The USS Hal Gill left port on Wednesday, ne'er to return.
He is headed to Montreal.
At the 2008 trade deadline, Ray Shero made a subtle move before trading for Hossa.
The Pens didn't really have a big-body presence on the blue line.
He called up Toronto and wanted Hal Gill.
The love affair ensued.
A nickname, The USS Hal Gill, was christened.
Stoosh and his crew forever coined the nickname.
.
During the 2008 playoff run, Hal Gill showed why Shero wanted him here.
He was a machine every day of the week...during the playoffs, that is.
It's been our contention that Hal Gill will look like mud over an 82-game season.
But once the second season starts, his presence night in and night out frustrates other teams.
This year against Detroit, he picked up on the Wings' obstruction and did some of his own.
But, alas, it is Hal Gill's time to go.
There's a reason why we said we were "living every shift with Hal Gill" during the SCF.
If Scuderi wasn't his defensive partner, it could have been bad news bears.
In closing, we wanted to bring up the things that pop into our head when we think of Hal Gill's time here.
How unreal was the "Snuggie game."
He reportly had a Snuggie on in the locker room before game against Calagry. And scored an unreal goal.
We'd show it, but youtube is broke right now.
Farewell, Hal Gill. And we thank you.
Don't listen to the Francoturds up in Montreal.
Garon left, as well, signing with Columbus. Hey, he has a ring.
Speaking of which, he's anxious to get back to Joe Louis Arena.
He left his mop bucket there.
The Pens signed Mike Rupp for 2 years, like $800,000 per.
He's a jobber/fighter who has a Stanley Cup winning goal under his belt.
Whispers of Dupuis and/or Godard being dealt are sweeping the plains.
No word on Scuds, either.
The Chicago Blackhawks snatched up Marian Hossa.
$62 million, 12 years, something like that.
A cap hit of $5.2 per season.
Detroit fans thinking they're taking the high road on this one, wishing Hossa well, unlike those vile Penguin fans.
Let's wait and see if Hossa says that the Blackhawks have a better shot to win the Cup than the Wings.
Then watch the jobbing ensue.
Instead the Red Wings fans face something like this: imagine last season if the Pens had upwards of $15 million tied up in two over-the-hill defensemen fading into the twilight of their careers, as well as having a good truckload of cash allocated to a couple of forwards...
And then Hossa signed with Philadelphia for about $1 million more per season.
What would be your feelings on that one?
Face it. Hossa's gonna get booed in Detroit.
As a quick side note, the Blackhawks also picked John Madden from the Devils.
A shutdown center who would routinely job Crosby six to eight times a season is now in the West.
Nice.
Oh, and Brian Gionta is headed to Montreal.
New Jersey and the Islanders are gonna be the best of friends.
Clowns
Not 48 hours ago, the Rangers looked like they were getting smart,
ridding themselves of the elephant-in-the-room Scott Gomez contract.
Wrong.
They have signed Marian Gaborik to 5 years, $7.5mill per.
Crosby and Malkin both make $8.7mill per season.
Marian Gaborik now makes $7.5mill per season.
Wow.
Now Gaborik just has to stay healthy.
Maybe the Eastern Conference presents greener pastures for injury-ridden players.
Montreal is busier than balls.
They acquired Scott Gomez earlier in the week.
Now they have added Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Hal Gill, and Jaroslav Spacek.
And they're still in Kovalev limbo.
Looking at the East as a whole, no team made themselves as good as the Penguins. So whatev.
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