Coral Springs, Fla.

In 1990, the year an 18-year-old Jaromir Jagr played his first NHL game, Joe Montana won Super Bowl MVP for the San Francisco 49ers. The Dallas Cowboys drafted running back Emmitt Smith. The NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics, now the Oklahoma City Thunder, bet their future on guard Gary Payton. A 19-year-old Pete Sampras won the U.S. Open, the first of his 14 Grand Slam tennis victories.

Those sports legends retired long ago, along with many others who started much later (the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Allen Iverson in 1996). But the 44-year-old Jagr is still skating, flicking game-winning goals and bullying opponents with his 6-foot-3, 230-pound body. No hockey player in history, not even the great Gordie Howe, has been a scarier offensive threat at such an advanced age.

Jagr’s Florida Panthers are in first place in the Atlantic Division. He leads the team in scoring (21 goals, 26 assists) and sits just one point behind Howe on the all-time NHL leader board. How does he do it? By sticking to an oddball training routine that makes teammates and coaches whisper and laugh—until they try it for themselves.

“The things I do should work for everybody,” Jagr said. “The first few days it’s going bother you, you’re going to feel slow, you’re going to feel tired and you’re going to feel worse. But you’ve got to put your time in and do it right.”