Saturday, February 19, 2011

My Hall of Fame Can Be Used for Weddings



The Lounge has a very intricate, highly byzantine code of achievements that a player must solve to be considered, let along gain entry, into Vic's Hockey Hall of Fame.

The standards, if you will, are so demanding that many who have gained entry to the halls in Toronto and Eveleth, Minn., would not make it in. My hall, my rules. You must have more than a shirt and shoes to get served here. (Pants, after all, are required.)

I bring this up because Jeff, a trusted patron who has been known to take a few shifts behind the bar here in the Lounge, asked me whether Rod Brind'Amour should be in consideration for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Well, he would pass the first test for entry in Vic's Hall. He has been on a Stanley Cup champion. See, I run you out of the Hall if you have not played for a champion. I will have to adjust the rules a bit now to allow for the fact that professionals play in the Olympics, but I do so only slightly. We all acknowledge that the Olympics can be the best All-Star tournament around, but I don't think much of All-Star games, so you might gain a half-point for winning gold in the Olympics. And a Cup championship's value. Five points.

You don't like that price? There's the door.

After that I go into things like dominating the game on a variety of levels. Can you lead a team? (Vic's Hall is for leaders, not followers or specialists.) Have you changed the way the game is played? You may skate as fast as Bobby Orr, but can you put a team on your back and then possibly score again and again while having the entire opposing team hanging on your sweater hem, trying to stop you?

Bobby, your in. The rest of you? Do not put your pencils down just yet.

Would your team, without you, not win that Cup. Like I said, there are a lot of ifs and ands to qualify for enshrinement, but fail to answer in the affirmative to several of these questions means there are fewer butts to be seated honorably in Vic's Hall.

Mine is a much more spacious place than the old Bank of Montreal building in Toronto that now houses the Hockey Hall of Fame. There, you can see the plaques of a number of good players, along with the greats of the game.

Here in the Lounge, only the great ones get in, which leaves plenty of room for a little pool or, for more formal occasions like a wedding reception for our good friends from Iowa, a little polka.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Brind'Amour, who is under review right now, but I am a bit skeptical about his fate. I will have to reserve final judgement for a few years. Here's a warning, Rod. Pick your songs on the Lounge jukebox with care.

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