gold star for USAHOF

1996 Hockey Inductees

Although the Al Arbour and Bobby Bauer had a combined nine Stanley Cups, for us the Hall of Fame Class of 1996 was about Borje Salming, who never won a Stanley Cup.  Salming was the first great superstar from Sweden, and it was the Defenceman who had made the world to the blue and yellow for the next wave of stars.
Al Arbour had a respectable career in the National Hockey League playing in over 600 games and winning three Stanley Cups.  However, it was as a Head Coach that he entered the Hall of Fame.  As soon as Arbour retired as a player with the St. Louis Blues, he was inserted as their Head Coach, but it was in Long Island where he found his…
Despite his relatively short NHL career, we like the Veteran’s Committee induction of Bobby Bauer.  He only had seven complete seasons in the National Hockey League, but his prime was taken away from his as he participated in World War II.  He spent his professional career with the Boston Bruins, and was a member of the famed “Kraut Line” with Woody Dumart & Milt Schmidt…
Borje Salming not only was the first Swedish player to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame, but was the man who paved the way for Swedish players to enter the National Hockey League and prove that the Scandinavian nation belonged on the world stage.   Salming would join the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1973 and he immediately made an impact on their blue line.  The Swedish…