Tim Cheveldae Autographed Card

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This series was over the moment Mark Scheifele decided venting his frustration was more important than attemptiong a comeback, some time around midway in the first game of the series, way before he actually crossed the line and deliberately injured Montréal Canadiens rookie Jake Evans. He left the Winnipag Jets - already without second-line center Paul Stastny, on the cusp of losing #2 defenseman Dylan DeMelo for a long time - without their top playmaker, a point-per-game player who had helped shut Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers down in the first round.

As his eyes got more and more filled with rage from being stifled by Phillip Danault and clobbered by Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson and Ben Chiarot, you could almost read the prediction of how the series would go by the expression on his face, from "Jets in 6" at the opening faceoff to "Jets in 7" in the middle of the second period to "Habs in 7" to start the third, "Habs in 6" five minutes later, and "Habs in 4" when it became clear Scheifele would get a lengthy suspension.

The referees did a good job of not letting any part of this series get out of hand, even calling out Stastny for a penalty for a cross-check after a goal in Game 3, making sure the last ten minutes of play wasn't just scrum-after-scrum of frustration masquerading as "message sending" with the potential for more useless injuries.

I love a tough game; I would love for every team to have a Blake Wheeler on one wing and a Josh Anderson on the other to bang and bruise their way to the opposition's net, but dirty plays at the speed of this sport cannot be tolerated, and as much as I really love the Jets, that the series was decided on a bonehead play after an empty-net goal is well-deserved. Wheeler seemed to agree that the suspension changed the course of the series:

You can't describe the impact of losing him. He's a top-10 player in the NHL. I'm not saying that we would win the series in five games because he was in the lineup. But it just changes our team. He makes me better, he makes Kyle Connor better. It just makes our team look a lot different, so it's a damn shame.

I don't believe Scheifele gets the Nazem Kadri treatment and gets shipped out of town, and hopefully he learneds his lesson from this unfortunate situation.

Still, these are good times for Jets fans. They have had a very good team for the better part of a decade now, have the best goalie in the game (Connor Hellebuyck), are exciting to watch, have a good tactician in coach Paul Maurice (although at this point perhaps a motivator might be what they should be looking for)... they did not sweep the Oilers by accident.

They are missing two key elements for me: a top-four defenseman and a return to one of their old uniforms, such as the mid-1990s oen as sported by Tim Cheveldae on card #212 from Pinnacle Brands' 1995-96 Score set:

The Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes have recently all embraced the retro trand, as has Adidas with their "Reverse Retro" series, I think the Jetsshould also embrace the pre-rebirth history of the NHL in their town.

Cheveldae was a typical Detroit Red Wings goalie: a workhorse for a small number of seasons (three), not quite an established #1 that gets you palyoff success, a scapegoat for postseason failures, and not a Vezina-caliber game-changer, although he did garner some votes in two of his seasons in recognition for games played (72 in 1991-92, for a total of 4236 minutes, and 67 games/3880 minutes the following year, but he had no chance of actually winning with Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour in their prime).

He was replaced in Detroit by Chris Osgood before moving to Winnpeg where he shared the net with Bob Essensa and Nikolai Khabibulin before phasing out of the NHL and into the IHL (Fort Wayne Komets in 1996-97, Las Vegas Thunder in 1997-98, both with a .878 save percentage and nearly identical 3.96 and 3.95 goals-against averages). He rocked the Heaton equipment well in Winnipeg, but my best memories of him are donning the Vaughn pads in Detroit.

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.

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.

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.

Jason Botterill Autographed Card

To 1990s card collectors, Jason Botterill, 20th overall pick of the 1994 draft (Dallas Stars), was a prospect whose ceiling would have been as a checking specialist and eventual leader, possibly even a captain - somewhere along the lines of a Dave Scatchard (42nd overall).

