Posts Tagged ‘Upper Deck’

Okay, it’s time to goon it up a little around here and who better to do that with than the NHL’s all-time leader in penalty minutes, Dave “Tiger” Williams.

Tiger Williams was selected 31st overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1974 draft and would make his debut the following season as a twenty-year old. He played in 42 games that season, scoring 10 goals and helping on 19 others for a total of 29 points. Not too shabby for a rookie, right? Potential offensive abilities be damned, it was with his hard-nosed playing style that Tiger would make his name. That same season, Williams tallied 187 penalty minutes, dropping the mitts 22 times against guys like Terry O’Reilly (three times), Bob Gassoff (twice),  and Keith Magnuson. His 187 PIMs would be the second lowest total of his career and also one of only two times he would finish under 200 PIMs. The only other time was his last season in the NHL, when he played in just 28 games.

Over the next four seasons with the Maple Leafs, Tiger Williams was one of the premier tough guys in the NHL. During those four season, he put up 299, 338, 351, and 298 PIMs respectively. He fought 130 times and traded punches with every goon worth a damn. In that same span, Tiger continued to show that he was more than an enforcer. He scored 77 goals over those four seasons and totaled 172 points in 320 games. Again, not too shabby for a fighter, right?

Towards the end of the 79-80 season, Williams was traded from the Maple Leafs to the Vancouver Canucks. He would spend the next four seasons in Vancouver and continue to do what he did best, police the ice and generate some offense. Over those four seasons, he put up 343, 341, 265, and 294 PIMs.  He didn’t fight as much, only dropping the gloves 89 times, but c’mon? That’s like saying Gretzky wasn’t as good in LA because he was only scoring 150+ total points instead of the 200+ in Edmonton. Williams also managed to score 75 goals (on par with his Toronto days) and rack up 152 points in 289 games.

Williams was traded to the Detroit Red Wings prior to the start of the 84-85 season for Miracle on Ice star Rob McClanahan. He would play 55 games in Detroit before being shipped off to the Los Angeles Kings. He played the next two seasons in LA, accumulating 320 and 358 PIMs. His offensive ability was still there as he netted 36 goals and 83 points in 148 games.

Two games into the 87-88 season, he was traded to the Hartford Whalers for cash. Williams played in just 26 games in Hartford, scoring 6 goals and spending 87 minutes in the sin bin. He was placed on waivers and would not play again. He officially retired at the end of the season at the ripe ol’ age of 33.

For his career, Williams led the NHL in PIMs three times and finished in the top-10 twelve times. He had twelve seasons of over 200 PIMs and six with more than 300. He is the all-time leader in PIMs with 3966 in 962 games. He dropped the gloves 323 times, beginning with Gary Howatt and ending with Shane Churla. He scored a total of 241 goals and helped on 272 others, giving him 962 total points.

This card is from the 2005-06 Upper Deck The Cup set. This product is one of those high-end things that I would never ever buy a pack/box of. I think the overall design is solid and I get the best of three different things: a jersey, on-card signature, and a low print run of just 75. If I remember correctly, I think I got this card for about $25 which, for the reasons I just listed, is a steal. Part of me wishes it was a card from his Canuck days and featured a piece of those god-awful early-80s jerseys, but this will do. He has a nice, clean signature that is not as good as the old timers, but much better than the current players. I’ll say its a transition signature.

Here is his rookie card which I showed on here a while ago:

Ahhh, he is going to carve your eyes out with his blade!

Lastly, I wanted to include a fight clip, but I couldn’t find a really memorable Tiger fight. He just fought SO much, no one sticks out in my mind. I’ll ask you, what is YOUR favourite Tiger fight?

In place of a hockey fight clip, I give you one of the best goal celebrations ever, courtesy of Mr. Williams:

Brian over at the great blog Waxaholic posted a review of the new 2010-11 UD Victory cards but I thought I’d add my two cents.

At the beginning of each season I always buy a few packs of Victory because a) it’s the first hockey product to hit the shelves and b) it’s cheap. At $1/pack, you know what you are getting, or rather, not getting. You won’t get high priced, serially numbered rookies from the draft and I think it would be a minor miracle if you pulled an autograph or jersey card. What you do get is six cards per pack and either a rookie or insert card.

Here are some base cards:

The design is fairly good. At first, I wasn’t digging the giant V but then when I looked closely I noticed that the background is mostly black and white which makes the coloured player picture pop out. I think I would have preferred that design choice (colour set against b/w) without the V, but it works here…sort of.

One thing that I really like about the front design is the lack of logos. Sure, there is the Victory logo, but the Upper Deck and team logo are nowhere to be found. Less is more and it works. Overall, if the front ditched the V and kept everything else, I’d give the design an A+. As it stands, it get’s a B+.

Before I move on to the other cards, I wanted to explain why I choose Hartnell and Thomas to showcase the design. As a sports fan, it is easy to root against opposing players that you dislike. Hartnell is one of those players. I don’t like his stupid hair and all the little annoying things that he does. Oh, and I hate the Flyers as a whole after last season’s playoffs. See, that’s easy and understandable. The more difficult task is rooting against a player on your own team. Tim Thomas is the bane of my existence. I have NEVER liked him. EVER. Whenever I see him between the pipes I think, “We are going to lose this game on some cupcake goal.” I have zero faith in him. ZERO! Oh sure, he makes these bananas saves from time to time but that is more because he is out of position and HAS to make them look spectacular. He makes the hard saves look hard but also the easy saves look hard. Thank god the B’s signed him to that obscene, untradeable deal. Ugh! I’d rather have a guy like Hartnell on my team.

Moving on, here is what the back of the cards look like:

Nothing special here. I guess we are only treated to the last five seasons worth of stats? I guess for $1/pack, we aren’t treated to extra ink. Also, I’ve said this before but I LOVE the phonetic spellings on the back. It’s useful most of the time, but I chose this one because Brad is spelled phonetically as Brad. That cracked me up for some reason. I’m easily amused.

Here is a rookie:

Oh, hey giant team logo, fancy meeting you here. I’m not sure why they have the team logo on the rookies and not the base cards. Whatever. The rookies are from last year, so we are treated to YESTERDAY’S ROOKIES, TODAY! Awesome. Brock Trotter is a good hockey name, but a better MMA or football name. I don’t think this kid is a goon, but he should be. And then Shawn Thornton can throttle him.

Here are what the Stars of the Game insert looks like:

Is Jason Spezza a star of the game? On one hand, he has more total points than games played and has averaged a point-per-game in the playoffs. On the other hand, he’s played in only one All-Star Game and has no hardware to show for his talents. The other Stars of the Game insert I got was Patrice Bergeron and, as much I like Patrice, he is in the same boat as Spezza. Maybe they should rename this insert set, Pretty Darn Good Players of the Game.

Here is a Gamebreakers insert:

FOIL! ZIGZAGS! A PLAYER I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF! I LOVE THIS INSERT SET! Seriously, who the hell is Niclas Bergfors? When a team trades their only recognizable player (Kovalchuk), Upper Deck is forced to include his hammerhead as their team GAMEBREAKER! Oh, and for those of us not in the know, Bergfors came over in the Kovy deal. Zzzzzz.

So there we go, 2010-11 Upper Deck Victory such as it is. The eight packs I bought will satisfy my hockey pack needs until the mid-range products are released.

If anyone has an Adam McQuaid rookie from this set, I am interested.