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The Blues recently hosted a couple dozen or so of the players from their inaugural 1966-67 season...and as part of the festivities surrounding the thirtieth anniversary celebration, the players from that team agreed to sign autographs during the current Blues pre-game afternoon skate.
The autograph tables were set up end-to-end in one of the Kiel Center concourses...and the hundreds of fans in attendance had golden opportunities to chat for a few moments with the players...one at a time.
The line was long, and it moved rather slowly.
Evidently, folks were doing a bit of catching up with their favorite Blues from three decades ago.
Fittingly, the very last Blue; the Blue at the end of the tables; was the team's star goalie.
And not just any goalie. It was "Mr. Goalie", aka Glenn Hall.
And the respect that Hall's former teammates, to say nothing of the fans in attendance, had for the man known as "Mr. Goalie", was obvious.
I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it.
Not the '90s kind of loud, boisterous adulation of a modern-day media icon-type sports hero.
In fact, it was the opposite of that.
Just a quiet sort of respect. Almost like church services.
The balding Hall seemed to genuinely enjoy quietly chatting with his admirers...and they returned the favor.
Maybe that's what "old-time-hockey" was all about.
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