Elusive championship part of legacy for 2022 Hockey Hall of Fame class
Alfredsson, Luongo, Sedin twins to join group of 24 players who fell short of winning Stanley Cup
None won the Stanley Cup.
Why write about this now, before such a celebration of their incredible careers? Because they bring it up themselves, and their attitude about it speaks to the competitors they were.
Each came excruciatingly close, and it hurts even at a time like this.
Alfredsson came within three wins in 2007, when the Ottawa Senators lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Anaheim Ducks in five games. After the ring ceremony in the Great Hall on Friday, he recalled details from the series as if it were a year ago, not 15 years ago.
"Traumatic experience," Alfredsson said.
Luongo and the Sedin twins came within one game in 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks lost the Cup Final to the Boston Bruins in seven. Asked about the importance winning Olympic gold -- something these four players also have in common -- Luongo and Daniel Sedin each raised the Cup issue himself.
"In the end, I think you are what you have won," Daniel Sedin said. "That's why I really regret not winning the Stanley Cup, because I think that's the toughest thing to win in hockey. It's a grueling journey, first 82 games and then the playoffs. When you're one game away from winning the whole thing, that's the one…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
"I don't regret how we did things," he continued. "I think, in the end, we lost against a very good team. But yeah, we look certainly back at that moment."
The Olympics matter. This is the Hockey Hall of Fame, not the NHL Hall of Fame. The committee considers each candidate's entire body of work.
Making an Olympic roster, let alone winning a gold medal, is an elite accomplishment especially when NHL players participate. Though the tournament lasts only about two weeks, it's best-on-best.
Alfredsson and the Sedins won gold with Sweden in 2006 in Torino, defeating Finland 3-2 in the final.
"I know it's something I always wanted," Alfredsson said. "Growing up, the goal was the national team. The NHL wasn't even on the map."
Luongo won gold with Canada in 2010 in Vancouver, defeating the United States 3-2 in overtime in the final, and 2014 in Sochi, defeating Sweden 3-0 in the final. He took over for Martin Brodeur as the starter during the tournament in Vancouver, playing in his home country and NHL home rink.
"It's huge, especially for me, especially because I didn't win any of the other stuff," Luongo said. "Obviously, that's probably one of the biggest moments of my career, considering everything, where it was in Vancouver and how it came about and the way the game ended. [With] so much pressure on everybody, to perform and get it done, that was such a moment of euphoria."
The Cup matters too, obviously. But so much is beyond a player's control, from which team selects him in the NHL Draft to what happens afterward, and it's only going to get harder to win the Cup now that the NHL has grown to 32 teams.
How many players have their names inscribed in silver but don't have their portraits etched in glass in the Great Hall, and how many Hall of Famers never won the Cup?
Alfredsson, Luongo and the Sedins join 24 other players to debut in the NHL since the 1967-68 expansion and make the Hockey Hall of Fame without winning the Cup -- players like Jarome Iginla, Phil Housley, Mike Gartner, Marcel Dionne, Mats Sundin, Adam Oates, Dino Ciccarelli, Gilbert Perreault, Dale Hawerchuk and Borje Salming.
Two lessons to draw:
One, the Stanley Cup is so hard to win that you can be one of the greatest players in the history of hockey and never hoist it over your head.
Two, the pursuit of the Cup can help make you great, even if you don't win it. If you chase the Cup so hard that failing to win it bugs you when you're about to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame, well, maybe that's one of the reasons you ended up a Hall of Famer.
"This is a great honor," Daniel Sedin said, wearing his Cup ring while standing below his glass plaque in the Great Hall, "but I think I would have rather won the Stanley Cup, if you know what I mean.
"That's a team win, and I think we are all about the team. This is more individual. I mean, yeah, this is probably the ultimate individual award you can win, but I think we all are team-first guys."
NHL Stats contributed
