Kirk Muller: Two Autographed Cards

Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien was admitted to the hospital for chest pains last night and will miss the remainder of the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers; associate coach Kirk Muller will officially take over in the interim, but in reality he and assistant-coaches Domninic Ducharme and Luke Richardson will each take on some of Julien's duties.

Muller has won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Canadiens, in 1993. In those playoffs, head coach Jacques Demers also missed time after going to the hospital with chest pains (he actually suffered a heart attack); Demers' replacement was Jacques Lemaire, also a former Cup winner with Montréal.

The player who scored the 1993 Cup-winning goal on the Los Angeles Kings' Kelly Hrudey was... Muller.

Having served as the New Jersey Devils' captain before getting traded to Montréal, Captain Kirk also served in that capacity with the Habs during the 1994-95 season, despite that role usually falling to a French-speaker; he'll now assume a role - interim head coach - that also usually goes to members of the clan who invented poutine. If the team wins the Cup this season, he'll forever be in contention for the sought-after position that gets more media coverage than both the Canadian and Québec Premiers, despite his linguistic limitations.

Here he is wearing the team,s white (then-home) uniform, on card #614 from Score's 1991-92 Bilingual Canadian Edition High Numbers (Series 2) set, featuring rookies and players who were traded between when the first series was printed and late January, right before the trade deadline:

And here he is wearing the Habs' retro uniform with the team's logo on the right arm where modern jersey numbers can be found, for the NHL's 75 anniversary (the commemorative patch is visible on his chest):

That's card #3 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle set, a crudely designed collection with the advantage of featuring many pictures: two on the front (a headshot and an action pic), but also a different one on the back, in the team's current red (then-away) uniform, with Muller's #11 clearly visible on the arm:

That's a perk a card nerd like myself can get behind that makes it worth the extra costs of a "premium" set like Pinnacle was... when "premium" meant $4 a pack instead of 79 cents, way off from the $100 for 3-6 cards we have nowadays.

I had tried to write Muller a couple of times without replies when I bumped into him after a Habs game and he signed these for me in blue sharpie, with his #11 tagged at the end.

Drew Bannister Autographed Card

Drew Bannister was a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning (26th overall in 1992) who ended up playing 164 NHL games with the Bolts (two stints), Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Mighty Ducks (two stints) and New York Rangers, plus nine seasons in Europe, including the final two where he was a player and a coach at the same time.

He had previously won two OHL titles, a Memorial Cup and a gold medal at the 1994 World Juniors with Team Canada, contributing 4 assists in 7 games, which is where card #460 from Pinnacle Brands' 1993-94 Pinnacle set and World Junior Championship sub-set comes in:

As previously mentioned, he spent the 2011-12 season as player-coach of the British League's Braehead Clan, posting 42 points in 51 games but, more importantly, taking the second-year club to 6th place, ahead of established teams like the Hull Stingrays and Edinburgh Capitals, as well as the Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers.

This led to an offer to be assistant coach with the OHL's Owen Sound Attack for thee seasons (2012-15), which was followed by a three-year stint as head coach of the Soo Greyhounds (2015-18), highlighted by an OHL Final loss in 2018. The team's 55-7-3-3 record was a franchise best, paving the way for OHL and CHL Coach Of The Year honours.

It was once again time to graduate to the AHL, and he was named the San Antonio Rampage's first bench boss with their new NHL affiliation to the St. Louis Blues. Despite not making the playoffs last year in his first season with the Rampage and looking like he'll repeat this year, he did oversea pasrts of the season with players such as Samuel Blais, Jordan Schmaltz, Robby Fabbri, Carl Gunnarson and goalie Jordan Binnington, who all had their names engraved on Lord Stanley's salad bowl at season's end.

It's good to remember that the AHL is mostly a Prep League for the NHL, and that while winning a Calder Cup may help teach young players how to win and the pleasure of winning, it should be a place where they finish their development and learn how to be adults living on their own in new cities. Sometimes even AHL coaches seem to forget that winning shouldn't be the end-all of their job descriptions, as Bill Peters can now probably attest to.

That being said, I think Bannister's next step up the ladder would be as an assistant at the NHL level rather than directly being the man in charge.

Zach Bogosian Swatch Card

I honestly didn't think I'd be writing about Zach Bogosian this soon, but he has reportedly asked for a trade from the Buffalo Sabres, as a pending unrestricted free agent, because being a healthy scratch on a middling team can sometimes be worse on a player's value than asking out of an unfavourable situation.

He's not doing too bad, with three assists in 10 games with an average ice time under of 19 minutes per game - more than two minutes short of his career average, but with the team's surplus of right-handed defensemen - Rasmus Ristolainen, Brandon Montour, Colin Miller, and Henri Jokiharju play the same position, and there's room for three of them per game - it becomes a numbers game that he is in almost no position to win: Ristolainen was dangled as trade bait all summer and there were no takers, while Montour, Miller and Jokirarju are all "new toys" the team wants to play with, having all been acquired via trade in this calendar year.

Not only has Bogosian been playing for the Sabres for six years, but he's been injured often enough that the idiom "out of sight, out of mind" may apply. But trading him won't be easy if they keep scratching him, particularly considering his cap hit that is north of $5M.The only potential destination I see at the moment would be the Winnipeg Jets - the team that signed him to his current deal in the first place - and I don't see them parting with anything more than a fifth- or sixth-rounder for his services, maybe a fourth-rounder if the Sabres agree to keep a good portion of his salary on their cap.

