What a special couple of days it’s been for Jaromir Jagr and all of Pittsburgh.
Jagr, who is second in NHL history with 1,921 points, only trailing The Great One, arrived from the Czech Republic on Thursday.
His four days of celebrations started with a ceremony at City Hall on Friday, followed by an ”Evening with Jaromir Jagr,” where legends like Phil Bourque, Jay Caufield, and Kevin Stevens took part.
On Saturday, Jagr skated with the Penguins at the start of their practice in front of fans at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. And on Sunday, his No. 68 was officially retired.
Jagr played with a bunch of NHL teams after he left the Penguins in 2001, but Pittsburgh will always be his second home.
“There’s no question about it,” Jagr said. “When you ask anybody, I think would say in the world, in Czech or in Europe, and when you say Jaromir Jagr, they’re going to say Pittsburgh Penguins no matter where I played after that.”
It seemed like the ’Ja-gr! Ja-gr!’ chants would never stop while Jagr stood on the podium, waiting to hold his acceptance speech.
But when Jagr eventually reflected on his life and career, he couldn’t help but drop a hilarious line about his girlfriend, Dominika Branisova.
Branisova is a Czech model 23 years younger than him, and Jagr humorously commented on the fact as she was in attendance for the ceremony.
”I would like to thank my girlfriend Dominika…she’s too young to remember that I played for the Penguins…but I told her all the stories, don’t worry!” Jagr said with a laugh.
Jagr’s comment quickly went viral, with everyone finding it absolutely hilarious.
Jagr became the third player to have his number retired by Pittsburgh, joining Michael Briere and his big idol Mario Lemieux.
