Finding Jagr: On Phil Bourques quest to connect with his teammate, and what it means for his futu

June 2024 · 13 minute read

He thumbed the digits on the screen of his mobile phone, held the top of it to his ear and hoped for the best. That he heard a ringing was a good sign. That it was followed by the voice of an elderly woman was probably not.

Phil Bourque asked the question anyway: Is Jags there?

“His mom answered,” Bourque said. “I think it was at the family house in Kladno, not the place he actually lives. But he was there. I tried to tell her who I was, she handed him the phone, he got on and I heard his voice.

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“‘I can’t believe you caught me here. I’m, like, never here.’”

Jaromir Jagr wasn’t the only one in disbelief. His former teammate felt the same way.

Bourque had never really thought about it, but almost 30 years later, he realizes he and Jagr had a lot in common when they played for the Penguins in the early 1990s. Though 10 years his senior, Bourque shared Jagr’s fondness for mullets, fast cars and partying (almost as hard as they trained). They also idolized teammate Mario Lemieux. The common ground helped them develop a way of communicating despite a bit of a language barrier.

“We kind of had that back and forth where it was an open line of communication,” Bourque said. “I could say, ‘Hey, you know, let’s get your ass going tonight.’ He would nod (and) say, ‘Right!’ He didn’t know much English then, so that was his way of telling me, ‘Thanks a lot.’ He needed that as a player. So did I.”

But Jagr can be mercurial. He played for nine teams in 24 NHL seasons, and it would be impossible to find someone who can say they really understand Jagr. Bourque is no exception. Though he and Jagr had a good rapport as teammates, he never really knew where he stood with the Penguins’ young star. That feeling continued even as the two grew older.

“I wouldn’t say we didn’t get along,” Bourque said. “We only played two years together. To be honest, I didn’t know if he did or didn’t like me back in those days.”

Either Jagr had liked Bourque or the passage of three decades had changed both men. Probably, it was a little bit of both.

A reunion would be one way for Bourque to find out.


Jagr, and his trademark hair, became a Penguins icon in the 1990s. (Elsa Hasch / Allsport)

Had he not started dating his girlfriend Ali Romano late last summer, Bourque never would have made that call to Jagr last month. He had wanted to use the NHL All-Star break, which for the Penguins coincided with their mandated five days off for a bye week, to spend time with Romano. He needed it. She needed it. They needed it.

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And, well, European cities can feel more magical in the winter.

“I was thinking of going somewhere and I thought, it just popped into my head: Prague!” Bourque said. “I had heard great things about it and always wanted to go when I lived in Germany for three years. I always said I was going to go, that it wasn’t that far away, but I’d never do it.”

As they discussed the upcoming trip Romano nudged the notion of “finding Jags, seeing him play one last time.” Romano had heard from Bourque that he and Jagr had “never been, you know, buddy-buddy.” She anticipated a hard-sell pitch to spend a day in Kladno, Czech Republic, and take in one of Jagr’s games with the hometown hockey team he owned, HC Kladno. Bourque surprised her by instantly approving the idea.

“I just thought that I’m not getting any younger — and I’d kick myself if I didn’t take the chance to see this guy play one more time,” Bourque said. “I mean, when you start climbing that ladder with goals and points, you start seeing his name more and more on those lists as one of the greatest players all-time statistically. And you forget, you know, that he was a Pittsburgh guy.”

Was he really? Still? After twice breaking the heart of Pittsburghers — by demanding a trade in 2001 and a decade later telling Mario Lemieux (of all people!) that he wanted to again play for the Penguins before ultimately signing with the Flyers (of all teams!) — to the point that his No. 68 still wasn’t next to Lemieux’s No. 66 at PPG Paints Arena?

Oh yeah, Bourque had some questions for Jagr. He was not sure he would ask any of them, though.

Hell, Bourque was convinced a reunion wouldn’t happen.

“Even after he and I talked that day, I thought I would just go there anyway,” Bourque said. “But he wouldn’t actually see us. We’d just see him play, because, you know, getting a hold of the Pope is easier than getting Jags to commit to something.”


