Jaromír Jágr, 44, was drafted at the age of 18 in 1990, an era in hockey defined by the prevalence of the mullet. Since then, he has established a career that has toured the NHL, from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Washington Capitals, the New York Rangers, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Dallas Stars, the Boston Bruins, the New Jersey Devils, and the Florida Panthers (minus his three seasons with the KHL), a "This Land Is Your Land" on ice. At some point, he decided to restyle his hair.

Jágr has evolved beyond your average star to become something of the unofficial mascot for the NHL. Sure, we can appreciate the talents of the Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin and the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, but we recognize that Jágr is different. To appreciate the sport is to appreciate its gladiator. The numbers speak volumes: Jágr has scored 742-plus career goals (he is third after Wayne Gretzky, 894, and Gordie Howe, 801, surpassing Brett Hull, 741, on February 20, 2016). And he's at the point in his career where ovations on the road are regular, as evidenced at Madison Square Garden on Monday. He’s humble about all the applause, yet superstitious: “I like to have them at home, but on the road, of course it’s special. But every time I hear [cheering] on the road, I sort of have bad luck, so I don’t like to hear it.” (The Rangers beat the Panthers, 4–2.)

“I don’t like to meet new people. I’m not the kind of guy who wants to meet everybody. Not at all, so I’m more private. Any changes for me are not good.”

Jágr has threatened to play to the age of 60, because maybe (and also, just because?) he is bored by the subject of his retirement: “Why I said that is because, for whatever reason, they always have to put my age and ask if I’m going to retire next year, so I was kind of mad about it. I was kind of joking and told them I was going to play until 60, but it’s not reasonable. I was just sarcastic to answer their questions that they gave me.”

“Reasonable” might be relative to a player who won the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992 and, this season, leads the Panthers in scoring, at an age when most men are mulling whether or not to buy a Porsche. The Czech machine is known for performing one thousand squats per day, starting at the age of 7, a regimen he credits to his dad. “I did 150, 150, 150, 150...six, seven times a day.” His training is so regimented—so simulative—that he considers music to be cheating: “When you’re tired, of course the music is going to help you not think about the pain and the workout, so it’s kind of helping you. But on the other side, when I have a game and I’m tired, there’s no music. With the music, it’s kind of cheating with the pain. I know during the game I’m not going to have the music to cheat, so I try to work out without the music.”