I was idly wondering if Eric Lindros was in the hockey HoF - watched him a bit toward the end of his Flyers career when I worked in Philly a while back. I see that he is not, although there was some chat about him and Forsberg going in together last year as a nice piece of symmetry (or asymmetry, depending on your POV).
Does the NHL HoF capture the imagination of hockey fans? Are people discussing this very issue in the bars of Canada? Or is it just a nice thing to have that no one’s really bothered about?
As far as the Big E is concerned - will he make it and should he make it in your opinion? Impossible for me to judge, as I don’t really have a feel for the size of the talent pool they’re drawing from. Four players a year sounds fairly discriminating, though.
The Hall does get some discussion, especially when new inductees are named. If you are in Toronto, it is worth visiting.
Personally, I think that too many players are in there as it is. I realize that more will be added but I do wish it was tougher. That said, I personally don’t think that Lindros is hall worthy, but I am sure that others will argue the point.
In the US sports scene its not a big deal, but amongst hockey fans it is well recognized as a Holy Grail all hockey fans must visit.
Lindros’ claim to fame was being the “4th, 5th or 6th fastest player” to reach this or that points plateau, and without question in the 90s he was one of the top five players in the NHL, but a hard hitting playing style lead to injuries, and concussions and a whispered but rarely mentioned hard partying lifestyle didn’t help either, and within 10 years he was toast, so I don’t think he’s going to get into the Hall of Fame.
If you are wondering what I mean by “hard partying” punch in “Eric Lindros” on Google and go on his Wikipedia page. He’s only 41 and looks like he’s 65.
Yeah I was a little surprised at that photo - he looks like a corpulent politician. Not seen a photo of him in years, though - must have caught his bad side.
I know that when I was twelve-ish, I did Cooperstown as a big deal “dad and son pilgrimage”, and I went to the hockey HOF a year or so later because we were in Toronto on a family vacation and it seemed like a fun thing to do… and I remember enjoying the hockey HOF quite a bit more. That said, unless someone is the US is a pretty big hockey fan, they probably don’t even know where it is.