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More from the center of the hockey universe on Hall of Fame day

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Before I get back to the Hall of Fame inductees and what they had to say at the news conference hours before the ceremony, I’d like to mention the winners of the Elmer Ferguson award for excellence in hockey writing and the Foster Hewitt award for excellence in broadcasting.

The writing winner was Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, whose sense of humor has never deserted him through some dark times covering the Penguins or, more recently, the good times. He covered Luc Robitaille during the season Robitaille played for the Penguins, and had glowing praise for him. “Luc’s career was a testimony to focusing on what you can do instead of what others tell you that you can’t do,” he said.

The broadcast winner was John Davidson, long a commentator on New York Rangers’ telecasts as well as telecasts in Canada and national U.S. networks, and now president of the St. Louis Blues. J.D. explained the game without talking down to anyone, and brought a wealth of knowledge to every minute he spent on the air. Worthy winners, both.

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Writing and broadcast winners don’t get rings, but we each get a Hall of Fame jacket. They’re identical to the jackets players and builders receive except the patch on ours says “Media Honouree” instead of “Honoured Member.” Plaques for media honourees — let’s be consistent with the Canadian spelling — are displayed on two glass columns in the Great Hall at the Hall of Fame, near the plaques awarded to players, in the corner near the vault where the Stanley Cup is usually guarded.

Back to the inductees.

Brett Hull was known for his irreverence almost as much as for his goalscoring ability, and that’s saying a lot about someone who scored 741 goals. But he was mostly business Monday morning, seeming genuinely touched by the honor he will receive tonight.

What makes someone a Hall of Famer, he said, “goes far beyond what the individual did as a player. I think it has to do with everybody who ever touched his life growing up and giving him support, encouraging him along the way, because I think it’s a maturation. It takes a lot of steps to get where you’re going, and it takes a lot of people. As much as these great players have a lot of talent, there’s a lot of other people that helped them along the way.”

He was asked when his career turned around, because he had been a late draft pick whose commitment to the game was questioned.

“I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I have no idea when it happened,” he said, drawing laughter from the media. “I got to play with wonderful players. A lot of them are right here in front of me.

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“I just made sure that when I played I was having fun, and I figured if I was having fun, the game was going to go the right way for me.”

Jim Gregory, co-chairman of the Hall of Fame selection committee, read the text of Robitaille’s plaque:

“A prolific junior star in his native Quebec, Mr. Luc Robitaille joined the Los Angeles Kings in 1986-87, scoring 45 goals to win the Calder trophy and earn second-team all-star honors. The eight-time All Star would spend 14 of his 19 NHL seasons with the Kings, recording four 50-plus-goal seasons, eight consecutive 40-goal seasons, and to retire as the all-time leader among left wingers in both goals, 668, and points, 1,394. He would also set a single-season record for left wingers with 125 points in 1993. He captured the Stanley Cup in 2002 as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.”

Robitaille said his desire to play in the NHL allowed him to overcome the disadvantage of being picked 171st overall in 1984.

“I wanted to play, and I worked hard every day,” he said, “but the biggest thing is that it was never a job. I loved to play hockey, and I was willing to try to improve every day. All the way until the last game I played, I still was trying to improve every day.”

The inscription on Steve Yzerman’s plaque, as read by Gregory, is as follows:

“Mr. Steve Yzerman spent his entire 22-year NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings, including an NHL-record 20 years as captain. He set single-season club records of 65 goals and 90 assists and 155 points in 1989 to win the Lester Pearson award. He led the Red Wings to three Stanley Cup titles, winning the Conn Smythe trophy in 1998. While also winning the Selke and Masterton trophies he also led Canada to a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Mr. Yzerman’s career totaled 690 goals, 1,063 assists, 1,755 points along with 185 points in the playoffs.”

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Yzerman, Hull and Robitaille were teammates on the 2002 Red Wings, and Yzerman was asked if he thought that was the greatest collection of talent he’d seen.

“I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “The players, we didn’t look at it that way. We certainly weren’t sitting around the room admiring each other and the careers we had. We really had a lot of fun. Everybody came in, and we all virtually played on different lines. Brett played on one line, Luc played on another, I played with [Brendan Shanahan]. We were spread out and we were all given roles. We all played less than what we had been accustomed to in other situations but everybody had fun….

“A guy like Luc, he wanted to win. He was used to playing 18, 19 minutes and being on every power play, and he was playing 14 minutes but he had fun with it and we won.”

More from the induction ceremony later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott, from Toronto

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