Jaromir Jagr seems to be everywhere in the Czech Republic, especially for visitors arriving in his hometown of Kladno. (Photo courtesy of Phil Bourque)

When they landed in Prague, Bourque and Romano were taken aback by just how much of Jagr they were seeing. From billboards to television commercials to media coverage, he remained a cultural icon. It reminded them of Michael Jordan’s looming presence in the United States.

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Prague had nothing on Kladno, though.

“The first thing we saw leaving the airport was a billboard with him on it,” Bourque said.

The only comparison to Jagr in Kladno that Bourque could draw was Lemieux’s stature in Pittsburgh. The dots were easier to connect because Jagr, like Lemieux, actually owned the hockey team in the city he figuratively owned.

Lemieux was 40 the second time he retired from playing professional hockey. Jagr will turn 48 Saturday and still is playing home games. He plans to play until he is 50, and who was going to deny him that opportunity? The owner calls the shots.

“He told me he’s never worked this hard,” Bourque said. “I’m telling you, I think he does everything for that team. They have a general manager, but it sounded like he’s the one doing negotiations with other players. He talked about marketing, selling tickets, sponsors, getting things for the arena — you name it, he said he was involved. …

“He’s, like, the most responsible guy over there. It really was something to see. It was a completely different side of him. I think it’s changed him.”

When they first reconnected with that phone conversation in early January, Jagr had provided Bourque with his private number and instructed him to send a text “a few days before you leave.” Bourque did, but expected nothing in response.

Not long after, one of Jagr’s team employees called with details of what would await Bourque and Romano in Kladno.

A car picked them up at their hotel and took them to Kladno’s home game. Their VIP package included seats in a small owner’s suite, though Bourque and Romano also had been given clearance to sit with the fans if they preferred to soak up the arena atmosphere.

Jagr played in only the first and third periods, a nagging groin injury flared on him in the second, but his presence was inescapable in the arena. There were enough images of Jagr throughout the area for him to never feel as though he was really out of sight or mind.

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He had comped the tickets, food and beverages. If Bourque and Romano did anything in Kladno, Jagr paid. Except for the hotel. He offered, but Bourque declined.

“I really feel like he went out of his way to take care of us,” Bourque said. “I could tell it’s all a lot for him owning that team. He’s really carrying the ball there. But I could also tell he wanted to — not show off, but he was proud of everything. That’s his city. That’s his team. I could tell he wanted me to know how special it was to have us there.

“He can be gregarious, right? He can run hot and cold, you know? Or he could when he was younger. But I’ve really never seen this side of him.”

Bourque and Romano stuck around CZE Stadium for about 45 minutes after the game. Then they were escorted to the arena’s bowels, past the Kladno dressing rooms and into a cramped room that Bourque made sound as though it bared a slight resemblance to the original home dressing room for the Penguins at the old Civic Arena. For the next hour, the three of them sat for a long conversation that was as much about the past as it was about the future.

The version of Jagr that Bourque discovered in Kladno looked like an older version of the one who showed up in Pittsburgh 30 years ago this August. Add a few wrinkles and a beard, and Jagr’s face still said more than any of his words. He could always do with one or two expressions what actors train decades to master: emote.

Which is not to suggest Jagr had little to offer in his discussion with Bourque. To the contrary, Bourque said their chat ventured into topics he never would have predicted.

Their talk was not just about old times, but it was a lot like old times. Bourque spoke freely. Jagr nodded a lot. They still had a lot in common, including those two Stanley Cup rings from 1991 and 1992. If his more recent history with the Penguins had weighed on Jagr, it did not feel to Bourque as though it were weighing him down.

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At one point, Jagr asked about Mike Lange, the legendary voice of Penguins hockey and Bourque’s longtime broadcast partner. Bourque shared that Lange had been ill last summer. Unprompted, Jagr asked if he could send a message to Lange through Bourque. Worried he might forget the exact words, Bourque pulled out his cell phone. Jagr laughed, said “right” and then he recorded this video.

There were a few places Bourque had to steer the conversation.

The Penguins, at Lemieux’s request, have been trying for years to persuade Jagr to return to Pittsburgh to have his number retired.

Tom McMillan, who had covered Jagr as a Penguins beat reporter for a Pittsburgh newspaper, broached the subject a few years back at the NHL 100 ceremony. Theirs had been a good relationship, so as Jagr mingled with former teammates, McMillan, now the team’s VP of communications, took the opportunity to deliver a message.