We're a long waya away from the day when the Atlanta Thrashers made him the third-overall pick of the 2008 draft, behind Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty, and ahead of Alex Pietrangelo (4th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jake Gardiner (17th), John Carlson (27th), Slava Voynov (32nd), Roman Josi (38th), Travis Hamonic (53rd), Marco Scandella (55th), and T.J. Brodie (114th).

Speaking of which, here he is wearing the Thrashers' alternate uniform from 2008-11 - one of the ugliest jerseys in NHL history, with football-style jersey numbers on the front - on card #15 from Panini's 2010-11 Pinnacle set and City Lights sub-set:

It features a matching red swatch and the following tidbit of information on the back of the card:

First-time Atlanta visitors may get lost at first, making constant turns from one Peachtree street to another and another. In all, there are enarly 60 streets in Atlanta with the word "Peachtree" in their names. A map is a definite must for anyone venturing into this Peachtree orchard.

Kind of explains why that first season of The Walking Dead is so vague in its depecition of the cityscape. Personally, I may have gone with the city's artistic achievements, what with it being the city Outkast, Tyler Perry, Arrested Development (the music act, not the TV show), Ludacris, Akon, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and the rest of TLC, Goodie Mob, Jermaine Dupri, and Bubba Sparxxx called home at the time, a list to which we can add the likes of Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Kelly Rowland, Ying Yang Twins, Migos, Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz nowadays, not to mention Martin Luther King Jr., Hank Aaron, Ted Turner, Toni Braxton, David Cross, Jane Fonda, Jeff Foxworthy, Oliver Hardy, Ed Helms, Holly Hunter, Robert Patrick, Ryan Seacrest, Keenan Thompson, Chris Tucker, and Steven Soderbergh.

Yeah, I know Spike Lee was born there as well, but he's so New York that I couldn't fathom associating him with the city.

Mark Borowiecki: Two Autographed Cards

They call him "Borocop" and the nickname proved to be truer than ever today, as Mark Borowiecki of the Ottawa Senators thwarted a theft in Vancouver ahead of tonight's game against the Vancouver Canucks.

Essentially, a man stole something from the back of a vehicle, tried to flee with it on a bike, BoroCop ran after him, clothes-lined him, wrested him, retrieved the bag and called the police. And this being Vancouver, the police have a word of warning:

As this did happen on Dec. 1, it’s the start of the holiday season, we are going to see more and more parcels in the back of vehicles and the front of vehicles. We’re asking people: keep your property in your car safe, keep it secure and out of sight.

I hate that we're there, in this day and age, that someone's stuff is only theirs until someone else takes it away and where folks are being spied on by the State and the police are militarized yet no one ever seems to catch petty criminals.

At least there are god people like Borowiecki, who we can watch 82 times a year perform his craft of defending his own zone and looking like a superhero on a card like #347 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set:

It's a dark, silver foil in the same vein as Upper Deck's Black Diamond series.

Here he is on the more classic card #486 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Compendium Series 2 (Blue parallel, which one gets for redeeming 10 "regular" base cards on E-Pack) set:

Both feature him wearing the Sens' white (now-away) uniform; he signed them during the 2017-18 season in blue sharpie.

Craig Wolanin: Three Autographed Cards

NHL scouts were adamant: "Craig Wolanin is a blue chip prospect. He may need a bit more time than a Craig Simpson (2nd pick of the 1985 draft) or a Wendel Clark (1st overall) but he'll be worth the wait." The thought at the time was that the 6'3", 215-pound defenseman would carve out a career that at worst would look like Dave Manson's (11th in the same draft) and at best be a positionally-strong, elite hard-hitting defenseman who makes the best use of a relatively limited offensive skill-set, like Scott Stevens (5th overall pick of the 1982 draft).

Ironically, the 1985 draft produced a single 1000-point producer, second-rounder (27th overall) Joe Nieuwendyk, and four defensemen who hit the 1000-game mark (Manson, 14th pick Calle Johansson, 32nd pick Eric Weinrich and 81st pick Fredrik Olausson).

Obviously, Wolanin was none of those. He showed glimpses of a Stevens-like path in his third season, when he scored six goals with 25 assists for 31 points - the only time he would hit that mark - and a whopping 170 penalty minutes, 61 more than his second-highest total, the 109 from his previous season, and more than double his usual career fare, which usually hovered around the 80-mark.

Part of the deal that sent Hall Of Famer Peter Stastny from the Québec Nordiques to the New Jersey Devils, Wolanin was a second-unit, 15-point defenseman in his time in Québec and won the Stanley Cup when the franchise became the Colorado Avalanche for the 1995-96 season, although he was scratched for the final 13 games of the playoffs after losing a puck that led to a goal against.

He was then sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a second-round pick, and they eventually flipped him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a third-rounder. After injuries started taking their toll, the Michigan native moved back to Detroit to work in construction. His son Christian Wolanin is now an Ottawa Senators prospect.

Here he is wearing the Nordiques' classic blue uniform:

The card on the left is #40 from Topps' 1990-91 Topps set while the one on the right is from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 2 collection. They are considered his "rookie" cards, because even though he'd been in the league for six years at the time, these were the first time he was included in official card sets.

