Hockey Hall of Fame media day, the only opportunity to hear from the class of 2025 before Monday’s induction speeches, was a chance to try to get a few queries settled.
Where’s Alex Mogilny?
After so many of his friends and media members lobbied for years on his behalf as a deserving candidate, the first big-name Russian defector in 1989, Mogilny will be a no-show. He has pre-recorded comments for Monday’s ceremony and telecast, but his jeweled ring and crested Hall blazer went unclaimed Saturday.
Mogilny was always a squirrely fellow (he skipped the NHL awards in 2003, thinking little of winning the Lady Byng good conduct trophy) and no one is quite sure if his absence is a travel issue in Russia, a political difficulty in these fraught times, whether he’s helping coach a team back home, or just his unique sense of mischief.
“We don’t know the exact reason, other than he said he couldn’t make it,” said Hall chairman Mike Gartner. “There’s a lot of moving parts in his life right now. We didn’t press him much; people talked to him, he said he couldn’t make it. But he’s very appreciative of getting in.
“It happens very rarely (in 2022, Riikka Sallinen, a Finnish female star, also skipped the visit to Toronto), but we’ve seen Alex’s speech, it’s actually very good, it’s very respectful of how he got where he is.”
Did being a police officer in Quebec help prepare Daniele Sauvageau as a club and Olympic coach and PWHL general manager?
We asked her, because the late Hall of Fame coach Pat Burns said being a seasoned beat cop gave him a sense of who was a true competitor or a floater, especially in a 1-on-1 meeting.
“The combination of the two (occupations) gave me the greatest way to learn about the human world,” Sauvageau agreed. “You see great things, you see things that you want to change. But the reality is the same. You are serving the population and you are serving the game.”
Like Burns, her dedication often blurred the lines between job descriptions.
“In the police department they called me ‘coach’ and in hockey they called me ‘chief.’ ”
Did Jack Parker really say no to coaching America’s ‘Miracle on Ice’ team in the 1980 Olympics?
The Boston University coach had 897 career wins up to 2013 and enough between 1973-79 to warrant an interview from the U.S. hockey program. But it was the late Herb Brooks who got the glory — and had Karl Malden and Kurt Russell portray him in two movies on the Lake Placid upset.
“Not true I turned it down,” Parker clarified. “There was Herb, myself and John MacInnes from Michigan Tech being interviewed by the committee. I was the youngest, Herbie was the middle, John the oldest.
“But before I was interviewed, I was told John had already withdrawn. That’s when I went in the room and found out eight of the 10 people on the committee were from Minnesota. I kind of knew then I wasn’t going to get this job.”
Brooks was born in St. Paul and coached the University of Minnesota Gophers.
“But Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, didn’t matter. They certainly made the right decision in picking Brooks. I don’t think anyone could have done the complete turnaround of what he did as coach in 1980.”
Is national team veteran Joe Thornton in line to coach Canada’s Spengler Cup team in Davos, Switzerland in December?
His wife Tabsa is Swiss, Jumbo Joe met her in Davos while playing there in the 2004 lockout, so people are connecting the dots. The family will be visiting the area during the Christmas holidays.
“I don’t know, I’m more about skiing when I’m on vacation,” Thornton teased. “I might go and see the boys play, check out a game. But if they really want me, I’ll be on the Swiss Alps.”
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