Should Stompin’ Tom Connors be in the hockey hall of fame?

Apparently there’s a movement afoot to get Stompin’ Tom Connors into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder.

This is a horrible idea. I understand public sentiment is high now because of his death, but if Pat Burns couldn’t get into the hall of fame when he was dying of cancer and he has the criteria to be in there, no way should Connors get there.

Here’s the thing. The Hockey Song is catchy. It’s played in arenas. It gets everyone excited. Of course, you could say the same thing about Blur’s Song 2 (the Woo-hoo song played after every Ottawa Senators goal, except during the XX playoffs), Rednex’s Cotton Eye Joe and Gary Glitter’s Rock ‘n Roll Part 2. Do those people belong in the Hall of Fame? Of course not.

He wrote a song about hockey. And that’s it. That doesn’t mean he should be in the hall of fame. Why not induct Roch Carrier for writing the famous book, the Hockey Sweater? Or Paul Newman for the most popular hockey movie of all time, Slap Shot? Or Mike Myers for The Love Guru? Er… scratch that last one.

But you get the idea. Connors should not be in the hockey hall of fame. There are plenty of builders who belong in the hall of fame before Connors. Some of them include:

Ken Holland: Won multiple Cups with the Red Wings, and has made that team the most consistent (and excellent) team of the last 15 years.

Pat Quinn: Fourth all-time in wins for a coach.

Kerry Fraser: The most regular season and playoff games refereed.

Mike Kennan: Fifth all time in wins for a coach, and won the New York Rangers its only Stanley Cup in the last 73 years.

Bryan Murray: Eighth all-time in wins as a coach. As a GM, put together the team that won Anaheim the Cup in 2007.

Brian Burke: Won the Cup with Anaheim, wheeled and dealed to get the Sedins in Vancouver, turned around Toronto’s franchise (although he’s not with the team anymore to see the fruit of his labours).

Fred Shero: Coach of the Flyers team that won back-to-back Cups in the 1970s.

Pierre Lacroix: Led the Avalanche to two Cups.

Pat Burns: Turned around a lot of teams, and led the Devils to a Stanley Cup.

That’s nine right there. I’m sure there are plenty more. But I’m guessing you get the point.

Stompin’ Tom wrote a hockey song back in 1973. And that’s about it.

Let the hall of fame be filled with people who have actually contributed to hockey, and leave Stompin’ Tom to the music hall of fames.

Paul Henderson’s The Goal of My Life book review

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of when he scored the famous Summit Series-winning goal, Paul Henderson released a new book this fall, called The Goal of My Life.

In it, he speaks about the goal, his NHL career, cancer and his Christianity.

While it’s interesting to read about his life, the book doesn’t flow very well.

First, there’s no real stories. The best part of the book is when he starts remembering certain aspects. For example, when he thought he could slip around a veteran defenceman as a rookie, or the time he levelled John Ferguson with a clean bodycheck. Those are interesting to read.

The majority of the book, however, isn’t like that. It’s more like “During this season, I injured my groin, but still scored XX goals and XX assists for XX points.” It makes for a duller read.

It also feels like Henderson had trouble filling up the book. It’s only about 200 pages. But there’s a chapter where other people talk about a Christian group Henderson set up, a chapter highlighting Henderson’s life, a chapter that highlights other members of the 1972 Summit Series, and part of another chapter where other people talk about Henderson’s goal in 1972.

In fact, the most interesting stories come from Henderson recounting other people telling him where they where and what they were doing when the goal was scored. That would make for an interesting book on its own.

Because of these, the book doesn’t really flow. The story-telling is a little of whack (he’ll tell a story about 1982 while still talking about 1974).

The most interesting tidbit: Henderson doesn’t believe he belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He writes that he had a great month, but not a great career.

I found the book bogged down a little when talking about his faith. It just went on a little too much for my liking. But for Henderson, it’s very important. The goal of his life isn’t the one that happened in 1972, it’s his own personal goal to help others and spread the word of God. I can respect that, and I enjoyed reading how he became a man of faith and the stories surrounding it. I just think it was a little too lengthy.

The book had its moments. I wish there were more stories. While a lot of the great hockey players are mentioned, there’s no real connection with them because there’s no stories about them.

I give The Goal of My Life three out of five stars.

What newly retired players should make the Hall of Fame?

Should Peter Forsberg make the Hall of Fame?

