Geez, one would think that the MSM has finally come to realize that the Wings’ organization and it’s players are in fact extraordinary.

Amen to LeBrun!

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Hockey Netherworld on 06/13/08 at 11:10 AM ET

Totally.  I loved watching Larionov play when he was with the Wings.  He was so good at reading the ice, he always ended up with the puck and was able to move plays up ice quickly...loved that. 

It was a crime he didn’t make it in last year, and he had better make it in this year.  He’s just too good not to be in the HHOF.

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 06/13/08 at 11:25 AM ET

Amen, Amen, and Amen!

Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 06/13/08 at 11:30 AM ET

I made the comment last year, an exception should have been made - and should be when it’s warranted - to expand the HOF class for those who are worthy of entry.  Last year’s class AND Larionov were such special players that they should receive the honour of being inducted in their first year of eligibility.

Posted by Randy from Fredericton on 06/13/08 at 12:26 PM ET

I met The Professor at the Joe a couple years ago. After waiting in line for 15 minutes he took the time to shake your hand, sign anything you asked of him and he was genuinely interested in meeting every single one of us in that line. I talked to him for about 3 minutes before the guys behind me started “beeping their horns” for me to get moving.....
Absolutely classy as a player and person. He’s easily as deserving as the “big 4” that went in last year.
One more AMEN to someone named Pierre, and it pains me ‘cause all I can think of is Pierre the DC.

Posted by KCMOWIngsfan on 06/13/08 at 12:28 PM ET

The thing that NHL fans tend to forget is that first part of LeBrun’s column.  Larionov had a whole other career in Russia, playing with the Canucks and Sharks (and he played a big part in the Wings’ demise in 94).  Larionov was the Russian Wayne Gretzky, he was one of the first players who not only challenged the Soviets’ refusal to allow its players to leave to play professional hockey elsewhere, but he also used going back to Europe as leverage when he headed over to Lugano, Switzerland when the Canucks weren’t interested in giving him a raise.

As a Red Wing, he and Slava Fetisov formed the foundation of the Wings’ puck possession game, and they didn’t just teach Konstantinov, Fedorov, and Kozlov their tricks.  Their impact upon the way the Red Wings have built their team over the past thirteen years is indelible, and those three and two Cups, respectively, were good bookends to some fantastic careers.  The fact that they’re as good off the ice and in person as they are on isn’t surprising, but it’s pretty darn cool.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 06/13/08 at 07:05 PM ET

I can’t believe he’s not even in it the first time his name was brought up.  He did so much more.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 06/13/08 at 07:05 PM ET

Igor is so deserving it’s insane he isn’t in already.

Don’t read the comments on Pierre’s original article.  The ignorance and provincial thinking is making me furious - I want to line up a bunch of those ignoramuses and smack the end one upside the head so their empty melons knock together all the way down the row.  (Starting with the pea-brain who blames the Russians for the creeping European influence that has made the game soft, because hockey would be so much better if they were never permitted to bring their fancy-pants skill stuff to Canada.)

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/13/08 at 07:16 PM ET