As expected, the Pittsburgh crowd greeted Jaromir Jagr with hostility as he and Max Talbot made their returns to Pittsburgh. In the end, it was Jagr who got the last laugh as the Flyers defeated the Penguins 4-2, moving the Flyers into a first place tie with the New York Rangers before their outdoor matchup at Citizens Bank Park on January 2nd.
To start the game, the crowd was loud and the arena shook with noise. The emotion throughout Consol Energy Center was palpable as the building rocked with cheers of “Let’s go Pens”, sang in unison with 18,000+ fans.
Then he took the ice.
Number 68 in orange and black, Jaromir Jagr, jumped over the boards and the cheers went to boos. The unforgivable, Barry Bonds-esque hatred lasted for only about thirty seconds before Tyler Kennedy made a beautiful pass to setup Jordan Staal for the first goal of the game. Just 44 seconds into the game, the Penguins struck first and Staal had a goal for the third straight game.
The Penguins gained momentum off the goal and were given a chance to extend their lead when Scott Hartnell fell into Marc-Andre Fleury and was sent off for goaltender interference. The powerplay, as it has for most of the year, did not amount to anything and before the Penguins realized, the momentum had shifted over to the Flyers. After James Neal went off for tripping, Kimo Timonen scored his first regular season goal since April 9th of last season to tie the game at one.
Then, six minutes into the second period, Jaromir Jagr, with the boos cascading down on him, took the puck over the blue line, backed off Brooks Orpik before blistering a backhand past Fleury. The crowd erupted into jeers and boos as Jagr laughed with his teammates while giving his signature, slow salute to a Pens’ fan in front. The villain returned to the place where he had once been a hero, only to antagonize them with the same goal celebration he had used to make them smile. From there, the crowd went into a shell which created a feeling of carelessness when Matt Read scored to extend the lead to 3-1, 16 minutes into the second.
Two years ago, Jaromir Jagr told an eastern European news outlet that he “owed everything to Mario Lemieux” and that he “would come back to play for the Penguins for minimum wage if they asked.” When Jagr announced he would return from the KHL over the summer, the Penguins offered a contract of $2 million. The other candidates were the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens who had similar offers to the Penguins. Instead, Jagr signed with the Flyers for $3.3 million, ensuring he would never be welcomed back to Pittsburgh again. Jagr told the press he thought he would have a more prominent position on the Flyers and that the decision was not made due to monetary reasons.
Yet, at the end of the day, Jagr had signed away his chance to play on the wing to Evgeni Malkin or, potentially, Sidney Crosby; his chance of having his jersey retired next to Mario Lemieux and Michel Briere. So far, he’s been extremely productive on the first line with Scott Harnell and Claude Giroux, racking up 31 points including his 12th goal tonight. Whether or not he made the right decision is irrelevant to Pens’ fans who were burned already in the early 2000’s when Jagr seemingly quit on the franchise after they could not afford to give him more money.
For the first half of the third period, the game was hardly back-and-forth. The crowd was subdued and the clock seemed to tick effortlessly to the end. Then, with just over nine minutes remaining in the game, Evgeni Malkin wired a pass to Tyler Kennedy whose slapshot tipped off of a stick and went top shelf on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky who was filling in for the struggling Ilya Bryzgalov. The crowd erupted as the Penguins found themselves back into game. With over four minutes remaining in the game, the Penguins were given a powerplay after the Flyers had too many men on the ice. But, as they have done all month long, the Penguins squandered their chance with the man advantage during the most critical time of the game. The Flyers killed the penalty and with 25 seconds remaining, former Stanley Cup hero, Max Talbot, scored on an empty netter from center ice just as he did in game 3 against the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals. In what was one of the most anticipated games all season for Penguins fans, the contest ended as a nightmare. Sweet revenge will have to wait, for now.
- The Flyers are 4-0 against the Penguins at Consol Energy Center.
- Malkin’s assist on Kennedy’s goal extended his score streak to nine games.
- The Penguins visit the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
- If the Pens finish their game in regulation on Saturday, it will be the first time since January of 2004 that the Penguins played an entire month (more than 5 games) without having a game go into overtime.
Photo courtesy of Pens Labrinth
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