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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 4, 2008

Glenn Anderson

DAVID KEON: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm David Keon of the National Hockey League public's relation department. I'd like to welcome you to today's call.
Our guest is Glenn Anderson. Thanks to Glenn for joining us today to answer your questions. On Monday of next week Glenn will be formally inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame along with Igor Larionov, linesman Ray Scapinello, and Ed Chynoweth. Sixteen NHL seasons with Edmonton, Toronto, St. Louis and the New York Rangers. Glenn had 1,129 regular-season games, recording 1,099 points on 498 goals and 601 assists. The Vancouver native won five Stanley Cups in Edmonton in the 1980s and one with the New York Rangers in 1994. He appeared in 225 playoff games, which is his seventh on the all -time games played list and also ranks fifth in goals with 93 playoff goals, seventh in assists with 121, and fourth overall all-time in playoff points with 214.
Again we thank Glenn for taking the time to join us today and answer your questions.

Q. Glenn, thanks for doing this. Congratulations. Some quick questions. Just, is it sinking in yet now that it's less than a week away?
GLENN ANDERSON: I've had a little time to think about it. I think more so than the average person. So I'm savoring the moments and the seconds as they go by. Ever since I got the call, June 17th, it's something that I'd like to soak in and remember forever.

Q. You know Mark Messier, your buddy and former teammate, he was pretty big at lobbying for you, and saying that, you know, Glenn needs to be in there. Just wondering what your impressions might be about another guy that you played against when you were in Edmonton when he was in Calgary and now later on he was a teammate of yours in Toronto, Doug Gilmour. When you look at the numbers and stuff like that, he looks like another guy that maybe has been passed over a couple times but does have the credentials to be in?
GLENN ANDERSON: Absolutely. I think there's -- it's real process and the committee has their work cut out for them every year.
I mean, it's been over ten years for me. And, you know, who knew whether -- you really don't have any control of what you have, whether you get in or not. But I think with Dougy and others, they've got the credentials.
And, you know, I think the bottom line is championships. I think it exemplifies the fact that you're true team player and you know what it takes to be part of a team. And I think you need to win championships.
And Dougy was all over that. Plus his international competition. And I was fortunate to play with him in Canada cups.

Q. Glenn, can you go through a couple things for me. How many Hall of Fame ceremonies have you attended? And the other thing is, can you contrast what you think going into the Hall with the actual ceremonies is going to feel to you compared to when your banner goes up here in Edmonton?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well couple questions. As always your questions are always fantastic, Terry. I love the fact that we've got a great history together on top of it.
As far as going into the Hall, I mean, it's just an unbelievable honor, and I'm very humbled by that fact. But thinking about it as the plaque-- I don't know what kind of picture they're going to use for me, but as the plaque is hung -- I heard there's ghosts in the Hall. And I can just imagine my picture probably looking right at Father Bauer or Glenn Sather, and if our ghosts at some point and time when we're no longer around and the lights are out and nobody's there I can hear Saths going, It's past curfew, you better go back to bed. (Laughter.)
And for the second part of the question, the banner being raised up in Edmonton. I think it's two different scenarios completely. But I think my tender is mostly with the Oilers.
But I just don't want to say that my hockey career was just not in professional ranks in North America. I think -- I was very proud and honored to be part of Team Canada and international competition and wear the Canadian maple leaf proud. Hopefully, I did my country justice by representing them.

Q. When you were at some of your teammates, which inductions did you go to in Toronto and which banner raisings did you go to?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well I tried to make as many as I could. Lately, I've taken in, in Edmonton, you know, obviously Mark and Coff and saw most of them on TV. I mean, Donnie Metsa's production is always fantastic. And more recently Mike Richter and Brian Leetch and Mark Messier in New York.
But, the Hall of Fame, I've been going there for the last three or four years and been playing in the Hall of Fame game and with the legends and was first-hand witness to Kharlamov and Cam Neely and more recently with MacInnis and Stevens and Francis and Messier. So we've been to a few. We've seen quite a few, and kind of know what to expect.
But, as a kid growing up, I mean, it's really tough to prepare for something like that.