So many players from that draft class ended up with better career stats than Botterill's 5 goals, 9 assists and 14 points in 88 games spread over eight seasons that, in retrospect, it seems more than risky of the Stars to have gambled so much on the 6'4" two-way forward, even in the Dead Puck Era: Dan Cloutier (26th overall, #1 goalie), Rhett Warrener (27th, 714 games on defense), Scatchard (42nd, 269 points in 659 games), Curtis Brown (43rd, 300 points in 736 games), José Theodore (44th, Hart and Vezina trophies as a #1 goalie, Team Canada Olympian), Mathieu Dandenault (49th, 203 points in 868 games on the blue line), Patrik Elias (51st, 1025 points in 1240 games and two Stanley Cups in four Cup Finals), Fredrik Modin (64th, 462 points in 898 games), Sheldon Souray (71st, 300 points in 758 games, three-time All-Star and NHL record-holder for powerplay goals in a single season by a defenseman), Chris Drury (72nd, 615 points in 892 games, captain of two teams), Milan Hejduk (87th, 805 points in 1020 games, Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold and bronze medalist), Marty Turco (124th, #1 goalie), Daniel Alfredsson (133rd, 1157 points in 12546 games, Olympic gold and silver medalist, NHL captain), Bryce Salvador (138th, 110 points in 786 games as a defenseman and NHL captain), Tim Thomas (217th, #1 goalie, Conn Smythe and Vezina winner), Johan Hedberg (218th, quality backup and at times starting goalie), Evgeni Nabokov (219th, All-Star goalie), Tomas Vokoun (226th, All-Star goalie), Steve Sullivan (233rd, 747 points in 1011 games), Richard Zednik (379 points in 745 games and Olympian), Tomas Holmstrom (530 points in 1026 games, Stanley Cup champion), and Kim Johnsson (286th, 284 points in 739 games from the blue line).

But Botterill proved to be a good learner and teammate, so he made good enough contacts to climb through the ranks on teams' staffs after retiring:

from EliteProspects

Being a long-time assistant on a team that wins three Stanley Cups with two separate GMs rightfully gives a guy like Botterill a shot at running a show himself, which is what he got when he was named GM of the Buffalo Sabres in May of 2017, inheriting a roster that already included "generational" player Jack Eichel and a stacked prospect cupboard.

He was also savvy enough to trade away bad leaders like Evander Kane and Ryan O'Reilly, bringing in Marco Scandella and bringing back former captain Jason Pominville.

Here he is in his first of three appearances at the World Juniors, wearing Canada's red (away) uniform, on card #202 from Pinnacle Brands' 1994-95 Score set and World Juniors sub-set:

On it, he's sporting #23, making him a welcome addition to my Team Canada Numbers Project. When he signed it in black sharpie, however, he tagged it with #19, which is the number he wore with the St. John's Flames (1999-2002, it was most likely the latter, the year I got back into watching hockey regaularly).

Rondell White: Two Autographed Cards

Last week, my favourite baseball player of all time, Tim Raines, was in town to celebrate his Hall Of Fame induction and appear on local TV shows, notably Tout le Monde En Parle. Raines was one of the few former Montréal Expos who were as good elsewhere as they'd been in Montréal, winning two World Series titles with the New York Yankees; Gary Carter (New York Mets), Andre Dawson (Chicago Cubs), Pedro Martinez (Boston Red Sox) and Vladimir Guerrero (Anaheim Angels, Texas Rangers) also come to mind.

Few are hated by more than one fan base, though. Such is the case for Rondell White, who had a disappointing turn after signing a free agent contract with the Yankees and, after redeeming himself with the San Diego Padres by going to the 2003 All-Star Game, failed to deliver with the Minnesota Twins - some even ranking him among the worst players in the team's history.

In Montréal, White had a respectable 742-game career:

420 Runs Scored
808 Hits
165 Doubles
101 Home Runs
384 RBI
88 Stolen Bases
.293/.348/.480 Slash Line
19.2 bWAR

Had it not been for poor injury luck, he probably would have been an All-Star in the Canadian Sin City as well. He surpassed the 100-game mark only three times with the Expos, in 1995 (130), 1997 (151) and 1999 (138). That 1997 team was probably the best he'd played on, possibly a pitcher or two away from a playoff berth, what with White, Martinez, and Guerrero leading the way and David Segui (1B), Mike Lansing (2B), Mark Grudzielanek (SS), Henry Rodriguez (LF), and Darrin Fletcher (C) providing additional bats and Carlos Perez, Dustin Hermanson, Marc Valdes, Ugueth Urbina, and Anthony Telford helping out on the mound (apologies to a twilight-of-his-career Lee Smith).

