Hall of Fame Inductees Recall the Bygone Days

While the NHL trumpets the success of its new game, Monday’s Hockey Hall of Fame inductions in Toronto awakened memories of old-time hockey, when the Soviet Union’s Big Red Machine dominated the international scene and Cam Neely pioneered the role of power forward.

Valeri Kharlamov, honored posthumously and represented by his son, Alexander, was the heart of the great Soviet teams that won Olympic gold medals in 1972 and 1976 and 11 world championship medals. He’s probably best remembered for the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviets, when he scored a stunning goal against the overconfident Canadians in the opener but suffered a broken ankle after being slashed by an overzealous Bobby Clarke in Game 6.

Kharlamov, who died in a 1981 car crash, was a wizard with the puck though he stood a modest 5 feet 8. Unfortunately, he never got to test his skills in the NHL because Soviet officials in that era didn’t allow players to leave for North America.

Neely scored 50 or more goals three times in a career cut short by knee and hip injuries. A bruising forward who would sooner go through people than around them, he had 694 points and 1,241 penalty minutes in 726 games, numbers that might not seem Hall-worthy. But he scored 57 goals and 89 points in 93 playoff games and was an impact player when it counted.

“The way I played the game, it would be shocking if I didn’t have some injuries,” he said. “It was the only way I could play the game, to help my hockey team.

“I never really concerned myself with the Hall of Fame, just like I never concerned myself with numbers. The only thing I could do is work hard, game in and game out. I’m not one to think about things I can’t control.”

Neely’s work continues in another important area. With his brother, Scott, he operates the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, whose pet project is a 15,000-square-foot home for cancer patients and their families at the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. Their mother, Marlene, died of cancer in 1987 at age 47; their father, Michael, died of cancer in 1993 at 56.

“The importance of what my foundation has been able to accomplish certainly outweighs any kind of hockey career I may have had,” Neely said.

Also inducted in the builders’ category was longtime Canadian amateur hockey official Murray Costello.

Lightning Loses

Its Thunder

The Tampa Bay Lightning did everything right, enduring terrible seasons while developing draft picks and carrying a mid-level payroll when it won the Stanley Cup in 2004. But it’s getting hammered now by an economic system designed to help teams like it once was compete with richer rivals.

General Manager Jay Feaster wanted to keep the same group and knew he’d have to reward players for their success while staying within a salary cap. “The biggest thing we couldn’t foresee,” he said, “was that potentially in the summer 2006 at the unprecedented age of 26, Vincent Lecavalier could become an unrestricted free agent, and that clearly changes the dynamics in terms of our negotiations this past summer.”

Feaster locked up franchise player Lecavalier for four years and $27.5 million and signed Martin St. Louis, the scoring champion and most valuable player, for $31.5 million for six years. But that left him no room to sign goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who took a four-year, $27-million offer from Chicago.

Nor could Feaster get center Brad Richards signed to a long-term deal, and he lost depth players Jassen Cullimore, Brad Lukowich and Andre Roy. He carried 20 players until goalie Sean Burke was injured and rookies Nick Tarnasky and Evgeny Artyukhin earned promotions. The Lightning is less than $50,000 under the cap, and Feaster must re-sign several key players next summer.

The lockout gave players ample chance to recover from their Cup run, so their 7-6-0-2 start can’t be blamed on exhaustion. Their power play hasn’t clicked, despite having 101 advantages to 76 for their opponents; Feaster said that despite replacing Khabibulin with John Grahame, who has never been a No. 1 goalie, the goaltending “has been good. In the early part of the season, the goaltending was carrying us while our forwards were trying to find the mark.”

He added, “I know that to a man in that room the guys all want to get to the playoffs and do this again. Yet at the same time, you have to take care of your business during the 82-game season in order to get there.”

The return trip will be tougher, because opponents that might have looked past the Lightning are now inspired to beat the defending Cup champions.

“Not only do you learn how to win, now that you’ve won and teams are trying to put a notch on their belt, you’ve got to be able to deal with the way teams are going to play against us, how hard they’re going to play,” veteran forward Dave Andreychuk said.

“There’s a lot of expectations in this room. We’ve definitely got to get back to the style we’ve been successful with, and that’s outworking other teams.”

Slap Shots

Pavel Bure, appointed general manager of Russia’s Olympic hockey team for the Turin Games, promised to end the chaos that has driven away some of the country’s top players.

“I can promise you one thing, from now on you won’t see such a mess with the national team that you’ve seen here before,” Bure said at a news conference in Moscow at which he announced his retirement as a player. “You won’t see grouchy players here anymore. Only those who really want to play for Russia will be called into the team.”

Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh and Alexander Ovechkin of Washington are the NHL’s most heralded rookies, but Toronto’s Alexander Steen isn’t far behind. Born in Winnipeg while his father, Thomas, played for the Jets, Steen has six goals and 11 points in 15 games.

“He’s a smart player. He reminds me a lot of his dad,” Toronto captain Mats Sundin said. “I played with Thomas Steen in the ’91 Canada Cup. He’s going to be a great player in this league. His dad was a great two-way player and Alex has the same instinct for that.”

Sundin, incidentally, has worn a visor since returning from an injury that reduced the vision in his left eye to 20-60. He won’t commit to keeping it after he heals, but one more injury will deprive him of that option.

Welcome back to Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque, who rejoined the Bruins last week as a consultant and will be on the ice several days a week.