My Habs Numbers Project: An Introduction

So many hockey collectors have ''special projects'' they pursue to make their hobby even more fun, from trying to gather specific cards from every single Vancouver Canucks goalie to having an autographed card of every player who has reached the 1000-point mark.

I decided to start a project myself: to gather a special piece (jersey cards could work, but ideally an autographed card) from a player from every number worn by a member of the Montréal Canadiens.

Here's a look at the task that's ahead of me, starting with those I have:

Head Coach: Scotty Bowman: check!
1: Brian Hayward, Roland Melanson and Rick Wamsley: check!
2: Gaston Gingras (also wore #29): check!
3: Sylvain Lefebvre once (then twice), and Brian Engblom: check!
4: the one and only Jean Béliveau: check!
5: Stéphane Quintal and Guy Lapointe: check!
6: Ralph Backstrom: check!
8: Brandon Prust: check!
10: Guy Lafleur: check!
11: Claude Larose and Ryan Walter: check!
12: Yvan Cournoyer and Mike Keane: check! (also: Darcy Tucker)
13: Alex Tanguay: check!
14: Mario Tremblay: check! (also, Tomas Plekanec, who also wore #35)
15: Réjean Houle once, (then twice), and Bobby Smith: check! (also: George Parros)
16: Henri Richard: check!
17: Georges Laraque and Benoît Brunet: check!
18: Valeri Bure: check!, and Serge Savard: signed lithograph check!
20: Phil Goyette and Nicolas Deslauriers: check!
21: Brian Gionta: once, then twice, and Christopher Higgins: check!
22: Steve Shutt, Steve Bégin and Gilbert Dionne: check!
23: Turner Stevenson: check! (twice)
24: Andreas Dackell: postcard check!
25: Vincent Damphousse: check!
26: Josh Gorges: check!
27: Alex Kovalev: jersey card check!
28: Kyle Chipchura and Éric Desjardins: check!
29: Gaston Gingras (also wore #2) and Brett Clark: check! 
30: Mathieu Garon: postcard check, Peter Budaj, and David Aebischer: check!
31: Carey Price: check! (also Jeff Hackett)
32: Travis Moen: check!
34: Peter Popovic: check!
35: Alex Auld: check! (also, Tomas Plekanec, who wore #14 as well)
36: Marcel Hossa (also wore 81) and Matt D'Agostini: check!
37: Steve Penney and André Racicot: check!
38: Nikita Scherbak: check!
39: Cristobal Huet: check!
40: Maxim Lapierre: check! (also, this Éric Chouinard postcard)
41: Jaroslav Halak: check!
42: Alexander Perezhogin: check!
43: Patrice Brisebois and Andrew Cassels: check!
44: Stéphane Richer: check!
45: Gilbert Dionne: check!
46: Andrei Kostitsyn: 8x10 check!
47: Brendon Nash and Stéphan Lebeau (also wore #50): check!
48: Jean-Jacques Daigneault, and James Wyman: check!
49: Brian Savage: check!
50: Stéphan Lebeau (also wore #47): check!
51: David Desharnais: check! (also wore #58)
52: Craig Rivet: postcard check!
54: Patrick Traverse: postcard check!
55: Francis Bouillon (also wore #51): check!
57: Blake Geoffrion: check!
58: David Desharnais: check! (also wore #51)
59: Brock Trotter: check!
60: José Theodore: check and check again!
61: Raphael Diaz: check!
62: Artturi Lehkonen: check!
63: Craig Darby: check!
64: Greg Pateryn: check!
65: Robert Mayer and Andrew Shaw: check!
67: Max Pacioretty: check!
68: Yannick Weber: check!
70: Zachary Fucale: 4x6 picture check!
71: Louis Leblanc and Mike Ribeiro: check!
72: Mathieu Carle: check!
73: Michael Ryder: check!
74: Alexei Emelin: check!
75: Yann Danis: check!
76: P.K. Subban: jersey card check!
77: Pierre Turgeon: check!
79: Andrei Markov: check!
80: Ben Maxwell: check!
81: Lars Eller: check!
84: Guillaume Latendresse: check!
91: Scott Gomez: check!
94: Yanic Perreault and Tom Pyatt: check!
95: Olivier Michaud: check!
Captains: Béliveau, Gionta, Turgeon


