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 Tuesday, November 23
Great One receives greatest honor
 
By Tom Cohen
Associated Press

 TORONTO -- Not far from where he was born and first played hockey, Wayne Gretzky took up a new residence Monday -- the Hall of Fame.

The Great One received his Hall of Fame blazer and ring along with former referee Andy Van Hellemond and former referee-in-chief Scotty Morrison at a morning induction ceremony jammed with journalists. Friends and family joined the trio for a nationally televised gala ceremony Monday night.

THE 'OTHER' INDUCTEES
TORONTO -- By the way, two other individuals were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night. For Andy van Hellemond and Ian Morrison, the honor of accompanying Wayne Gretzky into the Hall might be a mixed blessing.

It's amazing to be associated with the greatest hockey name of our time, but perhaps it takes a little attention away from their contributions to the game of hockey. But both men helped shape NHL officiating over the last four decades.

Van Hellemond, 51, is the 14th referee to be inducted. He last whistled NHL players for holding, roughing and the like in Game 3 of the 1996 Stanley Cup finals between Florida and Colorado.

In some ways, his career parallels a star player -- he hit the big time early and shattered a lot of records. Van Hellemond began NHL refereeing during the 1972-73 season at age 23. He appeared in more games (1,475) than any other referee. For 14 seasons, he was the league's top referee and officiated some of the NHL's greatest games.

In 1987, van Hellemond controlled the whistle for Game 7 of the Cup finals between Philadelphia and Edmonton. Another classic he had a birds-eye view for was the 1987 playoff game between Washington and the New York Islanders, which had nearly 70 minutes of OT before Pat LaFontaine scored to give the Isles a 3-2 win.

Since van Hellemond put the black-and-white-striped jersey in the cedar closet, he has been a vice president of the ECHL, overseeing league and player operations.

Morrison's impact on the game of hockey also had more to do with officiating than playing. In fact, his career in the NHL has a connection to van Hellemond's. As the NHL's referee-in-chief and VP in charge of officiating from 1965-86, Morrison, 69, hired van Hellemond.

Morrison, himself, was a bit of a refereeing prodigy, making his NHL debut in 1954 at age 24. But Morrison left the NHL for a decade to pursue business interests, yet he continued to referee at lower levels of organized hockey. When Morrison returned to the NHL, he became a leader and stayed in a significant role until 1986 when he accepted a senior position at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Morrison eventually became the Chairman and CEO of the Hall of Fame before retiring from the organization in 1998.

--Brian A. Shactman

In typical Gretzky fashion, the greatest player in history repeatedly deferred to his co-inductees, insisting that Morrison take the center seat at the interview table and always mentioning them as part of the milestone event.

"To be here today in this group is pretty special," Gretzky said.

The 38-year-old master left an extraordinary mark on the game, with four championships, 61 NHL records and an aura of class few could match.

"Nothing can replace hockey," he said. "I wish I could still play, and I miss it tremendously because it's a great game. But I said this before: I was going to retire one time, one time officially and I'm officially retired. I probably miss the game more than the game misses Wayne Gretzky."

His skates have been at the Hall since he retired April 18. The shrine also took just about every other conceivable piece of Gretzky memorabilia, such as the net into which he scored his league-record 802nd goal, to create the largest single exhibit in the history of the Hall.

Now he has joined the heroes he watched during his childhood in nearby Brantford in what he calls the final moment of his on-ice career.

"The game is a great game and it will continue to flourish," he said. "When Gordie Howe retired, people said we'll never see a Gordie Howe and along came a Bobby Orr. Bobby Orr retired and along came Guy Lafleur. So we always have these great star players that will carry the torch and push the game to new levels."

Asked what made him so special, Gretzky referred to a passion for the game that drove him to always seek more goals and assists and to treat every game like it was a championship decider.

"I felt like I'd never done enough. If I had three goals, I wanted five goals. If I had seven points, I wanted to get the eighth point," he said. "I kept going every night, played 80 games every year as hard as I could, whether it was Oct. 1 or April 1. ... Maybe that's why I was able to have the records that I did eventually get."

The Hall waived the normal three-year waiting period for the 10th time in honor of Gretzky, who won just about every major award -- MVP, highest scorer, playoff MVP -- multiple times.

More than that, he became a national treasure in his homeland for being the best at a sport Canadians embrace as part of their identity and heritage.

"It's just nice to know that Wayne has turned out to be such a great individual," his father, Walter, said after watching Gretzky put on the Hall of Fame blazer. "His hockey achievements are one thing, but he's also a very fine person."

Despite Gretzky's best efforts, the focus of the morning ceremony never left the player known for skating with the right side of his jersey tucked in, a habit from his childhood when his special ability put him in oversized uniforms against older kids.

Thin and shifty with an unmatched ability to anticipate, Gretzky scored more goals (894) and had more assists (1,963) than anyone before him. His assists alone exceed the 1,850 total points of the No. 2 career scorer, Howe, who played past age 50.

Gretzky's records cover almost every category -- from most goals in a season (92) and most consecutive games scoring (51) to most assists in one game by a first-year player -- seven against Washington on Feb. 15, 1980.

He also scored more playoff points than anyone else, mostly during the 1980s when the Oilers won four Stanley Cup championships in five seasons.

Gretzky also is credited with spreading hockey's popularity in the United States, especially in the South, where the game previously failed to take root. He played seven-plus seasons in Los Angeles that included the franchise's first trip to the Stanley Cup finals. He then had a brief stint in St. Louis before heading to the Rangers.

His career ended on a Rangers team that failed to make the playoffs. But his impact was so powerful that immediately after his final game, the league retired his No. 99.

 



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Gretzky busy enjoying his early days of retirement

To Canada, Gretzky more than a hockey star



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 Wayne Gretzky talks about receiving hockey's greatest honor.
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