Posts Tagged ‘Vancouver Canucks’

Time to present the last batch of potential Hall of Famers: the goalies! Before I give you the candidates, let me say that voting for the left wingers is now closed. No one got the required 60%, so no one gets in. The closest to making it was Michel Goulet with 52%. Sorry Michel, no Hall for you. Don’t forget to cast your vote(s) for right wingers and defencemen.

Now, the (not always) masked men…

Okay, enough about the Hockey Hall of Fame and all that jazz; let’s rip a pack of 90s era junk!

I’ve done a card-by-card rip of some 90s junk before. First there were two packs of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee (pt. 1/pt. 2). After that were two packs of 1990-91 Upper Deck, their inaugural year in hockey (pt. 1/pt. 2). Then there was 1994-95 Pinnacle (pt. 1/pt. 2)Now we return with 1991-92 Upper Deck Series 1.

The 91-92 set consists of 700 cards, released in two series. Series 1 had 500 cards while Series 2 had 200 cards; there was also a French version. There were a few different inserts and subsets including  the Award Winner Holograms, IIHF World Junior Championship players, and Canada Cup participants. There are also a ton of rookies including future Hall of Famers Dominik Hasek, Peter Forsberg, Nicklas Lindstrom, and Teemu Selanne. Other rookies include Glen Murray, Nikolai Khabibulin, Alexei Kovalev, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. The big chase/insert is the Brett Hull Heroes subset. This was a nine-card subset, but the crown jewel was the autographed checklist card, limited to 2,500 hand numbered copies. Did I get one? We’ll see…

Awwwww yeah! First card is of enforcer Enrico Ciccone! My hopes are high for this pack. While not exactly a tough sounding name, Enrico could throw ‘em. One thing I like about this set is that Upper Deck used two different photos for the front and back. And not just a little photo on the back, but a nearly full sized photo. I wish this was more commonplace today. Ah well.

This is one of the cards from the Canada Cup subset. Janne had a brief NHL career including three separate stints with the Devils (two regular season and one playoff series). Nearly his entire career (20 years!) were spent playing in Finland, where he won a bunch of different awards.

Not much on Glynn other than he was part of the deal with Brendan Shanahan that brought Paul Coffey and Keith Primeau to Hartford. Is that the Blues logo on the puck?!

A number one draft pick and 500+ goal scorer? Nice! Did you know that he played for Canada’s Little League team in the Little League World Series in 1982?

According to legendsofhockey.net, “prior to his injury [Bureau] was considered in the upper echelon of defensive centres in the NHL.” Wait, what?! Really?! Also, is that Hasek flopping around on the front? I’m calling this an unofficial Hasek rookie and listing it on eBay with a BIN of $7.99.

HELMETLESS-JO! We all know Craig was the last NHLer to go lidless, but did you know he has four Stanley Cups under his belt? You probably did, actually. What I didn’t know was that he actually started his career with the Bruins. Huh.

Oh Glen Wesley…

Best. Card. Ever.

Bruins hot pack! Galley was a pretty solid blueliner throughout his career, even putting up 70 points in a season. Whoa!

Plavsic and I have something in common: we both spent a year at UNH, him playing for the Wildcats and me basically failing out. Anyways, I love the back of this card. Will you accept a collect call from “HEYMOMTHISISADRIENANDIJUSTWONAMEDAL”. I’m not sure what medal he is sporting here, but Adrien was a member of Team Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics who won the silver.

Interesting shot on the front as Volek battles an unidentified Penguin. Interesting because during the next season, Volek would score an OT winner in Game 7 of the second round matchup versus Pittsburgh, preventing them from winning three straight Stanley Cups.

Before there was Zdeno Chara there was Zdeno Ciger. He recorded a 31 goal season in 95-96 and then left the NHL for six seasons before returning for one last skate for the Rangers and Lightning.

Is it too late to fill this out and send it in.

There ya go, a pack of junk from the junk era. Stay tuned for part 2.

Yesterday was my twice-annual trip to Wilmington, Massachusetts for the big Shriner’s Card Show. I saved up all my pennies since November and went down hoping to land (yet again) an OPC Ken Dryden rookie or a Yvan Cournoyer rookie.

I came back with neither and I could have had both. The Dryden was nice except the bottom two corners were just a touch soft (I’m picky) and I know it would have eaten away at me. He had it at $250, said he’d take $220, but I know he would have taken $200. I’m willing to pay the money for a mint copy, so I’ll just wait it out.

A different dealer had a Cournoyer rookie but it was graded and I don’t do graded cards. It came out as a 7 and he wanted $125; the guy next to me offered him $100 and away it went. C’est la vie.

Enough about cards I didn’t get, let’s get to cards I did get!

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee #4 NHL Penalty Minute Leaders

Three vintage tough guys for a $1?  All day, every day. I had to get at least one enforcer card and this gives me three big punchers.

The next batch of cards are all from the WHA. Ever since reading The Rebel League I’ve been fascinated. I could have picked up complete sets, but I want to slowly build all the different years.

First, we have this…

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee #338 John McKenzie

Man, ol’ Pie Face looks like he just fell off the turnip truck. And that Blazers logo; is there anything worse?

Now, I already had this card…

I felt like I needed to get his linemates, so I did…

1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA #4 Ulf Nilsson

1974-75 O-Pee-Chee #17 Anders Hedberg

Rookies of 2/3 of one of the most dominating lines in hockey history and all-time WHA greats. These countrymen played four seasons in the WHA and scored 100+ points in each of those campaigns. Nilsson was the premier playmaker and Hedburg was a dominant and gifted scorer. Along with Bobby Hull, they formed one of the greatest hockey lines the game has ever seen. During the ’74-’75 season, this line scored 156 and tallied 206 assists in 221 combined games for an average of 1.64 points per game. Wow.

Next…

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA #25 Mark Howe

HOFer in an Aeros jersey with the New England Whalers harpoon logo on the front! Must have.

This next card is not a WHA card although he did played in the league and was, at one point, the highest paid player…

1970-71 Topps/O-Pee-Chee Sticker Stamps #27 Derek Sanderons

And so my Turk collection grows slightly. Look how clean cut and young he looks.

Those were my small purchases. Now it’s time for the big gun. Going into this show, I had zero intention of getting this card. It was so far off of my radar that it was non-existant. In fact, I don’t think I had ever seen this card before. After the Dryden and Cournoyer fell through, I had to regroup. I looked at a Lafleur rookie, but nixed it. I thought about getting an old Beliveau or Richard, but I have cards of them already. Same goes for Orr. Howe was a possibility but his earlier stuff is SO expensive. I looked and looked and then I found it.

1963-64 Topps #33 Bobby Hull

I’ll just let the card do the talking.

Oh, and don’t forget to vote on the right hand side!