Posts Tagged ‘Toronto Maple Leafs’

Whoa, it has been about two weeks since I last posted. Not much has been going on card wise for me these past couple weeks and I’ve felt a little lazy. I was on vacation all of last week and planned to take a trip to Cooperstown to see that other Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, we had a blizzard midweek and my trip was derailed. Of course, it barely snows all winter yet on the week of my vacation, we get dumped on. C’est la vie.

Add to that the fact that my Bruins have been sputtering, the trade deadline brought over retread Brian Rolston (who I actually like, but is past his prime), and Tuukka is out 4-6 weeks and I’ve just been sort of meh about writing.

So what better way to get into the mood then by finally getting together the rejected players from my Hockey Hall of Pretty Good series and seeing if we can’t right some wrongs.

First, here are all the previous posts:

1961-1966
1967-1970
1971-1973
1974-1976
1977-1978
1979-1980
1981
1982-1984
1985-1986
1987-1988
1989-1990
1991-1992
1993-1995
1996-1997
1998-2000
2001-2002
2003-2005
2006-2008
2009-2011

All total, there were 57 players who didn’t make the cut. I’m trying to figure out the best way to present them and I think by position will be the most effective. Let’sfirst start with the centers who are up for reconsideration:

So, does anyone from this group deserve to be in? If so, leave a comment and tell me why. Then, when we go through each position, I’ll post the guys up for consideration and we’ll vote. Sounds easy, right? So DO IT!

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I was all set to post when I went to my LCS today and picked up a couple things.

First, there was this, which I had been eyeballin’ for a while…

1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA #40Frank Mahovlich

Mahovlich finished up a Hall of Fame career by signing with the rebel league in 1974. He would play two seasons with the Toronto Toros (pictured) and two seasons with the Birmingham Bulls. Man, I love that jersey!

At the same store, I picked up seven packs of 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey. While I didn’t get anything great, I apparently busted all sorts of odds.

Here are some of the better looking base cards I got…

These were the most unusual shots in the packs and outside of the Conklin, that is not saying much. I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed by Upper Deck’s photography this year. Gun to head, I give Pinnacle the nod for best photography this year. I will now light myself on fire.

I don’t think there are any big name rookies in Series 2, but you do have a shot at getting MVP,Victory, and O-Pee-Chee rookies of players lie Nugent-Hopkins, so I suppose that is the draw here. Here are some rookies I snagged…

No great shakes here.

I did pull a tough-ish insert…

Gabriel Landeskog rookie insert numbered out of /100 and in AWESOME DIE-CUT ACETATE FORM! Or, as I like to call it, eBay fodder.

And if you think that is the only hit I got, guess again. Check out these beauties…

Guys, these are really rare and valuable. These are ACTUAL pieces of jersey worn by the players! The Horak is an event-used piece, so I could let this go for like, $100, but the Roy is a piece of a jersey FROM AN ACTUAL GAME! I could be talked out of it for, oh I don’t know, $250-$300. JERZEE CARDZ!!

If anyone wants any of this junk, let me know, especially the Landeskog because that is most like going to go on eBay for like $25.

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.