Archive for the ‘Autographs’ Category

There is a lot to cover so let’s get this show on the road.

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far in my polls. The “center” poll will close in a few day and the “left winger” poll will close shortly after that. Now we have to move onto the right wingers. Up for consideration:

Go do your research and vote. Remember, it takes 67% of the vote to get in.

Moving on. I have a folder on my desktop of cards I’ve scanned but have not posted about. It is sort of my backup folder for when I don’t get anything new for a while. Well, since I wanted to talk about more than just my Hall of Pretty Good series, I dug into the “Break In Case Of Emergency” folder and found this beauty…

Lorne “Gump” Worsley, that of pomaded side-part fame. The doughy and everyman looking goalie who smoked between periods and played without a mask into the 1970s was a fan favorite and one of the NHL’s greatest “characters.”

Born in Montreal, Worsley enjoyed success early on in his amateur career, posting winning records and pretty good GAAs in a variety of leagues. Playing for the St. Paul Saints of the USHL, he was named top rookie and best goalie. He followed that with a stint in the PCHL playing netminder for the Saskatoon Quakers, posting a 33-19-14 record. His stock was rising and it was only a matter of time before he would get his shot in the NHL.

Worsley was signed by the New York Rangers for the 1952-53 season and would play in fifty games, replacing the injured Chuck Rayner. The team success that Worsley enjoyed in the minors was hard to come by in the NHL. To put it mildly, the Rangers were terrible. During Gump’s rookie season, the team would win just seventeen games. Of those, Worsley would be in goal for thirteen of them. Despite a season record of 13-29-8 and a GAA of 3.06, the league saw great potential in the newcomer and would award him the Calder Trophy. After asking for a $500 pay increase following the season, the Rangers sent Gump to the Vancouver Canucks of the WHL. During his stint here he was named MVP and led the team to a championship.

The Gumper would return to the Rangers the following season and embark on a twenty year career. From 1954 through 1963, Worsley minded the New York net. Over that span, he would post a 191-242-93 record, finish with a winning record only twice, and lead the league in losses three times. The stats, however, have less to do with his play and more to do with the terrible teams New York put out on the ice.

After the ’62-’63 season, Worsley was traded, along with Dave Balon, Leon Rochefort, and Len Ronson to Montreal for Jacques Plante, Don Marhsall, and Phil Goyette. Thus began the transformation from lovable, talented goalie on a dreadful team to lovable, talented goalie on a powerhouse team. Early in the ’63-’64 season, Gump hurt his knee and played the remainder of the year for the Quebec Aces, getting back into playing shape and turning in a terrific season. Starting the following season with the Aces, Worsley joined the Habs halfway through and helped lead them to their first Stanley Cup in four seasons. Over the next four seasons with the Canadiens, Gump would win two Vezina Trophies and help win three more Stanley Cups.

Halfway through the ’69-’70 season, Gump quit/retired from hockey after a dispute with Montreal management. His sabbatical from hockey was brief as the North Stars agreed to trade for him. He would finish the season in Minnesota posting a 5-1-1 record. Worsley’s remained with Minnesota for the duration of his career, playing in 99 games over the next four seasons and posting a 34-66-23 record. Gump would retired at the end of the ’73-’74 season at the age of 44, looking more like a barber than an NHL pro.

Over 861 games, Gump Worsley posted a 335-352-150 record with 43 shutouts and  a 2.88 GAA. Oh, and he only wore a mask the final six games of his career. He is 10th all-time in games played, 18th in wins, 2nd in losses, and 81st in GAA. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980 and passed away at his home in 2007.

The card above comes from the 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics set and is numbered CS20. It features Worsley in all of his 70′s glory: Maskless and muttonchopped in his green North Stars uniform, standing up and making a save. His signature is small and messy, something I find uncharacteristic of players from his generation, especially those from Quebec.

Lastly, the playoffs are almost among us. Know what that means?

CONTEST!

I’m going to revisit my contest from last year’s playoffs.

So, here is how it goes:

There are 16 teams in the playoffs meaning this contest is limited to the first 16 participants.

Leave a comment with a number, 1-16. That number will correspond with a playoff team that will be randomly generated. Whoever wins the Cup, wins the contest.

Okay, leave a comment with a number and don’t forget to vote in the polls to the right!

I am not even going to give you an excuse as to why I have been a little dodgy with my updating. I’m lazy, I’m busy, I’m a lot of things. Consistent, though, is currently not one of them.

In my last post, I asked for people to nominate some snubbed centers.

A) Thank you for that.

B) After looking at the results for nominations, I realized there was probably an easier way for me to do this, so I’ve created a poll to the right of all the centers. Vote for as many as you’d like. Any player receiving, oh, let’s say…67% of the votes gets in. Any player receiving less is out. Forever. End of story.