White makes for the perfect addition as #22 in my Expos Numbers Project, with these two cards, first #50 from Pinnacle Brands' 1996 Score set, wearing the grey (away) 1990s uniform:

And here he is wearing the blue alternate/Spring training t-shirt, on card #240 from Upper Deck's 1999 Victory set:

He signed both in blue sharpie, probably in 2003.

Brian Barnes: Two Autographed Cards

Brian Barnes was a standout playing baseball at Clemson University (and eventually even made it to their Hall of Fame), the first true steps of a career that saw him play for five seasons in the majors - four of them with the Montréal Expos - and six more in minor-league ball after that.

He completed a game in each of his first two seasons in Montréal, leading the team to believe he had it in him to become a #2 or #3 pitcher in the rotation at some point; indeed, he went 1-1 with a 2.89 ERA with a veteran group in 1990 - his first game coming on my birthday, September 14th - then went 5-8 with a 4.22 GAA in 1991 as the team went through a rebuilding phase centered around Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker.

He became a reliever and an injury-replacement pitcher in the rotation for 1992 and 1993, then couldn't find a permanent spot in stints with the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers in 1994.

He helps me check off two different boxes in my Expos Numbers Project, starting with #47 on card #73 from Topps' 1992 Topps set:

He also wore #41 in his final year in Montréal, which is where card #289 from Pinnacle Brands' 1994 Score set comes in:

He signed both cards in thin blue sharpie in 2000, when he was playing for the Calgary Cannons, the AAA affiliate of the Florida Marlins.

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!

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.

Butch Henry Autographed Card

Today I thought I could check off a second player for #27 from my Expos Numbers Project. No, I never got an autograph from Vladimir Guerrero, possibly the most talented Expo of all time, but I did get one from Butch Henry:

That's card #518 from Pinnacle Brands' 1995 Score set, which he signed in black sharpie.

Henry's best season came in 1994, as was the case with many players who donned the grey version of the away uniform. That year, he went 8-3 with a 2.43 ERA with one save in 24 games (15 starts).

He finished his seven-year season with a 33-33 record and 3.89 ERA after also suiting up for the Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, Expos, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. He had to retire early (in 2003) because of arm injuries.

He then turned into managing in the minor leagues, winning manager of the year for the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball in 2006.

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.

Adrian Aucoin Autograph Card

Adrian Aucoin was more than a huge human specimen; he carried his 6'2'', 220-pound frame across the ice for hard hits and used his booming shot for seven NHL teams - the Vancouver Canucks, who drafted him 117th overall in 1992, and the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, Calgary Flames, Phoenix Coyotes as well as the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He also suited up for Team Canada, winning gold at the 1993 World Juniors, silver at the 1994 Olympics but failing to medal at the 2000 World Championships while still posting 3 goals, 3 assists, 6 points and 14 penalty minutes in 9 games, scoring Canada's lone goal in a 2-1 upset that gave Finland the bronze. José Theodore was by far the best goalie of the tournament, though Roman Cechmanek actually took home the award.

Aucoin surpassed the 30-point mark six times, with a high of 44 with the Isles in 2003-04; he also reached the 10-goal mark five times, with an incredible high of 23 in 1998-99 with the Canucks. In his three seasons on Long Island, he finished in the Norris voting top-10 twice - never having received a vote whilst playing for another team. East Coast/NYC bias, perhaps?

Here he is sporting the Canucks' white (home) uniform from my youth, on the signed (in black sharpie) insert version of card #79 from Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player set by Pinnacle Brands, which is his rookie card in the collection:

The foil on the card is actually gold, not silver as it appears in the scan. This checks him off as #6 in my Canucks Numbers Project.

Josef Beranek: 2 Autographed Cards

As I mentioned when I initially made my list for my Oilers Numbers Project, I was fairly certain I had a signed card of Josef Beranek's with the Edmonton Oilers, but I cannot seem to be able to get my hands on it, no matter which box I look into.

Still, I managed to find two where he's with the Philadelphia Flyers, tonight's guests in town, as they were facing the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre:

Beranek was the Oilers' fourth-round pick (78th overall) in 1989, the year Mats Sundin was chosen first overall by the Québec Nordiques. There were a few very good players left from the third round onwards, such as Olympians Rob Zamuner (45th), Nicklas Lidstrom (53rd, yeah, I know), Kris Draper (62nd), Robert Reichel (70th), Pavel Bure (110th), Anatoli Semenov (120th), Vladimir Malakhov (191st), Arturs Irbe (196th), and Evgeny Davydov (235th), as well as All-Star Donald Audette (183rd).