This year, we have seen a lot of big name NHL players retire. In four years, they will all be eligible for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

However, not all of them can make it. Despite a lot of people thinking there are too many good — and not necessarily great — players being inducted into the Hall of Fame, there’s still a lot of talent out there that should be considered.

This year’s retirees so far include Craig Conroy, Peter Forsberg, Adam Foote, Fredrik Modin, Brian Rafalski, Doug Weight, Mark Recchi, Paul Kariya, Todd Marchant, Chris Osgood, Patrick Lalime and Kris Draper.

But how to decide who should make the Hall of Fame? There’s no real criteria used by the voting committee, as most of it is secretive. But there are some indicators about who should make it.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post explaining why Daniel Alfredsson doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame. With a couple of tweaks, I figured most of those criteria could be used to judge whether a newly-retired player deserves to make it.

Those 10 criteria are: Stanley Cups, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons (ie- 50 goals), considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Some of these can’t really be measured. Intangibles, for example. Scott Stevens is the perfect example of this. While he meets the criteria of leadership, Stanley Cups and individual award, Stevens is mostly known for his thundering bodychecks, which gave him a reputation that certainly helped in his bid for the Hall.

Now, a player doesn’t need to have all of these to make it. But, the more they have, the better. The less they have, the worst the chance.

So far, 10 players have officially retired since the end of the regular season. For this post though, I’m going to include two more players who retired during last season who would be eligible for the hall of fame at the same time as the 10 during this summer.

Below are the 12 players, in order that they retired. I’ve bolded the criteria that each player meets.

Craig Conroy – 0% chance

Stanley Cups, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

While a serviceable player, Conroy doesn’t meet any of the criteria on this list, and won’t be making a trip to the Hall of Fame, unless he gets invited to Jarome Iginla’s induction sometime in the future.

Peter Forsberg – 80% chance

Stanley Cups (two), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Although Forsberg meets seven of the 10 criteria, he falls into the Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros conundrum: Great players who could have made the Hall of Fame if they had played enough games. Unfortunately, Forsberg’s ankles were more brittle than Rick Dipietro.

But there’s no denying his impact on the game. While he never had a monster season, he was a consistent player, netting more than a point-per-game average for every season except for his last. In 2001-2002, he didn’t play a single regular season game, and then somehow managed 27 points in 20 playoff games. What rust?

He was a beast on the world stage, winning Olympic gold three times, and managed to get a World Championship gold in there as well. In 1993, Forsberg somehow managed 31 points in seven games at the World Junior Championships.

He has a Hart trophy, an Art Ross trophy, was featured on a stamp in Sweden for this Olympic shootout goal, and is fourth all-time in points by a Swedish-born player.

But in the end, if you look at his final numbers, it would be tough to let him in. Only 249 goals, 885 points. Lindros has about 100 more goals, and only 20 less points, yet some don’t believe The Big E should be in there.

I think Forsberg will eventually make it to the Hall of Fame, but he’s not a first ballot guy.

Adam Foote – 0% chance

Stanley Cups (two), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Adam Foote may have two Stanley Cup rings, an Olympic gold medal and a World Championship, but he’s got no chance at the Hall of Fame.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked the guy as a player. A tough defensive defenceman, Foote was a leader on the Colorado Avalanche Cup winning teams. But he doesn’t have the numbers, the awards or the pedigree to make it to the Hall.

Fredrik Modin- 0% chance

Stanley Cup, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

He had a few respectable seasons, won the Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and has an Olympic gold medal along with a World Championship. But he’s not a Hall of Fame player.

Brian Rafalski – 25% chance

Stanley Cups (three), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Defencemen are probably the hardest to judge of whether or not they should make the Hall of Fame. Unless you’re a Paul Coffey scoring 49 goals a season, a Niklaus Lidstrom winning seven Norris trophies, or a Brian Leetch being the top American defenceman of all time, it’s pretty difficult to make the Hall.

A defenceman’s #1 job is to keep the puck out of their own net. They get usually don’t put up awesome offensive numbers. They don’t get the glory of goaltender wins. They don’t get enough credit for a simple play that stops a rush by another team. So it’s difficult to judge defencemen unless they’re superstars.

Rafalski is helped out by the fact he played for the Red Wings for the last few years, but that won’t be enough. He’s currently 51st all-time for NHL points by a defenceman, behind guys such as Bryan McCabe, Paul Reinhart, Sandis Ozolinsh and Garry Galley, and none of them have a shot of making the Hall.

If Rafalski does make it, look for it to be 15 years down the road, when people look back fondly and remember him as being a better player than he actually was.

