While other players sleep, Jagr trains
Late-night workouts help keep 44-year-old forward producing points on ice
Jaromir Jagr, at age 44, could have stayed back at the hotel room and had a nap on Wednesday afternoon.
The Florida Panthers were coming off games in back-to-back nights, and Jagr had logged 19:03 of ice time Tuesday in Montreal.
Instead, the player who is described as “a freak of nature” attended the optional skate held by the Florida Panthers at the Air Canada Centre.
This is a workout fiend, who last Sunday morning posted a Facebook photo of himself at 1:30 a.m. at a gym wearing two weighted vests following a two-assist performance in a 5-4 shootout victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
“Playoffs coming up, so I gotta be ready,” he said on the post, translated from his native Czech. “You know that if you want to be better than the opponent, you have to work when he’s asleep.”
The five-time NHL scoring champ and one-time Hart Trophy winner, who faces the Maple Leafs on Thursday, has been told that he doesn’t even have to practice if he doesn’t want to.
But Jagr feels the harder he works, the better he gets.
Jagr, the oldest active player in the NHL, is evoking comparisons to Gordie Howe, who played a regular shift at age 52; and Chris Chelios, who played until he was 48.
Jagr leads the Panthers with 54 points and he recently passed Howe on the all-time scoring list and is closing in on No. 2 Mark Messier.
Jagr, with his eighth NHL team, is on fire playing on a line with 20-yearold Aleksander Barkov and 22-yearold Jonathan Huberdeau.
Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said the speed of Huberdeau and Barkov allow Jagr to use his head and his body effectively.
“The speed of the guys he’s playing with gives him an opportunity to do what he’s doing,” Babcock said.
It takes a lot to satisfy Jagr.
“I’m never happy because I’m trying to reach my potential.” JAROMIR JAGR NHL’S NO. 3 ALL-TIMER SCORER
“I’m never happy because I’m trying to reach my potential,” Jagr said after the optional practice. “I’m always trying to achieve my maximum, so I’m never going to be happy because it’s impossible to reach.”
Jagr said he’s driven by the fear of embarrassing himself.
“The only way you get tired of hockey is when you don’t work hard enough and get embarrassed,” he said. “Not that the other guys are better than you, but because you didn’t do enough to prepare yourself.”
Maple Leaf forward and former Washington Capital Brooks Laich remembers a few encounters with Jagr prior to joining the Leafs.
“I saw him working without the puck,” Laich said. “I saw him back- checking. Offensive players always work with the puck. I was very impressed with how hard he worked without the puck.”
As a child in what is now the Czech Republic, Jagr worked on his dad’s farm about eight to 10 kilometres from his home in Kladno. His father took a bike to the farm. Jaromir ran.
When he was 7, Jagr began doing 1,000 squats every day. Once he got to the NHL, he wore five-pound ankle weights and strapped on a 45-pound weight vest during workouts.
Jagr doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol or take vitamins. A single man, Jagr prefers going to the gym when his teammates are out for post-game dinner and drinks.
At 6-foot-3 and 218 pounds, Jagr has a big body and great reach. He also has the hands and mind of an elite player.
“Obviously as a young man, he was a super superstar,” Babcock said. “Now at the age he is, he’s still a real good player.”
Maple Leafs forward Brad Boyes, who played with Jagr last season in Florida, was asked if at age 33 he sees himself playing into his 40s.
“I do not. Not at this level,” Boyes said.
“Mentally, it’s a grind to play that many games,” Boyes said. “And physically to be able to do the workout routines, and the travel, and take the bumps and bruises you get and to keep up with the speed . . . he’s a freak.”
Maple Leaf forward and fellow countryman Milan Michalek has played international hockey with Jagr.
“Sometimes he goes on the ice in the middle of the night,” Michalek said. “He just wakes up and says he’s not tired so he’ll go and train.”
Maple Leaf forward P.A. Parenteau, who turns 33 on March 24, said hockey is witnessing something special.
“I don’t think any of us will be playing at that age,” Parenteau said. “He’s still putting up great numbers too. At 44, it’s kind of crazy.”