LOS ANGELES — The home of Angels, where Pat Burns would and will always have a place and where every single member of the 18-man Hall of Fame selection committee should have been ashamed to show his face this weekend.
That’s right, every single one of them, including good men such as John Davidson and Bill Torrey, who did not resign in protest after the committee denied the beloved coach entrance to the Hall last week with a vote that shall live in hockey infamy.
They operate behind closed doors, in secret, and without transparency. Except there is transparency here.
This much is obvious. The selection process is tainted by personal agendas and long-standing grudges.
The Hall of Fame committee: no accountability, no credibility, no heart.
What, in the name of the Lord, could the argument possibly have been against admitting Burns, a three-time recipient of the Adams Trophy, winning it once each with Montreal, Toronto and Boston before guiding a comparatively weak Devils team to the Stanley Cup in 2003?
Burns took the Canadiens to the Finals in 1989 in his first year behind their bench. He took the Maple Leafs to the conference finals in his first and second years behind the Toronto bench. They haven’t been back since.
Who spoke out against Burns and why? Did Burns offend one of the members of the committee through his career, say, former Boston GM Harry Sinden? Or did the committee simply sniff at the overwhelming display of public support and affection shown for Burns, ravaged by cancer, and decide they — the gatekeepers — would show everyone who’s in charge of their little club?
Understand this. While the snub of Burns is uniquely disgraceful — the committee rushed to induct Roger Neilson in 2002 when his health began to fail rapidly, but then, Neilson was extremely close to certain of its members — it is not unique.
The committee annually has snubbed the late, great Fred Shero, who revolutionized coaching in the NHL while standing behind the bench of the hated Broad Street Bullies, and who was regarded as a heroic savior when the Flyers beat and beat up the Red Army on the Spectrum ice in 1976.
Why isn’t Shero in the Hall of Fame? The committee knows. The committee isn’t saying. The committee has no answers. The committee can’t be trusted. The process is corrupt.
This should have been Burns’ moment in the sun. He has been denied that by this committee that answers to no one, does its work in secret and leaves decency on the other side of its closed doors.
Pat Burns is a Hall of Famer. Everyone in hockey understands that. Everyone but the small-minded committee consisting of 18 individuals who dishonored themselves and the sport of hockey last week.
Shame on them. Shame on every one of them. Shame on their code of silence.
Oh and by the way: Eric Lindros doesn’t stand a chance.
* Dan Girardi, eligible to become a Group II free agent when the market opens on Thursday, is seeking a four-year deal with the Rangers for upwards of $3 million per. That may be somewhat steep, but Girardi can file for a one-year arbitration award and then become unrestricted next season.
If that should occur, the Blueshirts would almost certainly have to pony up more for a replacement for Girardi, who elevated his game the second half of last season (the Philadelphia incident with Daniel Carcillo and Marian Gaborik was an aberration) and formed half of a still inexperienced, yet reasonably effective shutdown pair with partner Marc Staal.
The problem is that Staal, also an impending Group II but without arbitration rights, likely will wait on Girardi’s contract before signing a new deal. It’s probably going to cost between $7-7.5M a year for the pair, not an unreasonable number as long as the two defensemen perform up to capability.
* Gaborik, who only scored 42 goals for the Blueshirts playing without a center who could complement his talent, got the shaft in the All-Star voting, placing third behind Patrick Kane and Marty St. Louis, terrific right wingers, yes, but athletes who had way more support than the Great Gabby.
We’re told that once the players on the Competition Committee asserted their rights as outlined by the CBA after essentially being dismissed during the winter regarding the hits-to-the-head rule, last week’s meeting was perhaps the most productive since the group was formed coming out of the lockout. Donald Fehr‘s presence likely had nothing to do with that.
Marc Savard‘s $4 million per cap hit and cap-friendly buyout are bargains. So it’s not necessarily the seven-year term of the contract that’s scaring off potential interested Boston trading partners, it’s equally the center’s increased susceptibility to concussion following last year’s assault by Matt Cooke.
Jeff Beukeboom, you should know, is still experiencing intermittent effects of the post-concussion syndrome that forced him into retirement following the 1998-99 season in the aftermath of the blindside sucker punch he took from the Kings’ Matt Johnson.
* This just in: Olli Jokinen is holding a free-agent summit. With gourmet chefs.