SUNRISE, Fla. _ Iconic forward Jaromir Jagr used his butt to make history, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Florida Panthers from repeating their ugly history against the Boston Bruins and their impenetrable goalie Tuukka Rask.
Trailing 2-0 with 6:40 left in the third period, defenseman Mike Matheson's shot from straightaway struck Jagr in the NHL's most famous posterior before Aleksander Barkov swooped in for the rebound. Barkov's ninth goal gave Jagr point No. 1,888 to surpass Mark Messier into second place all-time but still far behind Wayne Gretzky's 2,857 points.
However, David Backes' late, empty-net goal off another Panthers' turnover sealed a 3-1 loss to mute the postgame celebration of Jagr's magical feat Thursday night at the BB&T Center.
Messier was invited to attend, but wisely chose to spend Christmas with his family than witness the first 54 minutes of this clunker. After the game was halted and Panthers FSN-TV analyst Randy Moller presented Jagr with a golden stick at center ice, both Messier and Gretzky congratulated him on his achievement via video-board tributes.
Jagr sheepishly told Moller that it wasn't the prettiest assist of his certain Hall of Fame career, as it, "hit me in the a--."
"I played with so many great players starting in Pittsburgh ... but I want to thank (the Boston players) and the fans," Jagr mumbled.
Jagr's climb to the top of hockey's Mt. Rushmore began in 1990 at 18 and shows no signs of slowing down at soon-to-be 45.
"I love the game and I don't mind to work hard to try to get better every day," Jagr said after morning skate. "I always believe I could get better than I was yesterday. It doesn't matter how old you are."
Rask, who may as well be a minority owner of the Panthers, finished with 29 saves to improve to a ridiculous 18-3-1 against Florida, including 3-0 this season. The Bruins are 16-2-1 in their last 19 get-togethers with the Panthers.
For the fourth time this season the Panthers failed to win three games in a row, as they fell to 1-1 on this critical five-game holiday homestand that continues Friday night against the well-rested Red Wings.
More significantly, the Panthers (35 points) blew an opportunity to gain ground on the third-place Bruins (39) in the bunched-up Atlantic Division.
As Jagr, the great Czech philosopher said earlier: "There are a lot of games left, but it's a huge game, a division game. They're a very good team and we have to play better than we played last game."
Instead the Panthers inexplicably came out as if weighed down by a vat of Egg-nog at the start of the first two periods. They survived an early 6-0 shot onslaught in the opening frame before outshooting Boston 12-2, but were thrilled to remain scoreless after Backes missed a wide-open net from a foot away that he would atone for later.
They weren't so lucky in a flat middle period in which they were outshot 16-5, that included two perfect set-ups from Torey Krug for goals. First, Frank Vatrano's slot-shot zipped through James Reimer's five-hole at 2:09. Vatrano, 22, called up from Providence (AHL) on Monday, scored a goal in his first game of the season.
Just 3:04 later, a lazy penalty on Seth Griffith gave the Bruins their second power play. Despite being ranked 29th, they wasted no time against Florida's third-ranked PK in taking a 2-0 lead when again Krug created a wide-open look for Patrice Bergeron, who could've hung his Christmas lights before sniping it past Reimer's glove.
Reimer (29 saves), in for a nicked up Luongo, had trouble maintaining his balance in a mundane outing.
Panthers coach Tom Rowe, a native of Boston, who's now 4-5-4 since taking over the coaching reins, seemed tired of the media frenzy surrounding Jagr.
"You guys are having a lot of fun with it and it's been fun for us to be part of it, but at the end of the day we need to get two points," Rowe said after morning skate.
