Kelly Hrudey: Two Autographed Cards

I was about a month old when Kelly Hrudey started playing as a rookie for the WHL's Medecine Hat Tigers, a season in which he'd appear in 57 games for the team that went 15-50-7, which explains why his goals-against average was 6.17; he brought it down to 4.17 the following season, posting a winning record (25-23-4) and convincing the New York Islanders to select him in the second round (38th overall) at the 1980 draft.

The following season, he was named to the WHL's Second All-Star Team after bring his GAA down to 3.97 and keeping an .895 save percentage, on his way to the professional ranks; he spent four seasons with the Central Hockey League's Indianapolis Checkers where he would hone his game to besome an eventual NHL starter in lieu of Isles star Billy Smith, winning the league's Best Goalie ("Terry Sawchuk") trophy twice, earning First Team All-Star status twice, winning the playoff MVP for the 1981-82 season and regular-season MVP the next year.

He split the 1983-84 season between the CHL and NHL and got to the Big Show full time in 1984-85, playing 41 games to Smith's 37 and Roland Melanson's 8, on an Isles team that iced no fewer than three 100-point players: Mike Bossy (58 goals, 117 points), Brent Sutter (42 goals, 102 points) and John Tonelli (42 goals, 100 points).

He would appear in more and more games each year, cementing his position as the #1 goalie up until and including the 1988-89 season, where he was a trade deadline after appearing in 50 games to the Isles, and sent to the Los Angeles Kings where he would appear in another 19 and be a fixture for eight years, culminating in a 1993 Stanley Cup Final appearance.

He would finish his career by spending two seasons with the San Jose Sharks alongside two other veterans - Ed Belfour and Mike Vernon - before retiring to Calgary and joining the Hockey Night In Canada/Sportsnet analysis teams for Calgary Flames games but also the national telecasts.

But today I want to focus on the earlier part of his career. This is an artist's rendering of what he looked like wearing the Tigers' Philadelphia Flyers-inspired uniform, on card #138 from In The Game's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set and Hockey Hero sub-set:

And this is him wearing his classic Jofa helmet-and-grid with the Islanders' blue (then-away) uniform, on card #123 from ITG's 2013-14 Between The Pipes set and Greats Of The Game sub-set:

That was his look when he set a record that would last 33 years, that of making 73 saves in a single playoff game - the seven-period "1987 Easter Epic", which stood until hours ago when Joonas Korpisalo of the Columbus Blue Jackets stopped 85 Tampa Bay Lightning shots in a bitter eight-period Game 1 loss.

And Hrudey took it well, as you can see here:

He seems humble, genuine and nice, which is the same feeling I had when I received those cards from him in the mail a few years back. I had written him a fan letter and joined those cards care of HNIC and they came back in roughly eight months. He signed them in black sharpie.

He's also been an advocate for mental health for a few years now, and even more so during the pandemic.

Guy Lafleur Board Certified Card

Guy Lafleur is a very opinionated man - always was, always will be, but that's exactly why journalists and members of the public keep asking him questions; we know he'll provide a quip that will reflect exactly how he feels at that moment, the truth as he sees it, with no sugarcoating. He was at it again, calling the San Jose Sharks' Joe Thornton's and Brent Burns' playoff beards "a disgrace to hockey", saying P.K. Subban should be on Ritalin (and adding Yvan Cournoyer said back in their day, he'd have gotten smacked with a stick), reiterating that Brendan Gallagher is the heart of the Montréal Canadiens but changing his stance on captain Max Pacioretty from a couple of seasons ago, saying he can be the best player on the ice "when he feels like it", as opposed to when he called him a choker in the past.

Of course, the main reason why he gets away with it is because he was arguably the best forward of the 1970s - the Habs' career leader for assists (728) and points (1246, one of just three to reach the millennial mark with the team with Jean Béliveau and Henri Richard), and the second in goals with 518, behind only Maurice "The Rocket" Richard. Oh, and he has five Stanley Cups with the team he grew up dreaming of playing for, so he knows a thing or two about the team's legacy and fans' expectations.

His six 50-goal seasons are also a team record; Stéphane Richer holds second place with two, and four others have had one such season: The Rocket being the first NHLer to do so, Bernard "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Steve Shutt and Pierre Larouche being the others.

He shares the team record of most goals in a single season with Shutt (60), and holds the single-season team points record (136, in 1976-77). It was also that season that he set the team consecutive point streak record by having his name on the score sheet for 28 straight games.

So, yeah, Lafleur could hockey pretty well.

Because of that, many sets still include him in the modern era even though he retired following the 1990-91 season - often with special edition cards.