Beranek had a knack for beginnings; upon being traded from the Oilers to the Flyers midway through the 1992-93 season, he scored 10 goals in his first 29 games in Philadelphia, ending with 13 in 40 with the team and 15 goals (and 33 points) in 66 games in total. At the beginning of the 1993-94 season, he went on an even hotter streak, with no less than 18 goals in his first 23 games (including an 8-game goal streak), but finishing with 28 goals and 48 points in 80 games that year.

He signed both cards in ball-point pen in the mid-1990s; here's the first one, in his own zone in from of goalie Tommy Soderstrom (I had the same Jofa helmet as Soderstrom's at the time), from Score's 1993-94 Score (Canadian Bilingual Edition) set, with card #439 in the collection:

And here he is moving in on the Washington Capitals' Don Beaupre, from Pinnacle Brands' 1994-95 Score set (card #77 in the collection):

On both cards, he's wearing the Flyers' orange uniform from my youth, with the black sleeves and white arms with black lines, a truly classic look.

The Czech winger retired in 2010 after nine seasons with Slavia Praha (Prague) of the Czech League.

Tim Raines: Two Autographed Cards

Today, I thought I'd feature two cards of Tim "Rock" Raines with the Chicago White Sox' black uniform, because it's a bad, dark day for the Baseball Hall Of Fame, seeing as they have snubbed him once again, leaving him with just one more shot of making it, next year.

As I wrote a little over a year ago, his numbers should have made a case for themselves:

808 stolen bases, and a stealing percentage of 84.5% - second-best of all-time for players with at least 500 attempts - bests even Henderson. 2605 hits, 430 doubles, 170 home runs, 980 RBIs, 1330 walks for 966 strikeouts...

From the very beginning, in the strike-reduced 1981 season, Raines proved he was for real: sure, he was second for the Rookie Of The Year award, but he also garnered some MVP votes on the strength of 71 steals in just 88 games - the National League record was 75, by Benny Kauff, in a full season. His 27 steals in his first 27 attempts remains a record, though. In the American League, he set a record with 37 straight stolen bases in 1995.

The seven-time All-Star Game participant will be remembered for one of them in particular - in 1987 in Oakland - as he went 3-for-3, and produced both of his team's runs in a 2-0 victory with a two-out, 13th-inning triple against Jay Howell.

He stole 70 or more bases in each of his first seven seasons, and ranks fourth of all-time in the category, but he's also overlooked in other categories where speed was a factor: his doubles total (430) is better than Kirby Puckett's (414) and Willie Stargell's (423), and his triples totals (113) bests Puckett (57) and Stargell (55), for sure, but also the likes of Rickey Henderson (66), Dave Winfield (88), Tony Gwynn (85) and Reggie Jackson (49).

What wins a baseball game? Runs. Raines had 1571, better than Puckett (1071), Stargell (1195), Gwynn (1393) and Jackson (1551).

Freebies are fun, and walks are a sign that pitchers fear you enough to not throw you good pitches. Raines was walked 1330 times, ahead of Brock (761), Puckett (450), Stargell (937), Winfield (1216), Gwynn (790).

Chicago Cubs second basement Ryne Sandberg is in, though Raines beats him in every possible category:

Add two World Series titles with the New York Yankees and you've got yourself a memorable career.
Fix this, Cooperstown.

In the meantime, here's a closer look at the cards, first from Fleer's 1995 Fleer Ultra set (card #33), showing him attempting one of his signature surprise bunts, which he signed in black sharpie:

And here he is with his trademark smile, from Pinnacle Brands' 1996 Score set (card #449), which he signed in blue sharpie:

And here's a ballad singing his praise and talking up some of his achievements:


He remains my favourite baseball player of all time, and was the main reason why I loved the Montréal Expos so much. He likely signed those cards for me in his second stint with the team.

