Gilmour honors Burns during speech

TORONTO -- Tie Domi, who narrated the video celebrating Doug Gilmour, said he was a player who "wouldn't, couldn't and shouldn't have made it." Yet here Gilmour was, standing at the podium and ready to deliver his Hockey Hall of Fame induction speech.

Gilmour began by talking about how he played for a lot of teams, so he couldn't thank everyone, but he thanked the owners, the trainers who "put us back together again" and the fans who provided inspiration, the coaches who "were willing put up with all my practical jokes, because I needed that."

Among the people Gilmour did single out included Don Cherry, "a little biased, I know" he said, and Cliff Fletcher, who traded for him in both Calgary and St. Louis.

Gilmour thanked his family, especially his mother, for letting him continue to follow his dream of playing hockey despite being the youngest child. He thanked his teammates, who he said none of this would have been possible.

He finished up by thanking Pat Burns, who was Gilmour's coach in Toronto. Gilmour said earlier in the day he worried about getting emotional during his speech, and it was mentioning Burns that caused him to do so.

"We all miss him," Gilmour said. "The League misses him. More importantly, we think he'll be here [in the Hockey Hall of Fame] one day."

With that, the ceremony to celebrate the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2011 was complete.

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