NEW JERSEY VS. PITTSBURGH COLORADO VS. ST. LOUIS

Tuesday, May 22 Forlorn Jagr ponders a future without the Pens Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jaromir Jagr was 18 and wide-eyed when he played his first NHL season with Mario Lemieux. More than a decade later, he might be forced to say goodbye to the only team he's ever known. Jaromir Jagr skates off the ice after Game 5, which might have been his last with the Penguins. "Not many players my age, when they come to the league, have the opportunity or have the luck to learn hockey from good players like I had," Jagr said. "It was probably the best thing that happened to me when I was younger. "I gave 10 years, 11 years, it's time to move on." Jagr, Lemieux and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins were knocked out of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night by a 4-2 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions. Jagr, who failed to register a goal or assist in the five-game series, has two years left on his contract with the financially challenged Penguins, who might have no choice but to deal him and his high salary. "I was so lucky to play with Mario, my idol since I was 15 years old, and be able to watch him and see him every day during the practices and try some things that he does," Jagr said of Lemieux, who also owns the team. Before Lemieux made his NHL comeback in December, following a 3½-year retirement, Jagr asked for a trade. He changed his mind, and is no longer looking to get out. The decision is no longer up to him. "I'm not making that decision," he said. "I'm going to wait until whatever they tell me. I still have a contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and whatever happens, happens. "I wanted to finish this series. I wanted to go as far as we can go. Obviously, we played New Jersey, which is a great team with a great system. Too bad we didn't have a chance." The 29-year-old Jagr has not had a very pleasant time recently. Shoulder and leg injuries limited his abilities in the last two rounds against Buffalo and New Jersey. "Once you get hurt in playoffs, it's tough to get healthy again," he said. "I'm not taking it like an excuse. However I played, it's not because I was injured." Jagr didn't want to dwell on his physical aches and pains when there was so much uncertain in the future. "I think it's my agent's job to do something," Jagr said. "After next week, I'm going to know more about what's going to happen whether I'm going to stay or not going to stay. "I hate to compare 11 years and one month. Eleven years ... great things, the last month wasn't that good." Jagr tried to overcome his offensive woes, and help out any way he could against the formidable Devils. It just didn't work out. "Of course I thought I was going to do better than I did. It would have helped the team, too," he said. "Bottom line is, if we would have gone to the final, it doesn't matter if I was scoring or not. When I couldn't do much, I tried to do the other stuff but it's just not me. "I like to score goals. I think scoring goals is passing the puck to somebody else, creating chances for somebody else. That's the way I know the best. If I try to do something else, then I'm not good." But overall, Jagr knows he is still good. He also knows that he is likely going to have to play in another city to show everyone next year. "It's probably the worst for me. It's not the first time I felt like that," Jagr said of his play in the series. "You have to take it like a motivation. You just have to work harder and harder and prove to everybody that I'm still the player I think I am." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

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