Which means I'm looking to fill these:

7: This will be the hardest, seeing as Howie Morenz died in 1937 and the number was soon retired...
9: There are signature cards of Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard, but I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one!
19: This one will likely be between Terry Harper and Larry Robinson
33: Of course, my boyhood idol is Patrick Roy. Richard Sévigny would also be fine.
53: Rory Fitzpatrick and Ryan White have worn this number the longest
56: David Wilkie, Alain Nasreddine, Scott Fraser and Stéphane Robidas are the only ones to have worn this number in Montréal
66: Has only been worn in pre-season games
69: another pre-season number
78: I probably have some Éric Landry stuff somewhere...
82: It'd be nice to have Donald Audette's signature on a Canadiens' product
83: I don't even remember Éric Bertrand, but I'll gladly take the refresher course
85: never been worn, huh
86: Jonathan Ferland
87: never been worn
88: Chris Higgins wore it for a short while, as did Xavier Delisle
89: never been worn
90: I have lots of Joé Juneau cards, none of them signed
92: never been worn
93: the one and only Doug Gilmour
96, 97, 98, 99: have never been worn

Ted Lindsay Framed Autographed Lithograph

It had been a few days, but I'm back with interesting stuff. After Serge Savard, Raymond Bourque, and Phil Esposito, here is another framed autographed lithograph issued by Canada Post with a matching stamp line, "Terrible" Ted Lindsay in the jersey he wore the longest - the Detroit Red Wings' white, home uniform. It is a limited edition, numbered 209/500.

Lindsay is one of the most important players in the history of his sport; not just content with his 800+ career points, his 4 Stanley Cups, his Art Ross trophy and eternally-remembered member of the ''Production Line'' with Sid Abel and Gordie Howe, he earned the nickname "Terrible" through his mean streak and knack for checking opponents with his knees and elbows - hits that were legal at the time, until he used them so much on opponents that the league had to make rules forbidding it.

You know you're a tough son of a bitch when you're viewed as the dangerous guy on a line with Howe, who was perhaps the dirtiest superstar player in the history of the NHL (think Mark Messier with more talent and more of a mean streak), which would pretty much make Lindsay the Chris Pronger of his time, although he was a left winger, not a defenseman. Perhaps it's safer to say that he has no actual modern equivalent; he was that special.

But it's what he did outside the rink that will forever be remembered: he and star defenseman Doug Harvey (of the Montréal Canadiens, the best defenseman who ever played in the NHL) are behind the founding and building the NHLPA, the association/union representing players' rights; they did so in an era where team owners paid most players insufficiently to provide their families well year-long, and most had to have summer jobs to make up the difference, at a time when a team owner who had a grudge against a player could, effectively, in a 6-team league, not just have total control over a player's career but toy with their very lives at their whim.

I'm glad the NHLPA decided to name the trophy it hands out every year to its member that players feel has been the best in that season in his honour; for having built the association from the ground up while continually putting points on the score sheet, it's more than well deserved, although they could have added Harvey's name to it as well.

Phil Esposito Framed Autographed Lithograph

I guess it's Boston Bruins week!

After the Leo Boivin card, I really wanted to post another vintage Bruins jersey, so I decided to revert back to my collection of framed autographed lithographs by Canada Post, of which I own seven. I have previously mentioned my Ray Bourque and Serge Savard ones, and now it's Phil Esposito's turn, a limited edition, numbered #713/1007.

Phil is the older brother of Tony Esposito, the Chicago Black Hawks' star goalie who helped pioneer the ''butterfly'' technique. Both are in the Hockey Hall Of Fame. Phil also started with the Hawks, centering Bobby Hull and twice finishing in the league's top scorers in his first three seasons, before being dealt to the Bruins. As a Bruin, he became the first player ever to gather 100 points in a single season, and did so with 126 in 1968-69. He would hit the 100-point mark six times in total (plus another 99-point season), and would capture the Art Ross trophy as the league scoring leader five times; he also led the league in goals six consecutive seasons, a feat that would have given him the Rocket Richard trophy each time, by today's standards. He held the single-season goal-scoring record (76 goals) for over a decade until Wayne Gretzky surpassed him, and still holds the record for most shots on net in a season, with 550.

