Why Pens Fans Hate Hossa

Mr. Ruben commented earlier on how bad it sucks to be Marian Hossa right now, and how we Pens fans should move on. Well, I am not going to beat that dead horse, because Pens fans have moved on.

However, since I'm now making it a practice of addressing things I've seen on Deadspin on this blog, a post by Matt Sussman on June 13 rambled (not that I don't do the same) about how Hossa really did make the right decision, but maybe was the reason the Pens won this year.

Now, I may be reading this the wrong way (as I apparently misred Dashielle Bennett's quote Re Scuderi in Game 6 - presuming that we don't have an imposter in our mix, in which case I would like to know who goes around pretending to be Dashielle Bennett, because I'm sure even he would think that was about the most random thing ever) but I took it as yet another jab at Pens fans for hating Marian Hossa.

So, allow me to clarify a little bit. It's missing the point to place this in the same category as, say, Johnny Damon leaving the Red Sox, or another former Penguin, Jaromir Jagr bitching his way off the team. It is true, Hossa was only here for 4 months. If you asked anyone who pays attention to hockey in this town, they would have told you, up through the last game of the Finals, that Hossa was probably going to leave. No one had any illusions about his intentions - he wanted more money than we could give him, and that would be that.

However, in the short time that Hossa was here, he was widely embraced by the Pens' fanbase. He played superbly in the playoffs, which was new for him. Arguably, he played the most meaningful portion of his career in Pittsburgh. The fans loved him, and loved watching him. A small part of us hoped that somehow, some way, he could be convinced to stay in Pittsburgh.

However, he then went and signed with Detroit. Was this the "smart" move? Sure? I guess so? The issue, though, was that Hossa's complaint, Hossa's reason not to sign with a Penguins team that had just gone to the Stanley Cup Finals, Hossa's reason not to take the opportunity to play next to the best passing center in the league for the coming years was that he wanted more money. But Hossa didn't ditch us for the money. No, he left because he thought he'd "have a better change of winning" in Detroit.

He signed there for the same amount of money we were offering him. And for a shorter commitment. He knew we could match that. He didn't want it, though. What Pittsburghers have the problem with is that we didn't get ditched for more money. We got ditched because Hossa made the decision that the 25 guys he played the 4 most intense months of his career with weren't good enough. Pittsburghers were pissed because we got dissed in the most violent way possible, as sports go. So, people can tell us, oh, well, he made the logical decision, you shouldn't hate/blame him. Hell yeah we should hate him. He told us we couldn't do it. This wasn't some TV personality saying that. It was the guy who was an intergral part of your team during the playoffs. Frankly, it hurt.

So, I believe Pittsburgh fans were justified in their hatred of Hossa. However, I also think that now is a fine time to let it go. He got his. For once, karma seems to have come around swiftly and in just the way that any Pens fan would have wanted.