking about himself. And don’t forget, he’s only 23.”

One sight of him on the ice, though, and all else is forgotten. Whether it’s the way he uses his long reach and the strength of his chiseled, 6-foot-2, 208-pound body or the deftness of his puck handling, Jagr inspires awe among teammates and foes.

“Jagr is unbelievable,” Mighty Duck Coach Ron Wilson says. “He’s the best one-on-one player in the game now, and maybe ever. You can’t knock him off the puck. Ask anybody who practices against him and they’ll tell you that.

“I was talking to [veteran defenseman] Mike Ramsey not long ago in Detroit, and he was saying the only way you can stop Jagr is by fouling him. He sticks one hand out and he’s so strong, you can’t lift that hand.”

With Mario Lemieux out of the Penguins’ lineup last season because of health problems, Jagr smoothly stepped into Lemieux’s role as the Penguins’ clutch player. He became the first European-trained player to win the NHL scoring title, tying Philadelphia’s Eric Lindros with 70 points from 48 games but winning the championship because he had more goals, 32-29.

With Lemieux back in the lineup, Jagr is scoring at an even faster pace. He has 29 goals--tied with Lemieux for the league lead--and 68 points, tied with Colorado’s Peter Forsberg behind Lemieux in the scoring race, He has recorded at least one point in all but four of Pittsburgh’s 33 games, and on 20 occasions has had at least two points in a game. The Penguins have scored a league-leading 160 goals, an average of 4.85 a game.

Jagr and Lemieux are having a friendly scoring competition, and it’s helping both players reach new heights.

“He’s tough,” Lemieux says. “He’s a great player. That’s why I have to play hard every night.”

What makes Jagr extraordinary is his awareness of the game’s subtleties. He has the rare knack of knowing how to shield the puck with his body, keeping opponents away with a shift of his weight or a thrust of his hip. Jean Beliveau, the majestic center for the Montreal Canadiens, could do that. Lindros, for all his enormous skills, hasn’t added that to his repertoire.

“He’s got everything a hockey player needs,” says Nedved, who plays left wing on the line with Jagr and Francis. “He’s strong, he has great eyes for the game, and he has the talent. He’s got pretty much unlimited potential. If he gets any better than what he is right now, that’s going to be scary. If he gets any better and I ever have to play against him, then I’m going to quit.”

Says Johnston: “Jagr last year emerged as one of the leaders on our club. Mario not being there really helped him. . . . He’s the guy we used to go to in big games, and he never failed us. His leadership was there.”

Jagr shrugs off the suggestion that he thrived under the added responsibilities thrust upon him during Lemieux’s absence.

“No. I don’t enjoy it,” he says. “I don’t feel like I had any of that. I just wanted to go out and play my best. This year, it’s the same like last year.

“I never thought about it [becoming a leader]. But I wasn’t here by myself. There’s so many other good players on this team, Ron Francis and so many other top scorers and the older guys. I don’t feel I was by myself. I don’t think I had any more responsibility. If other people say last year I became more mature, that’s what they say. I cannot say.”

Although he denies feeling burdened last season, he said having Lemieux back has changed his approach.

“Mario is back so I don’t have to do anything,” he says. “That’s why I put the beard on. I play for fun. It’s good for everybody, good for the fans, good for the team. Without him, it was tough to win. With him, things go easier and we score more goals.”

He claims to find English far from easy, although he seems to have a solid grasp of the language. When ESPN broadcaster Gary Thorne recently suggested Jagr’s flowing hair makes him an ideal spokesman for hair care products, Jagr emphatically said he would never do such an advertisement because it would reveal his linguistic shortcomings.

“I don’t like to speak,” he says. “I don’t feel comfortable with it. My English is not good. It’s a new language for me, and I still cannot talk the way I would like to talk.”

Maybe, but his goal scoring speaks eloquently.