2006.10.06

What trip to Toronto is complete without a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame? Located in downtown Toronto's BCE Place (which appears to be just one of many underground shopping centres amongst a ten-by-ten block network of these underground shopping centre thingies), it was quite the place to find anything and everything hockey-related.

A shot of the outside, as seen from the street

Further along (also outside), there's this tribute to a hockey team bench, complete with a guy who looks too short to jump over the boards easily.

Here's the NHL Zone, a section dedicated to comemmorating some of the greats of the North American game's history, complete with milestone sticks, gloves (some of these looked gnarly), and jerseys.

Among the exhibits: the goal, puck, gloves, stick, and helmet involved in Wayne Gretzky's then-record-breaking 802nd career goal.

In a section devoted to "retro" NHL jerseys, I found this autographed Sharks jersey of their very first captain (and current GM), Doug Wilson. Among the other retro jerseys were the Quebec Nordiques, the Atlanta Flames, and the Minnesota North Stars.

In another section of the hall of fame was an area dedicated to hockey around the world, which included jerseys from all member-nations of the IIHF, some of which surprised me....

Thailand. When I think of Thailand, I picture a tropical paradise, some wonderful spicy noodle and curry dishes, and of course, their ice hockey team. Yeah....

Australia. Hmm...I wonder if there's a song Down Under that goes something like, "all the scientists are wand'rin' around, looking for the kangaroo, but he can't be found, 'cause he's down by the pond, playing hockey with the kids...."

And South Africa. Man, I'm lost for words on this one. Who would've thunk it?

In addition, there was a very nice display dedicated to women's (international) hockey, Olympic hockey, and an entire wall showing the evolution of the USA and Canada national team jerseys over the years.

And of course, no display of Olympic hockey can be complete without a tribute to the "Lucky Loonie" from the 2002 Salt Lake City games. It would only be appropriate if in 2010, an American $1-coin gets planted at center ice; and if both men's and women's Team USA Hockey win the gold at Vancouver, would we have our own "Lucky Sacagawea" to crow about?

Upstairs was the official Trophy Room, complete with display-models of the post-season awards handed out: the Adams, Calder, Hart, Byng, Selke, Norris, Vezina, Jennings, and of course, the Stanley Cup itself. Of course, the trophies displayed here are separate copies of the identical trophy paraded by players or teams (for instance, there are three Stanley Cups!), which would also explain how there was a Hart Trophy on display here at the same time as there was one inside the HP Pavilion at San Jose for the Sharks fans to see....

The Trophy Room

A tribute to Joe Thornton of the Sharks, the 2006 winner of the Hart Trophy

So if there are three Stanley Cups, what are they? Well, there's the one that the players get to skate around with when they win it (and was in Carloina for the NHL's opening night);

There's this one here in the trophy room that they let tourists pose with.

And finally, locked in a vault inside a glass case, is this, the Original Stanley Cup. Within this vault there are also the "retired" rings of the Stanley Cup trophy unrolled and displayed on the walls, listing past winners whose names are too numerous to maintain on the current incarnation of the trophy.

And finally, there's a little TSN-Zone area at one end of the Hall of Fame (right near the washrooms, in fact) which reminded me a bit of an ESPN-Zone...there was a place to shoot pucks at a computer screen (the "virtual-Belfour"), and I was wholly disappointed when the employee's first words to me as I grabbed a stick and stepped up were, "no slapshots." Four of my five wrist-shots hit the virtual goalie square in the chest. The one where I aimed for a corner missed high and wide by three feet. Hmmm....