Eric Lindros finally takes his place among hockey’s all-time greats Eric Lindros even cuts an imposing figure under the stain-glassed roof in the grand hall of the Hockey Hall of Fame. And yet the big man wore a look of wonder as he took his place among the game’s all-time greats on Friday afternoon, scanning row upon row of plaques that carry names familiar to anyone who loves hockey. Béliveau. Howe. Gretzky. Messier. Lemieux. Yzerman. “Well I didn’t know that Stevie Y’s middle name was Gregory,” Lindros observed with a chuckle. He’d been in the building before, but never truly looked around. He was seeing it through new eyes at the outset of a weekend where he’ll be enshrined as an honoured member alongside Sergei Makarov, Pat Quinn and Rogie Vachon. Eric Bryan Lindros. For decades, it had seemed an inevitability that he would wind up here. A six-foot-four, 230-pound mountain of a man who dominated junior hockey and won a best-on-best Canada Cup more than a year before he made his NHL debut. He was long compared to the greats and became great himself – at least until concussions and other injuries cut his career short. He missed an entire season in his prime and was retired by age 33, robbing him of numbers that would make him a sure-fire Hall of Famer. After waiting six years for a call from the selection committee, it finally arrived in June while he drove along Highway 141 in cottage country. On Friday, it became even more real when he was presented with a ring from Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald. "It’s just an honour," said Lindros. "It really is. You look at the names on the plaques, and just being in here, and ‘geez, it’s the cream of the crop, right?’ "It’s a real honour to be part of this." As grateful as Lindros is for the recognition, the 43-year-old father of three young children doesn’t give off the impression that it’s a validation he needed. He got a kick out of seeing his two-year-old son, Carl Pierre, recognize his photo on the side of the historic building in downtown Toronto and looks forward to one day returning with him and one-year-old twins Sophie and Ryan when they’re old enough to appreciate what it represents. "We’ll be popping by," said Lindros. "That’s a given." However, he is not the sort of man prone to looking back and wondering "what if?" He has made peace with the aspects of his career, such as the injuries, that were beyond his control. There are also no lingering bad feelings between him and former Flyers GM Bobby Clarke, who clashed numerous times over the years. "There’s no point in being negative," said Lindros. "We disagreed about some things, it’s over, let’s move forward and let’s be better." And so had this day never arrived he wouldn’t have viewed it as any sort of indictment on a career that included a Hart Trophy, Olympic gold medal and 865 points in 760 career NHL games. "I’ve always felt pretty good about how things turned out overall," said Lindros. "I wasn’t nearly the player that I was in Philly later on after getting hit like that. Still I felt that I contributed a little bit, and I still love the game, too. I could get around, I could chip in a few here and there and that always fun. "So play as long as you can." Amazingly, Lindros continues to play in a shinny game twice a week. More often than not, great players essentially hang up their skates permanently once they retire. Were it not for some recent outdoor alumni games, the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan have each acknowledged that they likely wouldn’t be on the ice at all. For Lindros, the arena remains a place that feels like home. "I enjoy the action of (the game)," he said. "I enjoy the rinks, I enjoy the ice, I enjoy the sounds. I enjoy the clink of a post, the feeling of moving a puck past the goaltender and seeing a red light go on. It’s quick, it’s intense, there’s graceful times and there’s some really ungraceful times as well. "It’s the whole package – it brings people from all different walks of life together to have a common bond in terms of performance and winning." It’s the kind of thing he’ll spend the next few days celebrating. Lindros is hosting a party for friends and family on Saturday night – "we’ve got more people here than we had at our wedding," he said – and will participate in the alumni game at Air Canada Centre on Sunday. He’ll need to have a speech ready by Monday night when the Hall officially opens its doors to him. Finally, he has his own place among the best of the best. "We’re here for the end of time, right?" said Lindros. "Whether it happens in your first year (of eligibility) or later on, here we are. Here we are."