Traveling the continent for two years in the mid-1970s with the NHL Kings, I'd have bet a week's pay -- not much of a bet, admittedly -- that I was in the company of two future Hall of Famers: Marcel Dionne and Rogie Vachon, LA's French-Canadian Connection.

Bob Miller, my riotous seatmate on planes and buses, would have made the same wager. As voice of the Kings, Miller marveled at the nightly magic of Marcel and Rogie, diminutive giants of their sport.

A quarter-century and thousands of laughs later, it's Miller who enters Toronto's hallowed halls on Monday, a Hall of Famer by virtue of his superlative, distinctive calls. On the eve of his big moment, Miller finds everything close to perfect in his world, with one flaw:

"Rogie should be there as a Hall of Famer, not a spectator."

Shamefully, Rogatien Rosaire Vachon, by any reasonable measure one of the 10 greatest goalies in hockey history, has been ignored by Hall of Fame voters. Contemporaries Gump Worsley, Gerry Cheevers, Ken Dryden, Billy Smith, Bernie Parent, Tony Esposito and Eddie Giacomin are enshrined, but nowhere to be found is Rogie, who was as good as any of them.

The easy answer lies with the heavy East Coast bias among the committee of selectors. Most are elderly gentlemen with ties to Montreal, Toronto, New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit, the NHL's original six-pack. You'll discover many unfamiliar names in the Hall, men from long ago, men honored as builders, officials, scribes, talkers, referees, linesmen.

More than 300 names are found in the Hall. It's an injustice that Vachon is not among them.

Known as "Bono" for his resemblance to the late politician/entertainer, Rogie began his career in Montreal in 1966 at age 21. He shared a Vezina Trophy with teammate Worsley in 1967-68, establishing himself in his native Quebec as a popular Canadien star.

Vachon's world turned upside down in 1971-72 when management decided it preferred the younger Dryden and dispatched Rogie to Los Angeles, where he joined a bad team with a cult following.

Three years later, Coach Bob Pulford -- a future Hall of Famer -- had assembled a powerhouse with Vachon as its rock. In that 1974-75 season, the Kings finished fourth in the league in points, a franchise-record 105. Rogie, giving up 2.24 goals per game, was edged by Philadelphia's Parent in the

Vezina race for goalie supremacy.

After watching his team flame out in the playoffs, owner Jack Kent Cooke made a decision that tore apart the foundation so carefully built by Pulford and GM Jake Milford, yet another future Hall of Famer.

Cooke ignored Pulford's pleas and swapped defenseman Terry Harper and winger Dan Maloney -- the guts of the team -- for superstar Dionne, who wanted out of Detroit.

Pulford, years later, confided that he'd given Cooke five names he did not want included in a Dionne deal. Harper and Maloney were right behind Vachon on the list. When the late owner went ahead and made the swap, without advising Pully, he believed he'd pulled one over on his own coach.

"I did not trade the five names on that list," Cooke said. "I traded only two of them."

Pulford promptly quit, returning reluctantly after being persuaded by his players that he owed it to them.

The Kings, with Dionne's sensational forays, were more entertaining. But they never returned to the tight-checking style that had served them -- and their little goalie -- so well. Vachon's goals-against average steadily rose as the ice opened wide at both ends.

Overmatched physically without Harper and their enforcer, Maloney, the Kings fell prey to larger foes -- Boston, usually -- in postseason play. Vachon still managed to steal games with his individual brilliance, stoning assault after assault from the big, bad Bruins.

Detractors claim he was outclassed in his time by Dryden, Parent and Smith. I say put Vachon in a Montreal, Philadelphia or New York Islanders uniform, and he'd have been raising the Stanley Cup just like Dryden, Parent and Smith.

Vachon was as good as those guys, if not better. Giacomin and Esposito were fine goalies, but in a big game, they couldn't carry Rogie's stick.

When he retired in 1982, Vachon was fifth in career NHL wins with 355. The four men above him -- and a dozen below him -- are in the Hall of Fame.

"The numbers are skewed," said respected hockey writer Jay Greenberg of the New York Post. "I don't put much stock in numbers. It's about how dominant a player was in his time. And I don't think Vachon was that dominant in goal. Parent, Dryden, Smith, those guys won championships."

The best hockey I ever saw in the flesh was the 1976 Canada Cup, in Montreal. It was, to this day, the finest collection of talent assembled in one building: Russia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, West Germany, the U.S. and host Canada.

The Soviets' Big Red Machine had been challenged internationally by the Czechs, and the Swedes and Germans were equally spectacular.

The competition was rousing, pulsating. Canada beat the Czechs in overtime for the championship on a goal by Darryl Sittler. The co-MVPs of the tournament were Bobby Orr, playing his last great hockey on damaged wheels, and Rogatien Rosaire Vachon, who repeatedly frustrated the world's best offenses.

Dryden, Parent and Smith were available, but Canada put its trust in Rogie.

Anyone lucky enough to be in the Forum for that Canada Cup was certain he or she had witnessed Hall of Fame goaltending from the little masked man.

The time is past due for those crusty committee members in Toronto to right a wrong and give Rogie Vachon his due.

Hall of Famer Bob Miller will be thrilled to lead the welcome wagon.

Press-Enterprise columnist Lyle Spencer can be contacted by mail at P.O. Box 792, Riverside CA 92502, by fax at (909) 782-6009, or by e-mail at lyles@pe.net.