Another year passes with no Vancouver Canucks in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
There is much angst here on the West Coast that former Canuck Pavel Bure was “snubbed” by the selection committee on Tuesday. There is a well-known 40-year hockey drought in Canadian hockey, and the Canucks can nearly match the Maple Leafs' futility in terms of team success.
But more remarkably, the Canucks have not had one player – in 38 years of NHL membership – to enter hockey's hallowed halls. There have been inductees who have played for the Canucks – Cam Neely, Mark Messier – but no one who is identified as a Canuck. Even the Leafs can best that.
That's where Bure comes in – or doesn't in the wisdom of selectors. The argument in these parts is that Bure should be in because he was the best goal-scorer in the world for several seasons, if not the best player period. He had five 50-goal seasons (two of them 60-goal campaigns) while playing in the dead-puck era. He had two 50-goal seasons for a dreadful Florida Panthers and was worth more than one point per game in his playoff career (70 on 64 games).
“I don't think there has been a goal-scorer in the last 30 years who had his ability to change games,” Vancouver Canucks general manager and former Bure agent Mike Gillis said Tuesday. “If you look at the teams he played on in Florida, I think he still holds the record for the biggest differential between the top scorer and the next highest scorer. Scoring goals in that environment, on that team, was remarkable. I absolutely think he should be in the Hall of Fame.”
It's getting to the point where, should a Canuck eventually be selected to the hall, that hockey fans from British Columbia might make a pilgrimage to Toronto just to see it with their own eyes.
