Flyers Preview: Keith Jones Autographed Card

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This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: Unlike in the distant past where I would post different texts on this collectibles blog and my personal one, I've been using a new format for the past couple of years, where I'll copy the same text on each one. As a father of two young kids, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. This year again, the entire scope of the analysis will take place first and the featured player will have a direct or perhaps indirect connection to what's written, below.

Caveats: At this point, despite training camps being set to start in a couple of weeks, several players haven't found a team yet and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

Key exits: Kevin Hayes (C), Ivan Provorov (D), Kevin Connaughton (D), James Van Riemsdyk (LW), Kiefer Bellows (LW), Tony DeAngelo (D), Brendan Lemieux (LW), and Justin Braun (D).

Key Arrivals: Marc Staal (D), Sean Walker (D), Garnet Hathaway (RW), Ryan Poehling (C), Cal Petersen (G), and Victor Mete (D).

Top prospects: Matvei Michkov (RW, 18 years old, in the KHL for at least three more years), Tyson Foerster (RW, 21 years old, had 48 points in 66 games in his AHL rookie season last year), Bobby Brink (RW, 22 years old, missed most of last season due to injury), Cutter Gauthier (C/LW, 19 years old, looked like a star in the NCAA as well as the World Juniors), Emil Andrae (D, 21 years old, impressed in the Swedish league and AHL last season), and Elliot Desnoyers (LW, 21 years old, 44 points in 65 AHL games last season).

What makes their odds look good:
There is a plan in place, and GM Daniel Brière will be stockpiling young players and draft capital for the next few seasons; head coach John Tortorella will instill good habits with the help of veterans he knows well, such as Staal. There might not be another generational talent to tank for in the next three or four drafts, but what matters is drafting talented players who work hard to have a competitive team when the time is right.

Question marks: Who will be kept as part of the core among young veterans like Travis Konecny, Carter Hart and Travis Sanheim?

Outlook:
This isn't an accidental bottoming out, this is a calculated move to turn over nearly the entire roster and hopefully contend when the current veteran cream of the Metropolitan Division - your Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, and Pittsburgh Penguins - start to drop in the standings in four or five seasons, with just the New Jersey Devils remaining as a power, and even then, possibly in decline.

Prediction:
Eighth in the Metropolitan Division, bottom-five in the NHL.

The day Brière was announced as the new team GM, Keith Jones got the nod as the Philadelphia Flyers' new team President of Hockey Operations, a job for which his co-analyst on TNT NHL broadcasts, Ed Olczyk, was also up for; ultimately, as is their modus operandi, the team went with their alumnus.

A solid middle-six player with some power forward skills, Jones skated part-time with the likes of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Eric Lindros and John LeClair in his day, and was a respected member of the dressing room. So much so that his good relations with just about everyone around the league will surely help the Flyers and Brière in their relationships with other teams.

I mostly remember Jones on the Colorado Avalanche; he was like a "clean" version of Tom Wilson, both having in common that they look like they should consistently score 30-40 goals, with neither having topped the 25-goal mark as of 2023.

Having watched Jones analyze the game and crack jokes for the past 10-15 years on TV (all within acceptable social standards), however, I am relatively confident that he can handle a front office job on one of the premiere rich organizations in the sport. I certainly wish him well.

Here he is sporting the Flyers' black (third / home) uniform on card #304 from Pacific's flagship 1999-2000 Pacific set, crashing into the New York Rangers' Mike Richter:

He signed it in blue sharpie as a guest at a card convention, back when one didn't have to pay extra on top of the entry ticket to get autographs at those events, circa 2005 or so.

Jeff Hackett: Two Autographed Cards

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Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller were fired earlier today, and most of the chatter online has been about focusing blame on goalie Carey Price, with reason. However, a loud minority of the voices were sarcastically asking for the return of another wearer of jersey #31, Jeff Hackett, to replace him. My impression is that these are kids who didn't live through the so-called "Hackett era", because he was by far the best and most important player on that team, a team which, at the time, was seen as one of the worst in Habs history, although the current iteration has to contend for that title as well, or at least qualify as most underachieving.

