gold star for USAHOF

1988 Hockey Inductees

The 1988 Hockey Hall of Fame Class was an excellent one headlined by Guy Lafleur, the dominant Right Wing of the 1970’s. Lafleur was not alone in star power as star Defenceman, Brad Park and Goaltender, Tony Esposito made this a class worth attending. This was an induction class that also brought us our first Veteran’s Category inductee, as the Hall looked further towards its past.

You would think that a five time First Team All Star would have won at least one Norris Trophy, but Brad Park had the misfortune of playing in the same era as Bobby Orr who dominated that award (and Denis Potvin later in his career). Park also had a lot of bridesmaid’s analogies with the Stanley Cup as despite playing for many good teams, he…
With all due respect to Buddy O’Connor, we are now entering a series of inductees that we are not fond of. O’Connor is the first inductee in the “veteran category”, designed to honor those from previous decades that the Hall may have forgotten. As we have seen the Hall has many of the Original Six era (and prior) already in; and with a few of…
The powerful “Broad Street Bullies” had a few entries to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but often forgotten amongst the players is the owner of the team that put it together. Ed Snider was the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers, the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. He was not just an owner of a hockey team, but a supporter of the sport…
The offensive leader of the Montreal Canadians, Guy Lafleur was the dominant Right Wing in the NHL for the last half of the 1970’s. Not only did “The Flower” win five Stanley Cups, but he won the Art Ross Trophy three years in a row, twice capturing the Hart Trophy. From 1975 to 1980, Lafleur was named to the First Team All Star team at…
One of the top Goalies of the 1970’s, Tony Esposito played the majority (all but thirteen games) of his career with the Chicago Blackhawks. He won the Calder Trophy in 1970, which was also the same year he won his first of three Vezinas. Chicago was a good team in the early 70’s, but declined as the decade progressed. Esposito was still a good goalie…