Hockey Hall of Fame: Alex Mogilny was a Canuck like no other
'That's how he got so good at controlling the puck, he once told me,' former Burnaby-born Canucks star Cliff Ronning told Postmedia on Tuesday, after word went out that the great Russian was heading to the Hockey Hall of Fame, at long last. 'He wanted to keep it.'
Mogilny finally getting his hall call rights a long-standing wrong — he was among the game's best during the 1980s and '90s, and indeed changed the game when he bolted from the Soviet Union in the spring of 1989, opening the door for many other Russians to head to the NHL.
Ronning's last season as a Canuck was 1995-96, Mogilny's first in Vancouver. On many nights, Ronning was Mogilny's centre. Mogilny's first season as a Canuck produced 107 points, a season so majestic that it is considered by some to be the finest all-around season in team history.
At the very least, it's up there with the power of Pavel Bure's back-to-back 60-goal campaigns, and with Henrik Sedin's masterwork of a season in 2010-11.
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