First things first, the firing: had Julien lost the room? Probably. The players were still giving their effort, but in a roundabout way, kind of like when some players with low production still have a high Corsi score by putting up low-probability shots on the opposing net instead of making quality plays: there were hard-fought battles but too many penalties; there were defensive lapses in the exact areas that make Julien cringe; and the $10.5M goalie's play had his teammates go from "we know we can cheat to try to create scoring chances because we know we have the best goalie in the world out there" in the first ten games of the season to "we really have to help our goalie out more, we can't be caught cheating and giving away two-on-ones and three-on-twos like that"; and said goalie has reverted back to his old self of blaming teammates instead of himself for the goals that go in - better yet, he thinks he's playing well. Julien's Habs have ranked 24th on the powerplay and 26th on the penalty kill since 2016. The Canadiens never actually made the playoffs in any full season of Julien coaching in his second stint in Montréal, and only qualified as the last club in the 24-team tournament last year.

Muller likely wasn't kept around for one or all of the following reasons: he went 2-3 in last year's postseason when Julien suffered a heart attack; he doesn't speak French fluently and many fans would have clamoured to have him be named head coach while GM Marc Bergevin probably has other candidates in mind; he was very close to Julien and may follow him in his/their next job, perhaps on the West Coast.

If interim head coach Dominique Ducharme wins a playoff round, expect him to sign a five-year deal; if the team fails to even qualify for the post-season, expect the usual suspects (Patrick Roy, Guy Boucher, Marc Crawford, Pascal Vincent, Benoit Groulx and Bob Hartley) to get interviews. It's anyone's guess what happens should the team lose in the first round.

Regarding Price himself, he's been way below average since the beginning of Julien's reign and has let in upwards of 25 more goals than expected in those three and a half years, which isn't ideal for the highest-paid netminder in the NHL. The window to trade him ends next Fall.

As for Hackett, he was acquired by the Canadiens from the Chicago Blackhawks with Eric Weinrich and Alain Nasreddine for Jocelyn Thibault, Dave Manson and Brad Brown. The trade gave the Hawks an All-Star goalie who may not have developped into one in Montréal, and the Habs finally got to cleanse their palate of the Roy debacle, whose shoes Thibault had never been able to fill. Hackett was so good that he won the Molson Cup as team MVP in both seasons where he was the starter, until injuries started to derail his career, allowing for José Theodore to take over slide into the starter's job. With a .914 save percentage both years (in a league where Dominik Hasek's .919 was tops) and goals-against averages of 2.25 and 2.40, it was no surprise that Hackett got Vezina Trophy votes; it was also not surprising that he didn't make it as a finalist due to the team being so far out of playoff contention.

Here are two cards that depict his playing style very well, as a former stand-up goalie who leaned into the butterfly technique but kept his "pouncing" reflexes:

On the left is card #88 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 Wayne Gretzky collection and Leader sub-set, showing him ready to stop a puck headed for his stomach; on the right is card #28 from Topps' 2000-01 Premier Plus set, with a flat butterfly pad and the ability to push the rebound to the corner in a far less dangerous zone for his team, giving his defensemen a chance to battle for and regain control of the puck - a move I put high value in as a goaltending coach.

Both show him wearing the Habs' iconic red jersey and were signed in blue sharpie after his departue from Montréal.

I just felt that the recent discourse had taken a lot of credit away from him and the fact that he was very good, gave his honest best effort, and even acknowledged via his helmet that he knew he was getting into a hockey hotbed that Quebecers are thrown in as youth and get more rabid about with each passing year - particularly those years without Stanely Cups, even more so in years without a playoff berth. Heck, among the sixteen who have worn the number for the Canadiens, he's "my" #31, ahead of Price (2008-21), John Kordic (1986-89), Mark Napier (1979-84), Tom Chorske (1990-91) and Michel "Bunny" Larocque (1974).

Bob Boughner: Two Autographed Cards

Yesterday's shock wave resonates again today, as I feature the San Jose Sharks' new interim head coach, former NHL bruising defenseman Bob Boughner. Boughner was already behind the San Jose bench as an assistant-coach for the second time when he was chosen for the impossible task of righting the Sharks' ship.

In my preseason predictions, I had them a point ahead of the Edmonton Oilers as the third and last representative of the weak Pacific Division to make the playoffs only because of the depth of the line-up up-front and the two-headed monster of Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on defense.

But the goaltending has been an even bigger back-breaker than last year, posting the same pedestrian statistics while the middle of the offensive line-up hasn't been able to generate the scoring they had last year.

Judging from his time coaching the Florida Panthers, I'm not certain Boughner will add more goals for to his team's bottom line, but if he can make them harder to play against in their own end and perhaps give away fewer prime scoring chances, and maybe a few of those 4-3 games can swing the other way.

