Jaromir Jagr's head is clear. His status for the Penguins' game against the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night is not.
Jagr, who skipped the NHL All-Star Game last weekend in Denver, is having problems with a sore neck, the lingering effect of a hard check received last week. He practiced with the Penguins yesterday at Southpointe but isn't sure whether he will play against the Flyers at Mellon Arena.
"I don't know," he said. "I've still got 48 hours. That's a long time.
"My head is OK now, no problem. But my neck is still sore. If I would be able to play, I'm going to play. But I'm not sure right now. If the game would be today, I wouldn't play."
Jagr, the team's leading scorer with 29 goals and 69 points, said it was not a tough decision to practice even though he had not skated since the second period of the 5-1 loss to the Flyers.
"I feel a lot better than I did, for sure," he said. "There is no contact. I didn't have to turn my head. When I skate it doesn't bother me. If I would sit out of practice, it wouldn't help me anyway."
The Penguins are listing Jagr as day to day.
He was injured in the first period against the Flyers when he was checked hard into the glass by forward Todd Fedoruk. Jagr played in the second period but sat out the third.
He was said to have concussion-like symptoms.
"I don't know if it was a concussion, but I didn't feel well," he said. "I didn't feel good, kind of dizzy. Plus, my neck hurt. I couldn't [turn] it."
The dizziness has subsided, but his neck remains sore.
One thing that has helped is acupuncture. He had a session Saturday and planned to have another yesterday after practice. "It helped my neck feel a whole lot better. It has always helped me a lot.
"That's why I decided not to go to the All-Stars. I knew I was going to have time to go to the acupuncture and have extra days of treatments."
Jagr, the top vote-getter for the All-Star Game, was disappointed he was unable to play.
"Of course I wanted to play," he said. "Sometimes you can't do things you want to do.
"I couldn't play. I could go there, but I couldn't be playing at all. I couldn't move my arm and I couldn't move my neck. I was talking to Craig [Patrick, Penguins general manager], and I explained I had a chance to get treatment here for three days, and I know if I would go there, there is no massage therapist, there is nobody. I would just be there for three days. I would come back and then get treatment."
Lemieux, Jagr's linemate, is confident Jagr will return to his old form soon, if not tomorrow.
"He's going to be fine," Lemieux said. "Obviously, he took a pretty good shot last game. It's just a matter of getting healthy again. He'll be back strong. He's got a lot of character. It's just a matter of him being 100 percent."
Jagr hasn't watched tape of the check that gave him the pain in his neck. He refused to condemn the act or Fedoruk.
"I cannot comment on the hit because I don't know what happened," he said. "I didn't see the guy. I was kind of scrambling on the boards, trying to get the puck. When I tried to turn with the puck, somebody hit me and I didn't even know what happened. Maybe it was my mistake for doing that.
"But I didn't see the play. I cannot comment on what happened. Obviously, the guy hit me in my head and my head snapped into the boards. That's it."
Jagr's other linemate, left winger Kevin Stevens, stopped short of saying the Penguins will be out to avenge the injury when the teams meet tomorrow.
"You never want to see one of your guys get hurt like that," he said. "But the whole game was a battle. You knew right from the start the game was going to be a battle. They seemed to have a little more jump than we had. We'll see what happens Wednesday."
Jagr's status still unclear 
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