Doug Weight won't be making the Hall of Fame.

Doug Weight – 10% chance

Stanley Cup, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

While Doug Weight finished with more than 1,200 games and more than 1,000 points, he doesn’t really belong in the Hall of Fame. He has a very consistent player throughout much of his career, but he never really shone the way many fans may choose to remember.

And although he may have be the fifth highest scoring American in league history, that isn’t enough to get a player into the Hall. He’s right around the Dave Taylor and Bobby Smith mark, but without the goal-scoring prowess they possessed.

Mark Recchi- 100% chance

Stanley Cups (three), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Should easily be a first ballot hall of famer. He’s pretty much done it all in the NHL.

He’s 12th all-time in points, 19th all-time in goals and 13th all-time in assists. He’s 16th all time in powerplay goals. He’s had a 50-goal season, and three 100-point seasons. His 123 points  in the 1992–1993 season is the Flyers regular season scoring record, pretty remarkable when you think of the great players the Flyers have had over the years (Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Eric Lindros, Time Kerr, etc.).

Since his rookie season in 1989, only two players have more points: Jaromir Jagr and Joe Sakic. When you look at all the other players that have played in the last two decacdes, Recchi has not only outscored most of them, but ended up with more Cups than most of them, and he did it with three different teams (the Penguins in the early 90s, Carolina in 2006 and Boston this past season).

He’s won a gold medal in the 1988 World Junior Championships, along with a gold at 1997 World Hockey Championships.

But if you look past the stats, you see a guy whom everyone loved: fans, players, opponents, etc. That’s amazing, especially considering he played on seven different teams, all Eastern conference teams and many of them hated rivals. Many fans learn to hate former players once they leave, but that didn’t happen with Recchi.

Paul Kariya- 50% chance

Stanley Cup, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

He’s a bit of a tricky one. If you allow him in, does that open the door for Rick Middleton and Brian Propp, who have almost identical numbers? Or is Paul Kariya an exception because he may be remembered as a better player than them?

But Kariya’s career seems to be right on that fence.

He won a ton of gold medals (one Olympic, one World Championship and one World Juniors), but no Stanley Cups. He scored a point-per-game pace, but never reached 1,000 in his career. He scored 50 goals in a season, but never made it to 500. He ranks sixth for points by a winger during his career, but never won a major award.

Injuries slowed him down a lot though, and they were some pretty major injuries. A whole season and a half due to a concussion. A vicious cross-check to the head by Gary Suter kept him out of another Olympics and the rest of the season in 1998. He broke his foot blocking a shot in 2000.

Really, it can go any way when it comes to Kariya. There’s arguments for him to be in the Hall, and just as many arguments against. I think he will eventually make it to the Hall of Fame, but it will take a few years.

Todd Marchant- 0% chance

Stanley Cup, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

He’s won a Stanley Cup and has played the most games by anyone drafted in 1993 (although he’s about to be passed by Chris Pronger, Bryan McCabe, Jason Arnott) and that’s about it.

Chris Osgood should make it.

Chris Osgood- 80% chance

Stanley Cups (three), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Osgood will be the Dino Ciccarelli of this generation. It may take a while to get him in the hall, but eventually his numbers will get him there (although he really should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer).

All this talk about the fact Osgood only achieved the 400 wins he did because he played with a good team is kind of BS. No one says Grant Fuhr doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall because he played behind the great Edmonton powerhouse of the 1980s. No one is taking anything away from Martin Brodeur, despite the fact he played behind a trap team that allowed about 18 shots a game for 10 years. No one thinks Billy Smith is only in the Hall because he managed to get on a dynasty in the early 80s.

Would Ken Dryden, widely considered one of the best goalies of all time, have had the success he had if the Boston Bruins had traded him to the California Golden Seals instead of the Montreal Canadiens? Instead Dryden played behind Serge Savard, Larry Robinson, Jacques Laperriere, Guy Lapointe and J.C. Tremblay, and that was just the defence.

So for someone to say a player shouldn’t make the Hall of Fame based on his team is just ludicrous, unless you’ve done it for everyone.

Not only did Osgood put up decent numbers with the Islanders (helping the Islanders get to 42 wins that year, the most for Islanders team since the last time the Isles made it to the Cup finals, way back in 1984) and the Blues, he routinely became better in the playoffs. His goals against average and save percentage were better in the postseason, and by a considerable margin.

