So what did Boggs have to say when asked if these juiced up freaks belong in the Hall of Fame with him?

“You’re cheating the game, you’re cheating yourself, you’re cheating your family, you’re cheating your friends, you’re cheating your fans, and you’re cheating Americana and apple pie, baby. Because if you can’t do it at 60 feet, 6 inches, you shouldn’t be playing the game.”

Great job by Boggs here, although he could have gone of on his rant a beer or two earlier.  He likely should have refrained from the karaoke singing finale as well.  At least he seemingly received a better reception that Jeremy Roenick at the NHL Awards ceremony in Vegas last night.

We need more players from the past speaking out against the likes of Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa.  With the game already tainted, they should at least feel the need to preserve the shrine in Cooperstown.

Here is Boggs’ rant and some karaoke afterward.

Hat Tip – [Deadspin]

If the change of location wasn’t strange enough, the actual event had the feel of a 1980s game show.  Weird lights and creepy music made you wonder whether Bob Barker would be presenting the next trophy.  Speaking of trophies, the Stanley Cup was in attendance.  Luckily it was fished out of Mario Lemieux’s pool in time.

There was also the excessive reading which was only made worse by the fact that presenters were expected to say so much.  The biggest victim was Jeremy Roenick, who was stumbling early and had to restart at one point as his word-juggling became too apparent that he couldn’t even make sense of it anymore.  The random man beside him seemed to enjoy it.  He was probably thinking, “if only J.R. would have given me some lines, he wouldn’t have to say so much.”

When it was all said and done, Alex Ovechkin made his presence felt, taking home the Hart (MVP), Richard (most goals) and Pearson (MVP voted by the players) trophies.  The Bruins also did well, with Claude Julien, Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas receiving honors as the best coach, defenseman and goalie respectively.  Thankfully the choices for the awards were not as out-of-whack as the actual event itself.

Here is the clip of Roenick’s not-so-smooth moment.

Here is more of what Roenick had to say:

“The coach just doesn’t like him for some ungodly known reason, I think he’s got a grudge against American players, but he does not like Cheli at all,” Roenick said. “There is an underlying, I don’t know if it’s a hatred, because hatred is a strong word. But there is some underlying issue there that I don’t understand.”

“If you’d know some of the things that Babcock says to Chris Chelios, it would make your stomach churn. Just total disrespect for not even just one of the best Americans, but one of the best defensemen to ever play the game. The way he is talked to is just unacceptable. I wish I could elaborate, but that’s not proper. It’s just disrespectful.”

Babcock simply deflected Roenick’s comments as dumbfounded and said, “The operative phrase here is ‘JR said’…We keep signing Chelios because we think he’s an important part of the team.”

Chris Chelios even came to the rescue of his current coach, stating the following about Roenick’s comments:

“How does JR know anything — is he playing? The last time I talked to JR was a few weeks ago, and it was about his charity pool party in Vegas. I don’t know what JR is talking about.”

With the sharks out of the playoffs, Roenick needs to find some way to get the attention back on him, and this appears to be his latest plan. Why doesn’t he ask Brian Rafalski (another American on the Wings) what he thinks about Babcock’s disliking for Americans. Someone did and and the reply was, “Yeah, sure, he doesn’t like me. He only lets me play with Nicklas Lidstrom, the Norris Trophy-winner.”

I guess Roenick was on to something (hopefully you can detect the sarcasm here).

Roenick: Wings coach Babcock dislikes Chelios – [TheDetroitNews]