Posts Tagged ‘ITG’

Oh man, these past couple days have been bananas in the hockey world. The 2010 Hall of Fame class was announced, some BIG trades were made, a retirement, and some awards were dished out. So let’s review the week that was and is and see who/what failed and who/what won…

2010 Hall of Fame Class Announced, Part 1

For the first time, some ladies were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. I won’t pretend to know anything about women’s hockey. Personally, I find it boring and ridiculous; when you take a sport that is like 80% physical and remove it from the game, I can’t take it seriously. Same goes for women’s lacrosse. Whatever. I know who Cammi Granato is and she appeared in more than one issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids when I was younger, so she must be important. Angela James? Never heard of her. I’ll take your word that she is Canada’s greatest female hockey player. So,while I am unsure how I feel about this personally, I think overall it’s good for hockey and the HOF. (Sort of) Gender equality gets a…

2010 Hall of Fame Class Announced, Part 2

On the dude side, two builders and one player got it. Jimmy Devellano or Doc Seaman go in as builders. I guess I’m okay with these two, but if Doc was so important, why not induct him while he was alive? Looks like more of a sentimental pick than anything. But whatever, they must have been the best available to pick from, right? More on that in a moment.

My man Dino Ciccarelli got in but the more I think about it, the more I don’t like it. Yes, he scored 600 goals and that is certainly impressive. But no Cups, no awards, no All-NHL team selections. Was he the best at his position? Nah, not even for any one specific season. He may not have even been the best player on his team for any season. Add some on and off ice issues to the mix and it becomes a tough pick to justify for some. BUT, there are worse players in, so I don’t HATE this selection. I just hope that there were not better players overlooked, which I’ll get to next. For these three, I give this class a…

2010 Hall of Fame Class Announced, Part 3

So, the HOF is telling me that Dino is better than these guys?

And that these two guys shouldn’t be in the Builders section?

And when will they finally recognize the tough guy?

Hockey Hall of Fame, you get a big ol’…

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night

Couple of big retirements on the blue line.

Future Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Niedermayer got a lot of ink for hanging up the skates, but fellow future HOFer Rob Blake called it a career as well. Some Cups and Norris Trophies between these warriors; they could play for my team any day.

A big…

for their careers, but for the NHL losing couple of stand-up, hard-nosed players, a…

Bruins Trade For Nathan Horton

The Bruins sent embattled d-man Dennis Wideman and the 15th pick in this years draft to Florida for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.  I liked Wideman but man, he played like a drunk toddler this season; it was like he forgot how to skate. The 15th pick hurts, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Horton. Finally, a goal scorer who I predict will net 37 goals this year. Campbell is whatever. Could be nice having the son of the league’s disciplinarian on the team.

Bruins Agressively Shopping Savard

Nooooooooooooooo! Horton needs Savard like whoa! Yes, Savard takes dumb penalties. And yes, Savard is a bit injury prone but the ENTIRE offense runs through him. Trade Thomas, trade Wheeler, but the B’s gotta keep Savy.

I hate this rumor.

2010-11 Schedule Released

Bruins open the season with a “home/away” series versus the Coyotes IN PRAGUE?! Ugh! I hate hate HATE this. First off, the effin’ Coyotes? I understand the NHL wants some of that sweet Gretzky action abroad, but c’mon? These teams aren’t rivals. Why not throw, oh I don’t know, the STANLEY CUP winning Blackhawks versus the Coyotes? And I have wait TWO MONTHS for a B’s vs. Flyers rematch?! Scheduling gods, you get a…

Blackhawks Win Cup, Mess With Success

Chicago, you will rue the day you dealt Byfuglien. RUE!

Hey Atlanta, take Wheeler and Thomas for Byfuglien?

NHL Dishes Out Some Hardware

Most of the winners weren’t too shocking. Miller taking the Vezina was a no-brainer. I’m more than fine with Myers winning the Calder, but wouldn’t have been surprised if Howard had taken it. I was hoping Doughty was going to get the Norris, but he may be a year away. Rest assured that once he wins it the first time, it won’t be his last time.