Some more reasons on why Osgood will make the Hall of Fame:

• Is currently 10th all-time in wins by an NHL goaltender
• Led NHL in GAA in 2008 (regular season 2.09 & playoffs 1.55)
• Led NHL in Wins in 1996
• Scored a goal vs. Hartford Whalers, March 6, 1996.
• 4th all time NHL leader in win percentage (53.9%)
• 7th best Goals Against Average (career) of all time (2.49)

Patrick Lalime- 0% chance

Stanley Cups, leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Most people look at Patrick Lalime, and think he was a playoff failure, especially because of his time in Ottawa. But the numbers say the opposite.

In 2002, for example, he had a goals against average of 1.39 (second best all-time for any playoff season with at least 10 games played) and a save percentage of .946 (best all-time for a playoff season with at least 10 games played).

For all goalies who has played at least 25 playoff games in a career, Lalime is third all-time in save percentage and third all-time in goals against. Is it his fault that the Sens just couldn’t score come playoff time?

The one intangible for Lalime happened at the start of his career, when he set a record for the longest unbeaten streak to start a career (he went 14-0-2 in 16 games).

That’s still not enough to get him close to the Hall of the Fame though, but it’s worth noting.

Kris Draper- 0% chance

Stanley Cups (four), leadership, better playoff performer than regular season, individual awards, great statistical seasons, considered a top player at their position during their career, overall career statistics, international play and intangibles.

Kris Draper’s name has been coming up a lot when people debate about whether Osgood should be in the Hall of Fame. They say since Osgood won three Cups, and Draper four, then Draper should be in there along with Osgood.

I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Not every player from the Oilers dynasty can be in the Hall of Fame. Not every player on the Habs five straight Cups in the lat 1950s can be in the Hall. Not every New York Islander from the early 80 can make it to the Hall of Fame (although they’re trying, right Clark Gillies?).

Draper was a great fourth-liner who player with grit and complimented the team. Nice guy to have on your team, but not Hall of Fame worthy.

Ten reasons Daniel Alfredsson will not make the hall of fame

So I was driving home from work last week, and I heard this on the radio.

Daniel Alfredsson should not make it to the hall of fame.

“Daniel Alfredsson is a shoo-in for the hall of fame.”

After the tow-truck pulled my car out of the ditch, I took some time to ponder this statement.

And the more I thought, the more I realized I was right.

Daniel Alfredsson does not belong in the hall of fame.

At least, not with the way his career is now.

Don’t get me wrong, Alfie is a good player, and is a surefire bet to be the first Senator of the modern era to get his number retired by the team. Unless the Sens decide to hang Dany Heatley’s number first (with Heatley still in the jersey).

But hall of fame? I don’t think so.

Here is the following 10 reasons why Daniel Alfredsson doesn’t deserve to make the Hall of Fame.*

No Stanley Cup

There are a lot of people who believe that if you don’t have a Stanley Cup ring, you don’t belong in the hall of fame. They’ll even argue that Marcel Dionne, who is one of only six players to score 700 goals and fis ifth in points all time, doesn’t belong in the Hall.

This is the closest Alfredsson has gotten to the Stanley Cup.

Now, I’m not necessarily one of those people, but I think it helps. A lot. Scott Stevens wouldn’t be in the hall without his three Stanley Cups. Clark Gillies wouldn’t be there if he wasn’t a part of the Islanders dynasty at the beginning of the 1980s.

If someone like #11 makes it, it would open up the hall to the rest of the “good, but not great” players, such as Theoren Fleury, Adam Oates and Tim Kerr.

Basically, a hockey player’s career can be summed up in one of five categories:

A cup of coffee: Guys who played a couple of games or a season or two (Chad Penney, Mike Fountain)

A Sunday brunch: Played a few years, but nothing special (Anson Carter, Janne Laukkanen)

Dinner at a friend’s house: A good serviceable career in the league (Mike Keane, Yanic Perreault)

A five-course meal: Nice to see, but no guarantees it’s the best you’ve ever had (Adam Oates, Doug Gilmour)

Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings: The superstars of the league, lets you know they are something special, and sure-fire Hall of Famers (Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky)

Alfredsson falls somewhere between number three and four. He’s had a nice career, but he doesn’t belong in that upper echelon.

Leadership

Every one says Daniel Alfredsson is a great leader. But is he really?

Do you ever remember Daniel Alfredsson coming through in the clutch? Me neither. In fact, if you were to look at the Sens biggest games of the past 10 years, this is how Alfie fared:

Daniel Alfredsson has been known to disappear in big games.

