Couple Turns Penguins Game into Lifelong Memory
By
Luke Henne / Pittsburgh Penguins
Making the trek all the way to Pittsburgh from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Hammond's night ended with a marriage proposal from John Canaon. The two have been together for seven years, yet the news still came as a welcomed surprise for Gina.
"I was floored. I didn't expect it. I knew he was really wanting to make this trip," she said. "He was really pushing to go, but apparently, he'd been planning it for several months. He was a little strange the day of the game."
Even during and after the game, Gina recognized that something was brewing.
"I stood up to get ready to leave, and he didn't get up. He just stayed seated," she said. "I sat back down and I'm like, 'okay, guess we're not leaving just yet.' I was like, 'Are you okay?' He, very nervously, just pulled out the ring box. He's not much for words, and he stumbled a little bit, but he posed it in question form: 'He shoots, he scores?' Even now, I'm still at a loss for words."
Although the couple has not solidified the specifics of the wedding yet, Hammond was so ecstatic that she asked John if they could get married at center ice right then and there.
Gina said that, in the spirit, it's very likely that the Penguins could be prominently featured in the wedding festivities.
"I've already Googled to see if there was a ring for him that I could have the Pens logo [on]," she said. "I did find a few, so we'll take a look at that."
The timing of John's proposal hit very close to home for Gina, a kindergarten teacher. The couple started dating in 2015, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer on Dec. 30 of that same year. Seven years to the date of her diagnosis, she received much more welcoming news.
The couple set their minds to it that they weren't going to miss the game, despite Mother Nature trying to alter their travel logistics and have them create backup plans. The pandemic had also thrown a wrench into their plans over the past few seasons, making them that much more eager.
"We were just itching. He was really pushing a couple months ago for us to get our passports renewed, which we did," Hammond said. "He was just pushing to go to this game. We wanted to go to the two. We wanted to go to the [Dec. 28] game and the [Dec. 30] game, but then that storm hit. We had to cross over in Buffalo, and the borders actually didn't reopen until a few hours before we left. We were still coming regardless. We had already rerouted that we were going to go to Windsor and cross over in Detroit, which would've doubled our trip time, but we were coming no matter what."
The couple's shared bond over the Penguins is something that Gina always cherishes.
"We really connected through the Pens. It's just our thing, together," she said. "We have matching outfits and matching jerseys, memorabilia. It's really one of the most special times that we spend together. It doesn't matter where we are. If a game is on, we watch it. We've even been away in the Dominican, and there was a game, so we had to find Wi-Fi."
However, when the two started dating, Hammond said that she knew very little about hockey, let alone the Penguins.
"I didn't know an offside from a hole in the wall. I thought 'Tanger' was a citrus shot of some sort," she said. "I didn't know any of this."
However, it didn't take much time with John - who fell in love with the Penguins despite being from the Niagara region - for her to get acclimated to both the sport and the team.
"He introduced me to hockey. I knew nothing about hockey," Hammond said. "Now, I think he gets a little jealous that I'm very knowledgeable about things. I think I became his dream girl. I'm just as hooked as he is."
The trip to Pittsburgh for the Dec. 30 game was the couple's eighth trip here in seven years together. Gina - whose favorite player is Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (No. 87) - doesn't think that happened by accident.
"He's Canadian, and we're Canadian. We have a dog named Nova Scotia - Nova for short - because he was born in Nova Scotia," she said. "He's just a well-rounded person, an amazing leader to the team and the community as well. Just really respected. I respect his composure during the games, as a leader."
While Crosby was held off the scoresheet in Pittsburgh's 4-2 loss to new Jersey, that certainly doesn't take anything away from John's execution of the proposal and all its specifics.
"I don't think he could've done it any more perfectly. That was romantic to me," she said. "That is our connection together. We absolutely love the city. If we could, we'd move to Pittsburgh."
For now, while the couple awaits their next trip back to Pittsburgh, Hammond is still enamored with the lifelong memory created on that December night.
"We're just going to continue to build on these memories and continue to, when we can, come to games and visit the city," she said. "Pittsburgh is always going to have a special place in my heart. We put one of the key locks on the bridge a few years ago. There's just so many things about Pittsburgh that are dear to us. I wasn't expecting it, to be honest, and I don't think he could've picked a better place."
