BROOKLYN–The Florida Panthers meet the New York Islanders for the second time this season and the first time in the Barclay Center, where the Islanders relocated to after abandoning the Nassau County Coliseum on Long Island, their home since entering the NHL in 1972. The Panthers won the first meeting 2-1 on Nov. 27 in a shootout that saw an NHL record nine straight shooters score. Aleksander Barkov’s effort proved to be the margin of victory.
December became an even bigger challenge for Florida with news from Cats On the Prowl that center Nick Bjugstad will miss several more games with his “upper body” injury being migraines and possibly a concussion. Compounding the situation at center is the ailing right leg of Derek MacKenzie, who left Saturday’s game with Boston and is day-to-day with a knee injury.
As for the rest of team at least four players are recovering from flu-like symptoms and are expect to play. Jaromir Jagr is among those four and linemate Barkov was also stricken. Their endurance should be a concern late in the game. Dave Bolland, Reilly Smith and Vincent Trocheck are also stricken. Counting injured players, that makes seven of the 12 Panthers top forwards at less than peak form for tonight’s game.
One thing is certain: Jagr has 731 and the next one will break a tie with Marcel Dionne for fourth all-time. For a period of time the former Red Wing and King was the second all time leading goal scorer. Read his comments on Jagr at nhl.com.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=792464&cmpid=nhl-twt
No team has felt the wrath of Jagr’s talents more than the Islanders, who were frequently on the schedule for five of his previous seven NHL stops, a list including Pittsburgh, Washington, New York Rangers, Philadelphia and New Jersey.
One of those mile marker goals, #700, came against the Islanders.
The Panthers are a point behind Tampa Bay after Lightning struck twice in their 2-1 win over Columbus Monday night. TBL has played 31 games to Florida’s 30 and both teams play tonight.
Assorted Jagr-related links:
Florida Panthers 2015-16 Media Guide
http://panthers.nhl.com/v2/ext/Florida201516MediaGuide_web.pdf
Florida Panthers Team website: http://www.floridapanthers.com
Some Jagr-related social media accounts:
@68Jagr This is the real site, the one and only official Jaromir Jagr twitter account. Postings are rare.
The two best Jagr facebook pages are: https://www.facebook.com/68Jagr/ This is the page Jagr posts on, if he is going to post at all.
Another good facebook page is one produced by someone in the Czech Republic. It has more than 100,000 likes. This is not the official page, but it is very good.
https://www.facebook.com/JaromirJagrfan/?fref=nf
@FlaPanthers and @FLAPanthersPR The official twitter accounts for news about the team.
@dougielarge Doug Cifu, few owners in sports relate to the fans as much as this man who interacts with fans and media on twitter.
@goldieonice — Steve Goldstein, TV play-by-play of the Panthers. Brings all those exciting highlights to life.
@DenisPotvinFox — NHL Hall of Famer Denis Potvin works along side Goldstein in the booth.
@HeyRedDeer color man Randy Moller who left the radio booth to help Goldstein and Potvin on TV.
@GeorgeRichards Panthers beat writer for the Miami Herald.
@HFialkov Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel
@AntwanStaley Includes Panthers coverage in his all sports all the time reports
@Cats0ntheprowl twitter for Cats On the Prowl, offering detailed reviews of Panthers games and more.
@SunshineSkate twitter for The Sunshine Skate, another blog with special emphasis on advanced stats and charts that will make you dizzy.
@Zdenek_Janda US-based Czech reporter who covers the NHL and reports on other news for the people of the Czech Republic.
@Jsmidcro Jan Smid was a US-based Czech reporter who collaborated on “Jagr”, an autobiography in the late 90’s detailing Jagr’s early life and career in the NHL.
@NHLHistoryGirl This hockey loving woman shares interesting informational tidbits about hockey and the NHL in general. How does she do it?
@MyRegularFace She’s another gem. Watches lots of games and gets up GIFs faster than nhl.com or anyone else out there.
@KrRutherford Kristina Rutherford wrote a great article for Canada’s sportsnet magazine.
Nigel Buchanan, whose superhero treatment of Jagr in his art for sportsnet magazine is one of the many efforts he has on display at http://www.nigelbuchanan.com.
Quant Hockey: Career stats updated game by game by a hockey lover in Europe. Site enables you to find career leaders in any offensive category by clicking on the category you are researching.
http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/nhl-players-all-time-points-leaders.html
@rytiriKladno The Kladno Hockey Club: Before coming to the NHL Jagr played for this team in the Czech league as a teenager. Now he owns the team. It’s in Czech but some devices can translate to English. Follow them at:
@HockeyCzech National organization for hockey in the Czech Republic.
@68isgr8 is the twitter for The Traveling Jagrs. Clad in different Jagr jerseys and hair styles from 68’s career, they gained league-wide recognition when they caught Jagr’s attention during a pre-game skate of a Dallas Stars game in Canada during the 2012-2013 season. Since then, they convene at games in Western Canada and make a road trip or two every year, playing street hockey with locals, posing for hundreds of pictures, and having a good time with fans while honoring an all-time NHL legend.
https://twitter.com/search?q=traveling%20jagrs&src=savs.
Ray Haluska aka Kladno Jagr, curator of the Jagr-O-Meter
