José Théodore Jersey Card

Has it already been a year since I last featured José Théodore? Residents of Québec will be seeing a lot more of him next season, as the now-hockey analyst woks for TVA Sports, which has secured the rights to all NHL national games, meaning between half and 60% of Montréal Canadiens games, for the next decade.

I only started watching that station during the last playoffs, and felt it was very amateurish, cliché-ridden, and far from the level RDS had accustomed us to. But unless I want to go back to just watching 20-40 games a year, I'll have to get used to it.

Sorry for being so negative for a cool card like this one:

It's from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Ice set (card #CT-JO of the Cool Threads sub-set); while the picture on the front of the card shows him wearing the Habs' white (then-home) uniform, the two-colour swatch is red and blue, and the only time they connect on a jersey is on the red one (at that time it was the ''away'' uniform, now serves for games at the Bell Centre).

Year in and year out, Ice and Artifacts are my favourite sets in terms of design (though this particular sub-set is pretty standard); I prefer O-Pee-Chee, Victory and Score (R.I.P.) in terms of price-to-number-of-cards ratio to send out for autographs, but they're usually plain-lookng, whereas Ice and Artfacts are basically works of art.

José Theodore Autographed Card

The numbers are astounding: almost 650 NHL games, almost 300 NHL wins, a 2.68 GAA and .909 save % while playing for awful teams, a 30-7-7 season (including a 20-0-4 run to finish the season) the only time he played for a decent team (Washington Capitals), a Vezina (2002), a Hart (2002), a Crozier (2002) and a Masterton (2010) trophy, World Junior gold (and 'best goalie' award, 1996), a goal scored in the same game he recorded a shutout (the only goalie ever to do so), World Cup gold (as a back-up, 2004), and winner of 4 straight Molson Cup awards (best player of the season for the Montréal Canadiens, before it was awarded by fan vote).

That's a lot of hardware. That's José Theodore.

I don't know if it'll be enough to enter the Hall Of Fame, but if he doesn't, it won't be because of his on-ice performances, it'll have been because because of the abundance of media and social networks, who cover athletes at an unprecedented level compared to previous generations, where every off-ice incident is scrutinized and every bad game is blown out of proportion and erases 10 great games' worth of press.

Gerry Cheevers is in the Hall - no NHL hardware, and only two Stanley Cups to show for having played with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in a 12-team league. And 230 wins in 418 games.

Harry Lumley is in the Hall, with 330 career wins in 803 games, and half his career with a GAA over 3.00, a few times over 4.00 (yet two seasons under 2.00). One Cup and one Vezina in a 6-team league, in an 18-season career.

I won't be shocked or angry if Theo doesn't make it in, but in my opinion, he should be considered ahead of Curtis Joseph, on par with Ed Belfour. He was more important to his teams than Joe Nieuwendyk, Larry Murphy, maybe even Eric Lindros. He's of that category right below the Greats - the sure-shots, like Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur. The one currently occupied by the likes of Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist.

It's because of that respect I have for Theo that I own as much memorabilia of his as I do, including this 1997-98 Score card (#42 in the set) from Pinnacle Brands, signed in blue sharpie in 2001 or 2002 at a team event:

Then again, there are two Habs who are more deserving to be in the Hall that aren't, so those injustices should be corrected first: defenseman Jean-Claude Tremblay, snubbed for his WHA defection, and Guy Carbonneau, not only the best defensive forward of his generation and a tremendous captain, but the best checking forward of all time and the epitome of a Selke trophy winner, who should not be a 100-point player.

José Theodore Jersey Card

Year in and year out, these days, it seems José Theodore gets no respect. He gets signed to small-ish contracts and constantly has to battle for his ice time with younger goalies.

This season, he stands at the middle of all league stats with a 14-9-5 record, a 2.50 GAA and a .916 save percentage with a free-falling Florida Panthers team.

Last season, with the Minnesota Wild, he went 15-11-3 (2.71 GAA and .916%), and the year before that, with the Washington Capitals, he went an astounding 30-7-7 (2.81 GAA and .911%) on a team that was going all cylinders on offense and didn't care about D at all.

José still has game, and should play in the NHL for at least 3 more good years.

This card is from Upper Deck's 2001-02 Mask Collection set, the Super Stoppers goalie jersey sub-set (card #SS-TH). It depicts him as a member of the Montréal Canadiens (another huge swatch), the year where he was going to win the Hart, Vezina and Crozier trophies. With the stats he's keeping, they're going to have a hard time keeping him out of the Hall Of Fame someday...

I got this for $1.99 on Ebay a few years back, when he was with the Colorado Avalanche...

José Théodore Autograph Card

Some people are good at delivering fast, witty one-liners, and others... not so much. José Théodore is among the latter. However, one thing he excels at is stopping a small, vulcanized rubber puck shot at roughly 100 mph from entering a 4'-by-6' enclosure with a net. Most years.

But what most people are talking about is the pseudo-feud between him and the Montréal Canadiens' most consistent player Tomas Plekanec, where Plekanec commented that playing against Théodore wasn't as difficult as playing against Ryan Miller or Martin Brodeur, prompting Théo's response, saying ''Tomas who? Jagr? Oh, Plekanec...'' except Jagr's first name, of course, is Jaromir. And they look nothing alike, even when biking together.

But when Théo concentrates on doing what he does best - as he did last night, stopping 35 of 38 Habs shots - he becomes a factor in a game, a streak, or even a series. As a Hab, he stole 2 playoff series by himself, to add to his regular-season success (3 times the team's MVP and Molson Cup recipient, a Hart, a Vezina and a Crozier trophy as league MVP, best goalie and best save percentage, respectively).

Upon being traded to the Colorado Avalanche, despite taking a while to settle in his new environment, he pretty much single-handedly stole another playoff series in 2007-08, after posting a 2.4 GAA and .910% season. And now, as the regular starter for the Washington Capitals, he went 20-0-3 in his last 23 regular season starts before his 35-save effort last night.

I think we can call him an elite goaltender. I like him a lot - I just hope the Habs beat the Caps. But if they can't, sure, I wish Théo and the Caps a Cup. In the East, it's quite simple: I don't want either the Penguins (not a fan), Devils (they've had their share), Bruins (natural rivals), Sabres (they've never won it - let the streak continue!), or Flyers (not without Emery) to win, so this series will eliminate one of my two favourite options in the East, while Ottawa... well, at least they're not the other 5.

This beautiful ''Gold'' insert card from In The Game's 2000-01 Be A Player Signature Series (card #195) sees Théodore in full action, moving to the right for what is likely one of his signature spectacular saves - he always produced highlight-reel material, even in so-so seasons. The signature is relatively clear, in black sharpie, right on the card (you can see he goes over the allotted white section and onto the gold foil), and he ended it with his trademark '60', his jersey number.