Today, the Hockey Hall of Fame pulled a Wendel Clark on Glenn Anderson. Rather than induct him, as they should have done several years ago, the HHOF decided to go with one recent player (Patrick Roy), a coach with one big game under his belt (Herb Brooks), a guy whose franchise has won a grand total of one Stanley Cup (Harley Hotchkiss), and a player I had never even heard of before (Dick Duff), despite spending my entire 31 years on this earth following hockey. Other than Roy, all of the inductees look like they were agreed upon for political purposes. Brooks helped promote hockey in the U.S., so he gets in. Duff was a Toronto Maple Leaf AND a Montreal Canadien, so hold the fucking phone. And Hotchkiss has been the chairman of the NHL Board of Governors for the past 10 years, so his election was a given.

Politics is obviously the reason Anderson isn't in. Not only are his stats treated as inflated because he played on the Oilers during the dynasty era, but his failure to make child-support payments has cast aspersions on his character (take note, Chris...oh, forget it). I read a story a few weeks ago (can't find it now) that Anderson was being nominated this year by Scotty Bowman, so as to raise his credibility as a candidate. Apparently being nominated by the greatest coach in the history of the game wasn't enough, as Anderson was once again given the dreaded Rear Admiral. I find it interesting that people still cite Anderson's lack of child-support payments as a reason he isn't in the Hall, but totally ignore the indiscretions of other players being considered, like Doug Gilmour and Dino Ciccarelli. But I digress.

Anderson certainly won't get in next year, with Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Al MacInnis, Scott Stevens and Igor Larionov all in their first year of eligibility. But he should have been in years ago. Here's why, by some of the numbers:

2: 50 goal seasons (1983-84, 1985-86).

3: 100 point seasons (1981-82, 1982-83, 1985-86).

4: All-Star Game appearances (1984, 1985, 1986, 1988).

5: Career playoff overtime goals, second only to Maurice Richard’s 6.

6: Stanley Cup Championships, 5 with the Edmonton Oilers, and 1 with the New York Rangers.

8: Straight seasons scoring over 30 goals (1980-87).

9: 30 goal seasons (1980-87, 1989-90).

17: Playoff game-winning goals, 5th on the NHL’s all-time list.

214: Career playoff points, in 225 games. 4th on the NHL's all-time list.

498: Career regular season goals. 35th on the NHL's all-time list.

1,099: Career points, in 1129 games. 52nd on the NHL's all-time list.

Priceless: His drunken rendition of "Simply The Best" in the Oilers locker-room following their 1990(?) Stanley Cup victory.




***Note*** Can I just comment again on how shitty the NHL's website is? And the Hockey Hall of Fame/Legends of Hockey site? It took me forever to find these numbers. I had to collect them from a bunch of different sites, and they aren't even all the ones I wanted. For example, I know his 93 playoff goals is up near the Top 5 all-time, but I can't find a list anywhere. If Anderson was a baseball player, I'd be able to find out whether he was scared to take a dump in public. The NHL? Nope. Not unless you pay for it. There is nothing like baseball's PECOTA numbers in hockey, either, so you can't easily do a comparison between players.