Players around the hockey world passed along heartfelt goodbyes on Thursday when Martin St. Louis retired after more than 1,100 career games.
None of the tributes or collections of kind words could compete with the photoshopped goodbye posted by St. Louis’ New York Rangers teammate Mats Zuccarello.
The diminutive Zuccarello stands 5’7”, and earned the nickname “hobbit” from Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, an allusion to the half-sized heroes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series of books. In his goodbye post on Instagram, Zuccarello showed a picture of himself and the 5’8” St. Louis as Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins, the two hobbits that delivered the ring to Mordor. The photo was accompanied by the caption “Great playing with u my Sam. We will chase the ring without u now”
To steal a phrase from Gollum: the picture, and friendship, is precious.
