Meet the US Hockey Hall of Fame
Class of 2025
Hall of Fames, especially sports halls of fame are these fusty, places full of tributes to admittedly talented people who are chosen by fiat and, and, okay, let me back up. Most classes are picked by the people who devote their professional lives to observing and writing about that particular sport. They use criteria that reflect both quantitative rubrics for determining excellence such as player statistics and factor in intangibles like public conduct, overall character, and so on. In other words, their choices make sense.
My choices for categories will never be considered and i am still working on being okay with that. Best Resting Angry Bench Face (Jerrod Smithson) player from another team who managed to made Alain Vigneault choke with laughter while he taunted one of his own players (Vern Fiddler) will never have a place in the HoF. Your loss, HoF.
.September third, the powers that be announced the Class of 2025 inductees. The five individuals on this list are formidable in their own right. they have all made contributions to hockey that have earned them a place in the Valhalla of the coolest sport on Earth. (Aside from curling because of the pants.)
So here's the list;
Tara Mounsey In 1998 Mounsey brought home the gold as part of the U.S. Women's Hockey Team. This was the first time the U.S. stood at the top of the podium and Mounsey and crew became the face of women's winter sports that didn't entail tiny skater dresses, lip balm, and just being farkin' cute. More girls discovered they could do slap shots, deke, and that hat tricks aren't just for boys. This Patty Kazmaier Award winner is a real trailblazer and a hero.
Scott Gomez Gomez is the first Latinx to win a Calder Trophy. He's more than just an hermano who made good. Let's look at his stats: 1079 games, 1385 points, 181 goals, 575 assists, 2 Stanley rings, and a Calder Tropheeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Bruce Bennett Hockey's Lensman (either you get the anime reference or not) photographed almost 5400 NHL games that included more than 40 Cup Final matches. If you have a coffee table book of hockey photography, you have probably seen his work. He's been around the game since 1974, which means we missed out on his version of Orr's flying goal by four years, but we'll give him grace for that one. (Ray Lussier was behind the camera for BOS big win.)
Zach Parise For a while, Parise and Suter were the NHL equivalent of a pair of tabletop shakers, so writing about Parise and only Parise is going to feel like pulling apart a pair of takeout Chinese chopsticks. Pros tend to come from two different sources: the leagues pull wild kids off the ponds and proof them through the juniors and development programs or they keep an eye on the Div III programs and pull talent from the college kids. Parise was a product of the latter. He went on to log nineteen seasons with the NHL on four teams, brought home the gold in the 2004 World Junior Championship and the bronze in the 014 Olympics.
Joe Pavelski Playing for two teams in eighteen seasons puts Pavelski statistically ahead of your average American when it comes to marriage. In a world where solid dependability is sometimes seen as uninteresting, and franchises make the weird choice of choosing characters over character (tm Barry Trotz) fans found Pavelski filling the role as Mister Dependability to be a reason to cheer.
There you have it. The Class of '25 is in the books and now I can settle in sofa-side coaching with Marigold the Amazing Anthrocat and waiting for the latest season of Only Murders in the Building to drop.
My choices for categories will never be considered and i am still working on being okay with that. Best Resting Angry Bench Face (Jerrod Smithson) player from another team who managed to made Alain Vigneault choke with laughter while he taunted one of his own players (Vern Fiddler) will never have a place in the HoF. Your loss, HoF.
.September third, the powers that be announced the Class of 2025 inductees. The five individuals on this list are formidable in their own right. they have all made contributions to hockey that have earned them a place in the Valhalla of the coolest sport on Earth. (Aside from curling because of the pants.)
So here's the list;
Tara Mounsey In 1998 Mounsey brought home the gold as part of the U.S. Women's Hockey Team. This was the first time the U.S. stood at the top of the podium and Mounsey and crew became the face of women's winter sports that didn't entail tiny skater dresses, lip balm, and just being farkin' cute. More girls discovered they could do slap shots, deke, and that hat tricks aren't just for boys. This Patty Kazmaier Award winner is a real trailblazer and a hero.
Scott Gomez Gomez is the first Latinx to win a Calder Trophy. He's more than just an hermano who made good. Let's look at his stats: 1079 games, 1385 points, 181 goals, 575 assists, 2 Stanley rings, and a Calder Tropheeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Bruce Bennett Hockey's Lensman (either you get the anime reference or not) photographed almost 5400 NHL games that included more than 40 Cup Final matches. If you have a coffee table book of hockey photography, you have probably seen his work. He's been around the game since 1974, which means we missed out on his version of Orr's flying goal by four years, but we'll give him grace for that one. (Ray Lussier was behind the camera for BOS big win.)
Zach Parise For a while, Parise and Suter were the NHL equivalent of a pair of tabletop shakers, so writing about Parise and only Parise is going to feel like pulling apart a pair of takeout Chinese chopsticks. Pros tend to come from two different sources: the leagues pull wild kids off the ponds and proof them through the juniors and development programs or they keep an eye on the Div III programs and pull talent from the college kids. Parise was a product of the latter. He went on to log nineteen seasons with the NHL on four teams, brought home the gold in the 2004 World Junior Championship and the bronze in the 014 Olympics.
Joe Pavelski Playing for two teams in eighteen seasons puts Pavelski statistically ahead of your average American when it comes to marriage. In a world where solid dependability is sometimes seen as uninteresting, and franchises make the weird choice of choosing characters over character (tm Barry Trotz) fans found Pavelski filling the role as Mister Dependability to be a reason to cheer.
There you have it. The Class of '25 is in the books and now I can settle in sofa-side coaching with Marigold the Amazing Anthrocat and waiting for the latest season of Only Murders in the Building to drop.