He was also shown wearing Québec's home (white) uniform on card #217 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French Canadian Edition) set:

He signed all three in black sharpie a couple of years ago. They fit in nicely as the entry for #6 in my Nordiques Numbers Project.

Internationally, he's suited up for Team USA four times, finishing fourth at the 1987 World Juniors and 1991 and 1994 World Championships and second at the 1991 Canada Cup. Ironically, his point production playing for the American team (4 goals, 5 assists and 9 points in 25 games, for 0.36 points per game) are even better than his NHL average (0.2489), even his average during his prime, at ages 23-28 (0.25).

Claude Lapointe Autograph Card

In the 11 years that my blog has been active, there were a few instances of my covering cocaine-related stories and/or suspensions, but none of them - not even Grant Fuhr's one-year purgatory at the height of his prime with the Edmonton Oilers - comes close to Claude Lapointe's punishment: a lifetime ban from playing after the disastrous 2003-04 season where he tested positive twice and refused to undergo treatment via rehabilitation.

Lapointe, among the league leaders for face-off percentage in each of his 15 NHL seasons, was always more rock'n'roll than many of his contemporaries; his favourite film is Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear and his favourite band has been Guns N' Roses since the Appetite For Destruction album came out in 1987.

Cocaine falls right in line with that, as being a beloved "star" player with the New York Islanders brings forth bad influences, and a move to the Philadelphia Flyers did nothing to keep him from cities with lively downtown cores full of late-night partying opportunities.

He was forced to retire at the age of 35, but he's the type of player that was in such great shape, and he played a defensive role in the Dead Puck Era, so he was at an advantage, so much so that it would not have surprised anyone who knew him in his 20s and early 30s if he's played past 40 years of age.

Instead, he took a couple of years to hit rock bottom, then rehabbed for over a year, and he was back in the periphery of the game, helping 15- and 16-year-olds reach the higher ranks of Junior hockey as a hockey instructor. He also served as a warning tale about the dangers that lie with getting involved with the wrong crowds and keeping a level head.

It was said in the mid-1990s that only someone high enough could conceive and/or enjoy the Islanders' infamous "Fisherman" jersey, which can be seen clearly on the hard-signed insert version of card #200 from Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player set:

I've got to be honest, I'm feeling a tad nostalgic for it these days.

Dustin Tokarski Swatch Card

It's that time of year where we think of goalies that are not currently playing in the NHL and wonder where they've been...

Today's subject is Dustin Tokarski, who can be so hot he looks like Tim Thomas or so cold that he looks like Scott Darling; there is seemingly no middle ground in his case; one need only look at his stats from last season alone in the AHL to see the disparity:

from HockeyDB

His statistics were the best on the Charlotte Checkers - the best team in the league - for whom he played 7 games, so roughly 10% of the season. In 21 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, his numbers were dangerously close to starting a conversation about a demotion to the ECHL.

At 30 years of age, his window for NHL call-ups is getting smaller, but goalies get injured more and more often now, so he'll at least get to suit up in games, if not actually play in any. This season, he's signed on to play with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins' affiliate, meaning he has Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry and last year's NHL backup, 28-year-old Casey DeSmith, ahead of him on the depth chart. It's a harder path than that of the, say, Carolina Hurricanes.

I'll always remember his fierce battle with Henrik Lundqvist in the 2014 Easter Conference Final, as he single-handedly forced the New York Rangers to play two more games than they had to, seemingly by sheer will.

Here he is wearing the Bolts' worst-ever white (then-away) uniform on card #60 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It features a black game-worn jersey swatch that is probably from the darker home uniform.

Jean-Yves Leroux Autograph Card

You read a similar story just a few days ago: Montrealer gets drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the mid-to-late 90s, forced to retire in his prime due to back pain. Except today, it isn't about Éric Dazé, the 1993 fourth-round pick (90th overall) who became one of the best shooters of his era; no, it's Jean-Yves Leroux, a second-round pick in 1994 (40th overall) whom the Hawks thought may become a power forward (he stood at 6'2" and 210 pounds on his draft day) who became a point-per-game player in Juniors but would be thought of more as a tough bottom-six player and part-time pugilist upon reaching the NHL.

He had an assist and five penalty minutes in his first game with the Hawks (the final game of the 1996-97 season) and would finish with 16 goals, 22 assists and 38 points in 220 games spread over five seasons with Chicago before the team let him go after failing a physical exam - he had injured his back doing squats in his summer training.

While it hurt at the time, he now credits the Hawks for making him a professional and a team player, and for giving him the opportunity to live his lifelong NHL dream. Furthermore, they suited him up during the 1996 preseason with fellow Quebecers Christian Laflamme, Enrico Ciccone, Dazé, and Denis Savard for a game at the then-Molson Centre when they truly didn't have to, allowing 20% of the line-up to play an away game in front of their friends and families.

Upon retiring, Leroux moved to Québec City and enrolled in classes to obtain a construction worker's license, then started a construction company and now co-owns and operates a full-blown housing development company.

Unable to help himself, he also signed on to play in the province's semi-pro league, the LHSPQ, mostly-known for having three times the number of fights than goals per game; he stayed on when the league became the LNAH - a more serious lower-level pro league on par with today's ECHL. He retired from paid hockey for good after the 2009-10 season and now just plays in a beer league with other former NHLers.

Here he is wearing #23 on the Blackhawks' black (away) uniform on the signed insert version of card #45 from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set:

It features a black sharpied on-card autograph with his number tagged at the end.

