"There aren't many players I've ever seen who can hold the puck the way he does. He's really physically strong and -- even now, at 44, almost 45 -- you think he's going to be checked, he comes out of the corner and you think a guy is going to poke the puck off his stick, but it never happens."
Many of those qualities were on display on the goal that Bowman, and many others, can't forget, during the 1992 Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks, when Jagr was 20. Five minutes remained in Game 1 and Pittsburgh trailed by a goal late in the third period when Jagr picked off a Brent Sutter outlet pass and skated to the half-boards where, with his back to the wall, he was surrounded by three Blackhawks. He slid the puck between Sutter's legs and elastically oozed past him, extending his arm and stick to their full lengths to gather the puck back in again at the faceoff dot and, in the same motion, immediately swept it to his backhand, which left the oncoming defenseman Frantisek Kucera checking only air. Jagr took three strong strides through the slot, maneuvering around the roadblock created by teammate Shawn McEachern, who had tied up Igor Kravchuk trying to get at Jagr. Then, from 15 feet out, he ripped a backhander past Ed Belfour to tie the game.
One of his heroes and mentors, Mario Lemieux, who scored the game-winning goal in the final seconds of regulation, called it "the greatest goal I've ever seen." All these years later, it would still be a candidate for that honor.
How about sustained superiority? For four consecutive seasons (1997-98 to 2000-01), Jagr led the NHL in scoring. Only Wayne Gretzky (who did it eight straight years), Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Jagr have accomplished that.
Jagr had already shared the scoring title in 1994-95 with Eric Lindros, and he nearly won it again in 2005-06 when he finished with 123 points (and 54 goals, both Rangers records), two behind San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton.
Can we talk about his dedication? The countless hours he spent improving his shot, using weighted sticks and forcing backup goalies to stay long after practice while he fired pucks at them? How about his regular midnight phone calls to his strength coach, beckoning him to the gym for workouts? Or his flipping on the lights at the practice rink while the rest of the world is asleep to skate solo? Or his mentoring of players like Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Jakub Voracek in Philadelphia, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau in Florida and Petr Prucha in New York.
And then there's the love for a player who largely has been one of hockey's most popular figures.