FORT WAYNE… On Monday afternoon the 2017 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductions were announced and the Hall will welcome in 5 new player inductees and 2 into the Builder category. Long time Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs goes in along with Canadian Collegiate coach Clare Drake. Coach Drake is most known as the longtime coach of the powerhouse University of Alberta team and coached in the professional ranks as well. His Alberta teams won 6 titles in 28 seasons. Jacobs purchased the Bruins in 1975 and has become prominent in NHL Board of Governors affairs. The 5 players getting the call to the hall are none other then the “Finnish Flash” Teemu Selanne, his favorite linemate from the Anaheim Ducks Paul Kariya, and David Andreychuk, Mark Recchi and one of the most famed players ever in Canadian Olympic competition Danielle Goyette.  

As always, there are some hockey purists that debate these selections to the nth degree and I won’t do that here. If I look at the career stats of the enshrines this year, you can make a case for any one of them, I’m OK with these choices. My obvious favorite, along with a lot of fans has to be Selanne. He was the best player of this group by far, and perhaps the most likeable. A quick story on him; there was one off-season where it was late in his career and he was uncommitted to returning to the Ducks. Sometime in mid-summer and into September he ramped up his workouts to the point where he felt comfortable playing another year. However, at the beginning of the regular season he wasn’t quite fully ready to play.  

The campaign started off with an early season game between the Ducks and Minnesota Wild. Selanne was in the press box for the eve. In the 1st intermission Wild radio color man Tom Reid (one of my all time favorite NorthStars) was interviewing Selanne. Teemu had been playing a lot of tennis for cardio workouts and had a heckuva suntan going. Reid noticed this and made note of it to Selanne saying to him that he must not be skating much with a tan like that. The ever quick, smart and witty Selanne told Reid that he was doing a lot of skating…. at night! The smile on Teemu’s face was priceless, just like being able to watch him play was for years. Congrats Teemu, the league’s not the same without you.  

Paul Kariya was an extraordinarily talented player. He wasn’t the biggest player or the toughest, but you best not ever underestimate him on the ice. I saw him play many games as a University of Maine Black Bear. Case in point was the night former NJ Devils D-man and former Wild assistant coach Scott Stevens put a hit on Kariya that knocked him into next year. This occurred in Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final featuring the Devils and the Ducks. And friends, I’m going to go off the rails here. I’m not a Scott Stevens fan. Never, ever. I’m not at all unhappy that he decided to go back home and leave the Wild. I looked at him as bad karma on the team. He was quite simply a dirty player in my book. He was the unchallenged king of the blindside hit, just ask Eric Lindros. And this one on Kariya may have been the biggest example of that in his career. Fans that like him go to great lengths to say what a great player he was. And that’s true, he was excellent, but allow me to point out that now that the NHL has come out of the stone age and changed their rules to get rid of those types of intentional contact, if Stevens played now under these rules, he would have been suspended quite frequently. He would have been a frequent flyer to the leagues doghouse with a substantially lighter billfold. He would be the poster child for the types of contact the league needed to eliminate to better protect players. Did he help the Wild’s D-corps? Without doubt. I’m certain each one of them would say that he helped their game. But I’m not disappointed he is out.  

At any rate, he applies this hellacious dirty hit to the unsuspecting Kariya, and he goes down hard. He lies motionless on the ice for several minutes. The optics of this are horrible to this day. And further, any fan that celebrates this type of contact isn’t a true fan of the game in my book. The game doesn’t need this or you. Kariya is helped off the ice eventually and you have to think his playoffs are over. But this is Paul *&^%$# Kariya!! He comes back a few minutes later and scores on a laser slapshot to give the Ducks a 4-1 lead and force a G7. The Devils would win G7 though 3-0 and the Cup. It would be Kariya’s last tilt with them as he became a UFA that July 1. Stevens received no suspension or fine as a result of that hit. As I said, if he played like that today, well, he wouldn’t be playing much and that would’ve been fine with me.  

Recchi and Andreychuk were pretty good players in their own right. Recchi played for 7 different teams, winning 5 Cups while amassing 1533 points in 1652 regular season games and 148 points in 189 playoff tilts. He currently works for the Penguins. Andreychuk won a Cup in 2004 with Tampa Bay, played for 6 teams scoring 1338 points in 1639 regular season games and also 97 points in 162 playoff contests. He has the 14th most goals in league history with 640 and was the Captain on the Bolts Cup winner. He works for the Lightning in their front office. Goyette medaled 3 times (2G, 1S) as a member of the Canadian Olympic team and 9 times (8G and 1S) at the World Championships. That’s quite a career for the Quebec native. Congrats to all inductees.  

THE NHL ENTRY DRAFT was held over the previous weekend in Chicago and it was interesting even if it wasn’t considered a stellar draft year. The debate I recently promised about NCAA hockey versus Canadian Junior hockey will be NEXT WEEK, prompted by a conversation I heard at the draft that was more then indifferent toward our college game here. Until then, over and out! PEACE