Czech-Out Time for Jagr

Jaromir Jagr is usually so flippant, so gruff, it was startling when his voice choked with emotion as he spoke about the end of an era for Czech hockey.

Jagr set up the Czechs’ second goal Saturday in a 3-0 victory over Russia, allowing them to salvage a bronze medal from a disappointing Olympic tournament.

They’d hoped for better, perhaps a repeat of their stunning triumph in the first Games open to NHL players, in 1998, but goaltender Dominik Hasek’s groin pull in the opener and subsequent withdrawal consigned them to a lesser fate.

Yet, it wasn’t the sorrow of dashed hopes that made Jagr melancholy after he and his teammates had accepted their medals and tossed their sticks and bouquets into the crowd at the Palasport Olimpico.

“Our generation, you know, we’re the same age, 34, 35. Ten, maybe 12 guys on the team, we’ve played on the national team since we were 18, 21, and play together maybe 15 years,” said Jagr, who suffered a minor groin pull during the second period but remained on the bench to prolong his farewell game.

“This is the last tournament for us. We’re not going to play for our country again.”

Jagr, one of six Czechs in the lineup who’d won gold medals at Nagano, paused.

“It’s too much pressure. We lose and they blame us. They blame the old guys again,” he said, smiling.

In truth, he didn’t blame anyone. He praised the Swedes, who routed the Czechs in the semifinal.

“The Swedes were a lot better than us, let’s be honest,” said Jagr, the NHL’s scoring leader and the catalyst in the New York Rangers’ renaissance.

The Czechs (4-4) were better than Russia (5-3) Saturday, leaving Russia without a medal for only the second time since the Soviet Union made its Olympic hockey debut at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in 1956. Russia had previously been out of the medals at Lillehammer in 1994.

Nashville Predator teammates Martin Erat and Marek Zidlicky scored the Czechs’ first two goals, the latter during a power play the Czechs gained when Ilya Kovalchuk elbowed Pavel Kubina in the head. Kubina, of the Tampa Bay Lightning, will be checked today for a possible concussion.

Martin Straka, a Nagano gold medalist, clinched the victory with an empty-net goal with eight seconds to play.

After the Russians were shut out for the second consecutive game, winger Alexei Kovalev said the combination of a tough NHL schedule before the Games and a tough tournament format worked against playing top-notch hockey.

“It used to be that we’d play three games and start the semifinals right away,” he said. “That’s a lot easier. They should come up with some different ideas to make it easier for the NHL players.”

For Russia, shut out in its last two games, it was a long way to go for no medal.

“Any Olympic Games is worth it,” said defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, Jagr’s Ranger teammate. “This is my fourth and, unfortunately, I didn’t get a medal this time, but I have three from the previous times. I hope the guys realize that to win a medal, it’s going to stay with you the rest of your life.”