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Florida Panthers: It’s Jagr Time In South Florida; Roberto Luongo Joins Hockey Central To Talk Playoffs

By Ryan Price |

During Jaromir Jagr‘s time in New Jersey, he went from performing on the first line to becoming a main-stray on the third line. The 43-year old forward did not like this. A week before the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline, he opened up on the subject:

“Why does the world turn this way all the time,” Jagr asked turning his finger in a counter-clockwise motion. “I don’t know. I didn’t create this world. I wish it would go the other way sometimes. You get younger. Why is gravity keeping us on this Earth? That’s the way it is. It’s part of the life and I don’t mind it. It just makes you open up a little bit. Sometimes it’s good when it happens like that. You don’t want it to happen, but if you learn from it, you don’t take things easy.”

Although the future hall-of-fame forward did not specify if he would be traded before the Trade Deadline or not, it was evident that his time as a Devil was coming to an end.

Enter the Florida Panthers.

It is no secret that the Panthers have had trouble scoring goals more often than not. They have finish amongst the bottom of the league standings year after year, in addition to finishing in the bottom five in goals scored and power play percentage.

Aside from 2011-12, when the Panthers put together a team of veterans through free agency and went on to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, of course.

Therefore, the Panthers’ went out to aquire a player that, alongside Mario Lemieux, fought against them as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1996. Jaromir Jagr has just transformed a Florida team that was struggling throughout their playoff push into a team that now treats every game like Game 7 of a playoff series.

All of the Panthers changes can be strongly noted to the change of one category: goal scoring.

Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers /

Florida Panthers

In the nine games before Jagr’s arrival, the Panthers had only scored 11 goals during that time. In the nine games that Jagr has played in following the trade? They have scored 26 goals.

Placed on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, Jagr has really helped out both of those young players with their games. In return, Jagr’s game has never been better since he returned to the NHL a few years ago after a three year stint in the KHL.

Since he arrived in Florida, Jagr has seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) in the nine games he has played in. During the same amount of time, Huberdeau has 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists) and Barkov has five points (3 goals, 2 assists).

Panthers’ goaltender Roberto Luongo praised Jagr heavily after Thursday’s game vs. Detroit.

“He’s been great since he’s been here, brings a different dynamic to our group of forwards,” Luongo said. “Their line creates a ton of chances and that makes them hard to defend.”

Not only has the addition of Jaromir Jagr helped the goal-scoring department, but it has also helped improve the team’s overall effort night in, night out.

The past three games have displayed the best of the Florida Panthers, with the team simply dominating the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadians, and the Detroit Red Wings while outshooting all three teams by a combined shot total of 114.

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Against the New York Rangers, the Panthers had 98 shot attempts (CF), which is the most that the Rangers have allowed since 2002-03 when the stat was first starting to be tracked. For those who wish to know, the Rangers had 52 shot attempts (CF) against the Cats.

While the team lost those first two games, they managed to work hard throughout all three teams and outplay the opposition throughout a full sixty minutes. The team was finally rewarded for their hard work with a 3-1 regulation win against the Red Wings, in which they welcomed Roberto Luongo with open arms back from injury after missing six games.

“Nice to see [Luongo] come back in the net and he played a great game,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “When you play well and work hard, you get some breaks. We had a couple of goal posts (by Detroit shooters), but that’s from working hard and when you do the right things.”

With Jagr scored a goal and an assist against Detroit on Thursday night, the Red Wings couldn’t resist complimenting Jaromir and what he is doing at 43 years of age:

“A good player, eh?” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “How many years did he leave the League? Three years? Just think what he would have scored. He’s got to be one of the greatest players of all time. When you think about it, at his age, doing what he’s done … people thought he was done a long time ago. He’s obviously not done.”

As for Jaromir? As Brandon Pirri finished off a play that could have resulted in another goal for Jagr, he could not help to smile at how well his new teammates have been playing.

“It’s OK,” Jagr said with a big smile. “They’re still young. … Me too. I’ve got a lot of games left.”

Since he now sits all alone in 5th place all time in goals scored, he might have a lot of games left to play in the NHL.

Roberto Luongo Joins Hockey Central

After missing six games with an upper-body injury, Roberto Luongo returned to the nets and stopped 26 out of 27 shots to propell his team to a 3-1 decision over the Detroit Red Wings. On Friday afternoon, Luongo joined Jeff Marek and the rest of Hockey Central to discuss the playoff race, the night him and Montoya suffered their injuries, and how himself and Jaromir Jagr keep their hair conditioned, amongst other topics.

Following Roberto Luongo’s return, the team sent Sam Brittain down to the AHL. He will play behind San Antonio’s temporary starting goalie Michael Houser.

Dan Ellis played great for the Panthers in Luongo’s absence, going 3-2-1 with a .922 SV% and a 2.13 GAA. He will remain up in the NHL as the team’s backup netminder until Al Montoya is ready to comeback from his injury.

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Next: Panthers Need Wins Over Boston, Ottawa To Make Playoff Run

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