He's also probably a good coach for the younger guys, as can be attested by his resume in Juniors: twice the OHL's Coach Of The Year, once the entire CHL's Coach Of The year, two consecutive Memorial Cups with the Windsor Spitfires and total domination as Team Canada's head coach at the 2009 U-18 (Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament).

Whether he got that by using old-school tactics to guide his players or he got them there through positive reinforcement remains to be seen, as a few examples of mind games and physical and verbal abuse have come to light of late, but that's also something we have to keep an eye out for nowadays.

What we do have, however, undeniably, is his career as a player. The statistic that stands out the most are his 1382 penalty minutes in 630 games, of course, and only two seasons with more than 10 points. What old-school heads will enjoy is that he was a career +27 despite playing on poor teams, such as the Buffalo Sabres, the expansion Nashville Predators, the turn-of-the-millennium Pittsburgh Penguins, the pre-Miikka Kiprusoff Calgary Flames, the always-disappointing Carolina Hurricanes and the post-Patrick Roy/late-30s Joe Sakic-era Colorado Avalanche.

He also wore the alternate captain's "A" in Pittsburgh and the captain's "C" in Calgary (with Craig Conroy) before Jarome Iginla took the mantle.

He clearly thinks the game well and is respected for his leadership.

I wrote to him nearly a decade ago via the Spitfires - which he still owns in part - and he signed cards (in blue sharpie) that represent him in his better seasons, starting with card #160 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 Victory set, after a 13-point season with the Preds, wearing the team's white (then-home) uniform:

And here he is during his 17-point seasons, the "A" prominent on the Flames' white (home) uniform, on card #9 from In The Game's 2003-04 In The Game Action set:

H added his uniform number (6) at the end of each signature, which means he's a perfect addition to  my Flames Numbers Project.

Jean-Marc Pelletier: Two Autographed Cards

October's the month that ends in Halloween, so I thought perhaps I could feature a lot of players from tough, scary teams such as the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and maybe some current-era dirty St. Louis Blues players as well.

I'd like to start with Jean-Marc Pelletier, although he only played a single game for the Flyers, who drafted him 30th overall in 1997, out of Cornell University, a pick that originally belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He was in nets for a 5-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators in the 1999-2000 season, and although he had decent numbers with the Philadephia Phantoms in the AHL, he was included in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, the one that sent Rod Brind'Amour down south and brought Keith Primeau to, essentially, replace Eric Lindros as the Broad Street Bullies' #1 Brute center.

He never played for the Canes and was relatively average for their IHL affiliate Cincinnati Cyclones, and so he was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes organization on December 31st, 2002 (Happy New Year!), and played two games for them that season, and four more the next, with a combined 1-3 record, 3.67 goals-against average and .864 save percentage - those stats would have been alright in the 1980s, but they were pretty dismal in the Dead Puck Era, which didn't stop the Florida Panthers from signing him as a free agent prior to the 2005-06 season.

He left the organization shortly after the 2006-07 season began to finish the season with the German League's Mannheim Eagles, before spending his final three professional seasons with another DEL team, the Hamburg Freezers.

Upon retiring, he went back to Cornell to finish his degree in Applied Economics and Management; he currently works for Lego in Denmark, and helped orchestrate the company's takeover of Mega Bloks, their main competitor.

He did sign the cards up top for me (in blue sharpie) when he was with the Rochester Americans (AHL, 2005-07), from his days in Philadelphia:

It's card #147 from Upper Deck's 1999-200 MVP set. He tagged his Americans jersey number (35) at the end.

Oleg Saprykin Autographed Card

When I wrote about Marc Savard yesterday, I briefly touched upon the trade that sent him from the New York Rangers to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jan Hlavac, omitting the exchange of draft picks; with the 11th selection in the 1999 draft, the Flames selected Oleg Saprykin, who would go on to be a key piece of the team's failed 2004 Stanley Cup run, scoring an overtime goal in the Final.

He had his best point production as a member of the Phoenix Coyotes and came close to the point-per-game average while playing in the KHL, but he never really fulfilled the potential he had shown in Juniors, scoring 77 goals with 82 assists for 159 points in just 114 games spread over two seasons with the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds.

