WELCOME MATS
Sundin inducted into Hall of Fame,
No hockey was no problem for the four Hall of Fame inductees on Monday.
Against the backdrop of an NHL lockout, Mats Sundin, Adam Oates, Pavel Bure and Joe Sakic swapped stories about their careers, mingled with other greats of the game and delivered emotional speeches during Monday night’s ceremony.
Bure, an offensive force in a career limited by injuries, had tears in his eyes during his speech as he recounted playing shinny in Russia on the same line as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Oates, one of the game’s great playmakers, choked up when talking to his wife Donna: “I wish we met earlier so I could show you I was a better player.”
Sakic, longtime captain of the Avalanche and MVP of Canada’s gold-medal winner at the 2002 Olympics, praised his two NHL cities — Quebec City and Denver. “Merci beaucoup,” he said. “As a kid, I was supposed to be too small and too slow to get to this level.”
Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, and fellow Swede, had introduced Sundin in a video, praising the longtime Maple Leaf captain as a trailblazer and the greatest player in that country’s history.
“Daniel never told me those words on the ice, He was always heckling me,” joked Sundin, who delivered the final speech.
Sundin’s parents were on hand as he retold the story of playing hockey in his basement “sometimes with grandma in net, sometimes my mother had to play net.”
Sundin ended the ceremony with, “I will never play in the NHL again, but the great memories I get to keep forever.”
Many hockey greats were on hand: Ray Bourque, who won a Stanley Cup with Sakic in Colorado; Brett Hull, beneficiary of many Oates passes; ex-Leafs Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour and Borje Salming applauding Sundin; Russian legend Igor Larionov on hand to see Bure.
Commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t walk the red carpet, entering through a side door. He didn’t mention the lockout, but did refer to the four inductees as an inspiration “in difficult times.”
Earlier, Oates — who was never drafted, by the NHL or the OHL, and didn’t play a game for his country internationally — talked about the roots of his career, an age-old tale of hard work and perseverance passed on from father to son. Oates repeatedly thanked his father David, who emigrated to Canada from England, became an engineer and regaled Oates with stories about English soccer legend Sir Stanley Matthews, known as the Magician and the Wizard of Dribble because of his passing skills.
“They do get the recognition — the goal scorer, the home run hitter — but that never bothered me,” Oates said. “My dad taught me to focus on making plays and that stuck with me. I’ve had19 years in the NHL and I’m extremely honoured and thankful to be able to say that.”
Oates, a native of Weston, Ont., played locally for the Markham Waxers with another undrafted NHLer, Steve Thomas, and was a gifted lacrosse player — facing Wayne Gretzky often along the way in several sports.
“I played Gretz in hockey, baseball, lacrosse and ran against him in track . . . and he beat me in all of them,” Oates said, laughing.
Oates played for the Etobicoke Eclipse of the Ontario Lacrosse Association and once held single-game records with 19 assists and 29 points.
There is a natural connection between the sports. Nieuwendyk was also a skilled lacrosse player.
NHL goalies, asked about Oates’ legendary passing skills, often remarked that his precision with the puck was in part the result of his lacrosse play.
As his NHL career progressed, Oates shortened the length of the blade of his stick — a closer match for the feel of a lacrosse stick.
“I actually had an operation on my wrist. They took a tendon from my finger and inserted it in my wrist. When I came back my wrist was weaker and I couldn’t stickhandle as well as I did before, so I just kept shortening my blade to help me out. I just never told anybody because I didn’t want anyone to know about it and maybe (exploit it in a game),” said Oates, who played U.S. college hockey with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was voted all-America in 1984 and 1985.
This year’s Elmer Ferguson Award went to iconic Canadian sports columnist Roy MacGregor, while Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret won the Foster Hewitt Award.