Sunday, August 17, 2003

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Herb Brooks was laid to rest in his hometown yesterday morning, following an outpouring of emotion from the hockey world. He was called a genius of the game. A patriot who galvanized a nation when it was needed. A warm, generous family man.

What he was not called by anyone was a Hall of Famer.

Yes, Brooks is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the International Hockey Hall of Fame. But those entities, while respected, are not the real Hockey Hall of Fame. That one is in Toronto, the body recognized as the premier place of recognition for those who have contributed most to the sport.

Incredibly, Brooks is not enshrined there.

Worse, barring an unprecedented late addition, he will be ignored again this year, as the two inductees in the builders' category this November are scheduled to be Mike Ilitch, pizza magnate in Detroit and owner of the Red Wings, and Brian Kilrea, general manager of the Ottawa 67s junior team for three decades.

Forget Brooks' 219 victories in parts of seven seasons as an NHL coach. Forget the innovative strategy he brought to the league to help usher in an unprecedented era of creativity and excitement. Forget his three NCAA titles at the University of Minnesota. None of those represents the major measure of Brooks' relevance.

Look at what he meant to the sport in the United States.

Before 1980, before the Miracle, hockey was about as recognized in this country as arena football and indoor lacrosse are today. It largely was viewed as a gimmick, something those wacky Canadians did, a la curling. But after Brooks assembled a ragtag roster of collegians and minor-leaguers, tore them down and built them back up to virtually force them to believe they could pull of the impossible, a nation was captivated. By the team, by Brooks and by the sport.

Hockey has grown exponentially since then in the United States, and not just at the NHL level. Children across the country learned to love it, creating its first true generation here.

From there, Brooks remained a champion of all things involving the game in this country, working diligently and often without monetary reward to help USA Hockey and always encouraging Americans to stick out their chests in regard to hockey.

No one did the latter before Brooks. There still is no one else who has done it.

Brooks was, in every sense, the symbol and spokesman of American hockey, as is clearer now with the massive void he has left. As Warren Strelow, his longtime goaltending coach and close friend, put it: "I can't think of anybody who comes to mind who could speak about the game, represent it the way Herbie did. Not in our country."

Strelow's assessment of Brooks' relevance to the game in the nation which is home to 24 of the 30 NHL teams hardly is unique. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke of it in the past few days, as did countless other important members of the hockey community.

So, how is it that a man universally accepted as his nation's leader in the sport is not in the Hall?

There is a possibility that Brooks was left out because he never lobbied or had friends lobby for him, as so many have done to gain induction. Brooks was anything but the lobbying type. This is the man who quickly vacated the bench in Lake Placid to allow his players to enjoy the spotlight, the man who once threatened to avoid coaching a game for the Penguins when they told him there would be a pregame ceremony celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Miracle.

But the larger factor likely is this: Brooks is not Canadian.

The Hall, like much of the NHL hierarchy, remains dominated by the old Canadian guard, a faction which seems peculiarly defiant to the increasing globalization of the game. Slowly, some such as Craig Patrick and Joe Mullen are getting their due for achievements within the context of the U.S., but change is slow. Witness the reprehensible exclusions which still are being made of prominent players and builders from Europe, notably Russia.

Be sure that, if Brooks had led Canada to that Miracle in 1980, the city of Toronto would have been renamed in his honor to accompany his immediate enshrining into the Hall.

Make no mistake: Brooks will get into the Hall someday. The events of this past week are certain to play a role in opening eyes to this glaring omission.

But it never should have been written that he deserved that honor posthumously.

Icy chips

Brooks never was employed by the Wild, but Minnesota's team treated him like one of its own in the past week. Several team officials attended the funeral ceremonies, and they placed a still image of Brooks on the marquee signs outside the Xcel Energy Center all weekend.

Penguins officials do not yet know how they will honor Brooks in the 2003-04 season, but they are certain that they will.

Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who might have fallen to No. 4 on the Penguins' goaltending depth chart with the drafting of Marc-Andre Fleury in June, has taken an unconventional approach to his summer training: He has stayed off the ice. "I'll get back on by the end of the month when I get to Pittsburgh and practice with our players," he said from his home in Quebec. "I'd rather work out with our guys than with people in beer leagues."

Aubin credited a lengthy one-on-one chat with Brooks late last season for his strong showing after being demoted to Wilkes-Barre: "Right before the playoffs, he told me that he believed in me, that the organization believed in me, and they thought I was doing well. He wanted me to keep my head up, and I really appreciated it. When you're in the minors, you always wonder if someone knows what you're doing. It means so much to hear that, especially when it's someone like him. I'll miss him."

The Rangers' Matthew Barnaby is two teams removed from the Penguins, but he still keeps close tabs and is more optimistic than most about their chances to succeed in 2003-04: "We saw at the end of the year when they came into our building and beat us that they've got some good, young talent there. They've got guys who will play hard, get in your face ... and I think Pittsburgh's going to like that. I know the city appreciated it when I played that way there." He also offered some advice: "They need to use Brian Holzinger, give him a chance. He's only 30, and he's a really good player who can do a lot of good things."

The Penguins are scheduled to make only three appearances on national television next season, none on ABC, two on ESPN (Feb. 29 at the Islanders, April 4 against the Capitals) and one on ESPN2 (Jan. 12 at the Flyers). The networks reserve the right to change those schedules, as they did dramatically upon Mario Lemieux's return in 2000. The Penguins should not take the affront personally, particularly from the ABC angle. That network is limiting its coverage almost exclusively to the NHL's largest markets, regardless of the quality of the team, lending further credence to the theory that hockey remains a regional game when it comes to ratings.

Penguins Coach Eddie Olczyk is spending the week moving his family from Chicago to the South Hills.

The Maple Leafs' dragging process for hiring a new general manager is believed to have whittled to two prime candidates: Neil Smith, the Penguins' special assistant to Patrick, and John Ferguson Jr., the Blues' director of hockey operations.

Craig Simpson has left the broadcast booth to join the Oilers' coaching staff as an assistant.

Does one year at $6.5 million from the Rangers look better now to Alexei Kovalev than the five-year, $25 million offer the Penguins made him last summer? It might not, if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement lowers his pay from 2004 on.

Only 25 days to Southpointe.

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