Flames ribbing Jagr like he’s ‘one of the guys’

It is the universal sign of acceptance in any hockey locker-room — the chirp.

And the Calgary Flames certainly want Jaromir Jagr to feel welcome, so not even the highest-scoring winger in NHL history is exempt from this friendly fire.

“I feel like more and more guys are taking cracks at him,” said backup goaltender and chatterbox Eddie Lack with a grin. “I usually take one a day, at least.

“I don’t really have a filter, so I just try to be myself around everyone. I mean, obviously (Jagr) has done such a tremendous amount for the sport. But once you get in this room, I just feel like he is one of the guys.” Just one of the guys. That’s precisely how the 45-yearold Jagr wants to be described.

“At first, he was a big presence in our locker-room, and why wouldn’t he be?” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan of Jagr, who returned to action in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks after missing six contests with a groin injury. “But he has a real funloving, positive personality, and the guys are realizing, ‘Hey, this is just a good teammate.’ He wants to win. He cares about the guys. He wants to help out. He’s funny. So the ‘awe’ factor has gone away.

“He doesn’t like the awe part, either. He wants the uncomfortable stuff to get over with and maybe have the boys start ribbing him a little bit. He likes that. Remember, this is a hockey player, right? So he doesn’t want anybody bowing down to him. He wants to get ribbed a little bit, and that’s happening in there now.”

Flames assistant coach Martin Gelinas is credited with an early zinger. The Flames were practising at the Stampede Corral, home of big-league hockey in Calgary until the Saddledome opened in 1983.

The skaters and staff were traipsing toward the ol’ Corral when Gelinas quipped, “Hey Jags, how many games did you play here?” Good one. For any sharp-tongued teammates, Jagr’s age is the most obvious target for a good-natured barb. Lack was boasting after a practice about an old-school pad stack, teasing that No. 68 must recall the days that technique was more prevalent.

A month after Jagr arrived at the Saddledome on a one-year contract, other Flames said they love picking his brain but have yet to deliver any digs.

Defenceman Matt Bartkowski, briefly his teammate with the Boston Bruins and now his neighbour in the Flames locker-room, has a rule of thumb.

“I’ve given a couple to him,” Bartkowski said. “I mean, he’ll give one to me, and then I’ll give one back. But I don’t know if I’d initiate it.”

No problem, because Jagr will dish out the occasional wisecrack, too. After Johnny Gaudreau equalled his career-high with a four-point outburst, the aging superstar casually mentioned that his personal best is seven. He then joked he was benched for the third period that night.

“I always think the good litmus test is when everybody starts yapping each other, and you hear that now,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving said. “When you’re an older guy like Jaromir and the guys are making fun of your age and they’re giving you shots and he’s giving shots back, then you know.” Bartkowski said this is old news. “It’s actually a quick transition. Every guy has a certain bit of awe in him — maybe the older guys not as much — but it takes maybe a day, Jags goes about his business, you talk to him a little bit, he tells a joke, and it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re here to play hockey too, huh?’ It’s not like he’s a god walking in here.” A god, no. But he is a slam-dunk to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, a five-time winner of the NHL’s scoring race and the closest to uncatchable Wayne Gretzky on the all-time point charts.

“We call him The G.O.A.T. here and there,” said Flames alternate captain Troy Brouwer. “We have some good laughs. We give him a little bit of a hard time. He’s just one of the guys.”