Mark Hunter Two Autographed Cards

Mark Hunter was mostly known during his playing days as a journeyman checking line winger, save for the three season she spent with the St. Louis Blues (1985-88), where he made the most of his accrued playing time on the first line with Bernie Federko to post career highs in points (74, 69 and 63 points, respectively, good for second, this and fourth on the team).

He also had a more famous older brother, Dale Hunter, who captained the Washington Capitals. The pair purchased the OHL's London Knights in 2001 and instantly turned the team into one of Canada's best hockey programs, producing an unparalleled number of NHL first-rounders - among them Patrick Kane, Sam Gagner, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Evan Bouchard, Max Domi, Bo Horvat, Michael McCarron, Jarred Tinordi, Matthew Tkachuk, Nazem Kadri, and Nikita Zadorov.

Mark's been in the Toronto-centric news more often of late as the Toronto Maple Leafs' co-interim GM then assistant-GM, until he left the team when his partner Kyle Dubas was chosen to replace Lou Lamoriello.

He's since been named as Team Canada's GM for 2019-20, which includes the World Juniors and National Junior programs. He hired Dale to join him, which will surprisingly be the first time he's gotten the nod despite two Memorial Cup championships as head coach.

Despite Mark's career not having the individual highs of Dale's, he was drafted and spent his first few seasons in the Mecca of hockey, playing for the Montréal Canadiens for four seasons. Then came the St. Louis stint, followed by two and a half seasons with the Calgary Flames (including the 1989 Stanley Cup win against the Habs), a year and a half with the Hartford Whalers, and a short seven-game trial with the Washington Capitals in 1992-93.

The Whalers weren't a very good team, usually contending for the last position in the Adams Division, but they were a staple of my youth, and their uniforms are classic.

Here is Mark wearing their white (home) uniform, on card #156 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Canadian Edition) set:

And here he is wearing the green (away) uniform, which is still one of the NHL's five best-selling jerseys today, on card #253 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French Canadian Edition) set, complete with head shot:

He signed both in blue sharpie as a member of the Leafs organization, likely in 2016 or 2017 after a game in Montréal.

Randy Carlyle Autographed Card

It's finally done.

After a 12-game losing streak earlier this season and riding a current seven-loss streak and losing 19 of their last 21 games, the Anaheim Ducks have relieved head coach Randy Carlyle of his position; GM Bob Murray steps in to fill the vacant slot until the end of the year.

We're talking about a head coach who, in two stints with the Ducks, made the playoffs in seven out of eight full seasons, is the franchise's all-time wins leader (with 384), brought them a Stanley Cup, two other Conference Finals (including one in 2016-17) and had a 111-74-35 record in his second go-round despite having been handed an aging roster that has consistently under-performed in comparison to its salary cap hit.

For instance, this season, none of their leading scorers are close to the point-per-game average, and most are along the 0.5 line:

Corey Perry has missed most of the year and only registered an assist in 5 games; the ghost of Ryan Kesler has 4 goals, 2 assists, 6 points, 29 penalty minutes and a -21 rating in 48 games.

Is the coach to blame, or the players? A bit of both? You can't fault Ryan Getzlaf's presence and will, as he's answering the media after every game saying the team needs to respond and play better, but if he can't rally the troops, maybe he's no longer worthy of the "C" on his chest. He sure can't carry the team's offense on his own anymore, leaving John Gibson to handle the load of the entire team between the pipes.

I'm not certain this was Carlyle's curtain call as a coach, either, because a team like the Philadelphia Flyers may want to return to a heavier style of play, or the Boston Bruins in the future; heck, if the Edmonton Oilers are waiting for Murray to get fired in the summer, who's to say the duo wouldn't get reunited in the tundra?

Regardless of your opinion of Carlyle as a coach, however, the fact remains that he was a very good defenseman in his day. He won the Norris trophy in 1980-81 and captained two teams: the Pittsburgh Penguins (1981-84) and Winnipeg Jets (1989-91).

He retired having scored 148 goals with 499 assists for 647 points with 1400 penalty minutes in 1055 regular-season games, and another 9 goals, 24 assists, 33 points and 120 PIMs in 69 playoff games. He had been drafted in both the NHL (Toronto Maple Leafs, second round, 30th overall) and WHA (Cincinnati Stingers, first round, 7th overall) in 1976.

He also won a silver medal with Team Canada at the 1989 World Championships, playing on a team that included Steve Yzerman, tournament leading scorer Brian Bellows, Kirk Muller, Sean Burke, and teammate Dale Hawerchuk. He tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs after a game against West Germany, but his B sample was found to be clear, so he was awarded his medal.

Here he is wearing the Jets' purple/blue (away) uniform (with a head shot in the white/home jersey) on card #288 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French-Candian Edition) set:

He signed it in blue sharpie when he was the Leafs' head coach (2012-15).

Dirk Graham Autographed Card

The Chicago Blackhawks are not adverse to making summertime roster changes, and perhaps this summer's moves will require a bit of an adjustment period before bearing all their fruits - not enough for them to miss the playoffs, mind you, but enough to face another tough first-round match-up against the Nashville Predators.