Here's one from Fleer/Skybox's 2001-02 Greats Of The Game set and Board Certified sub-set:

With the Joe Louis Arena closing in a couple of years, this piece of memorabilia will be even more rare. And Lafleur looks so natural in the Habs' classic red uniform.

Yvan Cournoyer Autographed Card

Here's a return that has been puzzling me all evening. I had sent Yvan Cournoyer these four cards on March 17th, 2014, two customs (one I offered he could keep) and two regular-issue cards:

What I received instead today - 135 days later - in addition to the unsigned cards was this beautiful 2001-02 Greats Of The Game card (#25 in the set) by Fleer/Skybox, signed in blue sharpie:

It's such a great, simple design, with classy white borders, and showing him in the Montréal Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform just makes it that much better for autographs. I wonder if he just keeps a stash of these at home for people who send him stuff, or if it was leftovers from a paying signature session. In any event, I am very happy to have it.

I'd been waiting to either hear back from this mailing or give up on it before using another player to cross off #12 off my Habs Numbers Project. I have three others I could have used, but given the choice, wouldn't you have waited out for a Hall Of Famer, six-time All-Star, winner of 10 Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe trophy, three times a 40-goal man and a 25-goal scorer for twelve straight seasons, a man often called the best skater and stick-handler of his generation, whose jersey number was retired by the famed franchise?

Of course you would.

The Roadrunner started as a powerplay specialist, because then-coach Toe Blake wasn't satisfied with the fiery short man's defensive play. A seven-game demotion to the AHL and limited ice time in his first three years built his character, though, enough for Cournoyer to have served as the Canadiens' captain from 1975 until 1979, one of two Habs captains to have won the cup every season the additional 'C' was stitched onto his chest, joining the legendary Maurice 'Rocket' Richard.

And though he had many admirable adversaries in the NHL - and you'd think with 428 goals and 863 points in 968 regular-season games and 127 points in 147 playoff games there'd be ample of those - perhaps his most memorable moments came against one Vladislav Tretiak, both in the 1972 Summit Series - pitting an All-Star cast of NHL stars in Team Canada against Team Russia - and the 1975 Super Series which saw the Habs play (and beat) Moscow's Central Red Army team (which was pretty much 95% of Team CCCP anyway). On both occasions, games were played at the old Montréal Forum, and both had Tretiak and Cournoyer each getting named among the three stars.

Rogatien Vachon: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

I got a heck of a surprise when I opened my mailbox to find these cards, I'll tell you that much! In these parts, Rogatien Vachon is a legend and deserves to be in the Hockey Hall Of Fame, especially if Bernard Parent, Gerry Cheevers and Billy Smith are there.

After all, Vachon had three Stanley Cups - all with the Montréal Canadiens - before truly getting his career under way, which happened when the Habs chose to go with rookie Ken Dryden and sent the mustached wonder to the Los Angeles Kings, where he'd hold 8 team records by the time signed with Detroit (2 of which were beaten by Jonathan Quick this last season). He was also a 4-time team MVP.

Here's what he looked like as a King, first with the 'away' uniform:

As a kid, I didn't think much of these jerseys, and was happy when they went silver-and-black in the Wayne Grerzky era; I do feel nostalgic for these now, though. The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Masterpieces (card #70), featuring a beautiful (and UD exclusive) painting by Gillies; the card on the right, showcasing his classic all-white mask, is from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #180, part of the Greats Of The Game sub-set).

In what made more sense then, the Kings' home (i.e. ''light'') jersey was yellow (unlike the current-day Nashville Predators, who use yellow as their ''dark'' colour and wear it against teams in white, which looks awful):

That one's from the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee set (card #160) and specifies he was on the NHL'S year-end Second All Star team, a feat he achieved twice. His #30 jersey was the first to be retired by the team.

(continued in the following post)

Rick Wamsley: 3 Autographed Cards

I've liked the Ottawa Senators for a long time. First, their jerseys caught my eye, and when the Daniel Alfredsson era began (and the Alexei Yashin era ended), I kept an interested eye on them. And, since then, the Sens have pretty much always consistently gone further in the playoffs than my hometown Habs, and I've found myself rooting for them more often than not.

Jason Spezza remains, in my mind, one of the premier passers in the league, Alfie is a great captain (second to maybe only Jarome Iginla), and they always seem to turn out having great talent on defense.