During his Bruins years, he also suited up for Team Canada in the Summit Series; in fact, he was the team's captain and leading scorer. He also played on the inaugural Canada Cup team (1976), on a line with Marcel Dionne and Hull.

In 1975-76, he was traded to the New York Rangers, whom he also captained and led in scoring in 5 of his 6 seasons there. After his retirement, he became the Blueshirts' general manager, bringing a bunch of has-beens (Dionne, Guy Lafleur) to Broadway, before moving on to found the Tampa Bay Lightning, for whom he was also the general manager from inception until 1998; some of his moves in Tampa include signing Manon Rhéaume as the first woman to have an NHL contract and claiming first-overall pick Vincent Lecavalier was going to be ''hockey's Michael Jordan''. He now serves as the Lightning's colour commentary analyst and can be seen alongside Denis Leary on 'Rescue Me'.

Ray Bourque Framed Autographed Lithograph

The 1980s and 1990s saw a lot of defensemen have a tremendous impact on the game, from Paul Coffey's ''fourth forward'' to Al MacInnis' and Al Iafrate's powerful slap shots, but the one guy who re-wrote the record books also happened to be a stable defenseman in his own end - Raymond Bourque.

Born in the Saint-Laurent district of Montréal in 1960, Bourque was drafted 8th overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1979 NHL draft, behind Rob Ramage, Perry Turnnbull, Mike Foligno, Mike Gartner, Rick Vaive, Craig Hartsburgh and Keith Brown. The Bruins even gave him the #7 sweater that few people had worn since the retirement of legend Phil Esposito. In 1985, they named him co-captain with Rick Middleton, a title he would hold alone at Middleton's retirement in 1988. On December 3rd, 1987, the Bruins retired Esposito's jersey, and Bourque relinquished the #7 sweater for the superstar-friendly #77, the number he'd wear for the rest of his career.

As a centerpiece of both the Bruins' offense and defense, he helped the team's consecutive playoff runs reach 29, not only an NHL record, but a North American pro sport record. Twice he has led them to the Stanley Cup final, both times losing to the Edmonton Oilers.

Always faithful to the Bruins, he never held out for better wages despite being on one of the teams with the lowest payrolls. Even in the face of free agency, he re-signed with the Bruins. By the end of the 90s, as the Bruins were no longer contenders, they offered him to be traded to a contender at least 4 times, until he finally accepted, in 2000. While he had hoped to join the Philadelphia Flyers, he wasn't too disappointed to go to the Colorado Avalanche, who had Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote in their ranks. When they didn't win in his first post-season there, losing in the Conference Finals, they added Rob Blake and won it the next year. Bourque could now retire a champion. He also retired ahead of Paul Coffey in every statistic to lead all defensemen in career goals, assists, and points, despite their retiring in the same year.

Like the Serge Savard one I wrote about in December, this is an over-sized lithograph of a Canada Post stamp depicting Hall Of Famer Bourque, winner of five Norris trophies and all of the ''most accurate shot'' contests he ever took part in.

It is printed on canvas and hand-signed by Bourque himself (certificate of authenticity as well as an original stamp are in an envelope at the back of the frame), limited-edition and numbered 801/1077, and fit into a 16X16 frame; its suggested retail price was $89.95.

Sure, the Bruins were the enemy and the Avalanche are nothing but my beloved Québec Nordiques moved to Denver, but Bourque has meant so much to Boston that I am still proud to hang this in my living room; he was a worthy, formidable opponent, and he even brought the Cup back to Boston upon winning it, and over 20,000 people came to see it, despite his having won it with another team; that's respect.

Serge Savard Framed Autographed Lithograph

You may recognize the image from the previous post: it is, indeed, an oversized lithograph of the Canada Post stamp depicting Montréal Canadiens legend and Hall Of Famer Serge Savard, the first ever defenseman to win the Conn Smythe trophy.

It is printed on canvas and hand-signed by Savard himself (certificate of authenticity as well as an original stamp are in an envelope at the back of the frame), limited to 1018, and fit into a 16X16 frame - and its suggested retail price is $129.95

More information about the man nicknamed 'The Senator'' (and minority owner of the QMJHL'S PEI Rockets) can be found in the previous post.