Get the inside scoop straight from a 6-time Stanley Cup winner and newly inducted member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. "Glenn's Inside Scoop" is the personal blog of Glenn Anderson shown exclusively on HockeyBarn.com. When you're finished reading Glenn's blog, learn more about Glenn's exciting new fantasy camps at www.GlennsGlobalGames.com

Hello Everyone!

It is a privilege to be able to write blogs for HockeyBarn.com and this is my first installment. For this issue, I'd like to share with all you hockey fans out there what it was like when I first found out that I was being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame!

First off, no one ever dreams or rehearses the enormous elevation of emotions that had me reliving my life and evaluating each angle of it. I was eligible for the Hall of Fame for 10 years, and when June came around every year the media and the hockey world would track me down and ask me if this would be the year I was going in. Sometimes the media would be so certain that I would be set up on a live remote, only to congratulate other very deserving players for being inducted. I always answered the same way..."I don't know when I would be inducted and had no input, control or public relations firm working on my behalf.

Cut to June 17, 2008....the anniversary of the NY Rangers parade through the Canyon of Heroes; the day we spent at Gracie Mansion and received keys to the world's greatest city 14 years earlier! June 17th is also a magical day for me, as I saw my now wife Susan for the first time on that day. When I saw Susan for the first time, the world went into slow motion for me. I watched her and knew she was "the one". June 17th is also my Grandma Margaret's birthday. Suffice it to say that each year June 17th is a very special day for me. And this June 17th sure lived up to the others.

I received a call from Kelly Masse in the Hall of Fame to call Jim Gregory, Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations for the NHL. I called Susan and told her the news, and she replied "that's fantastic...well call him!" I called the number Kelly gave me, but it didn't work. She gave me another one to call and the guy that answered that one told me I had the wrong number. Now I am thinking what a great elaborate joke someone is playing on me. On my third call I was pretty skeptical when the receptionist was really not helpful and someone else answered the phone and said he was with Jim and handed him the phone. I was thinking "yeah sure Jim will get on the phone, this should be good." Then Mr. Jim Gregory congratulated me in the most >sincere way and made me feel completely honored and passed the phone to Mr. Bill Hay, Chairman and CEO of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Bill told me was happy he wouldn't have to answer to Glen Sather anymore on why I am not in the HHOF and asked if I could keep it quiet until the press conference later that afternoon. What they didn't know was that Wayne Gretzky had called to congratulate me already, and I thought he must really be a hockey God, because I had no idea what he was talking about at the time. Kevin Lowe was on the same ESP train when he called to say he felt like this was the day I would get the nod. The call had come around 12:37PM in the afternoon and I was on cloud "9". Would my feet ever touch the ground again? Well, that didn't take long to find out.

At 3PM I picked up my daughter Autumn and could not wait to share the news with her about how Daddy got the call to be inducted into the Hockey Hall Of Fame, the greatest honor any hockey player could ever achieve. When I told Autumn the exciting news, she smiled and calmly replied, "That's nice daddy. I let the butterflies that grew from caterpillars go today and fly to Central Park." Well, it didn't take long to be humbled and brought down out of the clouds. Things were gently put back into perspective by my then 5 year old in kindergarten. She later explained to me that they were free to fly into the world and be happy and I was also able to soar with this fantastic news and be happy just like them.

The phone didn't stop ringing for weeks and the celebration started immediately after Susan got home from work. It was a great whirlwind of excitement. It also began a new line of questioning... "How is your speech coming along and what are you going to say?!"

I will have to leave off here and discuss "the making of the speech." What an emotional rollercoaster ride that you have only 4 minutes allotted for and you need to fit your life's work and thanks into that tiny space of time. I will dedicate that story in my next blog.

Until then, live each day feeling, laughing and discovering.

Glenn Anderson

www.GlennsGlobalGames.com