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Bruce Hallihan

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The 2009 Hockey Hall of Fame induction class is being called arguably the best of all time. Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, snipers Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille and blue-chip blueliner Brian Leetch were all locks to get in.

St. Thomas Tommies head coach and AD Mike Eagles was a grinding forward in the NHL for 15 seasons - at least 13 of which he was up against the Fab Four.

"I chased them around a lot," Eagles said with a chuckle. "They were elite world-class players. They just had something that I didn't."

Eagles played against Yzerman for two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1981-82 and 1982-83. Eagles was with the 1982 Memorial Cup champion Kitchener Rangers while Yzerman was with the Peterborough Petes before the Red Wings picked him fourth overall in the 1983 NHL entry draft.

Eagles and Yzerman were also teammates at the 1983 world junior championships in Leningrad, USSR.

Yzerman was only 17 at the time, but he was in the midst of a breakout season with the Petes: 42 goals and 91 points in 56 games.

"They rolled four lines, so he didn't play a ton of minutes in Peterborough but he still put up huge numbers," Eagles said. "In Detroit, he was just so good, just so intelligent and strong on the puck."

Hull fired 741 goals, including 86 in the 1990-91 season alongside Adam Oates in St. Louis.

"I found Brett very hard to play against," Eagles said. "He was so gifted at being away from the puck and getting into dangerous areas a long ways away from the puck. That made him so hard to cover, especially when he played with Adam. Brett had a deadly shot, too."

Robitaille potted 668 goals despite being labelled a slow skater.

"But some players have such an elite hockey sense that sometimes there are deficiencies in their game that don't matter much," Eagles said. "Robitaille had the ability to be in the right place and to see the ice. He might not have had high-end speed but he was quick to get to the puck."

Leetch was "the prototypical great skating offensive defenceman, like Paul Coffey," Eagles said. "He was so dynamic and so difficult to forecheck, especially back in those days because your defence partner was allowed to interfere or the backchecking winger could hook you a little bit. That's all a guy like Leetch would have needed.

"The D don't have as much of an advantage anymore."

Eagles says the 2007 hall of fame ceremony was particularly meaningful to him because hard-shooting defenceman Al MacInnis spoke of Eagles and Wendell Young, former teammates in Kitchener.

"We lived together in Ontario," Eagles said. "That was pretty awesome for Al to mention us."

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Speaking of shoo-in hall of famers, the Demmings family from New Maryland got to take in the Oct. 1 tribute to Joe Sakic, whose number 19 was raised to the Pepsi Center rafters before the Colorado Avalanche went out and beat the San Jose Sharks 5-2.

Doug, wife Linda and their two sons, Luke, 13, and Matt, who'll be 16 a week from today, were among the 18,007 fans in attendance. The Demmings also watched Colorado blank Vancouver 3-0 two nights later.

"It was an amazing night," Doug said, noting Sakic was escorted into the arena by Canadian and U.S. military. "The Black Eyed Peas tune I Got A Feeling was blaring 'Tonight's gonna be a good night.'"

When Sakic stepped on to the ice, the ovation "was thunderous," Doug said. "It must have went on for 10 minutes or more. It was unbelievable, really. Luke was speechless."

Sakic is Luke's hockey idol. His bedroom is filled with Sakic stuff. He met the classy captain when he was 10 and a year later, as well, both at the Pepsi Center. Sakic spent 15 minutes talking to his young fan on the first occasion.

"Joe knew Luke had travelled 3,000 or 4,000 miles, so he had an autographed stick all ready to give to him," Doug said.

"He signed his hat and signed his jersey and took pictures with him. Even though Luke was 10, he looked like a five-year-old looking at Santa Claus.

"When we went back the following year, Joe said, "Hi, Luke, you made it back again.'"

Naturally, Luke was disappointed when he found out Sakic was hanging up his skates.

"I said, I'll tell you what, buddy, you won't get to see him play again, so how about I take you to his retirement ceremony," Doug said. "That's how it happened."

***

Great to see an unbalanced schedule in western conference boys AAA high school hockey. Leo Hayes, Fredericton High and Oromocto High will all play each other six times and home and home against Woodstock, Carleton North, Cite des Jeunes of Edmundston and Thomas Albert of Grand Falls.

LHHS head coach Brent Grant says it's "great for school spirit."

"Against Woodstock High, you're going to see 100 people in the stands; against Fredericton High you're going to see 800.

"Similarly, Carleton North will draw 600 for Woodstock and 50 for us. It's about competition. If it's not competitive, you're not going to have anybody watching."

Now, if they could only ditch the tournament format and get back to playoff series.

***

Think Allen Iverson might find retirement even more repulsive than, say, practice?

"It's not like he can spend his days feeding pigeons at the park," noted Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, "because that would mean sitting on the bench."

***

Gary Loewen of the Toronto Sun, after Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson, in firing football coach Tommy West, pulled out the old "we wanted our program to go in a different direction" mantra: "Obviously some direction other than West."

Bruce Hallihan can be reached at 458-6442 or hallihan.bruce@dailygleaner.com. His column appears each Thursday.