The Two-Line Pass

Mustache Hall of Famer, maybe.

Local columnists are always hilarious.

Whether they’re touting their No. 2 right wing who has 50 points as league MVP because he “works hard” or bemoaning that Mats Sundin doesn’t want to play in (insert city Mats Sundin would never want to play in), their homeriffic views are always good for a chuckle.

And as far as stultifying homerism goes, no one’s better than the Edmonton media. That’s why the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson’s idea that the entire league should take the night off when GLENN FREAKING ANDERSON’S goes into the Hall of Fame is so adorable.

The NHL keeps insisting it will do the right thing and not schedule any games on Hockey Hall of Fame induction day in Toronto in November.

But it’s all lip service.

Last year, the league had five games on tap, including the Pittsburgh Penguins playing on the night Ron Francis, one of their storied players, was inducted into the Hall.

This year, on Glenn Anderson’s big night — Nov. 10 — the Edmonton Oilers are in New York to face the Rangers.

The Oilers and the Rangers are the only two teams Anderson won Stanley Cups with (five in Edmonton, one with the Rangers).

Why can’t the league go dark on the night they honour their greatest players?

Because Glenn Anderson is not one of the league’s greatest players. Less than a point a game as a right wing on THOSE Edmonton and Ranger teams? The gall it takes to compare him to Ron Francis, who had almost 1800 career points (699 more than Anderson) with so-so help around him much of the time, is incredible.

Now, allow me to play devil’s advocate for the Hall of Fame and the NHL here. There are only two games on the schedule that night, the aforementioned Oiler-Ranger tilt, and a sure-to-be-scintillating Lightning-Caps game on Versus. Now, would it maybe make sense for the Versus game to be changed to the Oiler-Ranger meeting in New York? Sure, why not? But should the league, who can’t draw viewers to Versus, give up its one nationally televised game of the week for the benefit GLENN ANDERSON? Be sure to let the Caps and Lightning fans know that their game won’t be on TV because of a second-liner on the 1986 Oilers.

And just in case you think this is another anti-Oiler rant, Igor Larionov going into the Hall stinks from a North American standpoint, but he at least scored 434 points in Russia before the iron curtain fell.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.