He did prove to be durable, however, as he still played this past season, with the KHL's Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist (with 6 points in 18 games) and Ufa Salavat Yulayev (one point and 10 penalty minutes in 15 games in the regular season and a point and 35 penalty minutes in 10 playoff games).

He signed this card for me in blue sharpie as a member of the Ottawa Senators in 2007 (after a game against the Montréal Canadiens), which now allows me to slot him into the #61 spot of my Flames Numbers Project:

That's card #193 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 Series 1 set, showing him in Calgary's white (then-home) turn-of-the-millennium multi-geometric uniform; it also serves as his rookie card in the set and for the brand.

He reached his second Final in 2007 with the Sens before leaving for the KHL. He has also suited up for Team Russia twice at the World Championships, winning gold in 2009. He is also a KHL All-Star and won the Gagarin Cup in 2010-11 with Ufa.

Jeff Friesen Autographed Card

Well, the San Jose Sharks won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final yesterday, which seems like as good a time as any to feature this card of Jeff Friesen's from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 MVP set (it's card #175 in the collection, showing him with their turn-of-the-millennium terrible practice-style teal away uniform), which he signed in black sharpie, probably in 2002:

Friesen had three 60-point seasons in San Jose, and another one in which he reached 57 points, including one in which he scored a career-high 31 goals in 1997-98. But team success wouldn't come when with the Sharks, although he did win the Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003.

He officially retired in 2011, after playing in the German League (for the Berlin Eisbären, a.k.a. Polar Bears) for two seasons. His final NHL stats line reads: 893 regular-season games (218 goals, 298 assists, 516 points and 488 penalty minutes) and 84 playoff games (18 goals, 15 assists, 33 points and 48 penalty minutes).

He also suited up for Team Canada on a number of occasions, winning gold at the 1994 and 1995 World Juniors as well as the 1997 and 2004 World Championships, and silver at the 1996 Worlds.

He received some Calder votes in 1994-95, finishing fourth, and a few Selke votes in 1997-98 (finishing 18th) and 2002-03 (14th).

Bill Muckalt Autograph Card

The New York Islanders took Game 1 of their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, so I thought it'd be nice to show off this card of Bill Muckalt's from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 SP Authentic set (card #BM of the Sign Of The Times sub-set) to celebrate:

It shows him wearing the Isles' turn-of-the-millennium blue (away) uniform, shortly after the Captain Highliner debacle.

Muckalt played in 256 regular-season NHL games, scoring 40 goals with 57 assists for 97 points; he also accrued 204 penalty minutes in that span and suited up for five playoff games with the Minnesota Wild in 2002-03, going pointless.

Daniil Markov Autographed Card

Daniil Markov was a steal by the Toronto Maple Leafs when they drafted him 223rd overall at the 1995 draft after the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season in which he had played alongside Pavel Bure and Alexander Selivanov on the famed Moscow Spartak team.

He was an okay point producer - 147 points in 538 regular-season NHL games, 14 more in 81 postseason games, and 36 points in 208 regular-season games in Russia, 8 more points in 34 playoff games in the old country - but his main strength was his defensive play and the fact that he was a total team player, willing to drop the gloves against much bigger and stronger opponents and blocking shots in an era where it wasn't a wide-spread practice.

But like many of Pat Quinn's Leafs (I'm thinking of Shayne Corson, Darcy Tucker, Dave Andreychuk, Ed Belfour and Gary Roberts in particular), he had a pack mentality where he felt much tougher than he was because he knew that any of the other 20 brutes playing on his team could step up if he ever got in trouble.

Which is why many mostly remember his time in Toronto for this move:

Sure, it's hard to imagine these days when he's the affable Father Time and the feel-good story of the post-Teemu Selanne years, but Jaromir Jagr was once considered a bit of an egotistical brat, a show-boater, and a bit of a dick; his post-goal salute enraged many, and Markov was one of them. What happened in the video above was that Jagr had tied the game - the series clencher - at the end of the third period and did his salute; the Leafs wanted to make him pay, and Markov made sure the move didn't go unnoticed. (Note to "Danny": if you have to repeat the move three times, the main effect has been lost).

What had to happen next did: the Leafs were eliminated in the next round by the Buffalo Sabres, a sight their fans may get more and more familiar with in the next few years. As we all know, Toronto has a knack for beating the Ottawa Senators up in the postseason and, well, little else. They haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967 - the final season of the Original Six era, and the NHL's 50th anniversary; the league's gearing up for its 100th, next year.

