Favorite memory of season: NHL All-Star Game national anthem

The NHL season was paused on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. During the break in the action, NHL.com writers will each look back at his or her favorite memory of the season so far. Today, staff writer William Douglas writes about the national anthem before the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Jan. 25.

The singing of the national anthem is the prelude to a hockey game, normally just the last piece of business before the puck drops.
Not so at the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Jan. 25.
When St. Louis Blues public address announcer Tom Calhoun said, "For 19 years, he…," the sellout crowd inside the arena erupted into loud, sustained applause because it knew it was getting more than a routine rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
It was getting Charles Glenn.
And at that moment, the anthem became more than a time to honor America. It became a mutual lovefest, a time to welcome a cherished family member home.
The loud cheers that greeted Glenn, who had been the Blues anthem singer for 19 seasons and retired after St. Louis won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of Stanley Cup Final on June 12, grew even louder and more prolonged after he delivered long, sustained final notes as he emphatically sang "and the home of the brave."
Some Enterprise Center workers at ice level were shouting "Sing it, Mr. Glenn!" and had tears in their eyes when he worked his way through the anthem. Glenn walked off the ice with tears streaming down his face.
"You never know what emotions come through you until you do something like that," Glenn said. "You never know what a player's emotions are like when he comes back after retiring and the fans give him so much love. It felt like I came back from retirement sort of to say hello-goodbye."

Game 6 of the Final at Enterprise Center on June 9, a 5-1 Boston win, was supposed to be it for Glenn, who said the ravages of multiple sclerosis on his body made it difficult for him to continue.
He said he was fine with retirement, but something kept gnawing at Glenn: the feeling of unfinished business. He needed to complete a hat trick.
"To do the NHL playoffs was on my bucket list, to do the [Stanley Cup] Final was on my bucket list, to do an All-Star game was on my bucket list," he said. "That was fulfilled."
Glenn's dream came true when officials from the NHL and NBC called about 10 days before the game and asked him if he would be interested in singing the U.S. anthem.
The answer was a quick "Yes!" Yet Glenn professed a slight case of nerves the night of the game. He needed a cane, a nod to his medical condition, to help him walk on the red carpet laid onto the ice surface. Glenn hadn't performed in front of a large crowd for what seemed like forever, he said.
Then muscle memory kicked in and Glenn didn't just sing the anthem. He belted it out as if he were on Broadway instead of Clarke Avenue.
"I tried to leave everything on the ice, everything I had," he said. "It was exhausting."
"Hockey Night in Canada" host Scott Oake summed up Glenn's performance on-air in three words.
"That was unbelievable," he said.