Jagr receives plaque from original team
It took Jaromir Jagr only a couple of seconds to recognize Root Sports play-by-play man Paul Steigerwald after speaking to the media Tuesday morning.
Steigerwald remains one of Jagr’s favorite people in Pittsburgh, and the meeting — whenever Jagr’s current NHL employer, the Florida Panthers, play here — never lacks for laughs.
This one, though, had some seriousness to it. Steigerwald presented Jagr with a plaque, made of the old Civic Arena roof, with Jagr’s No. 68 in big, bold letters.
The gift from the Penguins organization appeared to resonate with Jagr, who joked in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette feature Sunday that his fans here are already dead.
But if there’s one thing that holds true with Jagr, it’s that he appreciated how Pittsburgh welcomed him into the NHL.
“I was just a little kid, 18 years old,” Jagr said. “All the fans and the people in the organization treated me like I was their kid. They knew how tough it was for me. I didn’t speak any English. All the people in the city wanted to make it easy for me.”
One of them was Steigerwald, whose hat Jagr playfully criticized for a second consecutive year.
“You can’t wear that in Florida,” Jagr said.
Jagr’s return, and commemoration, coincided with Sidney Crosby’s 201617 NHL debut. Like everyone who watches hockey, Jagr was amazed at what Crosby did at the World Cup of Hockey and how he resuscitated his season once coach Mike Sullivan took over.
“Last year early in the season, it looked like he was going to have a bad season,” Jagr said of Crosby. “After they changed the coach, I think it helped him a lot. You could see it during the World Cup. He was totally dominating. His line was unstoppable.
“It’s too bad what happened to him with the concussion.
“At the World Cup, he was just dominating.”
Murray backs up Fleury
Crosby wasn’t the only notable returner to the Penguins lineup. Matt Murray served as the backup goaltender to Marc-Andre Fleury.
Murray had been practicing with the team since Oct. 19 and was awaiting the next step in his recovery for a broken hand suffered at the World Cup of Hockey.
Speaking Tuesday following the morning skate, Murray said his broken thumb isn’t 100 percent, but it’s good enough.
Mike Condon, who was backing up Fleury, was scratched along with Tom Sestito and defenseman Kris Letang.
Letang back on ice
Letang returned to practice Tuesday for the first time since getting an upper-body injury seven days ago at Montreal.
Letang said he felt “like crap,” but Sullivan had a different take.
“We’re very encouraged he joined us for practice,” Sullivan said after the team’s game-day skate. “I actually thought he looked really good.”
If all goes well this morning — Letang didn’t play Tuesday night — he could take contact at practice later in the day.
“I literally feel like I haven’t skated for a month,” he said. “My body completely shuts down when I don’t skate. We’ll build it back up now.”
Sheary not cleared
Forward Conor Sheary had an appointment Monday to check his eye injury. It apparently did not go well.
He has not been cleared to play and will be re-evaluated in a week. Sheary, like Letang, was injured a week ago at Montreal.