Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Four find their way to the Hall


Monday night was Induction night at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. A night that in recent times has offered up a wonderful retrospective of what makes hockey the game it has become.

It’s a night for memories and respect, speeches that recount the good times and honour family, friends and mentors. All about the players and less about the business side of the league, a wonderful salute to the players and builders that have built the game up over the years.

With TSN taking on the job of broadcasting the night’s festivities, the event has become a much more official affair than in previous times. This Monday was no exception, James Duthie and the always classy Dick Irvin handled the emcee duties for the night, Gino Reda providing the bridges between inductees.

This years inductees included one of the most dominant goaltenders the league has ever seen, a combatant of the sixties who won Stanley Cups with both Toronto and Montreal, a builder of the game who helped bring a franchise from the Deep South to the Canadian West and a long sought after Stanley Cup for Calgary and the architect of an Olympic medal and legacy as well as a solid coaching career in the NHL.

Patrick Roy, St. Patrick of Montreal, who played for Montreal and Colorado in his stellar career.

Dick Duff, who played on some of the great teams of the sixties. A dedicated goal scorer, who could count many great moments in his lengthy NHL career, including six Stanley Cup championships.

Harley Hotchkiss, the well known Calgary businessman who shared in the work of bringing the Atlanta Flames North and west and set the stage for hockey to flourish in Alberta’s southern metropolis.

The late, Herb Brooks, a tactician of great renown, most identified with the USA’s remarkable victory over the Soviet Union in the Lake Placid Olympics of 1980. He will forever be remembered as the creator of the Miracle.

Four remarkable names, three of them etched in the history books of hockey as key participants of a game they all loved. The fourth is a passionate believer in the game and its place in Canada’s west.

TSN did a good job of telling their stories, now forever immortalized in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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