New Jersey Devils: Jaromir Jagr On The Devils Was A Blast

Jaromir Jagr was a New Jersey Devils player that was fun to watch on the not-so-great teams of 2013-15.

Remember the 2013-15 New Jersey Devils teams? While they may not have been the best teams in franchise history, like not even close, they were still enjoyable to watch. Perhaps most shocking is that our best player on both those teams’ rosters was a guy aged 41. Jaromir Jágr was acquired at the 2013 offseason, attempting to add more veterans. But what he did in his time was so much fun to watch. Here are just a few of his significant highlights with us.

Jagr Ties Mario Lemieux in Goals in a New Jersey Devils OT win vs. the Kings.

While this moment may not feel like a big deal, for us, it’s a great moment for two reasons. First, the scoring didn’t start until the third period in this game between the Devils and Kings. On the New Jersey Devils’ 7th shot of the whole game, Ryan Carter scored on a backhand to put us on the board. It ended up not mattering because the Kings scored 1:05 later with a goal by Justin Williams. The game itself remained tied at one heading into overtime.

In that overtime, Jagr, with help from some passes from Marek Zidlicky, and Dainius Zubrus, beat Ben Scrivens alone in front to win the game in overtime. While Jágr did take off his glove, he never did his signature salute as he does. I don’t think he ever did his salute with us. Jagr passed Mario Lemieux, who was in 9th in all-time goals when this goal happened. The win also gave us our first win against the Kings since Game 5 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals.

Jagr scores his 700th goal in a 6-1 New Jersey Devils Blowout against the New York Islanders.

Scoring 700 goals are such a significant accomplishment for an NHL player. When that player that scores that 700th goal appears to be on your team, you know you’ve witnessed something special. That’s what we got to experience on March 1st, 2014, against the New York Islanders. Four minutes into the second period, Jagr took the puck in the Islanders zone and began to stickhandle the puck. When Jagr took his shot, the puck rolled into the net and passed Evgeni Nabakov. Even though Zubrus could’ve deflected the puck, the goal went to Jagr for his 700th in his career.

But Jagr didn’t stop there, and he also got another point in the game. The New Jersey Devils power play scored four goals in that game. On the third powerplay goal of the game, Jagr set Marek Zidlicky up on a one-timer. After a goal by Mark Fayne, Nabakov was taken out of the game and replaced by Anders Nilsson. Another powerplay goal by Eric Gelinas made it a 6-1 game. That goal ended up being the final goal as the Devils dominated that game and won 6-1.

Jagr Scores His Only New Jersey Devils Hat Trick Against the Flyers

Throughout his entire career, Jagr has scored 16 hat tricks. Ten have been with the Penguins. 2 of them have been with the Capitals. Three of them have been with the Rangers. Jagr’s 16th hat trick came when he was with us. On January 3rd, 2015, the hat trick took place against the Flyers, who was outstanding against them in his career. The first goal came at 6:40 in the first period, where he and Adam Henrique took advantage of a bad Ray Emery giveaway. Jagr’s second goal came with just 4 seconds left of the first period.

After Mark Streit failed to try and control the puck to go to his stick, Jagr took advantage and scored with 4 seconds left. Jagr’s hat trick goal came in the 2nd period with 7:29 left in the period. Scott Gomez went behind the net, looking to pass the puck back to Jagr. Jagr then went to the front of the net, and even though it didn’t look clear, he put the puck in past Steve Mason, who came in for Emery to finish off the hat trick. The New Jersey Devils won the game 5-2 in a Devils game with a hat trick and four fights.