Q. But in terms of the emotional scale, we watched Mess cry at both of them. Which one do you think is going to bring out the emotions in you in which different directions? I mean, like you say, they're two different animals and one is just focused on you and the other on a pretty good class here?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well exactly. As far as the emotion is concerned, I get asked this question quite a bit as far as you know how -- have you written a speech yet. And in my life so much can happen from even this moment in time to Monday night at 7:00 or 8:00 or even later than that because you are going to go over so many stories over the weekend.
I mean, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and even Monday there's going to be so many memories are going to be brought up you're going to go, Oh, yeah I forgot that one. Then try to play it into something that you might be able to say that night that you completely forgot about throughout your career. And that kind of moves you and touches you in such a way that it was a turning point in your life.
So as far as preparing for this, it's tough to because there's so many other things that could happen between now and then.

Q. One question about the very start of your career and one about what you are doing now. You made a reference to Father Bauer, and I was just wondering how much of that year that you spent playing for the '79/'80 Olympic team influenced your later career?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well I would say it jump started it. My training sessions with the Olympic program and to be an Olympic athlete at that time as an amateur, which they had, was absolutely phenomenal. So it really kind of focused in. Four hours of ice time a day. From 7:00 a.m. in the morning till 8:00 p.m. at night we were on the ice, off the ice or doing some kind of mental preparation system wise or training wise.
And so as far as what the Olympic program did and Father Bauer did, whatever energy I had at the end of the day basically Father Bauer's philosophy -- I was always summons over to the monastery there in Calgary by the 4H club and we had endless conversations about more of the human spirit and the political end of it and that the North American league is not the only league; there's other options. If you don't happen to make it, you can fall back on schooling.
He really opened my eyes to a broader picture than what a lot of people are kind of programmed and influenced by the media and by what they see from the TV, that there's only one league in the world and only one direction and they get kind of narrow minded. He really opened my mind to a lot of different avenues.

Q. Great. And just some nuts and bolts stuff. You know, where are you living? What are you doing these days to occupy your time? And who are you bringing with us this weekend to help celebrate with you?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well we're having a -- I'm having like a fantasy camp, kind of what Mark does in New York, Mark Messier does in New York. He has a leadership camp here and Gretzky does one either in L.A. or in Phoenix. I'm having a camp like that by invitation only with friends and a lot of Igor's friends from Russia. So it's going to be -- it's almost like Russia versus North America or the world for that matter. And it's going to be a big celebration of just from that point of view.
And then also we have approximately about 30 or 40 other people that are coming in that are close friends and family. So our entourage is very big and it's going to be -- we'll be well supports.

Q. Are your mom and dad still alive?
GLENN ANDERSON: Yes. But I don't think they're well enough to make it. So it's going to be kind of sad they don't make it, but I'm sure they'll be there in spirit.

Q. Hi, Glenn. Congratulations. Thought there might be some earlier questions so I punched in late, but I wanted to ask about later on in the Edmonton dynasty with three Cups under the belt, started to have some financial problems and look around at different ways to construct the team, and they traded Paul Coffey to Pittsburgh and got back Craig Simpson. Seemed like before that you had a variety of wings but with Simpson that was really one of the best lines in recent times. Talk about the chemistry of those three players together -- you Mark and Craig?
GLENN ANDERSON: In my mind, especially in '90, I mean Simmer kind of won single-handedly I think, played his best playoff season ever in his career. I mean, he was definitely up for the Conn Smythe award in my book because he made such a great influence on big games. He scored big goals at certain times. He made great plays. He was focused. He was determined. And he really showed his true colors as being a champion. So, you know, it was great to see him come through with flying colors in that 1990 run for the Stanley Cup.
I mean, as far as playing with Mark, I mean, I think he went to the net as hard as anybody and stood in front of the net and took as much abuse as anybody. I think his biggest concern was that he didn't run into Mark or I because he was a little slower than either one of us. If Mark and I were crossing paths in the neutral ice area, he was trying to stay clear.

Q. Talk again to in the beginning when you first came off the Olympic team to Edmonton and it was almost like everybody got off the bus together. There was one team that had played in the WHA within two years you were pretty close to the team that went on to be the dynasty team?
GLENN ANDERSON: I'm sorry, comparing the WHA team to?

Q. Yeah. What I'm saying is when you joined so did so many of the others that came in at the same time too. So that within three years the team that had come out of the WHA into the NHL was very different, say, by 1982, and it was the basis of the team that you won your Stanley Cups with?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well I think you got to realize the draft, the way the Oilers drafted. How they picked up Gretz, and Eddie Mio. I mean you really got to question the world scouting at that point and time. Because, I mean, in our draft year, I mean, the Oilers had no third pick, I believe. And you've got in '79, I believe, Kevin Lowell, Mark Messier, and I went in the fourth round. I mean, I could be wrong with the stats. Then you've got another first rounder in Paul Coffey and then Grant Pier.
So, I mean, basically the draft really pulled that team together and the players just kind of really revolved around Gretz. When you are playing with the best player in the world, I mean, you start doing things you never even dreamed about doing.

