The (in)conspicuous superstar that had to suffer to achieve great things: Marián Hossa

It is practically impossible to find the peak moment in MARIÁN HOSSA’s career. One of the best hockey players in Slovak history has long maintained a high standard. When he was a teenager, his team won the top Slovak trophy. Hossa scored more than 500 goals and played more than 1,000 games in the NHL, won the Stanley Cup three times, scored a number of amazing goals, and became an idol, a hockey role model, for thousands of young boys. Hossa’s extraordinary career has recently culminated in the player’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Summer of 2015. A traditional youth tournament was taking place in Bratislava, then still under the original name of the Ivan Hlinka Memorial. Steve Yzerman also came to see the great talents. He held the position of General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning six years ago, and today he holds the same position in Detroit.Summer of 2015. A traditional youth tournament was taking place in Bratislava, then still under the original name of the Ivan Hlinka Memorial. Steve Yzerman also came to see the great talents. He held the position of General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning six years ago, and today he holds the same position in Detroit.

One of the best players in hockey history was very friendly when asked for an interview. He debated his position, looking for talent. He praised the bronze win of Slovakia’s U20 hockey team and goalkeeper Denis Godla.

We also spoke about Marián Hossa when debating the NHL. Yzerman then gave a clear prediction: “I definitely think he will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He will have achieved a lengthy career and he definitely deserves it. If you watched the last NHL finals closely, Hossa did not score, but he was the best forward in the series. He is a fantastic and complex forward who would be regularly nominated for the best defending forwards. I like to watch his game. It is unfortunate that Hossa is a winger and that the Frank J. Selke Trophy has only been won by centres in recent years because they go to throw-ins,” said Yzerman.

His prediction of the Hall of Fame came true immediately. Hossa was placed on the list of immortals in the first possible year. This despite the fact that the league management never awarded him the prize for the best defending forward.

Born to be fast

Hossa has had hockey in his blood since he was a child. His father František was a regular in the top Slovak hockey club Dukla Trenčín. First as a player, then as a coach. Marián followed him regularly to the hockey locker room.

There was no doubt that he would grow into a hockey player. Already in secondary school, he was one of the players scouts went to watch. When Jaroslav Walter transferred the then 17-year-old Hossa from the youth team to Dukla Trenčín’s A-team, many may have been surprised and perceived it as a "protectionist step."

The opposite was true.

Hossa shone in the games. As a forward, he scored 30 goals, averaging more than a point per game.

Marián Hossa could have won his first Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. (source: TASR/AP)

“He was in the third-attack formation. I was silently amazed at what he was capable of. My jaw often dropped. He was ‘slippery’, he got through two players like nothing, he didn’t hesitate when it was time to shoot,” said former teammate and current Dukla Trenčín coach Ján Pardavý.

Hossa, who had speed, explosiveness and creativity in his blood, won the top Slovak trophy with his team and subsequently moved overseas.

As a Portland Winter Hawks player, he won the Memorial Cup, although he was absent from the ice-rink in the last game. He had a fight with Ryan Davis, after which Hossa ended up with a torn front cruciate ligament in his knee.

The team won the trophy even without the Slovak, but assistant coach Július Šupler pushed Hossa who was sitting on a chair among his teammates. From that moment, he wore a plastic orthosis under his hockey sock.

Hossa made his NHL debut wearing the Ottawa Senators jersey on October 1, 1997, against the Montreal Canadiens. He obtained the first point twelve days later in a game against the Los Angeles Kings.

For the treatment of his knee, Hossa’s rookie season in the NHL did not begin until December 1998. Despite missing the first two months, he collected 30 points in 60 games and finished second to Chris Drury in the rookie of the year voting.

He scored his first goal on December 9, 1998, in a game against the Florida Panthers. Subsequently, he added 524 more during his career.

Trade for 100 points

He developed into an offensive superstar in the Canadian capital. In 2003, he lost the seventh game of the conference final against the later winner from New Jersey.

During the 2004/05 lockout season, he played for Mora IK, Sweden, but finished the season at home, in Trenčín.

Mike Gartner, left, presents a ring to Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Marian Hossa in Toronto, Friday, November 12, 2021. (source: TASR/AP)

At the start of the next season, he signed a three-year $18 million contract with Ottawa, but did not continue to play in Canada in the end. He moved to Atlanta as part of a blockbuster trade. Dany Heatley, who was recovering from a tragic accident in which his teammate Dan Snyder was killed, headed in the opposite direction.

Hossa left the top team and joined a below-average one. On the other hand, the Thrashers allowed him to excel. He obtained 92 points in the first season and even 100 in the second season. During this period, he had a share of 36 percent on all the team’s goals in the season.

Desire for collective success

Admiration for Hossa as an offensive leader was growing, but what he had not achieved was a collective success. He did not get any closer to it in the NHL, nor on the national team.

At the 2004 World Championships, under the leadership of Hossa’s father František, Slovakia came fourth. The country did not win a medal with the help of Marián Hossa even at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin two years later, although it came first in its group.

And so, during the next years overseas, Hossa decided to go tactical. He first tried to win the Stanley Cup as a Pittsburgh Penguins player. The club made it to the finals, but the Penguins lost to the Detroit Red Wings. A year later, the Red Wings signed him. And he played the final again, losing once more. To make his story bitterer, it was Pittsburgh that won the Stanley Cup.

“It is said that nothing is free. I had to endure it so that I could later enjoy great things,” Hossa admitted.

Over the following summer, he gave his agent a clear message - I will sign a long-term contract with a club that will have a long-term chance fighting for the Stanley Cup.

He signed a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago Blackhawks' Marián Hossa kisses the Stanley Cup in 2015. (source: TASR/AP)

In the first season, his quest for the hockey grail turned out successful. Hossa became the first player ever in all overseas professional competitions to compete in the finals three times in a row in a different team jersey. And on the third attempt, he succeeded.

“Who’s next?” Captain Jonathan Toews asked as he raised the Stanley Cup over his head. “Hossa, Hossa,” the Slovak’s teammates shouted.

It's a huge satisfaction, yes, I finally made it, Hossa shouted enthusiastically into the microphone of an overseas television reporter and continued, "It's the most beautiful moment of my career. The game spilled over from one side to the other, but we finally managed to do it," he added and went on to celebrate with his teammates following the triumph over Philadelphia.

As part of the Blackhawks dynasty, Hossa also won the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015.

The goal that changed history

Hossa underwent a major revival during his career. From a purely offensive player, he changed into a "two-way" player useful on both sides of the rink.

He dominated in stealing pucks, and Czech speed skater Martina Sáblíková would certainly appreciate his skating skills.

During his career, he held the status of a productive player for a long time. He scored seven hat-tricks in the NHL. He played three five-point games, and he recorded a four-point duel in the Chicago era - on November 9, 2014, against Edmonton.

When the American network NBC compiled the top 10 moments in the career of Marián Hossa as a Chicago player, it ranked a goal that no Slovak would probably even remember as first place. Chicago did not win the Stanley Cup after the goal, it was not Hossa’s 500th strike in the NHL, and it did not end up in the net after a brilliant individual play.

Hossa scored the goal on April 24, 2010, in an overtime game against Nashville in the fifth duel of the first round of the series after serving a five-minute boarding penalty.

Thanks to the goal, Chicago won 5:4, took the lead in the 3:2 series, but in particular gained momentum and started its amazing period, which defined its dynasty.

The dynasty whose symbol became the player with the number 81 on his jersey.

A new member of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Marián Hossa.

© Sportsnet

Author: Stanislav Benčat