Jaromir Jagr scored the 696th goal of his career tonight, but by then it was too late. His New Jersey Devils got off to a slow start that led to a 3-2 defeat against the Phoenix Coyotes. That’s not an unfamiliar scenario for them and Jagr is getting tired of it.
“We always have a slow start,” Jagr lamented, according to the Star-Ledger’s Rich Chere. “That’s the way we play, or maybe we’re just not good enough.”
This isn’t the first time that Jagr has offered a blunt assessment of the Devils recently. On Jan. 7, the same night he tied Mario Lemieux for seventh place on the all-time points list, Jagr declared he was “so angry” because the Devils kept making “the same mistakes over and over and over.”
After those remarks, GM Lou Lamoriello and coach Pete DeBoer defended Jagr.
Still, Jagr calling out his teammates is beginning to become as much of a recurring theme as the Devils’ slow starts.