Throughout the years, the Hawks have had some excellent captains, many of whom are Hall of Famers: Dick Irvin (1926–1929), Johnny Gottselig (1935–1940), Doug Bentley (1942-44, 1949–1950), Jack Stewart (1950–1952), Bill Gadsby (1952–1954), Pierre Pilote (1961–1968), Stan Mikita (1976–1977), Keith Magnuson (1976-1979), Darryl Sutter (1982–1987), Denis Savard (1988–1989), Chris Chelios (1995–1999), Tony Amonte (2000–2002) and Jonathan Toews (2008–present).

You may have noticed how I skipped the guy who was in between superstars Savard and Chelios, actually taking over from Savard as he was injured, one of many times head coach "Iron" Mike Keenan made his disdain for his star center public. That replacement captain would be Dirk Graham, a tough, defensively-minded center who taught many of the kids on the team (Jeremy Roenick, Joe Murphy) the merits of playing hard and with a measure of integrity, leading the 1992 edition of the Hawks to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to Mario Lemieux's and Jaromir Jagr's Pittsburgh Penguins.

Graham didn't talk much, but he led by example, surpassing the 20-goal mark seven times (with a high of 33 in 1988-89), and the 50-point mark four times in 12 NHL seasons, all while attempting to check the other team's best players, which led to his finishing in the minuses five times as well.

In every season where he had a negative +/- differential, he averaged more than a penalty minute per game, going over the 100 mark three times, with a high of 142 in 1986-87 in his last full season with the Minnesota North Stars.

When he inherited the "C", he was considered the first captain of African descent in NHL history, because one of his parents was of mixed race; when Jarome Iginla became captain of the Calgary Flames, Iginla was retconned into the position because one of his parents was Black. In my opinion, Graham came first, he should get the title; Iginla should be content with being the best captain of his generation, and there will be a "full-Black" captain eventually, rendering these race sub-categories even more irrelevant.

My main gripe with Graham is his 1991 Selke Trophy win. He was not among the better defensive players of his time by any means; he got Selke votes in just five of his NHL seasons, twice finishing 7th, once 19th, and once 29th. This is not the type of polite nod that screams "dominant player".

At that time, the best defensive player in the world was without a doubt Guy Carbonneau. He received votes in every season from 1983-84 until 1993-94 and again in his final season, 1999-2000; from 1983-84 until 1988-89, he was on the same line as Bob Gainey, pretty much the guy for whom the award was created, so you'd think that would have played against him, yet in each of those seasons, Carbonneau finished well ahead of Gainey.

As a matter of fact, "Carbo" won it three times, finished second twice and third another time in a seven-year span in which the only anomaly was a fourth-place finish... in 1990-91. That year, both Carbonneau and Graham produced 0.56 points per game, with Carbonneau scoring more goals. The Hawks were a powerhouse, with six players at +20 or better - including two in the league top-5 (Roenick at +38, Steve Larmer at +37) - while Graham was eighth on the team; in comparison, only one Hab was over +10 (Brian Skrudland, +12), as the team struggled to find consistency in the backup role, trying out the likes of André Racicot (7-9-2, 3.20 GAA and .891 save percentage in 21 games), Frédéric Chabot (0-0-1, 3.33 GAA and .867 save percentage in 3 games), and Jean-Claude Bergeron (7-6-2, 3.76 GAA and .862 save percentage in 18 games).

And yet the Canadiens finished with a 39-30-11 record, with Carbonneau facing the likes of Dale Hawerchuk and Pierre Turgeon (Buffalo Sabres), Cam Neely, Ray Bourque and Craig Janney (Boston Bruins), Pat Verbeek, Ron Francis and Kevin Dineen (Hartford Whalers), Lemieux, Jagr, Mark Recchi, Kevin Stevens, Paul Coffey, Joe Mullen and John Cullen (Pittsburgh), Brian Leetch, Mike Gartner and Ray Sheppard (New York Rangers), Pat Lafontaine (New York Islanders), Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Dino Ciccarelli and Kevin Hatcher (Washington Capitals), Kirk Muller, Brendan Shanahan, Peter Stastny and Claude Lemieux (New Jersey Devils), and Rick Tocchet, Pelle Eklund and Murray Craven (Philadelphia Flyers) every night.

Also, Graham was invited to play on Team Canada at the 1991 Canada Cup by Hawks head coach Keenan, who mostly chose players he knew extremely well, from then-Hawks Larmer, Graham and Ed Belfour to Tocchet of his former team (Philadelphia) and a grand total of 13 players from the Clarence Campbell (now known as "Western") Conference out of 22 NHLers. The best goalie in the world (Patrick Roy), the best defensive forward of his era (Carbonneau), the youngest captain at the time (Joe Sakic, fresh off two consecutive 100-point seasons), one of the best defensemen of all time (Bourque), former Hawks legend Savard, and the most talented player of all time (Mario Lemieux, allbeit with a bad back) were all conspicuously absent from the line-up, but OHLer Eric Lindros made the cut, as did the likes of Shayne Corson, Russ Courtnall, and stay-at-home defenseman Mark Tinordi.

It was a joke of a line-up, and Graham's Selke is another taint on the aberration that was the 1990-91 season in terms of fair play and common sense.

Which isn't to say he wasn't very good at what he did. I just don't think he was ever the best at it, even for a single season.

Here he is sporting the Blackhawks' white (then-home) uniform, on card #261 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle set:

He signed it in (dying) black sharpie at a card show around 2005-2006.

