About 10 minutes have passed since the Dallas Stars beat the Red Wings 2-1 on Tuesday night, and Jaromir Jagr is standing next to Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen in the visitors dressing room. Lehtonen, sitting in front of his dressing room stall taking off goalie equipment, has just wrapped up an outstanding game, losing a shutout in the final seconds.
Jagr is smiling, and you think maybe he's complimenting the goalie on his 39-save performance. And perhaps he is. But that isn't the focus of the conversation.
"He said he's the only guy who can score on me. That he used to score twice a game always when we played," Lehtonen relayed later. "I stopped him this morning pretty well; I think he was still mad."
Lehtonen laughs because this is how it always goes with Jagr. In practice. In games. After games.
"From the first practice, always a smile on his face and joking around," Lehtonen said. "I hope I have half of that when I'm 40."
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- Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Wrote for The Sporting News
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Craig Custance
Craig Custance joined ESPN in September 2011 as an NHL reporter for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN.com. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lived for nearly a decade in Georgia working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he spent time covering the late Atlanta Thrashers. He was the only Thrashers beat writer to get the team to the playoffs.
From 2008-11 he was the national hockey writer for the Sporting News, writing regularly in print and online. A member of the PHWA, he's a proud voter for the major NHL awards and can occasionally defend his selections.
Like hockey, he left Atlanta to return north where he currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife Cassie and their three kids.
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