Glenn Anderson, a self-confessed, unabashed free spirit during his playing days, was imagining the Hockey Hall of Fame, after dark, a few days from now after he is inducted into the hallowed institution as part of the class of 2008.
"I heard there are ghosts in the Hall," Anderson began in a conspiratorial whisper. "And I can just imagine my picture probably looking right at Father [David]Bauer or Glen Sather, and if our ghosts - at some point in time, when we're no longer around and the lights are out and nobody's there - I can hear Slats going, 'It's past curfew, you better go to bed.' "
That little flight of fancy sums up Anderson in a nutshell - funny, imaginative, just a little off the wall.
In a telephone conference call yesterday, Anderson acknowledged he mostly did march to the beat of his own drummer in a 16-year NHL career that featured six Stanley Cup championships and some of the most impressive playoff statistics ever recorded in NHL history. He is third in overtime game-winning goals and fourth in total playoff points, scoring 214 points (93 goals) in 225 games.
Anderson was one of the great clutch players in history, a point made by both teammates and opponents yesterday.
Wayne Gretzky, his captain for five Stanley Cup championship teams, said that even with all of the Edmonton Oilers' glittering talent, when they needed a big goal, they turned mostly to Anderson to get it. Jim Nill, a teammate on the 1980 Canadian men's Olympic team, said Anderson was often misunderstood because he didn't seek the limelight, but "as soon as it was time to play, there wasn't a more competitive guy on the ice."
Anderson is the sixth player from the Oilers' dynasty years to make it to the Hall of Fame, after Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr.
After scoring 1,099 points (498 goals) in 1,129 regular-season games with the Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues, he retired after the 1995-96 NHL season (playing one more year in Europe) and was eligible for induction three years later.
He was elected last June in a class that also includes Igor Larionov in the players category, Ray Scapinello in the referees and linesmen category and the late junior hockey executive Ed Chynoweth as a builder.
Just how much did Anderson's space-cadet image play a part in the delay (he was once nicknamed Mork, for the Robin Williams character in the television sitcom Mork & Mindy)? And did his off-ice issues, including a well-publicized dispute over child-support payments soon after his retirement, factor in?
Anderson doesn't know and at this stage wasn't dwelling on the wait, either - only that he did finally get in.
Yesterday, he was remembering "endless conversations about the human spirit" with Father Bauer, who recruited him to play for Canada's 1980 Olympic hockey team, a squad that finished sixth but almost upset the powerful Soviet Union in the preliminary rounds before the Americans eventually pulled off the Miracle on Ice.
That loss, coupled with the Oilers' first-round playoff defeat to an underdog Los Angeles Kings team that finished 48 points behind them in the regular-season standings, accounted for his burning desire to win, Anderson said.
"You've got the miracle team in the Olympics, then you got the miracle team in L.A., so I'm losing to all these miracles," he said.
"But it hurt so much and it was so painful that I never wanted that to happen again. I think a lot of guys on our team felt the same way I felt."
Anderson eventually scored five playoff overtime-winning goals, along with the winner in 1987, when the Oilers were stretched to the limit by the Philadelphia Flyers.
"Yes, I remember that goal," said Mike Keenan, who coached the Flyers in 1987 and was instrumental in getting Anderson to New York to play for the 1994 Rangers, with whom he won his final Stanley Cup.
"We picked him up because he knew how to deal with the pressures of New York City. He knew the group. He knew the drill. We didn't have to teach him a new system. It was an easy fit."
Sadly, Anderson's parents may not be healthy enough to travel to his induction ceremony, but they will be there in spirit, he said.
His wife, Susan, and six-year-old daughter, Autumn, will be part of an entourage of about 40 making the trek to Toronto.
As a professional, Anderson usually saved his best games for the ones that really mattered.
According to Gretzky, he could have padded his statistics if he'd been interested, but it was never about the numbers for Anderson, only the wins.
"You knew Andy would get two goals in a 3-2 game, but if it was a 6-1 game, he might get one point," Gretzky said.
"His motivation came from playing in the big games. His numbers probably could have been better if he had the same feeling as I had, or Kurri had or Messier had, but his attitude was more like, 'It's a big game tonight, we're in Calgary, I'll be ready to go.' If we played a weaker team, he wasn't so much into it.
"But at playoff time, he was ready to go."
*****
Class of 2008
Players category Glenn Anderson, Igor Larionov
Referees/linesmen category Ray Scapinello
Builders category Ed Chynoweth
*****
THE ANDERSON FILE
Born Oct. 2, 1960, Vancouver.
Drafted by Edmonton Oilers, fourth round, 69th overall, 1979 NHL entry draft.
Played 16 NHL seasons with Edmonton, Toronto, St. Louis and New York Rangers.
Won Six Stanley Cup titles, five in 11-year span with Oilers and one with 1994 Rangers.
Career stats In 1,129 regular-season games, recorded 1,099 points (498 goals, 601 assists).
Playoff numbers Appeared in 225 playoff games, seventh on career games-played list and ranks fifth in goals with 93, seventh in assists with 121 and fourth overall in playoff points (214). Has five playoff overtime game-winners.
Quotable "I'll tell you this, when we were in Edmonton, for all those years, we had Mess, Kurri, Coffey and all those guys, but whenever we got into a big game, or in overtime, our guys knew Andy was going to do something - make a big play or score a big goal - and we relied on him. There's no question in my mind he's a Hall of Famer. Part of being a Hall of Famer is being a champion. He won six Stanley Cups and he was a big part of all six." - Wayne Gretzky