Wheelin' Wednesday the Hockey world according to Liam Maguire. Hockey Hall of Shame-regarding the Yakushev induction and no Paul Henderson.

WHEELIN' WEDNESDAY

THE HOCKEY WORLD ACCORDING TO LIAM MAGUIRE

HOCKEY HALL OF SHAME

That was a knockout punch, reading twitter yesterday, shortly after 3pm EST and seeing Alex Yakushev's name on the list of inductees for the Hockey Hall of Fame for this November. What an absolute farce, a joke and a travesty. Hardly anybody will be able to cite anything he did in his career other than the Summit Series and I get that when Rogie Vachon was inducted a couple of years ago and Dick Duff more than a decade ago the last two generations of fans would be hard pressed to know what those men accomplished but at least they played in the NHL and won Stanley Cups!

If you ask any Soviet/Russian hockey historians many will tell you that Anotoli Firsov was their best player ever from that era. A 3x league MVP, scoring champion, won a billion world titles and Olympic golds like the rest of them and a better overall player than Kharlamov, Yakushev, Maltsev, Petrov, all of them from that era. But, he did not play in the 1972 Summit Series. So, Yakushev gets in largely for his play in that incredible month of 1972, a series in which they lost three games in a row on their ice to lose the series the first and only time that's ever happened to a Soviet national team by the way and now their goalie and two of their forwards are in the Hockey Hall of Fame and the man who more than meets the criteria for induction and scored thee mostly timely goals in the history of hockey to help win the series remains on the outside. The selection committee should be ashamed of themselves. Guaranteed there was not five of them who did their homework on Yakushev and those inflated numbers pounding nations who were literally just off double runners for blades. What a joke. Want proof?

Yakushev played 221 international hockey games. In 41 of those games the Soviet National team recorded double digit wins. 41 times including wins over Italy 28-2, Poland 20-0, 17-0 over Switzerland, routinely scoring wins of 15, 16, 17-1 over the two German entries, 20-0 over Romania and on and on. Those were games in competition! World Championships, Olympics!! Are you kidding me!!! Yakushev played these following countries 51 times, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, the two Germany's, USA, and Japan. The bulk of his and his teammates scoring was done rolling what was essentially third world hockey countries. 23% of his games. Henderson had tougher competition winning the Memorial Cup. Henderson had tougher competition when he was the last player from the Original Six era to record a four goal game, vs the New York Rangers. Henderson had tougher competition on route to his two Stanley Cup finals and his 1000 games of pro hockey and 700 points more than match and surpass anything Alex Yakushev ever did!. What a farce.

In 2003 my dear friend Paul Brophy a former member of the Concordia Stinger hockey team and a key contributor to their alumni hired me to do some microphone work for a series of alumni games to be played on the same night featuring several decades of Stinger players. Several members of Moscow Dynamo alumni were invited and actually played the first game against the oldest version of Concordia Alumni. The Russian names included Guserov, Maltsev, Petrov household names from the Summit Series and Viktor Kuzkin who was actually the captain of the Soviet team in 1972. It was a phenomenal night of hockey, the games especially that last one featuring Broph and his group was very competitive and got a little rough. I loved it. At the reception the Russians were gracious and communicated through a translator as best they could. I was not going to miss this opportunity.

I went to the group of them after the event with the translator to discuss the Summit Series. To a man they could not believe that Canada won the last three games. To a man they all were quick to point out that they felt it was a win for Soviet/Russian hockey as well given how close they'd made the series and to a man they all felt Paul Henderson should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The last comment was fueled by me asking about Tretiak being in the Hall and the first from their team to go in. They stated, all of this through the translator that Tretiak wasn't even close to being their best player in the series.

What in God's names are significant about Yakushev's numbers? Paul Henderson played in two Stanley Cup finals in 1964 and 1966 playing with Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio among others and playing in the playoffs against guys like Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull, Frank Mahovlich, Henri Richard plus another 20+ HOFer's meanwhile two years later Yakushev is helping beat Italy 28-2. Wow....good call. Yakushev won two Olympic golds, one of them in 1972, the same year they finally played a large segment of our best players and lost.

I'm resigned now to the fact Paul will not get in. That sealed it yesterday. Clearly there just isn't the respect for his efforts either in the series or his pro hockey play. I know there has been a mandate from the top for years to ensure he's never inducted. Yakushev's induction cements that thought. Paul will have to settle for the Order of Canada, the Hockey Order of Canada, The Canadian Sports Hall of Fame with the team and the IIHF HOF where he was inducted with Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin! But not the Hall of Fame here....It's a travesty and borderline treasonous and it's been a decades old collaborative effort. Shame on the Hall of Fame and their KGB lack of transparency year after year that shuns the player who scored the winning goal(s) in the most impactful series in hockey history.

AND THE REST

Willie O'Ree, very deserving and hopefully he honours the first black players in pro hockey who pre date him by more than a decade. Gary Bettman, ridiculous to be inducted while you're sitting Commissioner but whatever. I'm not losing any sleep over it. Marty St. Louis, thrilled for him. His resume more than supports his induction. Jayna Hefford, outstanding, great choice for the ladies. Brodeur a no- brainer, he's in the discussion the top four goalies of all time, maybe top three. No Alfredsson, relax Sens fans. It's next year or the year after at the most. He was not a first ballot Hall of Fame player but he'll get in very soon.

GOLDIE

I'm off to the left coast to see da man! Going to spend 5-6 days with Goldie Goldthorpe and complete our interviews for our upcoming book. We might find time for a quick pint to celebrate Canada Day..... :)

Condolences to my good friend Tony D'Aviero on the loss of his father. I never met Mr. D'Aviero but I'll say this, he's got one hell of a son in Tony and the family including Tony's wife Tracey who are like family to me should know they are all in our thoughts during this tough time. God bless buddy. See ya for a whiskey when I'm back.