Music: {allcanada} Burns deserved HHOF honour with his buddy Gilmour

Pat Burns hopefully will one day be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If you want proof there are deserving players or builders late to the party, take a look at how long it took three of the four inductees announced on Tuesday. Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe and Joe Nieuwendyk each should have been inducted before they received their honours. Ed Belfour was one of the fortunate ones to get in on his first year of eligibility. The other three had to wait.

The 56-year-old Howe was eligible for a whopping 13 years before he joined his father Gordie in the hallowed Hall. Gilmour, a high scoring forward who thrived in the postseason, waited too long at five seasons. Nieuwendyk easily should have received the honour last year -- his first year of eligibility -- after a brilliant career that saw him win three Stanley Cups with three different teams. But he was forced to linger, too.

So Burns may still get his due one day. We just hope this isn't another Fred Shero situation. Freddy the Fog coached the Philadelphia Flyers to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the mid-1970s and again guided the Flyers to the 1976 final and an unheralded New York Rangers team to an appearance in the championship series in 1979.

But his sons Jean-Paul and Ray, the Pittsburgh Penguins general manager, have been disappointed year-after-year around this time for more than 30 years when their Shakespeare-loving father has been omitted from the honour.

Burns case for the Hall of Fame was a strong topic of conversation and debate because only 7 ½ months have elapsed since his passing after a six-year battle of cancer on Nov. 19 at the young age of 58.

His coaching record in the NHL was an impressive 501-353-165 and, of course, the year before the cancer appeared to rob him of further seasons he won the 2002-03 Stanley Cup at the helm of the New Jersey Devils.

There was room for a builder to join Belfour, Gilmour, Howe and Nieuwendyk in this class. In fact, this is the first year a builder hasn't been part of a Hall of Fame group since 1981.

In a perfect world, Burns would have joined Gilmour. The two were the front-men for those two magical seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early 1990s. Nieuwendyk and Burns crossed paths, too, all be it briefly, when Gentle Joe joined the Devils mid-season for their successful run to the NHL championship.

"I love Pat Burns," Gilmour said. "One of the coaches of all-time that made us all better. That is something I will obviously never forget."

We do not know how close Burns came to being inducted with this Hall of Fame class. We do know, however, that a Hall of Fame class without a builder is rare. This fact has raised a few eyebrows.

When asked about why the process hasn't become more transparent, long-time Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Bill Hay remarked that the selection method the committee employs works best because the debate takes place behind closed doors.

"This is really about confidentiality and we're not at liberty to [discuss] who was and who was not involved," he said. "Our process was to stay with the four players [who] were nominated and turn that into an outstanding Hall of Fame induction in November.

"Appealing the questions is alright, that's the media's responsibility. But, we as a board, have put the bylaws into place and they work very, very good. The discussion within the meeting is very strong and the debates are very strong mainly due to the confidentiality. What is said in the meeting room, stays in the meeting room and it works very well for us."

A candidate needs to be on the ballot of 75 percent of the committee members in attendance. So if each of the 18 members of the selection committee was there for the vote this time around, Burns would have required 14 votes. The committee consists of David Branch, Scotty Bowman, Colin Campbell, John Davidson, Eric Duhatschek, Jan-Ake Edvinsson, Mike Emrick, Michael Farber, Mike Gartner, Jim Gregory, Igor Larionov, Lanny McDonald, Yvon Pedneault, Serge Savard, Harry Sinden, Peter Stastny, Pat Quinn and Bill Torrey.

So maybe Burns time will come one day. But even though four deserving players received the phone call they hoped for on Tuesday, a large part of the hockey community was disappointed that one of there wasn't a call placed to Pat's widow, Line.