C) Next up are the left wingers. Same as above. Poll on the right. If you feel wordy, leave a comment explaining your vote(s).

So again, please vote in the poll to the right.

Now let us turn to some cards, or rather, a card.

Dan Kordic was a big dude. Like 6’5″ and 233 pounds big. The sort of big you don’t really go looking to start something with. Canadian prairie big. Alberta big.

As a defenceman, Kordic began his career in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers. In his first season, he tallied only six points in 63 games. While these numbers would seem to indicate that perhaps he was a scrapper and not a scorer, his 75 penalty minutes don’t necessarily give away a future as an enforcer. Over the next two seasons with Medicine Hat, Kordic put up 30 points in 129 games, but unlike his first year, he accumulated 372 PIMs. That number is still a bit deceiving, though, as he dropped the gloves only fourteen times (but fourteen more times than I have ever dropped them). If he was being groomed to be an enforcer, his time with Medicine Hat did not really reveal that fact.

Kordic’s break came in 1990 when he was drafted 88th overall by the always-tough Philadelphia Flyers. Although he would spend the 90-91 season in Medicine Hat, the big show was not far off.  In his last season with Medicine Hat he netted eight goals and helped out on fifteen others for a total of 23 points in 67 games, while also dropping the gloves six times and earning 150 penalty minutes.

At the start of the 1991-92 season, the Flyers gave Kordic a look. In the pre-season, the role of enforcer seemed to find him as he squared off against Bruins tough guy Lydon Byers. Now a left winger, it didn’t take long after that for Kordic to make a name for himself in the NHL. On October 17, Kordic dropped the mitts in a great, but quick, bout against Wayne Van Dorp of the Quebec Nordiques where the two went toe-to-toe with Kordic prevailing. The rest of his rookie season was sort of up and down in terms of fighting. He held his own against guys like Odelein, Churla, and Kocur but met his match on November 23rd. Playing the New Jersey Devils, Kordic and Randy McKay went at it in a slugfest. McKay got the better of Kordic, leaving him battered and bloody. Dan would drop the gloves three more times that season for a total of eleven fights and 126 PIMs in 46 games. He scored a solitary goal and helped on three others.

Kordic would spend the next most of the next four seasons with the Flyers’ AHL affiliate, the Hersey Bears. He would occasionally get called up, but would last a game or two before getting sent back down. He was used primarily as an enforcer when playing in whatever game the Flyers called him up for. During the 1995-96 season, Kordic suited up in nine games for the Flyers and dropped the gloves three times…against Rob Ray, Donald Brashear, and Marty McSorley. If Kordic was to ever have a future in the NHL, it was going to be with this fists and not his stick.

It wasn’t until the 1996-97 season that Dan Kordic got his biggest shot in the pros. He would play 75 games that season, scoring one goal and assisting on four others, but that wasn’t his role. No, his 210 PIMs and 27 fights were his bread and butter. He fought just about every big gun there was that season. Dennis Vial, Stu Grimson, Brantt Myhres, and Darren Langdon. His most memorable moment of the season, though, came on March 9th against the Washington Capitals when he faced off against Brendan Witt AND Craig Berube. Not one, but TWO toe-to-toe slugfests against two legitimate tough guys. That was Dan Kordic. He would end the season with a great bout versus Ryan VandenBussche.

The following season would be Kordic’s last full season in the NHL. He would lace up the skates for 61 games, score his usual goal and help on another. He duplicated his PIMs with 210 while his fights dropped to a still respectable 18. He would battle Sandy McCarthy, Gino Odjick, cement head Donald Brashear, Mick Vukota, Stu Grimson, and old dance partner, Ryan VandenBussche.

The next season was Dan’s last in the NHL, playing in just two games. His last professional fight was against Krzysztof Oliwa, someone whom he fought twice the previous season. The scrap was spirited but short, much like Kordic’s career. He would finish the 98-99 season between the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL and the Grand Rapids Griffins of the IHL. His last opponent in hockey was Eric Cairns.

Unlike his brother John, who was a bad boy on the ice and a tragic figure off the ice, Dan was able to keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble. Today, Dan Kordic is an enforcer in a different sense. He has traded the fightstrap for the whistle and the orange and black for the zebra stripes. Kordic is now enforcing the rules of hockey on the ice as a referee.

The card is from the 1997-98 Be A Player set and is the autographed version. This is a great set to get signatures of many NHLers who normally might not have a signed card. Kordic’s signature is neat and compact, legible and artistic. So often, I find that the tough guys have the best signatures in the league and Kordic is no exception.