Markov played with the Leafs for four seasons and did well there, as I've mentioned, but it was in his next two seasons, with the Phoenix Coyotes, that he was a force, one of the best shut-down defenders in the West. He could not repeat the recipe for the rest of his time in North America, suiting up for the Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings in the next three seasons before returning to Russia, where he would play until 2013-14.

Here he is, wearing the Leafs' late 1990s blue (away) uniform with the 1998-99 patch commemorating the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens (the team moved to the Air Canada Centre mid-season), in a game against the Edmonton Oilers at what was then known as the Skyreach Center:

It's card #148 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 SPX set, one which I hadn't purchased a pack of but fell upon some cards in repacks in 2002 or 2003.

Markov has won Olympic bronze (2002) and World Championship gold (2008) medals; it was at the 2008 Worlds in Québec that I would have had him sign it in blue sharpie, with his uniform number (55) tagged at the end. It's a beautiful all-foil card, save for the fact that it's a Leafs card.

Simon Gagné Autographed Card

Today we tip our hats to one of the most prolific scorers of the Dead Puck Era, Simon Gagné, who retired yesterday after taking a leave of absence from the Boston Bruins midway through last season to be by his father's side, as he was dying of cancer. He'd actually earned a contract from the Bruins after coming to training camp on a PTO, a feat that only a couple of players achieve each year.

The two-time NHL All-Star had reached the Conference Finals twice with the Philadelphia Flyers and once with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and earned a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012. Factoring in the Bruins and Tampa's then-uniforms, he only played for black-suited teams in his 14-season career.

He reached the 40-goal plateau in both 2005-06 and 2006-07 and has suited up for Team Canada on five separate occasions, winning two gold medals (2002 Olympics and 2004 World Cup) and two silvers (1999 World Juniors and 2005 World Championships), and was also on the hugely disappointing 2006 Olympic squad that failed to medal in Italy.

As he was taking a break from competition last year, he did show up at a few events and LHJMQ games at the Colisée Pepsi (home of the Québec Remparts, his former Juniors team) late last season, where he signed this card:

It's #270 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 Series 2 collection, showing him in the Flyers' classic black uniform, which he signed in thin blue sharpie.

To me, this will always be the way I remember him; the Flyers are the one team I'll always associate him with, despite liking the Kings and his winning the Cup in L.A. It's fitting that his most memorable moments to me are from the 2010 playoffs, where he almost single-handedly orchestrated the Flyers' historical comeback, as they were trailing the Bruins 3-0 and won the series in 7 games; he'd missed the first three games due to injury, scored the overtime game-winner in Game 4 keeping his team alive, scored two goals in Game 5, had the assist on Mike Richards' game-winner in Game 6, and scored the winning goal himself in Game 7.

Andrew Brunette: 7 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

As I hinted in yesterday's post about Niklas Backstrom, I got two returns from Minnesota yesterday. Here is the second one:

Never a superstar, Andrew Brunette made the OHL's Owen Sound Platers after having been drafted in the 7th round at the midget draft; he had three relatively successful years with them, improving from 35 to 98 to a whopping 162 points over his three seasons in Juniors, where he played alongside future NHLers Kevin Weekes, Kirk Maltby, Scott Walker, and Jamie Storr, all of which led him to being drafted by the Washington Capitals 174th overall in 1993, in the... seventh round. That pick originally belonged to the Calgary Flames.

This card reflects his time in the OHL, showing him with the Platers' white (home) uniform, from 7th Inning Sketch's 1990-91 7th Inning Sketch set of CHL cards (it's #277):

He would play 62 games with the Caps over parts of three seasons, showing a great deal of promise in the third, with 11 goals and 23 points in just 28 games, leading the Nashville Predators to select him in the expansion draft. He only played one year in Nashville before they traded him to the Atlanta Thrashers for a draft pick, making it the second-straight expansion team he'd play for.

Of his days in Atlanta, I have this keepsake showing him wearing the Thrashers' dark blue (away) uniform, from Pacific's 1999-2000 Omega set (card #9):

He had a pretty good couple of seasons in Atlanta, scoring 23 goals with 50 points in 1999-2000, and reaching 59 points the next year, before making his way to the Minnesota Wild. He played three fine seasons in his first stint in Minnesota, and started making a name for himself in the 2002-03 playoffs, with 13 points in 18 games but, more importantly, all 7 of his goals being of the ''very important'' kind, including a Game-7 overtime series clincher against Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche.

