Steve Bégin: 3 Autographed Cards

Steve Bégin was an impossible-to-dislike grinder and penalty-killing specialist with a huge heart who was almost a spiritual captain on the Montréal Canadiens from 2003 until 2009, often needing a ridiculous injury to keep him off the ice, usually two at once.

He was forced to retire after years of enduring hip pain that the Boston Bruins' medical team had told him was "normal" for "many" hockey players, that could be operated on upon retiring. Three and a half years after retirement, he still ails, despite an operation by the Nashville Predators staff.

Still, he and Georges St-Pierre held a press conference earlier today promoting Challenge U, an app that enables folks to earn their high school diploma. Bégin, who had to quit school to move from Trois-Rivières to Val d'Or to play Juniors, has now vowed to finish high school before his teenage daughters, one of whom is a Senior.

So, yeah, he's still impossible to dislike.

Here he is with the Calgary Flames, the team who drafted him 40th overall (second round) in 1996 and with whom he retired, wearing their red turn-of-the-millennium red (away) uniform, on card #299 from Topps' 2000-01 O-Pee-Chee set and NHL Prospects sub-set:

Like most Quebecers, however, I will remember him most fondly from his days with the Habs.

First, here he is wearing the team's white (then-home) uniform, on card #257 from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Parkhurst collection:

And here he is with the classic red uniform, on card #264 from UD's 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee set:

With that, he is included in both my Habs Numbers Project and Flames Numbers Project (twice).

He signed all three cards in blue sharpie, adding his uniform numbers (7 and 22) at the end, though it seems he mixed up the numbers on the Flames and white uniform Habs cards!

Mike Fisher: 4 Autographed Cards

Oh, the irony. A day after posting how January was a slow month in regards to receiving mail back, I got some from two of my favourite players in the NHL. And while I'm still struggling to find the proper words for my piece on Alexandre Burrows, I'm honoured to write this post on one of the league's best two-way players, Mike Fisher.

I sent Mr. Fisher a fan letter and these four cards (care of the Ottawa Senators) on November 17th, 2010 and got all four back, signed distinctly in black sharpie (adding his jersey number, 12, to each), on January 18th, 2011, two months after my initial letter, and roughly after a month before getting traded to Nashville. I still have trouble imagining him as a member of the Nashville Predators, but I guess it makes sense to play for a team close to where his wife - country singer Carrie Underwood - lives and works.

As usual, I picked cards with different uniforms on them. I was always partial to the Sens' black uniforms, like in this card, from Topps' 2002-03 Topps Total set (card #148):

This jersey is different from the Sens' first black jersey, in that the sleeves sport huge gold horizontal lines instead of white and red - an upgrade, in my opinion - but sports the now-main logo with the centurion facing the front rather than sideways (I preferred the original, sideways logo, seen at the top of the card, which seemed more sober and professional - less cartooney). The jersey also had maple leaves, representing the Canadian flag, on each shoulder, which the original did not.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, many studies came out demonstrating that teams in red uniforms tended to win more championships - by a 3:1 margin over blue, and nearly 10:1 for every other colour. And so, the Senators introduced a red jersey, which kind of became their main home jersey along the way:

This card is from Topps' 2000-01 O-Pee-Chee set (the NHL Prospects sub-set), and is card #289 in the collection. It also bears the ''OTT-9'' mark, meaning it's the ninth in the collection of a Senator. It serves as his main rookie card for the Topps and O-Pee-Chee brands.

And then, of course, there are the current Reebok (''RBK Edge'') practice-like atrocities they wear nowadays, as seen in these two cards:

I chose the card on the left because it shows the edge of the jerseys, with no defining line to end it, which used to be customary. It also clearly shows that both shoulders harbor the 'O' patch. It's from the 2008-09 Upper Deck Series 1 set (card #64). The card on the right, from Upper Deck's 2010-11 Victory set (card #133) shows the team's logo more prominently, and a bit of the black-coloured underarms, which lead to the wrists in some odd way. It also shows he's made his way to being named assistant-captain on the team, which reflects how he went from a defensively-minded youngster under coach Jacques Martin at the time to the reliable 20-to-25-goal scorer he currently is, still in the positives for his +/- stats despite being on poor Ottawa teams of late.

I wish him the best of luck on the Preds. If I ran a team, he'd definitely be on my shopping list this July 1st.