Mark Madden: Jaromir Jagr's larger-than-life accomplishments helped shape Penguins' history

The Pittsburgh Penguins retire Jaromir Jagr’s No. 68 on Feb. 18 before their game against Los Angeles at PPG Paints Arena. Let’s prepare with refreshing Jagr notes. Big hair, big backside, big stats, larger than life.

• Jagr’s biggest moment as a Penguin: Beating No. 1 seed New Jersey nearly singlehandedly in the first round of the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs despite playing on a bad groin. The Penguins were struggling financially. The resulting windfall might have saved them.

• I spoke with Jagr after he tied Game 6 late, then won it in overtime. Me: “Jags, are you OK?” Jagr: “(Bleep), no, I’m not OK. Look at my leg.” A huge bruise was visible. Jagr assisted twice in Game 7 at New Jersey. A triumph of the will.

• Runner-up for Jagr’s biggest moment as a Penguin: Pulling the puck off the left half-wall and stickhandling through a bunch of Chicago Blackhawks before launching a backhand that tied Game 1 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Final with 4 minutes, 55 seconds left in regulation. Mario Lemieux won it with 13 seconds remaining.

• Jagr led the NHL in scoring for four consecutive seasons from 1997-2001. Wayne Gretzky won seven scoring titles in a row. Jagr, Phil Esposito and Gordie Howe each earned the Art Ross Trophy in four straight campaigns. Fast company.

• Jagr won five scoring titles, all with the Penguins. That’s one more than Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined.

• Between 1992-2001, Jagr and Lemieux combined to win nine of 10 scoring titles. They made the Art Ross Trophy property of the Penguins.

• Jagr is the oldest NHL player to get a hat trick. He did it at 42.

• Jagr, now 51, is still skating in the Czech pro league. He owns Kladno, the team he plays for.

• Jagr has played professional hockey for as many years as Crosby has been alive.

• Jagr has played hockey so long that he skated against the Soviet Union in the 1990 World Junior Championships. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.

• Jagr dropped to the fifth pick in the 1990 NHL draft because he told the four teams drafting ahead of the Penguins that he didn’t plan to play in the NHL anytime soon. Those teams were fooled, and Jagr realized his dream of being Lemieux’s teammate.

• When Jagr was 12, he played for an under-18 team. He had 41 points in 34 games.

• When Jagr was 14, he played for an under-20 team. He had 70 points in 30 games.

• Jagr and Keith Tkachuk were both drafted in 1990. Jagr was later teammates in Calgary with Tkachuk’s son Matthew.

• Jagr wore No. 68 to commemorate the Soviet Union’s 1968 invasion of his home nation, then called Czechoslovakia. (He still does.)

• Jagr is a pure mercenary. He played three seasons in Siberia, where the Soviet Union’s Communist regime had previously sent people to punish them. Jagr went there for a reported $9 million per year, tax-free.

• Jagr scored 766 career NHL goals. Had he played those three seasons in the NHL, not Siberia, he might have come close to Gretzky’s NHL career record of 894. (But probably not. Jagr scored 25 and 19 goals in the seasons on either side of his KHL adventure. His peak production was behind him.)

• Jagr has not been kind to Gretzky. His Czech team eliminated Gretzky’s Canada in the semifinals of the 1998 Olympics, the first time NHL players participated. It was Gretzky’s only Olympic appearance. (The Czechs went on to win gold.) Jagr scored in overtime to beat Gretzky’s New York Rangers in Gretzky’s last professional game at the end of the 1998-99 season.

• Jagr assisted Lemieux’s last goal before Lemieux retired (for the first time) in 1997. He assisted Lemieux’s first goal when he came back in 2000.

• Jagr would get a key to his team’s practice rink, skating and working out at odd hours.

• Jagr’s likeness has been used on money in the Czech Republic.

• A group of fans from Calgary wearing mullet wigs and Jagr’s various jerseys traveled around North America to see him play near the end of his NHL career. This season, “The Traveling Jagrs” reunited and went to the Czech Republic to see Jagr play for Kladno. They plan to be at Jagr’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Which can’t happen till Jagr is retired for three years.)

• Jagr celebrated goals with a salute for part of his career. He lifted that celly from Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis, who called his the “Mile High Salute.”

• Play hockey like Jagr. But not blackjack. I saw him hit 13 against a dealer’s 5. “It’s all luck and how I feel,” Jagr said. (That was true on that hand. Jagr won.)