(The last two days have produced many interesting articles relating to Jaromir Jagr turning 44 on Monday. Check out yesterday’s edition if you want to see more).
SUNRISE–When it comes to birthday cakes, they make some nice cakes in South Florida.
When it comes to hockey, the first-place Florida Panthers play some exciting hockey. They ended a two-game losing streak by claiming victory in their sixth straight game decided by a shootout, 2-1 over the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night at BB&T Center.
The Jaromir Jagr birthday party featured a hard-skating evening of tense hockey. Nick Bjugstad scored in the first period and that goal stood up until Chris Kunitz scored at 16:31 of the third period. The teams skated through a scoreless overtime to force a shootout.
The Panthers got goals from Nick Bjugstad and Jussi Jokinen in the shootout while Sidney Crosby scored the Penguins only goal. Backup goalie Al Montoya stopped 31 of 32 shots then turned aside attempts by shootout stud Kris Letang and Phil Kessel, Kunitz and Matt Cullen.
From a perseverence perspective, it was an all-in effort by Florida who played without five injured players including first-line center Aleksander Barkov and top-four defensemen Willie Mitchell and Eric Gudbranson. Coach Gerard Gallant reset the lines and the team responded to the new configuration.
It was the third and final game of the season between the two teams, all decided beyond regulation. The Panthers victory prevented a Penguins sweep of the season series.
The win raised Florida’s record to 33-18-6 as they extended their division lead to five points over the Detroit Red Wings, who lost to the New York Islanders Monday afternoon.
No points for Jagr in this game but he’ll trade that for a win, the ultimate goal in a team game.
Highlights can be seen at nhl.com:
These photos are some of the dozens from Monday night’s game courtesy of nhl.com
The Panthers are idle until Thursday when they host the San Jose Sharks at BB&T Center. Tickets for that and future Florida games can be secured at panthers.nhl.com.
Updated Jagr-O-Meter:
As part of the birthday celebration, a collection of photos, some with humorous captioning, showed up on the internet Monday and we present some of them here.
One of the great delights of Jagr has been his thoughts on life and hockey. One writer assembled his five favorite Jagr quotes:
http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/960166
The Hockey News rates the best players over 40…
Assorted Jagr-related links:
Thanks for visiting JAGRometer.com, home of the Jagr-O-Meter, tracking Jaromir Jagr since he returned to the NHL from Russia. Subscribe free and get the latest edition as soon as it is released. Please share with your friends.
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, but worth the wait. Jagr has been more active on Twitter this season.
The two best Jagr facebook pages are:
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.
The article was shared by Sportsnet on Dec. 20, 2015.
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
https://twitter.com/CruisingRay or email ROKINRAY@AOL.COM
jagrometer 