Former Ranger Glenn Anderson Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame

From NHL.COM

The wait only made Tuesday’s announcement from the Hockey Hall of Fame that much sweeter for Igor Larionov and Glenn Anderson.

The famed Russian superstar and the six-time Stanley Cup champion were announced Tuesday as the headliners of the Hall’s Class of 2008, which also includes former WHL Commissioner Ed Chynoweth (posthumously) and former NHL linesman Ray Scapinello.

The quartet will be enshrined at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Monday, Nov. 10 in a ceremony that will cap the 2008 Induction Celebration.

“The big question I don’t have to answer any more is, ‘Why aren’t you in?’ ” Anderson said. “I think your peers and the people around you know if it was meant to be it was meant to be. This is a great honor today and I am very humbled by the honor.”

Anderson’s phone was buzzing during the entire media conference call with former “colleagues” calling to congratulate him. He said before he even had a chance to process the news former teammates Wayne Gretzky and Kevin Lowe called to congratulate him.

Anderson is the sixth member of the Edmonton Oilers 1980s dynasty team that won the Stanley Cup five times to be elected. Anderson, who retired in 1996, two years after winning his sixth Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994, had been waiting almost a decade for this honor to come.

Players are eligible for the Hall of Fame three years after their careers are over.

“It was the first year I was a little nervous. The last couple of days I have been a little nervous about it,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if I should do a commercial for Kleenex or not – hopefully not – but I did catch myself walking down the street in New York today trying to catch my breath. I’m very, very excited. It’s been a long time since I won a Stanley Cup and this feeling I have inside now, the nervousness and excitement, is right up there with some of the great things I have done in life.”