Steve Larmer Two Autographed Cards

The Winter Classic has just ended in a 4-1 St. Louis Blues win against the Chicago Blackhawks, with the final minute indeed looking like many outdoor games in the park, with Brent Seabrook acting as the pad-less goalie to keep the puck out of his team's net for as long as he could; Vladimir Tarasenko had a two-goal outing and led the way for his team against perhaps their fiercest rivals.

Yesterday, the Alumni game was filled with stars, including a relatively unexpected Wayne Gretzky suiting up for the Blues:

Notice anything weird beyond the fact that St. Louis had six more players and two more coaches dressed? Where were the 1980s Hawks stars, particularly Denis Savard and Steve Larmer? And what about hometown hero Chris Chelios?

To right that wrong, today, Larmer will be my featured player.

We're talking about a Calder Trophy winner, five-time 40-goal scorer, someone who had an 884-consecutive game streak halted by a contract dispute, perhaps the only player who actually had a legitimate shot at Doug Jarvis' record of 964 straight games in my lifetime.

A guy who won the Stanley Cup with the New York Oilers Rangers in 1994 and retired after achieving two important milestones (1000 points, 1000 games played) after the following season.

We're also talking about the guy who led the 1991 Canada Cup in goals (6), including the game-winner that gave Team Canada its fourth title against Team USA in the Final; he was also second only to Gretzky in points during the tournament. This, mere months after helping the Canadians win silver at the 1991 World Championships.

He also held the Hawks' team record for most points by a right winger (101) until Patrick Kane surpassed it last season (106).

All told, the hard-working leader from Peterborough was extremely consistent over his 13-year NHL career. And so, I will show him wearing two slightly different iterations of the Hawks' classic red (then-away) uniform, first on card #53 from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 1 set:

Then there's card #266 from Score's 1992-93 Canadian Edition set, which has the added bonus of featuring the NHL's 75th Anniversary patch:

If you notice the crest on the shoulders (which the Hawks were seriously lacking in today's game, as it was located closer to the elbows), there was a slight variation of colours in the tomahawk; the shaft is easier to see when it's green (1992-93) than when it's red (1990-91), which means the hatchet went from green to white for differentiation purposes.

Cool, eh?

Larmer signed both cards using a black sharpie.