I guess the biggest surprise was Ovechkin winning the newly named Lindsay Award but Sedin winning the Hart. Sedin is a good player and finally put it all together to have a great season, but I don’t think he is Hart worthy, not when there are two 50 goal/1oo point scorers on winning teams in the mix. All three of the finalists were on teams that had disappointing playoff runs, so we can’t take that into consideration. I can’t bring myself to care enough to make a huge stink about it.

Also, in more boring news, Datsyuk won the Selke, St. Louis won the Lady Byng, Theodore won the Masterson, and Tippet won the Adams.

New Cards Added To Collection

And to wrap it up, I grabbed a couple of on-card autographs of HOFers.

2008-09 ITG Bleu Blanc et Rouge #A-JL1 Jacques Laperriere Bleu Version (/40)

Laperriere is sort of a tough signature, so this was a nice one to get especially for the price I paid.

1997-98 UD SP Authentic #m4 Bryan Trottier /560

I thought finding a Trottier auto would be easy, but there were never any on eBay. Saw this and immediately had to have it. Great signature and I dig the hand numbering on the back.

For a half a season, Doug Doull was probably the most exciting and beloved Bruin on a team that featured Thornton, Murray, Rolston, and Samsonov. And not to mention rookie sensations Patrice Bergeron and Andrew Raycroft.
Doull was a career minor leaguer, bouncing around the OHL, IHL, AHL, and even played a couple of seasons over in England before getting called up by the Bruins halfway through the ’03-’04 season. He plied his trade as an enforcer, racking up substantial penalty minutes and frequently dropping the gloves. He did exhibit some scoring ability early on during his OHL days, but I assume he realized that he’d have a longer career as a goon.

Doull was called up by the Bruins on December 11^th at the age of 29 and like any good journeyman goon, dropped the mitts and went toe-to-toe versus Dwayne Zinger. He was instantly a crowd favourite. He ended up playing in 35 games for the Bruins, accumulating 132 PIMs and 21 fighting majors. Looking at his numbers more closely, he tallied 99 minutes of total ice time and would average 2:50 minutes per game. So yeah, he was a goon in the truest sense. Oh, and he had one assist that season, the only point of his NHL career.

Boston fans loved him because he was a sparkplug who would not back down from anyone. He fought guys bigger than him (Oliwa, Cairns, Belak, and the impossibly tall Garret Stroshiem) and he fought seasoned enforcers (Domi, Hordichuk, Neil, and Boulerice). It didn’t matter; Doull knew his role and played it perfectly. Another reason he won over Boston fans, as well as fight fans, was his style of fighting. Doull wasn’t a spot picker or a hugger like some heavyweights; instead his style was wide open, going toe-to-toe or throwing haymakers. It was probably for this reason that he only lasted the one season. These sort of fighters rarely last long in the NHL because they leave themselves open to too many punches.

Doull would float around the AHL for a couple more seasons before being traded to Washington for, ironically enough, Dwayne Zinger. He would play in only two games for the Capitals during the ’05-’06 season, but fought three times (Brashear, Roy, and Cairns). He would retire at the end of that season, ending his career playing for the Hersey Bears of the AHL. His last fight would be a win against tough guy Riley Cote.

This card comes from an odd set. The ’03-’04 ITG VIP Rookie Debut set was online only. Whenever a player made their debut that season, a card would be produced of the player and anyone could buy one. Cards were available for only 90 days after their debut, so print runs were limited. The bigger the player, the more copies were produced. The biggest names were Fleury /580, Lehtonen /526, Staal /165, and Bergeron /166. Doull only has a stated print run of 59. Surprisingly, most commons go for $10 and have print runs less than 50, yet Doull’s card “books” for $30, the same as Fleury. I don’t think ITG did this set again, but I sort of liked the concept. The cards look sharp enough and provide the date of his debut and a little blurb about the game. One thing I REALLY like about this card in particular is the phonetic spelling of his last name. It seemed that the pronunciation of his last name varied between DOOL, DOWL, DU-ELL, and every conceivable variation in between.

I leave you with Doull’s first, and perhaps best, NHL fight. It;s a thing of beauty as Doull switches his throwing hand from right to left about half way through, something that doesn’t happen a lot, especially in a toe-to-toe scrap.