Q. I think most of us that watched you play would agree that based on stats, performance, big games, all those other things, you probably ought to have been in quite sometime ago. You made a little reference at the beginning to, you know, that it's been a long time for you. Do you think that off-field, off-ice stuff influenced the long time that it took for you to get in? And do you think that it's right or fair that those kind of things are taken into consideration in evaluating whether someone ought to be in the Hall of Fame or not?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well I believe it's up to the committee. And I think that the committee changes every few years, I believe. As far as the process and, you know, it varies from sport to sport so it's really tough. I mean, other sports you go in as the team you played on. I know it was my on-ice or off-ice activities -- it's tough to judge on what determines on what you get in and what keeps you out. So I don't know the real, the guidelines, I guess you could say, for okay the criteria for getting in is this, and you meet this, this and this. And as far as what you do off the ice is material or immaterial, I don't really know what the guidelines are to get in.

Q. Then let me just ask you a general question. Do you think that it's fair or right that those kinds of characters who's a personality even. You are not the same kind of a guy that most of the guys in the National Hockey League probably are.

Q. Just wondering if that's a fair criteria if that is taken into consideration?
GLENN ANDERSON: It's a difficult question for me to answer because I don't know.
If I was sitting on the committee I'm sure I'd kind of be able to say okay what makes this guy get in. Is it the stats, is it his championship, you know, what is it exactly. And I really don't know what the guidelines and the criteria is. It's not written in stone. So I don't know the answer.

Q. Can I just ask you one more. Where are you right now? And where are you living?
GLENN ANDERSON: Right now I'm in the middle of Columbus Circle in New York City. And I'm sitting here with my daughter Autumn as everyone prepares to vote for the new President.

Q. There you go. Where are you living?
GLENN ANDERSON: Right in Manhattan. I'm on the upper west side in New York City.

Q. Thanks, Glenn. Congratulations.
GLENN ANDERSON: Thank you.

Q. Hi, Glenn. I was wondering if you could comment on being, I believe, the first University of Denver player to ever go to the hockey Hall of Fame as a player. Can you tell me what your one year in Denver meant to you and what it means to be that first person?
GLENN ANDERSON: I think Denver was spectacular. Because of the fact that back then in the 70s they weren't -- you know a lot of players weren't even thinking about going to school as a back-up plan for their hockey career. A lot of players played in junior hockey and they had one dimension I think they were going to get into the NHL. I think I was at that point where I was finally turning -- where players had choices of where they wanted to go and play and have a back-up plan.
I think schooling is very important for any kid playing the game today and it was very important for me. Especially with the preparation and the discipline that you have to have for school and for sports. And Marshall Johnson was a big part of that. And I'm very, very honored to have him as my coach and one of my mentors in the game. I have many, many memories and he taught me many things of schooling and of the sport and of the game. And I owe a great deal of respect and attributes to him for getting to where I am today.

Q. I had a question about sticks. There's only like 10, 15 guys in the league that still use wooden sticks. I was wondering your thoughts on that and would you probably use a compo stick if you were playing today still or not?
GLENN ANDERSON: I like change. I think you have to roll with the times. I would probably use a one piece. I'd try to use one now actually.
I kind of go -- these days, you know, it's anything that I can get ahold of right now because we play once in awhile, especially recently I haven't had much time to play at all. But the stick itself I think is a big difference in the game. Technology is a big difference. The players, the equipment, the goaltending is absolutely spectacular now. Any kind of edge that you can get in the game you are going to take advantage of that advantage.

Q. Hi, Glenn. Just a couple of background quick things. Is Autumn six now or five?
GLENN ANDERSON: Yeah, she's six, in grade one. Helping me with my speech as we talk. She's actually writing some stuff down right now.

Q. And wife Susan; do you still do work with the Rangers?
GLENN ANDERSON: Once in awhile we do some of the PR work and the box work and the Legends work with the Rangers.

