It was one of Jagr’s ‘a star is born’ moments from that incredible run. He went on to become one of the greatest players in NHL history, with the Penguins set to celebrate his legendary career by retiring his No. 68 on Sunday. Lange won’t be attending the festivities in person, but he’ll be watching from home, smiling like a butcher’s dog the entire time.
“I loved him to death,” Lange said. “I think he’s one of the greatest players ever to play the game, without question. We were so blessed to be able to have him here.”
During the early years of Jagr’s career, he sat next to Lange on the Penguins team bus.
“He was a young player; rookies are all forced to the front. I was like, four back, on the right, sitting on the aisle or whatever. He came in, and he said, ‘Can I sit over there?’ I said, ‘Sure you can.’ So, he jumped in there and he was there,” Lange recalled.
“We started talking, just short stuff. You don't say too much, just a couple of things. The next time, he came back, he says, ‘Let me get in there!’ Then we just kind of got used to it. He would ask me things, and I could help him a little bit with his English. Then I’d ask him the dumbest questions to get him to kind of open up and talk. It just kind of built as a friendship.”
Lange enjoyed his time alongside the charismatic Czech, calling Jagr “an incredibly intelligent man, very sharp. People don’t know that. He’s really good at math,” Lange said. But it turns out that Jagr also had a way with words, in addition to numbers.
One day, out of the blue, he asked if he could give Lange a saying to use on the air, which became a whole process as Jagr strived to come up with the perfect phrase.
“This went on really for the last half of a season, then we got into the second one, and he said, ‘I'm still working, I’m still working!’” Lange said. “Finally, months after he first asked, he said, ‘I think I got it, I think I got it!’ He was so excited.”
And rightfully so, as all of the workshopping paid off.
“He says, he smoke him like a bad cigar! He started laughing and laughing, and I went whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He said again, ‘He smoked him like a bad cigar!’ Then he just started howling,” Lange recalled. “I said it to myself, then he started laughing again. I said, ‘Jags, I think it'll work. But you got to do me a favor. You got to write it down for me in Czech, because I'm gonna try it in Czech.’”
Lange had plenty of opportunities to use it over the years, as he called hundreds of Jagr goals during the first 11 seasons of his 24-year career, which were played with the Penguins after Pittsburgh selected him fifth overall in the 1990 NHL Draft.
“I saw him score some great, great goals. He's a great passer, too. But I remember after the first playoff series against New Jersey, the first year – I can remember (Devils defenseman) Ken Daneyko, he said, ‘Where did they get this guy?’ He was just like, blown away.”
Lange had asked that same question a few months earlier to Craig Patrick, the Penguins general manager at the time, after seeing Jagr play for the first time in an exhibition game in Pittsburgh. Well, almost the same.
“I said, where in the hell did you get this guy? I was just dumbfounded the first time I saw him,” Lange said. “Going into the corner with speed, going to the net… I was just overwhelmed, like, could not believe what I was seeing.”
Having a player leave that sort of first impression in their first shifts in the National Hockey League was rare for Lange during his decades-long career. Before Jagr, the only other time Lange experienced that was with Pierre Larouche, the eighth overall pick in 1974. That doesn’t take anything away from the likes of Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby; it’s just that Larouche and Jagr – “who blew Larouche off the map when I saw him” – had such a wow factor from the first glance.
In addition to his tremendous skill, Jagr is just so big and powerful, with an incredible amount of lower-body strength. His puck-protection ability is unrivaled by any other player in the history of the league.
“They listed him at 6-2, 219-220. He came to me one time and said, ‘Oh, man, don't tell them I weigh 240!’” Lange said. “I mean, that's how big he was. All the hair, too… I think of him as a gladiator in Rome, bringing him out to the center of the arena to take care of everybody.”
Ed Olczyk, who had a stint as the Penguins TV color analyst before moving from the booth to the bench to be Pittsburgh’s head coach from 2003-05, remembers Lange’s reaction to some Jagr magic one night against Washington.
“He almost fell out of the booth when Jags just walked around two or three guys, fought off five guys, and just took the puck around and jammed it home,” Olczyk laughed.
Speaking of home, when Jagr first arrived in Pittsburgh, he was the first European player to play for the team and quickly grew homesick for his loved ones. “His family meant the world to him,” Lange said.
Patrick traded for Czech player Jiri Hrdina to help Jagr feel more comfortable, which he’s said saved his hockey life. Over the years, more Czech players entered the fold, with Jagr eventually moving to a new seat on the bus to hold court with that group.
“We had four, five, six Czech players at one time, they all spoke Czech to each other, and honest to God, you just would laugh,” Lange said. “They would be on each other in the Czech language, just like you would in the locker room. Guys are picking on each other, and Jagr’s leading the way. I laughed so hard when I didn't even know what the hell they were saying, just because they were laughing. He has a way of sparking some discussions and getting laughs out of people.”
You could hear the smile in Lange’s voice as he thought about everything Jagr accomplished during his days in black and gold, which will be getting the recognition they deserve in just a few days time.
“He’s won five scoring championships, I mean, seriously. Seriously, Pittsburgh. Are you spoiled with what you’ve had here? My God,” he said with a good-natured chuckle. “You give everything you have to try and do well for a team. He certainly did that and more while he was here, and I can't say enough nice things about how much of a thrill it was to watch him play here.”
