About fuckin time...pretty emotional speech, esp. when talking about Mess
Oilers' Anderson enters Hall of Fame
"Over the course of 10 or 15 years, you're going to change as an individual. You're supposed to learn and grow. I appreciate things a lot more."
-- Glenn AndersonRussian centre Igor Larionov, longtime NHL linesman Ray Scapinello and junior hockey icon Ed Chynoweth also being inductedJim Matheson, Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, November 10
TORONTO - When Glenn Anderson told his six-year-old daughter that her dad was a Hall of Famer, she shrugged.
"I'm basking in the glory of this when I go to pick Autumn up at school," Anderson said, laughing. "And I'm dying to tell somebody.
"And when I do, Autumn says, 'Who cares?' Guess what I did today, daddy? I let my butterflies go and they're flying free in Central Park.' "
She's a kid, not a hockey fan, though she did run up to the stage Monday night with a box of Kleenex (a tribute to Mark Messier) but said she didn't want to stay in her dad's arms.
"I want to sit down and watch you cry," said Autumn, who has no idea about the celebrated Boys of Winter from the Edmonton Oiler glory days, but there is a connection between those butterflies and the right winger.
Both flew free.
Nobody was more exciting than Anderson, roaring in on goalies on one leg, then pumping his fist after scoring, which is why he has joined teammates
Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr in the Hall, along with their former coach/GM Glen Sather.Anderson wasn't sure if his time had really come, back in June, when told to call the Hall. "I got a wrong number at first, then nobody had heard of me with the second. I thought it was Slats (Sather) playing a joke on me," Anderson said.
It took him far too long to make it, nine years after he was first eligible in 1999, but he holds no grudges.
"It never really bothered me, although I always knew what time it (election) was taking place, because the media would start calling, and I never got any calls the rest of the year," he said.
"It was all about our team . sometimes I thought maybe our team should be in here."
In his acceptance speech Monday, he thanked Father David Bauer, driving force behind the Canadian national team, and Sather, Gretzky, Messier and Kevin Lowe.
"Wayne taught us to play outside the box," said Anderson.
"Glen, I don't know who enjoyed our teasing, analytical conversations more, you or I," he told Sather. "But I lost a lot of sleep thinking about them. You taught us all never to take shortcuts as players. You were a great mentor and guidance counselor and father figure."
He called Messier the "toughest guy I ever played against, even in our own practices.
"But in the games he always had my back."
Anderson was honoured along with centre Igor Larionov, linesman Ray Scapinello, who worked more NHL games (2,926) than any other official and the late former junior hockey operator Ed Chynoweth.
When the lights were on and the heat got turned up, Anderson was at his best. "The bigger the game, the more I wanted to play it," he said.
Anderson finished with 17 playoff game-winning goals. Only Gretzky and Brett Hull (both 24), Claude Lemieux (19), Rocket Richard and current Colorado captain Joe Sakic (18) ever had more. Anderson had five in Stanley Cup overtime. Only Sakic (7) and The Rocket (six) were ever more dangerous.
"I hated losing more than I loved winning . that was one of my mottos, the way I approached the game," said Anderson, who played every playoff game like it was his last, not just in Edmonton, but later in Toronto, St. Louis and New York. He played 217 playoff games and scored 93 goals (5th best) and 214 points (4th best).
He played hard and ran over anyone who got in his way; a goalie might get his head bounced off a crossbar or a defenceman might accidentally get a stick in the helmet.
"Me, mean? I thought hockey was a real gentleman's game, you know, no penalties, we all play for the love of the game and there's all this camaraderie," winked Anderson.
In regular-season, he had 73 game-winners for the Oilers, more than Gretzky, Messier or Kurri, who got much higher billing around the league.
He fell short of 500 goals by two, but reached 1,000 points while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"Yeah, I scored a goal, everybody came on the ice to congratulate me and Denis Morel, who was the referee, gave us a delay of game penalty," said Anderson. "Being the gentleman that I was, I went and served the penalty."
"When Gretz got his milestones, they'd bring out the red carpet, give him trophies. His whole family would be out on the ice."
Anderson, who'll have his No. 9 retired in Edmonton Jan. 18, had many friends in the crowd. Gretzky didn't make it in from Phoenix, where he was coaching the Coyotes, but former linemate Messier was in the crowd, as was Coffey. Oiler president Kevin Lowe, the only other guy from their storied playing days with a shot at the Hall, flew in from New York on Monday. So did Ranger GM Sather, deciding they'd rather celebrate Anderson's big night than watch their teams play at Madison Square Garden.
Cal Nichols, the former head of the Edmonton Investors Group and Oiler CEO Patrick LaForge were in the audience.
Anderson was on six Stanley cup winners, five with the Oilers, one with the Rangers.
Larionov was cheated out of his prime playing years because he couldn't come to the NHL from Russia until he was 29.
"He was a special man, with great integrity . we were all in awe of him," said former Red Wings' captain Steve Yzerman, who'll be in the Hall of Fame next year as a first-ballot inductee.
Scapinello never wore a helmet, got countless stitches, got smacked by the puck and decked by punches, but never missed a game through 33 years and was popular with coaches and players.
"I'd be in the face-off circle, looking at Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Phil Esposito . I've got to tell you, it was the greatest job in the world," said Scapinello.
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Who's next? Kevin Lowe? Andy Moog? The Edmonton Oilers simply THE BEST!!
See cause if you forget where you come from, You're never gonna make it where you're goin,
Because you lost the reality of yourself
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