As soon as he became a free agent, the Avs signed him, specifically for his clutch post-season acumen. He did pretty good in the regular season in Colorado as well, with a career year in 2006-07, marking his high point in goals (27), assists (56) and points (83). He would also put up 17 points on 8 goals (including another series clincher) in 19 playoff games with the Avalanche.

I have this memento of his time playing with Joe Sakic, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Parkhurst collection (card #121 in the set):

It shows him wearing their original burgundy (away) uniform, which I have grown to miss.

    (continued in the following post)

Pavel Rosa Autograph Card

Pavel Rosa was destined to have a great NHL career. An elite shooter and passer with tremendous speed, all he needed was to be surrounded by tougher players to protect him from cheap shots - as his LHJMQ team the Hull Olympiques did in 1995-96 when they had Peter Worrell, Colin White, Mike Coveny (whom I fought twice in the same pre-season game that year and, yes, I was a goalie), Gordie Dwyer (whom I also fought), Mario Larocque (a distant cousin of mine), Sean Farmer and Russell Smith, all of whom were willing to stand up and protect the likes of Rosa, Martin Ménard and Jonathan Delisle, or those who dared come into contact with José Théodore.

That year, his rookie year in Juniors, Rosa accumulated 46 goals and 116 points in just 61 games, and improved to 63 goals and 152 points in just 68 games the following year. He also had fine seasons in the AHL with the Manchester Monarchs, even finishing as the league's leading scorer in 2003-04, but he was never really given a chance to shine with the Los Angeles Kings, and when the 2004-05 lock-out occurred, rather than remain in the AHL where he was dominating, he opted to move back to Europe, first with two seasons with the renowned Moscow HC Dynamo and eventually the KHL's Avantguard Omsk and the historical Swiss team Fribourg-Gotteron HC (founded in 1938, and whose logo was inspired the by Montréal Canadiens').

All told, Rosa played in 36 games with the Kings over 4 seasons, scoring 5 goals with 18 points. He scored twice in his very first NHL game, and there was one season where he had two points in two games but wasn't retained to stay.

Still, I consider him a considerable talent, and I'm very happy to have this 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series card (#125 in the set) of his from In The Game, showing him in the Kings' turn-of-the-millennium white (home) uniform, signed in black sharpie:

Donald Audette Autograph Card

I made my predictions for the first round of this playoff season on my regular blog, and I followed my heart for all of the series except one (I'm rooting for the Detroit Red Wings against the Boston Bruins, who I believe are a stronger team with a much better goalie). That means I'm rooting for the Los Angeles Kings in their series against the San Jose Sharks, so I thought I'd feature a card that referenced them:

It's from In The Game's 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #121 in the set), a beautiful silver foil autographed insert card signed in thin black sharpie of Donald Audette, one of the consistent 25-30 goal scorer of the Dead Puck Era.

Oddly enough, in the year and a half he spent in L.A., he had a great impact, finishing second on the team in both goals and points in his lone full season with the team in 1998-99 despite playing in only 49 games. His 18 goals were a long way from Luc Robitaille's 39 (in 82 games), but two ahead of Glen Murray's total of 16 (in 61 games); his points total of 36 was far behind Robitaille's 74, but one ahead of Rob Blake's 35 (in 62 games) and two ahead of Jozef Stumpel's 34 (in 64 games).

He would have his best offensive output with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2000-01, with 32 goals, 39 assists and 71 points in just 64 games, which was his second-highest games total, behind only the 77 he played with the Buffalo Sabres in 1993-94. He never once played a full season.

All told, he finished his career with 735 NHL games played with 6 different teams (two stints with the Sabres), 260 goals, 249 assists, 509 points and 584 penalty minutes in the regular season. He also has 21 goals and 48 points in 73 career playoff games. He wasn't a Hall Of Famer, but his All-Star Game appearance (in 2001) wasn't a fluke either, he was a solid performer for most of his career.

These days, he's an amateur scout for the Montréal Canadiens, and I sent him a fan letter (through the team) earlier this season.

Brad Stuart Autograph Card

The San Jose Sharks keep finding ways to do well in the regular season and seed high in time for the playoffs... hopefully they also keep up with the early exit strategy...

