My warmest congratulations go out to Al MacInnis on his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame today. Al is one of the very few pro hockey players, past or present, who I have a personal anecdote about.

In the summer of 1987 (or possibly '88) I spent a lot of the summer playing golf at Bearspaw just NW of Calgary. My buddy Brett and I were about to tee off at noonish on some lazy weekday when the assistant pro told us to wait up for a couple minutes, he was going to send out a new member with us. No problem, we said (followed no doubt by some mumbling hoping that it wasn't some jackass who needed help finding his ball twice a hole).

Anyway, we sit tight briefly, and here comes Al Macinnis carrying his bag to the tee. ("Hi, I'm Al." "Hi, I'm Matt.") This is pretty exciting for a ~14 year old Flames fan, but by that point polite golf etiquette was about as ingrained in me as fight-or-flight, so I shut my mouth. Apart from that, I'm anxious to find out the same thing as anyone would in that situation: does he hit a golf ball as hard as he shoots a puck?

For the next 4 hours we had a very pleasant round. Nice weather, made some good shots, lots of those "he's just like a real person" moments that are surprising to 14-year-olds. He was playing a pretty good round, too. He was maybe 3 or 4 over on the 16th tee when he says something like, "It's a real pleasure to play with you guys. Usually I play with my friends and there's all sorts of gambling and trash talk... it's fun, but it sure isn't relaxing. This is the best round I've shot in my life."

For the rest of the summer, I saw MacInnis a couple of times a week or so at the course, and he unfailingly took a few seconds to say hello, ask how my game was going, and let me know about his (IIRC, it had taken a major turn for the good).

Chopper was an excellent defenseman for all the reasons you've read about today. He really did continue to round out for the entire length of his career, I think. Good passer, and just a hell of a smart player. Behind me on ESPN Classic right now is Game 6 of the 1989 SCF; in a few minutes, they're going to show him receiving the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe.

I'm going to check it out. I leave you with the Flames' PP success by season, starting with the earliest available on the NHL Stats Machine and ending with Al's final season with the Flames.

PP% (Rank)
1987/88: 28.4% (1st; 2nd = 25.4%)
1988/89: 25.1% (2nd)
1989/90: 27.7% (1st; 2nd = 23.6%)
1990/91: 23.7% (1st; 2nd = 23.6%)
1991/92: 21.0% (5th)
1992/93: 19.0% (14th)
1993/94: 21.2% (4th)

[P.S. No he didn't (hit a golf ball as hard as he shot the puck)]