Ciccarelli tops the list of players who should be in Hall
Dino (bleeps)! Dino (bleeps)!
Anyone who ever attended a Blackhawks-Minnesota North Stars game at Chicago Stadium back in the day likely will never forget those chants from the crowd and the intensity and emotion involved whenever those two hated rivals played.
Hawks fans despised the North Stars, and there was nobody they hated more than Dino Ciccarelli, the pint-sized Minnesota winger who was as annoying as a player as he was good.
We mention Ciccarelli today because this is Hockey Hall of Fame week, with Mark messier, Al MacInnis, Scott Stevens and Ron Francis enshrined on Monday. As much as Ciccarelli could bug the heck out opponents and fans alike while he was on the ice, it's not right that he still doesn't have a plaque in Toronto.
How is it that someone who scored 608 goals in 19 seasons like Ciccarelli did, and who was one of the best ever at standing in front of the net, taking the punishment and still scoring, isn't in the Hall of Fame?
Every other eligible 600-goal scorer is in the Hall, as well as most of the 500-goal scorers.
On the list of players either close to being a Hall of Famer or who should definitely be in, Ciccarelli in my book stands ahead of Doug Gilmour, Glenn Anderson, Tom Barrasso, Pavel Bure, Adam Oates and Steve Larmer.
Gilmour is going to get in someday, perhaps as soon as next season. He ranks 16th all time in scoring, won a Stanley Cup in Calgary and had his best seasons in Toronto, the center of the hockey universe, which certainly helps his cause.
Anderson probably should be a Hall of Famer. He scored 498 goals, won multiple Cups with Edmonton and the New York Rangers and was an electrifying player. Perhaps it's held against him that he was the fifth- or sixth-best player on those great Oilers teams of the 1980s behind Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr.
Another player whose accomplishments get overlooked is Oates, who not only ranks 15th all time in scoring with 1,420 points -- more than Hall of Famers Kurri, Guy Lafleur, Denis Savard and Gilbert Perreault) -- but sixth-best with 1,079 assists.
Everyone surely knows a player or two they think should be in the Hall of Fame. There's a great debate now about the just-retired Eric Lindros and if he belongs. I say borderline.
Larmer belongs in my opinion, perhaps because I saw him play every night and appreciated what he meant to Savard and those very good Hawks teams.
Larmer scored 441 goals and never missed a game with the Hawks from 1980-93. The NHL's consecutive games played record surely would have been his had not he held out prior to being traded from the Hawks to the Rangers.
Piping up: Wow, I can't say I expected to receive as many e-mails as I did Monday regarding organist Frank Pellico's role at Hawks games.
On Sunday against Detroit, Pellico accompanied the national anthem, then wasn't heard the rest of the night as the Hawks blasted the kind of rock music they believe fans want to hear.
Apparently not all of them do.
Maybe the music Pellico plays is a bit outdated, but to cut him off completely doesn't make much sense, if that's the Hawks' plan. So far there has not been a formal announcement.
Can't Pellico play just a little bit, if only to give everyone's ear drums a rest?