More often than not, goaltending has been blamed for their lack of playoff success (i.e. that elusive Stanley Cup), but from Peter Sidorkiewicz getting All Star nods to Ron Tugnutt to Patrick Lalime, goalies have always done what was expected of them for this team. And while Pascal Leclaire's streak of bad luck only got worse in Ottawa, he didn't fare badly at all and, this season, Craig Anderson has done an admirable job - and so has Ben Bishop in a relief role.

And one person to thank for the Sens' recent rise in goaltending prowess is undoubtedly goalie coach Rick Wamsley, a former Cup and Jennings winner himself, who had previously signed these two cards for me, almost 2 years ago.

Now, I was hoping the Sens would send the New York Rangers packing tonight, but it looks like there'll be a Game 7 in that series...

But back to Wamsley. I wrote him a new fan letter to go along with these 3 cards I sent him on February 24, 2012 and got them all back today, April 23rd, 2012. They show him wearing the colours of his first two NHL teams, firstly with the Montréal Canadiens:

The card on the left is from Topps' 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee set (card #195), coming off his Jennings-worth season; the card on the right, featuring a helmet-less low-resolution picture of Wamsley sporting the back-up's ''towel around the neck'' classic attire (in the 80s), is from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #145, the Greats Of The Game sub-set).

And this card, showing him with the beautiful 80s-era St. Louis Blues uniform:

This is card #240 of Topps' 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee set, a beautiful and classic one, showing Wamsley skating around during a pre-game warmup against the New Jersey Devils.

Don Beaupre: 3 Autographed Cards

Statistically, Don Beaupre was always near the top of the NHL in its statistics department, usually in the top-5 for goals-against average. He played in two All Star games, once as a member of the Minnesota North Stars (1981) and once representing the Washington Capitals (1993, in Montréal). He also played in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, a season during which he split goaltending duties with the legendary Gilles Meloche - my friend Martin Itfor, an important hockey blogger, is a huge fan.

The card below has been with me as far as I can remember, from Topps' 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee set (card #89):

It shows Beaupre as a member of the North Stars when I, myself, was playing for the NDG North Stars, with brown pads, a CCM helmet-with-a-cage and a Christian USA stick of my own (at the Atom level).

Below, two cards of Beaupre as a member of the Caps, who just clinched a playoff spot tonight:

The card on the left, showing Beaupre in the red (away) uniform, is from Pro Set's flagship 1991-92 Pro Set collection (card #601, showing him as the mid-season GAA leader - he had finished second in the entire NHL the previous season); the card on the right, showing him wearing the Caps' white (home) jersey but, more importantly, focusing on the superb DC cityscape mask I mentioned previously in this Enrico Ciccone post, is from In the Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (the Greats Of The Game subset, card #157).

I sent Mr. Beaupre these 3 cards and a fan letter on March 5th (2012) and got them back less than 3 weeks later, on March 26th, signed in blue sharpie. I thought about sending him cards from his days with the Ottawa Senators but didn't want to push it by sending too many - especially to his home - and stuck with the teams I identify him with the most instead.

Murray Bannerman: 3 Autographed Cards

Murray Bannerman is an All-Star-caliber goalie (two AS games) who played all of his NHL career (minus one period) with the Chicago Blackhawks. He started as the legendary Tony Esposito's backup and pretty much took the job away from 1982 onwards.

I sent these three cards and a fan letter to his home on February 10th, 2012 (I could have also tried the Hawks' address, seeing as he still does charitable work with other team alumni) and received all three back, signed in black sharpie, on March 3rd, 2012. Three weeks for a legendary return!

This card is special for so many reasons. The Hawks' jersey, of course, has always been among the greatest in sports, the picture at the bottom with the mustache rules, and catching Bannerman mid-movement, skating from one side of the net to the other, skates in a 'T' like you learn as a kid, reminiscent of the Hanrahan's move in Slap Shot when he's told his wife is ''a lesbian'', before he goes nuts The card itself is from Topps' 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set (card #27), a beautiful set.

As I mentioned before (in this Stan Smyl post in particular), the above card is from the first set I actually collected, purchasing pack after pack, at a rate of at least one per day (35 cents for 7 cards and a stick of gum was perfect for my 8-year old self), Topps' 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee set (card #180). It features Bannerman in an idle position, waiting for play to start again, with a nice view of the brand of equipment he wore (Brown).

Of course, it's nearly impossible to mention Murray Bannerman without talking about his mask, one of the most recognizable in the history of the NHL, as featured in this card from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #148, part of the Greats Of The Game sub-set). It features an aboriginal head (not a geisha as some have awkwardly suggested) that is totally in tune with the team's logo. These will soon be framed and hung with my Glenn Hall Autographed Framed Lithograph on a ''Hawks' goalies'' section of my living room wall.