2007 Stanley Cup finals: Four goals, one assist (two of those goals came in the last game, a 6-2 drubbing).

2004 playoffs, first round, Game 7 against the Leafs: No points, no shots, a minus one

2003 playoffs, third round, Game 7 against the Devils: No points.

2001 playoffs, first round, four-game sweep by the Leafs: One goal, no assists

1999 playoffs, four-game first-round sweep by the Leafs:  One goal, two assists

So in the last 10 years, of the team’s 14 most important games, Alfie has six goals and three assists. Take away the 2007 finals, and he has two goals and two assists in 10 of the team’s most important games.

That’s not leadership.

Leaders do more than lead by example. Their teammates stick up for them. Think Wayne Gretzky. If you touched him, either Dave Semenko or Marty McSorley would come over to talk about you not eating solid foods for a month.

Does Alfie command that type of respect from his colleagues? Have a look at the video.

Despite the title of the Youtube clip, mayhem did not ensue after Mark Bell left Alfie lying in a puddle of his own drool. What happened is that the play continued on for another 10 seconds before anything happened.

And even then, the whistle was blown because Alfie was injured, not because of fights breaking out while the team tried to fight for the honour of their captain.

If you watch the footage of what happened afterwards, nothing happened. No gloves were dropped, no punches thrown. I’m sure Wade Redden did a good job telling Bell that he was a bad person for throwing that hit.

I can tell you this though. If someone had tried to lay out Steve Yzerman in that fashion, they’d still be cleaning up the guy’s blood.

Not a great playoffs in career

I just touched upon this one, but it does deserve a category all on its own.

He doesn’t come through when the team needs him.

He’s like the reverse Claude Lemieux: great in the regular season, but disappears come playoff time.

He never won a major individual award.

Besides the Calder trophy (as best rookie), Alfredsson has never won a major individual award.

Alfie has won only one major individual award: the Calder in his rookie season.

He’s only been nominated for an award twice: both for the Lady Byng for most gentlemanly player.

Again, when you look at other hall of famers, most of them have won awards. Look at the four players that made it this year.

Brett Hull: Lady Byng, the Hart and the Lester B. Pearson.

Brian Leetch: Norris trophy (twice), Conn Smythe and the Calder.

Steve Yzerman: Lester B. Pearson, Conn Smythe, Selke, Masterton, Lester Patrick

Only Luc Robitaille won as many trophies (the Calder) as Alfie, but he can be forgiven, since he’s the highest-scoring left winger of all time.

And Alfredsson has the credentials to match that?

He’s been named to the second all-star once, and that’s pretty much it.

Never won a scoring title

Have you ever actually looked at Alfredsson’s stats? Can you guess how many times he put up more than 90 points?

Just once.

That’s it.

In the 2005-06 season, he had 103 points. His next highest point total is 89.

Now, can you guess how many times he scored more than 50 goals?

None. His highest total is 43.

These are the benchmarks that players are judged by. It’s been 50 goals ever since Maurice Richard did it in 1943-44.

In baseball, there are certain goals that players can hit the will generally make them a shoo-in for the hall of fame (such as hitting 500 career home runs). Hockey doesn’t really have anything like that, but scoring 50 goals in a season helps a lot (right Cam Neely?).

Alfredsson never hit it, unlike many other hall of famers.

Sportsmanship

Does Daniel Alfredsson have sportsmanship?

I would argue no.

Normally, it’s hard to argue sportsmanship in hockey. The whole point of the game is to run into your opponents to keep them from scoring.

But there are instances when you see sportsmanship come through. A guy gets accidently injured when his skate catches a rut, you see the opposing player call for the whistle right away to get the guy help.

Or you hold up on your hit if they see the guy turn his back.

Or you don’t take a shot on goal once you hear the whistle.

But this is not sportsmanship.

You do not intentionally shoot the puck at your opponent near the end of a game.

Not the top at his position for years

When you look at other hall of famers, they were the cream of the crop. Look at the top 10 centres of the 1980s. In no particular order, they were Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Bernie Nicholls, Denis Savard, Peter Stastny, Dale Hawerchuk, Bryan Trottier, Mark Messier and Marcel Dionne. Of that list, Nicholls won’t make the hall of fame, and the rest are already in.

What’s more, is that after the top 10, there’s a huge drop in talent. Barry Pederson, Tim Kerr, Bob Carpenter, Kent Nilsson, Mike Bullard, Bernie Federko, Dennis Maruk and Bobby Smith would probably be the next top eight centres from that decade.