Petr Klima Two Autographed Cards

I mentioned Petr Klima yesterday and how he's been a teacher at Roman Hamrlik's hockey school for the past few summers, so I thought today might be a good time to induct him as #85 in my Oilers Numbers Project with these two cards:

First, though, a bit about the man.

Klima was the Detroit Red Wings' fifth-round draft pick (86th overall) in 1983, part of an amazing draft that also brought Steve Yzerman, Bob Probert, Joey Kocur, Lane Lambert and Stu Grimson to Motor City; he eventually made his way to Detroit for the 1985-86 season, where he scored an impressive 32 goals as a rookie, then 30, then 37, before cooling down and running into some, uh, disciplinary issues with Probert. Both players had a tendency to drink heavily and snort white powder in the middle of the night...

This led the Wings to play hardball with Klima, having him spend part of the 1988-89 season with their AHL affiliate Adirondack Red Wings, where he scored 5 goals (with an assist) in 5 games, which, when added to the 25 he scored in the NHL, also adds up to 30 that year.

The following season, he had 5 goals and 5 assists (10 points) in 13 games when the Wings sent him to the Edmonton Oilers with Joe Murphy, Adam Graves and Jeff Sharples  in exchange for Detroit native Jimmy Carson and long-time Oiler Kevin McClelland, and he posted 53 points (25 goals and 28 assists) in 63 games with the Oilers to again reach the 30-goal mark that year.

He would reach the 40-goal plateau the following season before spiraling out of North American hockey radars for the next decade, unable to repeat his past success with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins, then failing in comeback attempts with the Oilers and Wings.

For many, his greatest on-ice accomplishment is his contribution to the Oilers' 1990 Stanley Cup championship, when he scored the winning goal in triple overtime against former Oiler Andy Moog, after having been benched for most of the game:

Much has been said about Klima, and a lot of it was negative: lazy, a waste of talent, addict - but it's hard to assign those adjectives to a guy who has had five 30-plus-goal seasons in the NHL, a Cup, and another 30-goal season split between two leagues.

Then again, it was the high-scoring 1980s.

Here's what I have to say, as an Oiler fan growing up in the 80s: Klima was fast, had a great shot, and a knack for putting himself in a favourable position. You could say his talent was almost as pure as Alex Kovalev's (although with a lower ceiling), and you're allowed to say he had Thomas Vanek's defensive acumen, in that it was rare that he would have both skates inside the defensive zone. All that is true. But he was an exciting hockey player for six seasons.

Nowadays, apart from co-hosting and coaching the forwards at Hamrlik's hockey school in the summer, he coaches six youth hockey teams in the Detroit area, in which he is bringing more and more young Czechs so they can get acclimated to the North American game earlier than at the Junior age, in part so they have a better shot at an international career, but also because should they end up playing in North America, they will be more used to the lifestyle and perhaps steer clear from the temptations of sin.

That's right, Petr Klima is now a role model for young kids. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Now, onto the beautiful cards, first with him wearing the Oilers' classic white (home) uniform, on card #159 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle set:

And wearing Edmonton's best blue (away) uniform, on card #62 from Topps' 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier set:

He signed both in blue sharpie last summer, tagging his classic #85 at the end. I love how all Oilers players wore those Jofa helmets, giving them a European/Scandinavian look.

Philippe Boucher Autograph Card

Philippe Boucher's career mirrored that of another defenseman of his generation, Patrice Brisebois, in that both were extremely good with the puck, made very good passes, had an accurate shot that was just hard enough to go in on its own but also easy enough for teammates to try to deflect, and whose size had GMs and coaches hoping they'd be more physical and better in their own zone.

In today's NHL, these types of players - exemplified best by the likes of Mark Streit and Kris Letang - are now known as "puck-moving offensive defensemen", and most play top-4 minutes; this was also often the case in the 1990s and early-00s, but physical play was more prevalent (and refereeing was, dare I say, worse) back then, so forwards with lesser talent were usually tasked to hit them - legally or not - to prey the puck loose, and once a cycle was in motion, they had little means to stop it.

Some of these players won Stanley Cups in their heydey - Brisebois with the Montréal Canadiens in 1993, for instance - but others had a harder time at it. Boucher falls into the latter category.

Originally a first-round draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres, he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings after failing to make his mark in Buffalo for three seasons. The big knock over his time in L.A. was his inability to remain healthy, only suiting up for 80 games in a season once, in his final of eight seasons in the sun. It was with the Dallas Stars that he would truly find his groove, however, setting the team record for goals by a defenseman with 19, in 2006-07. That year, he made it onto the All-Star Game's starting roster (replacing the injured Scott Niedermayer), finished 12th in Norris voting and even got some Lady Byng votes.

However, as he was nearing the end of his contract and perhaps even his career, at age 35, the Stars sent him to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline of the 2008-09 season, and he provided defensive depth for a team that went on to win the Cup.

He did, in fact, retire after winning the championship, injuries having taken their toll.

In 2011, he was named President and GM of the LHJMQ's Rimouski Océanic, until he stepped down to become GM and head coach of the rival Québec Remparts after their own owner, President, GM and head coach Patrick Roy signed on to be head coach and VP of Player Personnel of the Colorado Avalanche.

In the three seasons the team has been under his watch, the perennial contenders reached the league final once, and were ousted in the first round twice, including a clean sweep this year against the Gatineau Olympiques.

