After piling through On Frozen Blog's justifiably bitter look back at the Jaromir Jagr era in Washington, I thought it might be a good idea to look back at two pieces I wrote a few years back at Off Wing's predecessor, the now defunct Route 7 Dispatch.
Only a few days after the trade that brought Jagr from Pittsburgh, I wrote, "Jagr Deal May Not Be Trip To The Promised Land For Caps". It hold up pretty well today, with the exception of giving GM George McPhee credit for pulling off the deal. Later, Caps owner Ted Leonsis told me himself that he urged McPhee to make the deal over the GM's own reservations as well as the open objection of Caps President Dick Patrick:
No one player can lead any team to a championship, and for all the noise a trade like this might cause in the short term, over the years it can look far less significant. The real test for Jagr and the rest of the Caps begins in October. From there, the trip to a potential Cup Final in June 2002 will be a long grind -- one that is just as likely to turn on the stick of a Joe Reekie or a Jeff Halpern as that of Jagr.
A little more than six months later, it had all gone bad, in fact, the downside was worse than anyone could imagine:
Just watch him [Jagr] on the ice for a few shifts and you'll get the drift of what I'm saying. When the Caps are in their defensive zone, you'll often see Jagr circling just above the Caps blue line, waiting for a breakout pass that almost never comes.When the Caps do break out of their zone, Jagr will join the rush at a leisurely pace. If the Caps dump the puck in the corner, Jagr won't forecheck. When the Caps turn the puck over, he doesn't backcheck, and seems to take his time getting back to the defensive zone. There, he promptly takes up his circling position above the blue line, again waiting for that breakout pass that never comes.
[...]
[I]f there's one athlete in professional sports right now that most closely resembles Jagr in his style of play, I'd have to say that it has to be Minnesota Vikings wide reciever Randy Moss. Sure, Jagr hasn't demonstrated the same sort of anti-social behavior that Moss seems prone to, but the questionable committment to the game seems to be a commonality. Just as Moss takes plays off, it seems as if Jagr takes shifts off, as if he figures he can turn his immense talent on and off at will like a water faucet.
We all know what happened next: The acquisition of players specifically to support Jagr's game draining funds away from replenishing a depleted and aging blue line; The Easter Sunday playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning; and how it all came apart during a disastrous 2003-04 season.
OFB is right about one thing: The arrival of Alexander Ovechkin has salved the pain mightily, and made memories of Jagr fade more quickly. If anything, I take solace in the hope that long after Jagr has retired to a farm in Kladno, Ovechkin will still be dazzling us in D.C.
