As if the floundering, imploding Pittsburgh Penguins season wasn’t getting bad enough, the Penguins organization tweeted this morning that a special (and highly anticipated) fan giveaway tonight at PPG Paints Arena will have to be put on hold.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that the shipment carrying the Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads for tonight’s game (March 14) against the San Jose Sharks has been stolen after its arrival in California,” the team said in a press release issued this morning. “As a result, bobbleheads are not in Pittsburgh and will not be distributed at tonight’s game, but will be distributed at a later date.”
The team learned of the theft after “failing to receive the shipment as scheduled” and notified the manufacturers as well as transportation companies “to alert the appropriate state and federal authorities who are currently working to locate the cargo.” Fans attending the game will get a “voucher that includes a one-time scannable barcode that will be required” to get the prized giveaway sometime down the road. Dates and places for the pickups will be determined depending on if the bobbleheads are located or if a new batch of bobbleheads will be produced. Only those at the game tonight get the voucher.
“While this unfortunate incident adds to the legend of Jaromir Jagr, who will be in attendance as our guest for tonight’s game, we look forward to resolving this theft and delivering the prized Jagr bobbleheads to their rightful homes, our fans,” the team’s President of Business Operations Kevin Acklin said.
Who is responsible for this? And what does it have to do with our Philadelphia Flyers? Well, there’s already one prime suspect, who seems to have admitted to the crime: Gritty.
As for conspiracy theories behind the disappearance, one might surmise the fact that if the Penguins, who are a shell of their former glorious selves on the ice this season, were to lose to one of the worst NHL teams in San Jose, most or some of those same Jagr bobbleheads might find their way back on the ice. Maybe the bobbleheads themselves went AWOL and simply threw themselves out of the back of the semi heading to Pittsburgh. Or maybe because the bobbleheads (or team owners) were afraid Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas would resign all of them to ridiculously long contracts that would only add to the Pens’ current cap hell they find themselves in. Or maybe en route to Pittsburgh the dolls became possessed by the spirit of John Tortorella, causing each individual bobblehead to shout, “I’m not f–king going … I’m not … I’m not … F–K OFF!”
We’ll have more on this continuing story as it develops.
Update: It appear what might have made national news this morning could be a PR coup from the Penguins. Just before 2 p.m. Eastern today (March 14) the team tweeted an 18-second clip on its official account. The clip begins with a Jagr bobblehead in the passenger seat with Jaromir Jagr fastening the seat belt on the little Jagr. Jagr then puts his sunglasses on before saying, “Buckle up baby, let’s go find your friends!” Jagr then makes his trademark salute as he drives out of a garage. “To be continued…” is what you see to close the clip.
Will Jagr find the bobbleheads? Will Crosby be hoarding them somewhere with Malkin and Letang? I guess we’ll find out as the day unfolds. What is slightly irking some outlets and reporters is how (if it was a hoax from the start) it was reported as actual news both from the team site and the league itself. Had this been done on April 1 most would’ve probably gotten the joke and been okay with it.
