Tim Benz: Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, tainted history and butterfly effects

When former Steelers Troy Polamalu, Bill Cowher and Donnie Shell were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a few months ago, the news was met with celebration in Pittsburgh.

A practical Black and Gold caravan was planned to leave Western Pa. and head to Canton, Ohio, for induction weekend Aug. 6.

That is, until the ceremony and the Steelers-Cowboys Hall of Fame Game preseason opener were canceled Thursday.

Expect no such yinzer-migration to Toronto for the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremonies Nov. 16, even though former Penguins Marian Hossa and Jarome Iginla are being honored.

News of their elections this week was met with more of a sigh and shake of the head over what could’ve been in Pittsburgh as opposed to wild applause over what they accomplished during their careers.

Both players came to Pittsburgh with great fanfare as trade deadline rental acquisitions in the middle of successful regular seasons.

Hossa arrived from Atlanta in 2008 as the Penguins were poised for their most significant playoff run since Mario Lemieux’s comeback season of 2001. Iginla’s last-minute acquisition before the trade deadline of 2013 was supposed to propel the Penguins on to the Stanley Cup Final as the runaway best team in the East.

Both trades by general manager Ray Shero felt like mini championships at the time of their announcement. But if you say the names “Hossa” or “Iginla” now to a Penguins fan, you usually get a wince and a look of disgust.

Same reaction. For the same reason: “What could’ve been!”

Same reaction. For different reasons: How “what could’ve been” transpired.

History obscures the brief Pittsburgh tenures of both players. Hossa’s heel turn of a departure to Detroit makes everyone forget how close he was to a hero here. And the collective collapse of the Penguins in the 2013 Eastern Conference Final dents Iginla’s three-month tour in Black and Gold.

As a Penguin, Hossa did everything he was supposed to do and more. The winger was a veteran scorer and two-way stud that elevated the young, fast-rising Penguins to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

That was the plan. That’s what he did.

En route to a Stanley Cup Final appearance against the Detroit Red Wings, Hossa was second on the team with 26 playoff points, and he led the way with 12 postseason goals. Including an overtime series winner against the New York Rangers.

The highlight of Marian Hossa’s brief Penguins tenure was easily his series-clinching overtime goal in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series in 2009 (1/3): https://t.co/xwsocCIsyb

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) May 20, 2018

Had Hossa managed to lift this puck over Wings goalie Chris Osgood at the horn to end Game 6, the butterfly effect of that play to multiple franchises would’ve been massive.

Relive the 2008 Stanley Cup Final.

Game 6 Red Wings vs. Penguins TOMORROW on NBC. pic.twitter.com/iEqyttWI8g

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) April 10, 2020

If Hossa scores there, do the Penguins win in overtime? Do they go back to Detroit and win Game 7? Does he stay in Pittsburgh on a long-term deal instead of jumping ship to the Wings on a one-year deal because the free agent felt he “would have a better chance to win the Cup with Detroit.”

Maybe.

Does Hossa ever get to the Blackhawks where he helps them win three Stanley Cups? No.

If Hossa is still in Pittsburgh — as a Cup champion — is Michel Therrien ever replaced with Dan Bylsma in 2009? Unlikely. Are both Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz ever acquired? I doubt it.

Do the Penguins repeat? Do the Wings get back to the Final in 2009 anyway without Hossa? Who knows?

The idea of Hossa staying in Pittsburgh is truly one of the most far-reaching hockey debates over the last 15 years.

It’s one that’s tough to engage in Pittsburgh, though, because no one ever wants to have it. For a city with a ton of bridges, Hossa burned every one in Pittsburgh. By defecting to Detroit for a perceived “better chance to win” in July 2008, he strung along the Penguins to the point that they were left with spare parts in free agency.

Luckily, Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan proved useful in the playoffs, along with the addition of Kunitz and Guerin. And because the Penguins flipped the script on Hossa and the Wings in the ’09 Final, that was a good enough climax.

No hypothetical endings needed on this one.

But the end of the story shouldn’t warp Hossa’s role in the plot. His time here ended badly, but his performance couldn’t have been much better.

Meanwhile, only 11 of Iginla’s 1,300 career regular-season points were accumulated in Pittsburgh. But he did that in only 13 contests. He also scored 12 points in the first 11 games of the 2013 playoffs before the entire club went into an epic drought in the Conference Final, totaling only two goals in a four-game sweep by the Bruins.

Iginla was played out of position and never became an effective, consistent linemate with Sidney Crosby — as was assumed he would be when he was acquired from the Calgary Flames. As a result, Iginla’s time in Pittsburgh expired with him going pointless in seven of his last eight playoff games.

The team’s conference coronation never occurred. And a much-coveted Cup Final showdown against Hossa and the Chicago Blackhawks never happened.

Iginla and particularly Hossa were much better as Penguins than just about any local fan wants to remember. Or, frankly, is capable of remembering because of the dismay surrounding how each player went out.

Iginla with a dejecting whimper. Hossa in swirling angsty maelstrom.

When both get inducted on Yonge Street in six months, maybe Pittsburgh fans will shelve those feelings and reply with a momentary golf clap at the mention of their names instead of the usual sighs and eyerolls.

For one night, anyway.