After 41 games, the Sharks had 49 points, and Brad Stuart had 5 - all assists - which is normal, considering the bulk of prime powerplay minutes go to Dan Boyle and Brent Burns. As I mentioned back in September, he is back with the Sharks now after six-and-a-half seasons spent with the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings, with whom he won the 2008 Stanley Cup.

Below is a card from In The Game's 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #214, labeled 'First Signature Card' on the back), where he is sporting the late-1990s Sharks' away jersey, one I liked the colours to but hated the design, with what seems now like the ancestors of the Reebok RBK Edge 'piping' patterns:

Teal, grey and black work well together, just, you know, not that way.

Guy Hebert Autograph Card

I'm preparing for two hockey pool drafts (a keeper in its second year tomorrow, a one-season deal on Saturday), and my 2013 predictions for my regular blog, and I have to say I don't think the Anaheim Ducks will be making the playoffs this year, which doesn't bode well for my keeper pool, seeing as I have both Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf in it...

But it got me thinking about this Guy Hebert card from In The Game's 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series (card #5) - yes, another one from that set - signed in thin black sharpie!

I love Hebert's position in this card, awaiting the shot, focused, looking like a gladiator, his equipment white like his Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim (home) jersey.

Since the Ducks changed their name, we can almost view the Mighty Ducks as either a period of the team's history, or just a different team altogether, and Hebert, to me, pretty much represented the team. Sure, many will point to Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne as the key figures, but Kariya never produced as much without Selanne, who was lucky enough to also have Saku Koivu share to a special bond with.

But Hebert made Team USA 4 times (at the 1990 Goodwill Games, 1994 World Championships, 1996 World Cup and 1998 Nagano Olympics), the NHL All-Star team and, most importantly, had a character named after him in the short-lived animation TV series.

Also, apart from his first 37 NHL games (played with the St. Louis Blues) and last 13 (New York Rangers), he played all of his NHL games in Anaheim.

Mike Ricci Autograph Card

I was a big Mike Ricci fan as a teenager, maybe not when he was drafted 4th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1990 leading me to own over 100 copies of his 1990 Score rookie card, but certainly when the Flyers traded him to the Québec Nordiques with half a team for crybaby Eric Lindros.

The Nordiques being my favourite team, I saw a lot of Ricci on an up-and-coming team featuring Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan and Ron Tugnutt, and my heart followed them when the team became the Colorado Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup.

He was a gritty forward with a knack for scoring important goals, but when the Avs traded him to the San Jose Sharks - essentially for a draft pick that became Alex Tanguay - he added the title of ''reliable two-way forward'' to his resume. He helped make the Shalks perennial contenders for the new millenium, with the help of Nolan and Vincent Damphousse, of course. Speaking of which, this is a signed insert from In the Game's 1999-00 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #216), signed in skinny black sharpie; seeing as I knew I'd write about this set when I stumbled upon some of the cards I already owned from it during the Holidays, I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it at $2 shipping included on Ebay. It's my only Ricci memorabilia, though, so maybe I'll write to him this winter, seeing as he's back into the Sharks' organization as an advisor nowadays.

Two Stéphane Fiset Autograph Cards

In keeping with yesterday's theme of Los Angeles Kings goalies, I'll feature Stéphane Fiset today, one of my favourite goalies of the 1990s.

I was lucky enough to pull autographs of his in packs of successive seasons of cards; the packs were purchased on Ebay at two bucks apiece, and opened within weeks of one another, last summer. Both are signed in black sharpie and made of black/silver foil.

First, wearing the Kings' white (home) jersey, from In The Game's 1998-98 Be A Player Signature Series (card #214):

And, second, from ITG's 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series (card #119), here he is wearing the Kings' black (away) uniform:

Both cards show his usual butterfly stance, his center of gravity very low (I always had the impression he was trying to sit on the back of his skates when I was watching him), but playing ''wide'' and taking up a lot of left-to-right prime real estate.

I didn't follow him that closely with the Kings, for a variety of reasons ranging from a lack of interest in the sport in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the fact that I'm on the East Coast and he was on the West - time zone differences, plus not all games were available to all regions back then - and because I was mostly interested in the Québec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche franchise he was no longer a part of.

But from 1990 to 1996, I saw over a hundred of his games and was rooting for him with all of my heart.

Jamie Storr Autograph Card

I was sorting through my cards while reading in the paper about Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick's recovery from a pre-season operation when I came across one from their previous saviour in nets, Jamie Storr.

