81 AND DONE
Hossa’s number is retired and raised to the rafters in an ‘incredibly humbling’ ceremony at United Center
Chicago Blackhawks great Marián Hossa must have shaken what felt like 81,000 hands leading up to his big night Sunday, when his No. 81 was retired — but there was at least one more he wanted to get in.
During a pregame media scrum, the three-time Stanley Cup winner reached over reporters to grab first-year Hawks coach Luke Richardson, who was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with “HOSSA.”
“Hey, good luck, good to see you,” Hossa told him.
Here was an icon of the Hawks’ recent glory years making a small but meaningful connection to the Hawks’ future. Unrequired but appreciated.
On a night that was all about him, Hossa used his platform to cement his connection to the Hawks, going out of his way to share glory with former teammates — Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were among those in attendance — and subtly resurrecting the case for a predecessor’s number retirement.
“When I was 11 years old, my Slovak hockey team came to Quebec City to play (in a) Pee Wee tournament. One of the families wanted to buy me a gift, a jersey of my choice,” Hossa said before his banner raising. “I did not hesitate: a red Chicago Blackhawks jersey, No. 28, Steve Larmer. That was the first-ever Blackhawks jersey I wore, and I remember it vividly today.”
Hossa went on to explain to the United Center crowd of 21,000 that when it came time to choose his own number, he chose 18 — his age when the Ottawa Senators drafted him — and wore it for the Senators, Atlanta Thrashers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
For his next two stops, he opted for 81. In Detroit, 18 was already claimed by Red Wings forward Kirk Maltby, a four-time Stanley Cup winner.
“When I signed with the Blackhawks in the summer of ’09, of course my luck was no different here,” Hossa said. “The number 18 was already retired and hanging in those rafters for (Denis Savard). So I decided to keep my No. 81 here in Chicago. I never imagined my 81 would be added alongside Savvy’s 18 just 13 years later.”
It was all for the best. The Hawks never had an 81 before, and now they’ll never have another.
“It is incredibly humbling to have my 81 forever hung here next to greats such as Glenn Hall, Pierre Pilote, Keith Magnuson, Bobby Hull, Denis Savard, Tony Esposito and fellow Slovakian Stan Mikita,” Hossa said. “I cannot believe it.”
He believes several of his Hawks teammates from the 2010, ’13 and ’15 Stanley Cup runs are deserving too.
“Something tells me very soon, I will be flying back to Chicago to raise a few more of these jerseys,” he said. “I feel like I’m taking here — all week — all the credit, but because of these guys we won the Stanley Cup, so thank you.”
At the end of his speech, Hossa walked with his family — wife Jana and daughters Mia, Zoja and Emma — to watch his number be lifted to the rafters.
Former longtime Hawks TV commentator Eddie Olcyzk, who left his new job with the Seattle Kraken to host Hossa’s event, had the final word.
“And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Olcyzk said. “Marian Hossa’s No. 81 will be raised to the United Center rafters forever, ensuring that for the Chicago Blackhawks, there is only one No. 81.”
Hossa later sat in a suite and watched the Hawks rally to erase a 3-0 deficit in the third period, only to give the lead back to the Pittsburgh Penguins 57 seconds later in an eventual 5-3 loss.
Seconds later, Hossa raised the Stanley Cup to give fans a lift, and they roared when it was displayed on the video board. Unrequired but appreciated.
Here are three takeaways from the night.
1. Hossa showed a dry but wicked sense of humor.
There were off-the-cuff moments, such as when he mentioned in his speech that he also played for the Red Wings, to which fans interrupted with chants of “Detroit sucks!”
“Never gets old, right?” he shot back.
He mixed fun and sentiment when addressing each of his former teammates seated behind him: Keith, Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.
“Tazer, I’ll never forget the feeling when you handed me the Stanley Cup on the ice in Philadelphia when we won for the first time together,” Hossa said. “Wow.”
To Kane:, “Seems like every time we needed a big play or big goal, you stepped up.”
He called Seabrook “the voice of the dressing room” and Hjalmarsson a quiet leader and “blocking machine.” He admired Keith’s energy and focus as “unmatched” but quipped, “By the way, your teeth look good.”
Keith famously took a puck to the mouth off San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau’s stick and lost seven teeth during Game 4 of the 2010 Western Conference finals.
Hossa saved the best cutdown for Sharp.
“Sharpy, your knowledge of the game always impressed me,” he said. “So did your commitment to the pranks and keeping it fun. One of the best shooters I ever played with. Let’s not talk about your passing.”
2. The thank yous got awkward.
It’s hard to give thanks to the coaches and staff who supported the Hawks’ run to the 2010 Stanley Cup without naming those same people who were implicated in covering up former prospect Kyle Beach’s sexual assault allegation to protect those championship hopes.
Joel Quenneville coached all three Stanley Cup champions Hossa played for, but he resigned from the Florida Panthers last year after becoming embroiled in a purge of anyone associated with the scandal. That included top Hawks management at the time: John McDonough, Stan Bowman, Al MacIsaac and Jay Blunk.
Hossa didn’t shy away from crediting them.
“Coach Q, when I signed here in 2009, he told me: ‘Hoss, you’re going to love it here. We’re going to have lots of fun together.’ You know what? He was right. He was my favorite coach and he brought out the best in all of us. Thank you for everything, Q.”
After thanking then-general manager Dale Tallon for signing him as a free agent, Hossa thanked McDonough, Bowman, MacIsaac and Blunk.
Independent investigators found the senior managers and coach suppressed Beach’s complaint until after the Hawks won the Cup, then quietly paid severance to the alleged offender, then-video coach Brad Aldrich, according to a report by law firm Jenner and Block.
Some fans can hear McDonough, Bowman and Quenneville receive plaudits and be fine with it. They can compartmentalize what they did on the ice from what they did behind closed doors.
Others cringe.
You can’t erase the professional accomplishments but you also can’t ignore what — or who — may have been sacrificed to achieve them.
3. The Hawks got burned by a quick-response goal — again.
They were riding high on Philipp Kurashev’s sharp-angle goal that bounced in off Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith. That celebration lasted less than a minute before Sidney Crosby scored the go-ahead goal 57 seconds later.
“Thought all night we played pretty well, just kind of got behind it a little bit, stayed with it and found a way to get back in the game,” Kane said. “So obviously tough to give up a goal the shift right after.”
It’s not enough to call it a troubling trend, but here are other instances when the Hawks gave up a goal less than a minute after scoring:
■ Penguins, Sunday: 57 seconds (Crosby).
■ St. Louis Blues, Nov. 16: 49 seconds (Ryan O’Reilly, short-handed).
■ Minnesota Wild, Oct. 30: 17 seconds (Matt Boldy).
■ Kraken, Oct. 23: 19 seconds (Matthew Beniers).
“We talked about it before,” Richardson said. “No matter who scores, whether they score or we score … we have to make sure the next shift is ours and not give them a chance to go ahead.”