Jaromir Jagr ties Mark Messier in NHL points

Jaromir Jagr tied Mark Messier for second place on the NHL all-time scoring list Tuesday.
Jagr had three assists for the Florida Panthers against the Buffalo Sabres to tie Messier at 1,887 points.
"When I retire, I'll look back at what I did, maybe I'm going to think about it a little more, but right now I just enjoy every moment I get a chance to play in this league and try to do everything I can to stay in this league," Jagr said.

Jagr and Messier trail Wayne Gretzky, who had 2,857 points.

"It was really cool to be a part of it," Panthers coach Tom Rowe said. "He's such a great guy, just talking to Dale [Tallon] in there about him and he was saying, one, what a great human being he is, and then the way he comes to work every single day is unbelievable. It was great watching the bench get so excited for him when he tied it up, and then the fans were really excited for him as well."
Jagr assisted on goals by Aleksander Barkov at 16:09 of the first period, Keith Yandle at 12:14 of the second, and Nick Bjugstad at 16:09 of the third. Florida won 4-3 in a shootout at BB&T Center.
"When you're playing a game and all of a sudden you're down 3-2, you don't really think about that kind of stuff, especially when I felt like we had everything under control and all of a sudden we started playing bad hockey and they had the lead," Jagr said. "We didn't quit, we battled back, we tied it in the last five minutes and won it in a shootout."
The Panthers host the Boston Bruins on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, NESN, NHL.TV).

Jagr, 44, has 755 goals and 1,132 assists in 1,662 NHL games, and has 19 points (six goals) in 33 games this season. Messier had 694 goals and 1,193 assists in 1,756 NHL games. Gretzky had 894 goals and 1,963 assists in 1,487 NHL games.
Messier has been No. 2 on the NHL scoring list since he passed Gordie Howe (1,850) on Nov. 4, 2003.
Jagr had 146 points in three seasons playing in Kontinental Hockey League from 2008-11. He had 67 points in European leagues during the 2004-05 season and a combined 68 points during the lockouts that shortened the 1994-95 and 2012-13 NHL seasons.
"In my own mind he's surpassed me a long time ago," Messier said this month. "I had a chance in my first year pro in the [World Hockey Association] and I amassed all of 11 points so I wasn't quite as productive as he was leaving the NHL. The total he's amassed as a professional hockey player is astounding."