'Eddie the Eagle' makes he Hall of Fame on the first ballot

Ed Belfour, the goaltender who kept the Blackhawks Stanley Cup contenders even during the early days of the "Dollar Bill" Wirtz era, has been elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

He had to wait to get to Dallas to actually win the Cup, but played well enough to do it in 1992. That year the Hawks reached the Finals, only  to be swept in four games by the Pittsburgh Penguins Each of those four games, however, was decided by only one goal. If the truth be told, the Penguins were a sgnificantly better team that year than the Hawks were; "Eddie the Eagle" kept it close.

Though he had a bad temper (I remember him once reacting to the elimination of the Hawks from the playoffs by breaking his stick over the crossbar of the goal he'd been defending) and a reputation as something of a problem in the clubhouse, he had a 2.17 goals against average in the playoffs. Compare with the legendary Patrick Roy's 2.30.

Belfour's backup during his years with the Hawks, btw, was a fellow named Dominik Hasek. He was that good. Ironically, when Belfour finally won his Cup with Dallas in 1999,  Hasek was in the net for Buffalo.

"Eddie the Eagle" was a good one, and along with Glenn Hall and Tony Esposito was one of the three goaltenders who dominate my memories of the Blackhawks down through the years. Hopefully Corey Crawford will be the fourth.