My life has been sort of bananas recently which always means I slack from posting. Fear not, though, as I’ve had a few minor purchases to show off.

First off are a trio of cards from my local card shop:

2011-12 Pinnacle Tough Times #1 Wendel Clark

2011-12 Pinnacle Tough Times #10 Shane Churla

2011-12 Pinnacle Tough Times #3 Rob Ray

The Tough Times subsets continue to be just about the only good thing Panini produces. I was at first a little dubious about Clark’s inclusion in the set, but have come around. He fought quite a bit his first couple of years (65 times!) but slowed down after that. He reminds me a lot of Lucic in that they both fought early on and proved that they could toss them, which led to fewer fights later on. Oh, and then there is the fact that these guys were actually pretty good offensive players, so they needed to actually be ON the ice instead of IN the box.

Anyways, I thought this set was to honor the enforcers, guys like Ray and Churla; Clark, to me, falls into that “tough as nails” category. I would have preferred to see someone like Tony Twist or Craig Berube. Anyways, I still love these cards and want to build both the base and autographed set.

Next, I went to a show that I hadn’t been to in about a year. Sadly, it still sucked big time and I walked away with these measly cards…

2011-12 O-Pee-Chee #52 Adam McQuaid

Eh, a base card of McQuaid. Why not, I guess?

2010-11 Pinnacle Tough Times #TO Terry O’Reilly

I needed this, so yeah.

2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics #17 Derek Sanderson

This is my first non-vintage Turk card (minus an autographed insert I have) and officially kicks off my Sanderson player collection. Love that ‘stache, Turk!

So, three cards for $3. Not really worth the hour drive, but whatever, it gave me something to do on a Sunday morning.

Last up are a couple of eBay purchases that were impulse buys…

In The Game Enforcers Autograph #A-BG Bill Goldthorpe

In The Game Enforcers Autograph #A-CB Curt Brackenbury

Normally, I stay far, FAR away from sticker autographs but I don’t know if these two guys will ever have an on-card auto. I consider myself lucky that they even have a signed card at all. Plus, the design around the stickers is so well done that you don’t even notice that they are there.

For those of you unfamiliar with these jokers, but were tough guys in the WHA, although Brackenbury played a bit in the NHL afterwards.

As you probably know, Bill “Goldie” Goldthorpe was the inspiration for the Slap Shot character Ogie Oglethorpe. He didn’t play long in the WHA, but he sure left his mark. In the book The Rebel League, there are a number of stories about Goldethorpe but my favorite one is this:

In addition to everything else, Goldthorpe was a workout fanatic and a practitioner of martial arts. Before practices with the Saints, he would walk into the dressing room while the other players were putting their gear on, pull out a set of nunchaks [sic], and perform a Bruce Lee routine in the centre of the room. Then he would put the nunchaks [sic] away and without a word begin to get dressed fro practice. (94)

What the what?! What a mental patient.

Brackenbury was also an inspiration in Slap Shot, not as a character, but for a trait he had: puttin’ on the foil!

Combined, these cards cost me like $15, which is much better than buying a box and getting some guys I don’t like, although I do appreciate all enforcers.

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