It is safe to say that this season hasn’t exactly gone the way the Pittsburgh Penguins had hoped. Over the summer, they acquired reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks in the hope of returning to the playoffs after missing last season.
The franchise went big trying to give their aging core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang a few more kicks at the cup before retirement.
Pittsburgh currently sits outside of the playoff picture and sold at the trade deadline for the first time in seemingly forever. The Penguins sent the deadline top prize in Jake Guentzal to the Carolina Hurricanes. That all but signified this will be another playoff-less spring in the Steel City.
One of the few highlights of the Penguins season was when they retired Jaromir Jagr’s famous number 68. It is bold of the Penguins to assume the 52-year-old is officially retired from NHL action.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had a shipment of Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads stolen
Bleacher Report joked about Jagr joining the New York Islanders after Jagr posted a photo with Lou Lamoriello during his jersey retirement visit.
Lamoriello does love bringing his old New Jersey Devils players to the Islanders, and the Islanders are only one of only two Metropolitan Division teams Jagr hasn’t played for.
Just when things couldn’t get worse, they did, in hilarious fashion. Thursday was supposed to be “Jaromir Jagr bobblehead night” at the Penguins home game.
Unfortunately for the would-be fans in attendance looking forward to the commemorative keepsake, they’ll be leaving the PPG Paints arena without a nodding Czech to add to their collection. The Penguins announced that the shipment carrying the bobbleheads had been stolen in transit.
Yes, someone high-jacked a whole bunch of Jagr bobbleheads. Does it sound like a plot line out of an NHL-themed episode of “The Sopranos”? Yes, it does. Would we be lying if we didn’t laugh just a bit at hearing the news of the grand theft bobblehead?
The Penguins responded by saying they are working with federal and state authorities on the investigation. We’ll go out on a limb and assume the perpetrator didn’t expect his heist to net mini-versions of the NHL legend. Once they see the mullet maybe they’ll figure it out.
Don’t worry if you were one of the unlucky fans going to tonight’s game. The Penguins will be giving out vouchers for fans at tonight’s game only with a scan-able barcode.
Once the bobbleheads are recovered the Penguins will announce a time for place for fans to exchange that voucher for a bobblehead. With the NHL season winding down that “exchange date” might unfortunately not be at another NHL game.
For the record, the Penguins website still lists tonight as Jagr Bobblehead Day on the promotional schedule as of this morning.
The Penguins joked that this “adds to the legend” of Jagr. Fans who eventually get the bobblehead will have one crazy story to tell as to why this wasn’t any normal game giveaway.
We hadn't heard anything about a comment from Jagr himself until the Penguins posted this video on Twitter of him teaming up with one of the bobbleheads to "find his friends".