Q. And further the Cam Coles question just a little bit. Did you develop any personal theories just for yourself as to why it was taking so long. A tough decision we all know and you don't know the criteria but you said you thought about it and I'm wondering if you decided this is why, right or wrong?
GLENN ANDERSON: No. I mean, of course you think about it, but and, you know, I didn't dwell on it back then. I think I'm -- as I get closer to the day we get to reflect on a life history of what transpired and how did I get where I am. Like where did I come from, where I am and where I'm going is kind of the three questions that you kind of ask yourself on a regular basis now because we're getting closer to the time. And the more I think bit, the more things pop up.
And the more I talked about other people it's like you know the memories just come back in floods. So that's why I don't know how it's going to be that night because there's so many things that are going to happen over the weekend and jog my memory that I don't know how emotional or what kind of reaction I'm going to have because I've never been in this kind of situation before.

Q. Going back to your very early years I think it was Terry Jones you told me once that gave you the nickname Mork?
GLENN ANDERSON: Yeah.

Q. So there's the whole space cadet thing that goes on as a young guy. Was that all justified and in anyway do you kind of relish it now?
GLENN ANDERSON: I'm sorry.
Q. Was it justified, the space cadet image sort of, you know, the different drummer. And in anyway do you relish that background?
GLENN ANDERSON: Relish it? Well I don't know about that.

Q. Well you know Bill Lead a spaceman there, he certainly would. He would go on to embellish it if he could I believe?
GLENN ANDERSON: I think the Terry would have a different opinion of me once we've spent some great quality time together, and I'm sure his viewpoint towards me is completely different now. And I'm sure with a lot of other people as well.
The only way I could say or, you know, relish it, is the fact that I'm really glad, I'm really happy of the fact that I'm not like a prototype of, you know, I beat to the same drummer. I'm glad that I'm an individual, and I am a little different than the average player; which I think all players should be unique in their own way and beat to their own drummer. I mean, that's part of life. I think if anything it's an attribute.

Q. Glenn, you talked a little bit about, you know, in Edmonton and Colorado, can you talk to us quickly what your little, you know, your couple years in Toronto were like, especially with that one run to the playoffs where the team had been pretty bad in the previous years?
GLENN ANDERSON: Yeah. I mean coming from a team that won championships and going into Toronto and not really realizing what I was getting into was -- I definitely had my work cut out for me there. But I was fortunate enough that we had a great general manager in Cliff Fletcher, and he saw the bigger picture and kind of knew what had to be done.
And the time that I spent in Toronto was absolutely phenomenal because of the fact that it was like the hockey hotbed of Canada. And you're under the spotlight and it's the toughest ticket anywhere to get in the hockey world.
I was very lucky and fortunate to play on the teams that I did play on in St. Louis, New York, Edmonton and Toronto because, I mean, as a kid growing up the one game that you get to see on a regular basis is hockey night in Canada with the Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens.

Q. Glenn, six Stanley Cups. I think you tied for third with overtime playoff goals; tied for fifth with 17 playoff game winning goals. You weren't a bit player in all of this. Can you look inside and identify those qualifies that made you a champion?
GLENN ANDERSON: The fact that I hated to lose more than I liked to win is a good reason. I think it stems back to -- I think you have to lose before you can win. And the hardships that I had from losing hurt so bad that I would never -- I didn't want to do that again.
So, I mean, I can probably contribute three very deep, painful wounds that kind of set me back as a hockey player wondering if I had the right stuff or not to become a champion or not. And one of them being in the Olympics when we lost to the Russians and the Americans went on to and won the gold medal. Another one being in '82 when we lost to the Miracle on Manchester -- a couple miracles. You got the miracle team in the Olympics then you got the miracle team in L.A. so I'm losing to all these miracles. But it hurt so much and it was so painful that I never wanted that to happen again.
I think a lot of guys on our team felt the same way I felt. And so as far as getting into a tight situation where the pressure was on and the game was close or we're down a goal or the game was tied is like I always just reverted back to those memories of how bad it hurt and how much I hated to lose more probably than I wanted to win. Just rise to that occasion so I didn't have that feeling again.

Q. And when they handed you the Stanley Cup after losing the year before to the Islanders who were a great team and coming back and winning, just think about that moment of being handed the Stanley Cup?
GLENN ANDERSON: Well, I mean, it was a lot of time and a lot of effort getting to that position. And it was a learned condition. It was more like a relief, I think, we finally did it. Then once get there -- getting there is one thing and staying on top is another. But it was more of a relief and you're just so exhausted and so content you timely did it that there is a great relief.
DAVID KEON: Thanks, very much, Glenn, for your time.
GLENN ANDERSON: Thank you guys.
DAVID KEON: Have a safe trip up and we look forward to seeing you on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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