Here he is while with the Kings, wearing their best-looking black (away) uniform, on the signed insert version of card #74 from Pinnacle Brands' 1996-97 Be A Player set:

He signed it in thin black sharpie... pretty much directly on the black jersey. Look for it, though, it's there!

Scott Hartnell Swatch Card

Scott Hartnell is a polarizing figure in today's NHL. Known mostly as a bruiser, folks tend to forget he's a three-time 60-point man whose career-high is 37 goals with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011-12, prompting the team to sign him to a contract extension that was sure to come bite them in the ass later, unless they traded him away eventually. Which they did, to the Columbus Blue Jackets, with whom his points totals went from 60 to 49 to 37 this year.

That's fine production for a 35-year-old physical player, by the way. But his playing time dipped in his second season in Ohio, a trend that will continue as the Jackets continue to improve with their current crop of youngsters. Hartnell has already lifted his no-move clause, so the Vegas Golden Knights may want to pick him up this summer. His actual salary will only be $3M while his cap hit sits at $4.75M, which could help the Knights underpay to reach the cap floor, exactly like the poorly managed and always-tanking Arizona Coyotes have been doing for years now. Except I trust the Knights to be a much better team than the Coyotes from the get-go.

I used to dislike expansion teams. The San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks and the like, they meant nothing to me and I mostly wanted to watch them fail time and time again. It was different for the Minnesota Wild and the Blue Jackets, because those teams were in actual hockey markets (Columbus had a team in the very first professional hockey league, along with Pittsburgh, Detroit, Sault Ste Marie (Ontario) and Sault Ste Marie (Michigan), with Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa, but the teams in non-traditional markets used to anger me. Especially the relocated teams. The Dallas Stars started out rich and bought themselves a championship early on, but I could never get behind the Coyotes and Carolina Hurricanes. I still hate that the Canes have a Stanley Cup, and I hope the Sharks never do.

For some reason, though, I'm rooting for Vegas to do well. Just like I always root for the Jackets and Flyers to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Which brings me back to Hartnell, seen here wearing Philly's retro/current home jersey, on card #97 from Panini's 2010-11 Pinnacle set and City Lights sub-set:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch and is numbered #235/499.

Niklas Backstrom Swatch Card

The Minnesota Wild are currently mired in what seems like their worst slump of the season, at the worst time possible. For a while, as the team was on top of the Western Conference standings, all the talk was about how Bruce Boudreau is an amazing regular-season coach, how acquiring Eric Staal gave the team the best depth in the league - and perhaps the best center line in the NHL as well. And Devan Dubnyk was the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy.

All that got me thinking about the history of goaltending in Minnesota. With his second Vezina-caliber season in three years, Dubnyk is showing signs of eventually becoming the best goalie in franchise history, a spot that is currently reserved for Niklas Backstrom.

Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson also deserve some credit, and José Theodore's season in Minny wasn't too shabby (15-11-3, 2.71 GAA and .916 save percentage in 32 games), but all things being equal, Dubnyk and Backstrom rule the Wild era of hockey in the State of Hockey. They come out ahead of the likes of Sebastian Bach's brother Zac Bierk, a soon-to-be-retired Ilya Bryzgalov, John Curry, Wade Dubielewicz, Derek Gustafson, Matt Hackett, Josh Harding (he who had multiple sclerosis), Anton Khudobin, Dieter Kochan, ego-driven Darcy Kuemper, and Jamie McLennan.

Lest we forget, however, that the Minnesota North Stars have had some decent netminders as well, including Miracle On Ice goalies Jim Craig and one-gamer Steve Janaszak, All-Stars Gump Worsley and Don Beaupre, Stanley Cup finalists Gilles Meloche and Jon Casey, Canadian Olympian Ken Broderick, Gary Edwards, Gilles Gilbert, WHA superstar Jean-Louis Levasseur, franchise record-holder Cesare Maniago, Roland Melanson, and a list of lesser-known athletes such as Gary Bauman, Daniel Berthiaume, Brian Hayward, losses specialist and record-holder Pete LoPresti, Markus Mattson, Lindsay Middlebrook, Jarmo Myllys, minor-league minute-muncher Fern Rivard, Mike Sands, Gary Smith, Finnish Olympian Kari Takko, Darcy Wakaluk, and Carl Wetzel.

And before all that was Hockey Hall Of Famer Frank Brimsek.

In addition to Brimsek, the following goalies from Minnesota are in the U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame: Sam Lopresti, Jack McCartan, Larry Ross, Willard Ikola and Mike "Lefty" Curran.

So, in the grand scheme of things, my all-time ranking of Minnesota goalies would look like such:

1. Brimsek
2. Backstrom
3. Dubnyk (would move into #2 with a Vezina win or upon setting Wild career records)
4. Maniago
5. Beaupre

Which brings me to this beautiful card of Backstrom's, from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It's #71 in the series, showing him wearing the Wild's white uniform, beautifully capturing the uniform's red and green highlights; it contains a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Daniel Alfredsson Swatch Card

There have been a few tear-inducing, touching moments in Ottawa Senators achievements this year, including the team making former coach and GM Bryan Murray the first inductee in its Ring Of Honor.

