Archive for the ‘Enforcers’ Category

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.

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.