Marian Hossa Must Feel Confused

Little did Marian Hossa know that the remarks he made when he signed as a free agent last summer just might come back to haunt him.

After coming to the Pittsburgh Penguins last season at the March trade deadline and scoring 26 playoff points in helping the Pens reach the Stanley Cup finals, Hossa decided to sign with the Detroit Red Wings—the same Wings who happened to beat his old team in six games last year for the Stanley Cup.

If losing star scorer Hossa wasn’t enough, he left quite a few Pittsburgh fans enraged by his reasons for not resigning with Pittsburgh. “It was a really tough decision for me to make,” said Hossa, who scored 71 points this past year. “When I compared the two teams, I felt like I would have a little better of a chance to win the Cup in Detroit.”

When the Wings finished off the Chicago Blackhawks and advanced to the finals, the Penguins media was bringing up what Hossa did last summer and talked about how Pittsburgh can now make him regret his move.

That being said, TSN commentator Pierre McGuire was quick to dismiss the rumors that the Pens were out to specifically punish Hossa. “I don’t think the players even think about that stuff,” McGuire said. “You can’t do that if you’re Pittsburgh. You’ve got to worry about Henrik Zetterberg, potentially Pavel Datsyuk, Valtteri Filppula, and Darren Helm. There are so many other weapons, so if you concern yourself with just Hossa, then you’re losing sight of what the real goal is, and the real goal is to win the Cup, not to beat up Hossa.”

In roughly two weeks from now, Hossa will know if he made the right decision last summer. For now, he will have to endure a lot of booing and name-calling when the series shifts to Pittsburgh. “If he’s mentally tough, there’ll be no distraction,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. “He made a decision to come here and he’s happy with his decision. I know we’re happy.”