Kari Lehtonen Jersey Card

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen this weekend. He started the playoffs with a 4-0 shutout of the Minnesota Wild on Thursday and followed that with a 2-1 win tonight.

He's healthy and has been kept fresh by being in a rotation with Antti Niemi during the regular season, and while both had their ups and downs, both also played well enough to raise the question as to whom would start the playoffs between a goalie who has one postseason round on his resume (Lehtonen) and another (Niemi) who has a Stanley Cup championship on his, but was deemed replaceable by the Chicago Blackhawks that very summer - and who suffered through the Los Angeles Kings' historic comeback from an 0-3 deficit two years ago. Both goalies won 25 games this year.

Head coach Lindy Ruff ultimately went with former first round pick Lehtonen (second overall in 2002), and it's worked so far. It's not like he's never been in pressure situations before; as a member of Team Finland, he has an Olympic bronze medal (2014), World Championship silver (2007), World Cup silver (2004), World Juniors silver (2001) and bronze (2002 and 2003) and U-18 Worlds gold (2000) and silver (2001).

So here he is pictured wearing the Stars' current (and beautiful) green (home) uniform, on card #GJ-KL from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It has a white game-used jersey swatch enclosed.

Kari Lehtonen Jersey Card

Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff said last weekend that Kari Lehtonen had to step up and steal some games; he did just that in his very next outing.

Many observers were counting on the guy who finished 8th in Vezina voting last year to once again display the dominant and consistent form he's been known for (provided he stay healthy, I added), and while he hasn't been downright awful so far this season, his .906 save percentage ties his career-worst from his rookie year, and he had never been below .911 since, usually hovering between .916 and .919, with a career-high of .922 in 2011-12 (his 4 games in 2003-04 notwithstanding).

His 2.95 GAA is reminiscent of his days with the lowly Atlanta Thrashers though. I had featured him in Atlanta's white (then-home) uniform years ago, and thought I could do so again today with their so-awful-it's-hilarious alternate blue jersey, with pastel equipment:

It's card #UU-KL from the Ultra Uniformity sub-set of Fleer's 2009-10 Fleer Ultra set, by Upper Deck, featuring a dark blue game-used jersey swatch which could be from any of the three uniforms they wore then. I kind of dig the mask, too, what with the ''iced Thrasher'' logo on the forehead.

His masks usually feature a film, TV or video game character, and they're fun to watch evolve from one year to the next.

The second-overall pick of the 2002 NHL draft has also had a successful run representing Team Finland, perhaps the country with the best top-4 goalies in the world in the past decade. He has gold (2000) and silver (2001) medals from the U-18 World Championships, Olympic bronze (2014), World Championship silver (2007), World Cup silver (2004), and World Juniors silver (2001) and bronze (2002 and 2003).

And yet, on the verge of turning 31, he has perhaps 4 or 5 more good seasons in him.

Kari Lehtonen Autographed Jersey Card

So what do card companies do when they run out of new ideas? They double-down on the old ones and try to not learn from their mistakes.

In this particular case, Upper Deck decided, for their 2006-07 Trilogy line, one of their more high-end collections, to have a jersey card selection like every single other one of their hokcey brands (named 'Honorary Swatches', in this case), and a selection of autographed cards ('Trilogy Scripts'). Then they upped the ante by having a few cards with both - 'Honorary Scripted Swatches'.

The idea isn't so bad, but to manufacture them and release them relatively on time, they couldn't have the players sign the cards when they were good and done, so they had them sign stickers that they apposed ont he front of the cards; in this particular case, you can clearly see that Kari Lehtonen went over the sticker's size, as one particular letter (possibly the 'H', but it's hard to be sure) as well as maybe the '3' seem to continue beyond the sticker - but not onto the card itself.

Nonetheless, a decent 2-for-1 collectible of a great athlete whose career has been plagued by numerous injuries but remains an elite goaltender who is a sure-fire Olympian, one of the best Finnish goalies of all time. It's too bad about the injuries - and about playing for the terrible Atlanta Thrashers in a market that doesn't care about his sport.