Jagr ties Dionne at No. 4 with 731st NHL goal
For the past eight games, Florida Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr entered each with a chance to reach a pretty significant goal in his career. He had been sitting on 730 career goals, with his next tally tying him with Los Angeles Kings legend Marcel Dionne for fourth all time on the NHL’s scoring list. In each of those eight games, however, Jagr came out with a big goose egg in the goal category.
The drought ended Thursday night, though, as the future Hall of Famer made a little more NHL history. Jagr actually had to wait a little longer than expected, though. Thursday night’s game in Sunrise, Florida, was delayed around 10 minutes or so due to the necessary paramedics not being in the arena yet. Apparently because of a local traffic accident, the paramedics weren’t in position, so the referees sent both teams back to their dressing rooms after they all came out to start the game.
When the delay ended, Jagr wasted no time in ending the drought and giving his club a 1-0 lead.
The 43-year-old scored the historic goal with a picture-perfect midair redirection of defenseman Dmitry Kulikov‘s point shot just 51 seconds into the game.
It’s certainly not the prettiest goal The Legend ever scored, but it got the job done.
Jagr is now just 10 goals away from matching Brett Hull for third on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list. He may not catch the next two guys ahead of Hull, though. Gordie Howe ranks second all-time with 801 goals. Wayne Gretzky is the record holder with 894 NHL goals.
In addition to those goal milestones, Jagr getting on the board Thursday night puts him at 1,823 points in his career. That’s 27 away from Howe for third all-time.
Considering Jagr’s years spent playing in the KHL, his production over his career remains remarkable. The fact he already has nine goals and 21 points this season despite inching closer to 44 years old (his birthday is in February) just makes Jagr’s performance all the more impressive. He might be the closest thing this generation has to Howe, who played until he was 51 years old.
Let’s hope No. 68 has the juice to play a few more years. He’s still got it.
Jaromir Jagr moved into fourth all-time on the NHL’s goals list. (USATSI)
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