Only one of them are in the hall of fame (Federko), and none of the others will have a shot to make it.

So pretty much, if you’re not in the top 10, your odds of making it to the hall of fame go down drastically.

So when you look at Alfredsson of the past decade, which has been his best years, he wouldn’t be in the top 10 when it comes to right wingers. I’d put him below Teemu Selanne, Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Bill Guerin, Marian Hossa, Brett Hull, Jaromir Jagr, Jarome Iginla, Milan Hejduk and Rick Nash.

How many of those are sure-fire Hall-of-Famers? Hull’s already there, but there may only be three from that list that will join him (Selanne, Jagr and Iginla). The rest are on the cusp.

You could also argue that since Alfredsson came into the league (the 1995-96 season), he’d also be ranked below Theo Fleury, Peter Bondra, Mark Recchi, Tony Amonte and Paul Kariya.

So if he’s not even one of the top 10 right wingers during his career, his odds go down drastically.

Not the best player on the team

When you played against other hall of famers, you knew it. Coaches would design game plans to stop them. The top checking line would play against the likes of Mike Bossy, Guy Lafleur and Lemieux.

Alfie always took a back seat to Spezza and Heatley when it came to offence.

Alfie never had to deal with that for much of his career.

In the 90s, Alexei Yashin was seen as the more offensive player, and teams would focus on stopping him.

Then, in the 2000s, teams worked on stopping Jason Spezza and Heatley.

While Alfie had a good career, he was never seen as the guy that other teams needed to stop.

The guarantee

Hockey players are always making guarantees. The two most famous ones happen to be Mark Messier and Daniel Alfredsson.

Messier, in 1994, didn’t like the fact his New York Rangers were down three games to two to the New Jersey Devils. So he guaranteed a Rangers win to send the series back to New York for game seven.

So what did Messier do? He went out and scored a hat trick.

Fast forward ten years later. Before the 2004 playoffs had even begun, Alfie decided to tell the Ottawa Sun “Go ahead and write it, I guarantee we’ll win the Cup. I strongly believe this team will do it. No question about it.”

So what happened? They went down 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs to the hated Toronto Maple Leafs.

So then Alfie said this: “We’re going to go home, win and force Game 7. Then we’ll come back in here and win the series.”

Alfredsson's guarantees don't really mean much.

They won game six, but lost the series.

And how did Alfie respond to his own guarantee? By scoring one goal and two assists in seven games.

If you’re going to guarantee something, shouldn’t you actually show up and do something about it?

Maybe he should guarantee he’s going to make the Hockey Hall of Fame. That’s a surefire way he won’t make it.

No WOW factor

Have you ever heard someone say “Hey, Daniel Alfredsson is playing tonight. Let’s go to the game.”

A Hall of Famer is someone who, for the lack of a better term, puts butts in the seats. Gretzky did that. So did Lemieux. And Patrick Roy.

Their play transcended the sport.

People would go to the game just to see them in action. Pavel Bure was great at this. Even if he didn’t score, his moves on the ice would make fans of him and his opponents gasp in anticipation.

But Alfie doesn’t fall into this category. No one goes to see him in action. He’s more of the side attraction of the real reason the fans are there (to see the Sens win).

Conclusion

While not meeting any of these criteria doesn’t mean a player won’t make the hall of fame, it’s difficult to do so when he doesn’t meet any of them.

Alfredsson is one of those players, and because of it, he doesn’t deserve to be in the hockey hall of fame.

*Of course, this all changes if Alfie can put up some monster seasons and win a couple of cups the next few seasons, but I don’t see that happening.

Top 100 Habs: #100

#100: Joe Malone

Most people aren’t familiar with Joe Malone, because he played way back in the early days of the NHL. But in the first year of the National Hockey League with the Canadiens, Malone scored 44 goals in 20 games.

Joe Malone

Imagine that pace today. That would equal 180 goals in a season.

Malone played the next year, scoring seven goals in eight games before getting injured. He went to other teams after that, continuing his torrid scoring pace.

He came back to the Habs four years later, but his best scoring days were behind him.

But Malone scored at least a goal a game pace for 11 straight seasons, and even though he only played a few seasons with the Habs, the Hall of Famer deserves to be on the list as one of the 100 greatest Habs of all time.

For more information on Joe Malone:

Hockey Hall of Fame web site

Wikipedia