Jagr on injured reserve, will miss at least 3 games

DONNA SPENCER

CALGARY — First delay and now interruption has grounded Jaromir Jagr’s launch as a Calgary Flame.

A lower-body injury sustained in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild put the 45-year-old rightwinger on injured reserve.

Playing on Calgary’s top line alongside Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau, Jagr broke his stick attempting a shot on the Wild net in the first period.

Jagr then skated to the bench, walked down the tunnel to the dressing room and did not return to the game.

“It’s something soft tissue,” Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan said Monday.

A player on injured reserve is ineligible to play games for a minimum seven days, so Jagr will be scratched for at least three games.

Calgary (4-4) has back-to-back road games Tuesday in Nashville and Wednesday in St. Louis before facing Dallas at home Friday.

Jagr has two assists in five games for the Flames.

Second only to Wayne Gretzky in all-time NHL scoring with 1,914 points, Jagr didn’t participate in Calgary’s training camp.

He agreed to a one-year US$1million contract three days before the regular season for his first foray into a Canadian NHL market.

Jagr asked for patience to get his game in order and sat out Calgary’s first three games to give himself more training time.

“He pushed himself real hard to get up and ready,” Gulutzan said. “You look at his career. He hasn’t been out too, too much.”

Jagr is 52 games from passing Gordie Howe for the most NHL games played in a career (1,767).

The Flames recalled centre Mark Jankowski from the Stockton Heat on Monday.

The 23-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., was Calgary’s first-round draft pick, 21st overall, in 2012.