A Personal Goodbye To Jaromir Jagr

After a few days of mixed emotions over Jaromir Jagr's leaving the NHL, I thought I would do a personal goodbye to the big guy through my column.

I rarely if ever talk about Jagr in my columns. Why? Because I'm the same girl that threatened to kick Colin White's ass when I witnessed him punch Jagr right in front of me when the game was NOT IN PLAY. Literally, you could hear a pin drop and then a mad woman getting ready to climb over the glass and do some serious beat down on Colin White. Ok, so I was sitting next to the Devils bench when I went off my rocker. After I finished my tirade of cursing Colin White out, I glanced over at the Devils' bench and saw the entire team staring at me. Some of the players actually had their mouths hanging wide open in shock.

It took a few seconds before NY Rangers' Martin Straka and Michael Nylander started breaking out into laughter on the ice. Of course, I said to myself, 'this is exactly why you remain quiet when you go to hockey games.' What can I say? I'm extremely overprotective of the big guy. And yes, this was way before I had a hockey column (or two).

My history with Jagr goes all the way back to my first hockey game ever in my life. It was January 3, 2001. I had never been to a hockey game before, but had always wanted to go, so a friend of mine took me along with her after she received a couple of free tickets. I knew even before I showed up at the game that this night was a special night for me.