Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli Was Told At Noon On Wednesday He Would Be Getting Jarome Iginla

March 11, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Calgary Flames right wing Jarome Iginla (12) during a stoppage in play against the Los Angeles Kings during the first period at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

As if not getting Jarome Iginla didn’t sting Boston Bruins fans enough.

We all thought Iginla was coming to Boston and a lot of news outlets confirmed it. Some of us, myself included, even started to upload Iginla photos to Facebook and Twitter. Pretty embarassing stuff once we found out that the Pittsburgh Penguins had swooped in and would be getting Iginla, not the Bruins.

Fast forward to today and we got to find out that it was indeed Iginla’s choice to go to Pittsburgh and not Boston. He’d rather play with Sidney Crosby than David Krejci and can you blame him?

“A few days ago we had submitted a firm offer (to Calgary) with Alexander Kohklachev and Matt Bartowski – we were informed around noon yesterday that we had the player (Iginla). We won the sweepstakes, so to speak,” is what Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli told a room full of reporters during his press conference Thursday afternoon.

“Now these things happen all the time, more than you know” Chiarelli went on to say. “We believed we had a deal. We operated on the premise that we had a deal. In my experience, when things go silent and going screwy on your end, and it was. So later that night (Wednesday), around quarter of 12, I got a call from Jay (Feaster, who is Calgary’s GM) saying it was the player’s choice and he opted to go to Pittsburgh, so we were out.”

Man, talk about a kick in the pants.

Iginla also held his own press conference today and had this insight to offer, “The opportunity to play on a team with the two best players in the world (Crosby and Evgeni Malkin) – as a player, I wanted that opportunity”.

Oh well, like Chiarelli himself said it happens and its time to move on. It’s also a good time for him to make the moves necessary to improve this team and allow them to compete with the now even more talented Penguins.

If the Bruins management and players needed any more motivation to be better, they have it now.