Closely tied to Murray is Daniel Alfredsson, the Sens' longest-serving captain and team leader in most offensive categories. Alfie himself was honored last month, as the team retired his #11:

#Celebrate11 pic.twitter.com/dcIrXsi7Y9

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 29, 2016

Alfredsson isn't just the landmark Senator, the team's first player to win a major award (Calder Trophy), the first NHLer to score a shootout goal, the first European to captain his team to a Stanley Cup Final (losing to the Murray-built Anaheim Ducks in 2007), the only Sen to improve his points total in six consecutive seasons (1998-99 to 2005-06), but he was also Team Sweden's leading scorer in its Olympic gold medal run in 2006.

He will be an IIHF Hall Of Famer (Olympic gold and silver medalist, two-time World Championship silver medalist, with two bronze medals for good measure) as well as a Hockey Hall Of Famer, what with 444 goals, 713 assists and 1157 points (all Sens team records) in 1246 regular-season games (one short of Chris Phillips' team record), as well as 51 goals, 49 assists and 100 points (all Sens records) in 124 playoff games. His 22 points in the 2006-07 playoffs - tied with teammates Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley - were tops in the NHL.

Here he is wearing the Sens' white (away) uniform, on card #9 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle collection and Threads sub-set:

It features a black game-worn jersey swatch.

Alfredsson is currently the Sens' senior advisor of hockey operations, sort of an associate-GM position mixed with player-development capabilities, as he sometimes takes to the ice after team practices to help youngsters with certain parts of their game.

David Roberts Autograph Card

David Roberts has NHL blood flowing in his veins, with his father Doug Roberts (419 games played) and uncle Gordie Roberts (the first American to suit up in 1000 games) paving the way. David was no slouch, though, starring for the University of Michigan Wolverines leading to both being drafted by the St. Louis Blues (114th overall in 1989) and a berth on Team USA for the 1994 Olympics.

He could never replicate his point-per-game statistics from the left wing in the NHL, however, although his IHL (211 points in 222 games over four season with the Peoria Rivermen, Michigan K-Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins) and AHL stats (64 points in 59 games over two seasons with the Worcester IceCats and Syracuse Crunch) show his talent didn't disappear completely.

His final three seasons (2001-04) were spent playing in Germany, with the Berlin Polar Bears, with whom he scored 54 goals and posted 71 assists and 125 points in 132 games.

He allows me to check #7 off my Canucks Numbers Project with the signed insert of card #93 from Pinnacle Brands' 1996-97 Be A Player set:

He signed it in thin black sharpie, which is a tad hard to see because the card shows him wearing the Vancouver Canucks' best-looking uniform, the black (away) one from the late 1980s. He had his best season with the Canucks in 1996-97, scoring 10 goals with 17 assists for 27 points and 51 penalty minutes and a +11 rating in 58 games in the heart of the Dead Puck Era.

Zdeno Chara Swatch Card

It used to be easy to defend Zdeno Chara from critics: at 6'9", his elbows are at everyone else's head, so accidental dangerous hits are bound to happen. There was no excusing this, however:

Playing for Claude Julien's Boston Bruins has a tendency to bring the bully out of anyone, including scrawny little fuckers like Gregory Campbell and even respectable players like Patrice Bergeron at times, so imagine how bad it gets when a douchebag like Brad Marchand or a tower of power like Chara buys into the "we're allowed to be dirty" mantra.

And yet, it has netter them a Stanley Cup (2011), another Cup Final (2013), and a Presidents' Trophy (2014). Chara himself has won the Norris Trophy in 2009 to go along with two First Team All-Star nods (2009 and 2014) and three Second Team All-Star selections (2008, 2011 and 2012) since moving to Boston as a free agent after the Ottawa Senators made the hard decision to keep Wade Redden instead.

As the game has gotten faster, he's been looking more and more exposed out there, and at age 39, we may be reaching a time where not only isn't he on the B's top pairing, but he may soon also no longer be on their first powerplay unit despite his booming shot.

Still, with all the team and individual success he's known, he has been the most successful Bruins captain since Ray Bourque. Like Bourque, he could very well end up in the Hall of Fame.

Here he is wearing the Bruins' black (now-home) uniform, on card #48 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It features a matching black game-worn jersey swatch.

Scott Young Autograph Card

The World Cup in underway, and with it endless debates about how Adidas is ruining hockey uniforms worse than Reebok did post-lockout, which is saying something. Do I agree? Mostly, yes, for their designs are a simplistic-yet-sub-par take on classics, their stripes on the side are annoying to the eye, and they lack imagination and creativity as a whole. Oh, and the whole ads on the uniforms thing.

Team Russia, the Czech Republic, Team Sweden and Team Finland are relatively true to their usual garbs, so that's fine, although the blue Finnish uniform feels like it's out of the 1990s ECHL a bit:

Team North America looks pretty decent in person, but it's nothing more than a compilation of the best bits of the New York Islanders' last two alternate uniforms:

Team USA and Team Canada are a mixed bag, and Team Europe, well, I'll give 'em points for originality, but that's pretty much it.

Which brings me to a uniform that the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim once wore that Adidas would be fond of, what with their broad shoulder designs that go too low and useless stripes in odd places, on the signed insert version of card #143 from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set:

That's Scott Young, who signed the card in black sharpie. Young's an international competition veteran who dressed for Team USA roughly a dozen times, including three Olympics (with silver in 2002), three World Junior Championships (with bronze in 1986), a handful of World Championships and was with the American team when they won the inaugural 1996 World Cup, posting 4 points (2 goals and 2 assists) in 7 games.