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Panthers' winger might halt Penguins' hold on NHL scoring title Wednesday, April 05, 2000 By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
The Penguins have produced the NHL's scoring champion five seasons in a row, but that run could end this weekend.
The Florida Panthers' Pavel Bure is tied with Jaromir Jagr for the league lead in points with 92. And Bure has 57 goals to Jagr's 39, giving him an insurmountable edge in the tiebreaker for the Art Ross Trophy.
It seems like an unfair fight.
Bure is playing his finest hockey of the season. Monday night, he scored two goals in the Panthers' 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils, extending his points streak to 12 games and finally catching Jagr. No player had been close since October.
It has helped Bure's cause, of course, that he has played 71 games to Jagr's 60. Jagr has missed 14 of the past 20 games with injuries to his legs and back, and he remains a shadow of his former self, complaining of a lack of leg strength and a lack of stamina.
Jagr made it clear yesterday he wouldn't even be in uniform if the Penguins weren't in a playoff race.
"It's hard right now," he said. "I know I'm not 100 percent. My health is not 100 percent. It's not even 50 percent. My conditioning's not even 50 percent. But I feel like I've got to be there. These are big games for us. I feel that if I'm good enough to play, I've got to play, even though I cannot help like I used to."
Jagr and Bure each has three games left, and Jagr appears to be at a disadvantage there, too.
The Penguins will travel to Toronto, Buffalo and Boston. Thus, Jagr faces two of the league's best goaltenders in the Maple Leafs' Curtis Joseph and the Sabres' Dominik Hasek, then spends an evening skating against Bruins defenseman Hal Gill, whom Jagr calls his toughest one-on-one opponent. Bure faces the Bruins, the Devils again and the last-place New York Islanders.
Since Mario Lemieux won his first Art Ross Trophy in 1988, either he or Jagr has claimed the scoring title in all but three seasons. Wayne Gretzky was the lone exception, winning in 1990, '91 and '94. Lemieux won six times, in 1988, '89, '92, '93, '96 and '97. Jagr has won three, in 1995, '98 and '99.
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