Marcel Dionne Jersey Card

Congratulations are in order for the New York Rangers, who have eliminated the Montréal Canadiens in 6 games and will now likely face the Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic Division Final.

We are nearing the end of Henrik Lundqvist's prime, and he has precious little time to finally earn his first Stanley Cup, which brings me to a former Ranger whose name does not appear on hockey's most sacred chalice, Hall Of Famer Marcel Dionne.

For a long while, the Rangers were the team where old stars made their final big-contract stop before retiring, from Mark Messier's second run to Wayne Gretzky to Doug Harvey to Pavel Bure, and almost Jaromir Jagr, too, had he remained exiled in the KHL instead of coming back across the pond.

Dionne had requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, claiming he did not want to be part of a rebuild; in two and a half seasons with the Rangers, he was ousted twice in the first round and failed to make the playoffs once - they didn't rebuild or tank, they just sucked and underachieved. He wasn't so bad himself, posting 42 goals, 56 assists and 98 total points in 118 games in New York, but those aren't the type of numbers that got him an Art Ross, two Lester B. Pearson and two Lady Byng trophies, as well as a Canada Cup title (1976) and three World Championship bronze medals (1978, 1983 and 1986), including the Best Forward award in 1978.

Here he is in Ranger Blue, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch:

That's the "Black" version of card #M-41 from In The Game's 2010-11 Decades - The 1980s set.

Marcel Dionne Swatch Card

As part two of my trade with Kyle, to make up for the fact that I didn't get a jersey card in my 2013-14 Upper Deck Series 1 box break (and because I sent my Nathan MacKinnon Young Guns card his way), he provided me with this ''hit'' from the same set by Upper Deck, a Marcel Dionne UD Game Jersey card (card #GJ-DI):

(the waves on the picture are from the penny sleeve, not the card's design, though that could have been a cool look)

It features a purple swatch, the same colour as the picture on the card (not always a given), and UD's Richard P. McWilliam tells us it was certified to them as having been used in an official game, which is just a tad odd/morbid, considering he died in January 2013 and this is a card from 2013-14, so it couldn't have been manufactured before July or August... but stranger things have happened at Upper Deck.

At least they showed him wearing the Los Angeles Kings' uniform, where he spent most of his Hall Of Fame career after an uneventful start with the Detroit Red Wings and doing the typical All Star thing and playing his last couple of decent-but-sub-par seasons with the New York Rangers (as have Doug Harvey, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and so many others).

But Dionne is truly a great, despite never having won the coveted Stanley Cup: 731 goals and 1771 points in 1348 regular-season games (and 45 points in 49 playoff games), eight 100-point seasons and four more at 90+, two Lady Byng trophies to match his two Lester B. Pearson awards (MVP as chosen by the players), 8 All-Star Games, and a legendary Art Ross trophy won over Gretzky where they were both tied for points (137) but Dionne's goals total was the deciding factor (53 over 51), something The Great One never let happen again - he would score 55 the next year, and the unbelievable record of 92 the following year, in a run of nine straight seasons of over 150 points, including four over 200. Ok, fine, one of those nine was 149 points, but it was in merely 64 games.

Dionne, however, was inducted in the Hall in 1992 alongside Lanny McDonald, Bob Gainey and Wayne Dumart. This is the first time I feature him here, but it is my second collectible of his. My first one is in storage, so that'll have to wait for another time, possibly next summer.