Penguins Update: Hall Call for Tommy B

I have a confession to make.

I was surprised to learn Tom Barrasso was being considered for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. I was even more surprised when he was voted in.

That’s not to say he wasn’t a very good goaltender in his day. He was, to the tune of a Calder Trophy, a Vezina Trophy and a Jennings Trophy. Not to mention those two Stanley Cup rings he earned with the Pens back in the early ‘90s.

Maybe it’s his boxcar numbers…a bloated 3.24 goals against average and a pedestrian .892 save percentage…which pale in comparison to old-timers like Johnny Bower, Jacques Plante and Glenn Hall…not to mention today’s netminders.

No, Barrasso’s numbers weren’t glittering, especially after he was acquired from the Sabres in a 1988 blockbuster for former first-round picks Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon to backstop a high octane but porous black-and-gold team. But I need to remind myself that he played in a different era, when offense and small brown goalie pads ruled and supernovas such as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux routinely flirted with 200-point seasons.

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