“I told him then that we want to retire his number,” McMillan said. “I said to him then: ’68 belongs up with 66, your number next to Mario’s.’”

Jagr’s reaction to McMillan was one of surprise. Penguins fans had booed him at every opportunity since he asked for a trade in what was Lemieux’s inspiring comeback season. When they spoke at the NHL 100 ceremony, Jagr was a member of the Florida Panthers — the seventh of eight NHL franchises for which he would play after his first 11 seasons with the Penguins. Along with the Flyers, the rival Washington Capitals and New York Rangers had been among those eight. Even though he was going to finish in the top 5 in all-time goals, assists and points in the NHL, Jagr had not considered that he would have an NHL team to call “his.”

Not with the way things ended in Pittsburgh, anyway.

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Last summer, Jagr phoned McMillan to ask that Sidney Crosby autograph some items for a charity in the Czech Republic. Once again, McMillan took advantage of the one-on-one time with Jagr to reiterate the Penguins’ desire to one day retire No. 68 in Pittsburgh.

McMillan said he felt better after that particular conversation. “It’s going to happen,” he recalled thinking. “It’s just a matter of working out the logistics.” But what could it hurt to have Bourque raise the issue again in Kladno?

Bourque agreed. He had never taken a position, at least not publicly, on whether Jagr deserved to have his number retired by the Penguins. (Other than honoring Michel Briere after his death, the Penguins have retired only Lemieux’s No. 66.) However, since Bourque, like others, had heard Lemieux was the person in the organization most insistent on Jagr joining him in a form of franchise immortality — well, maybe that was a point only Bourque could make clear to Jagr, who told Bourque the last time he spoke with Lemieux was at that NHL centennial event.

“He said he could tell Mario was pissed — still, you know — and that it had hurt him that Mario was upset,” Bourque said. “He said Mario told him that he had gone out of his way to call and they both thought when he hung up that it was going to get done. He said he thought he gave Mario a false impression, and he hated it if he did.”


Jagr and Lemieux helped lead the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in the early 1990s. (Denis Brodeur / NHLI via Getty Images)

Bourque said Jagr’s reasoning for signing with the Flyers instead of the Penguins had not changed since his decision first sent shockwaves through the commonwealth almost nine years ago. Ray Shero, then the Penguins general manager, could not promise him a role in the top six or on the first power-play unit. The Flyers could. The Flyers could also offer almost $1.5 million more because the Penguins had precious salary-cap space to spare.

“The Flyers thing,” Bourque said, recalling the thoughts Jagr shared with him in Kladno about signing with Philadelphia in 2011. “He was non-apologetic. And very, very upfront about it.”

As teammates, Jagr had never been able to verbalize his feelings to Bourque. Now that he could, Bourque wanted Jagr to speak his mind. Even while watching Jagr play earlier that evening, Bourque had come to realize the trip was less about reconnecting and more a case of really connecting with Jagr for the first time.

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They were not young men. That was clear by the wrinkles, graying hairs and all the details they had left out of their recollections.

They always would be Penguins.

Having come all this way, Bourque said he had no intention of leaving Kladno unless he convinced Jagr of that much.

“I said, ‘Jags, the Penguins want it, the fans want it, Mario wants it — that’s a special night everybody wants for you,’” Bourque said. “‘They’re not going to boo. They’re going to cheer. Maybe louder, longer than they ever have in our building. It’s going to be awesome.’”

Bourque said it would seem too much like a cheesy movie to report that Jagr’s face had appeared to melt after hearing those words. But he didn’t say it would be inaccurate. “I could tell hearing that put him at ease,” he said.

Jagr made Bourque a promise: Within a year of playing his last professional hockey game, he would return to Pittsburgh for the Penguins to retire No. 68.

On one condition.

Bourque had to make sure fans in attendance cheered — “and for a long time.”

At one point on their flight back to America, Bourque asked Romano if their European trip had been everything she expected. It had, and she asked him the same question.

“Not even close,” Bourque said, his eyes giving away how much the time spent with Jagr had meant to him — and what their conversation could mean for Jagr and the Penguins.

“Not. Even. Close.”

(Top photo: B Bennett / Getty Images)

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