I talked about Storr extensively in a past post, so I won't repeat the same thing here about the only goalie in history to win 5 gold medals for Canada before playing a single NHL game - U-17 (1991), under-18 (1992), World Juniors (1994 and 1995) and World Championships (1994) - but I will say this: no goalie was ever among the best of his profession while wearing Heaton equipment; true stars went with the brand's higher-grade product, Brian's, not that it explains why Storr was bigger in Europe than in North America, but it's a bizarre coincidence.

I like that he signed this 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series card (#123 in the set) by In The Game on the pad; the black sharpie contrasts well with the pad's white leather, whereas it would have been invisible anywhere else on the card because of its dark foil background (reminiscent of Upper Deck's Black Diamond sets) and the Kings' black uniform.

Other fun fact about this card: it says on the back it's Storr's ''First Signature Card'':

I guess it's BAP/ITG's way of making up for not having been there early enough to have him get a rookie card. I really like the action shots, too, especially the one on the back.

Nikolai Khabibulin Autographed Card

Although he certainly could have been an Olympian had he not been injured, Nikolai Khabibulin made the news this week for completely different reasons: he was arrested near Phoenix for speeding and drunk driving.

For those wondering what he was doing riding his black Ferrari at double the speed limit in the middle of the Arizona desert while on leave from the Edmonton Oilers after an operation for a herniated disc that could sideline him until the end of the regular season, it is important to note that he had kept his residence in North Scottsdale even after leaving the Phoenix Coyotes for the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, and Oilers. And if you had the liberty to recover from an operation at home, would you prefer doing so in frigid Edmonton, or in the dead heat of the Arizona desert? I'd pick Arizona, myself.

I mentioned something about the Olympics to start this post, saying he could have made the team, but that remains to be proven; Khabibulin, even though he has proven himself to be able to do the job time and time again, has often been shunned by the Russian Federation. It started at the 1992 Olympics, when he was named the team's third-string goalie despite still being of age to play in junior hockey; the Commonwealth Of Independent States, as it was known at the time, under the rigid reign of Viktok Tikhonov, actually won the gold medal. Tikhonov elected to keep Khabibulin's medal, however, claiming Khabibulin wasn't a 'real' member of the team, seeing as he hadn't appeared in a single game (coaches and managers aren't given medals at the Olympics).

For ten years, Khabibulin had refused to represent Russia in World Championships and the 1998 Olympics because of the injustice he figured he'd been a victim of (he did make an exception for the 1996 World Cup, when Tikhonov chose not to coach the national team). By 2002, the International Ice Hockey Federation awarded him a gold medal for his services in the 1992 games, and he accepted to represent Russia in the tournament, winning the bronze medal. He also wore Russia's jersey at the 2006 games, but didn't play a single minute, as the country elected to go with Evgeni Nabokov, who is their top choice again this year, with Ilya Bryzgalov of the Coyotes backing him up.

It's true that Khabibulin is already 37 years old, much older than the other top Russian goalies, but he has proven time and time again to be able to withstand the pressure of important games: while playing in the IHL in a bitter contract dispute with the Coyotes, he was named league MVP when he wasn't allowed to fail; he won the Stanley Cup representing the Lightning; as a Blackhawk, when everyone thought he'd be traded since the team had signed sought-after free agent Cristobal Huet to a hefty starting-goalie contract, he stole the #1 goalie job and led them to a decent position in the regular season and a Conference Final in the playoffs.

In fact, the only thing you might be able to hold against him is that he is a mercenary in the most obvious definition of the term: he will only go to the highest bidder regardless of what their prospects for victory are, and will only bring his A game when there is something on the line. But that's exactly why you'd want him on your Olympic team - he'll get the job done if it kills him.

This beautiful card (#271) is from the 1999-2000 Upper Deck set, and sees him wearing the Coyotes' white home jersey. I think Upper Deck, by extending the picture right to be border of the card, and by making their logo and the writing a bronze foil coating, made this a very classy set.

Also, while I'm not a fan of the Coyotes, their jersey, or their colours, I am a fan of goalies and goalie equipment, and the pads and especially the catching glove look great with the uniform.

This was sent to me by a friend from Toronto who got it in person while attending a Lightning practice when they came to town during their championship run, his final year with that team. He signed it in sharp blue sharpie and added his jersey number (35) at the tail end. The signature complements the equipment, and overall colours, very well.

Get well soon, Nikolai.