Damian Rhodes Autograph Card

As the Montréal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators were facing each other tonight with each of their starting goalies playing in their first NHL game (a first since the Los Angeles Kings' Wayne Rutledge faced the Philadelphia Flyers' Doug Favell in 1967), my thoughts were with Sens goalies, past and present.

I could have gone back to Craig Anderson, but I figured I'd have plenty of time and opportunities for that throughout the season and instead opted to check #1 off my Sens Numbers Project by featuring Damian Rhodes, with card #202 from Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player set (a signed insert he signed in black sharpie):

Hailing from the fertile hockey grounds of Minnesota but coming up at a time when there was no NHL hockey in the state (between the North Stars and Wild), Rhodes played his College hockey with the Michigan Tech Huskies, and was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the sixth round (112th overall) in 1987.

He was part of a three-way trade that sent him and Wade Redden to the Sens, Kirk Muller to the Leafs and Bryan Berard and Martin Straka to the New York Islanders. It was with the Sens that Rhodes would have his finest moments, with a 2.56 goals-against average over parts of four seasons with the team, posting 11 of his 12 career shutouts in the black, red and white. The black uniform he's sporting on the above card is my favourite one of Senators, with the sideways-facing legionnaire, black as the main colour, and red and white arm bands.

Following his time in Ottawa splitting time nearly 50/50 with Ron Tugnutt, he was with the Atlanta Thrashers, where he mostly played second fiddle, first to Norm Maracle (granted, Maracle played more because Rhodes suffered a serious knee injury), then to Milan Hnilicka. It got so bad that he ended his career in the ECHL, going 2-8-2 with the Greenville Grrrowl.

He now operates a goaltending school in Cleveland, Ohio and mostly lives in the shadow of his wife, TV host and former newscaster Amanda Jahn; she is also a former model, having represented Missouri at the 1997 Miss America pageant.

It's odd to think that a goalie who scored goals both in the NCAA and in the NHL got so little recognition and got tossed aside so quickly once his career was over.

Daniel Lacroix Autographed Card

Daniel Lacroix had plans, hopes and dreams for his post-hockey career; he was interested in photography, drawing and sculpting. He liked baseball, particularly the Montréal Expos. His favourite movie was Cyrano De Bergerac, starring Gérard Depardieu, and - like most Montrealers born in the 1960s - his favourite player growing up was Guy Lafleur.

His active NHL career went from 1993 until 1998, during which he played 188 regular-season games with five different teams: 30 with the New York Rangers who had drafted him in the second round (31st overall) in 1987, 23 with the Boston Bruins, 130 with the Philadelphia Flyers, 4 with the Edmonton Oilers and his final game with the New York Islanders. He scored 11 goals and had 7 assists for a total of 18 points, with 379 penalty minutes over that span.

Unfortunately, those weren't great teams, so he only appeared in the postseason twice with the mid-1990s Flyers, suiting up for 12 games in 1996-97 and 4 more the following season (with one assist to show for it).

Instead of following his career with artistic endeavours, however, he became an assistant coach, first with the Moncton Wildcats behind Ted Nolan in the LHJMQ, then following Guy Boucher first with the Hamilton Bulldogs, then with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He joined the Montréal Canadiens in the same capacity for the 2014-15 season, and was given powerplay duties; when that failed, the team traded his tasks with those of Jean-Jacques Daigneault this past summer, and he will handle the penalty kill this year instead.

We'll see how that pans out.

In the meantime, here's a souvenir from his days with the Flyers, sporting their 1980s and 1990s white (then-home) uniform, from Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player set (it's card #135 in the collection), which he signed in fading black sharpie last year, with his jersey number (32) tagged at the end:

I have nothing against the Flyers' current/retro uniforms, but these were also dear to me, having been worn throughout my childhood.

Marc Bergevin Autographed Card

I'd like to acknowledge Montréal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin's 50th birthday today by featuring him... wearing a Tampa Bay Lightning uniform. Which is weird, considering they're the ones who eliminated the Habs this last postseason, but still, Bergevin played for eight NHL teams and his hometown Canadiens weren't one of them, so I do what I can:

It's card #363 of Pinnacle Brands' 1993-94 Score (Canadian Version) set, which he signed in blue sharpie. It depicts him wearing Tampa's inaugural black uniforms, attempting a slap shot from the point, possibly during a pre-game warmup.

All told, Bergevin played in 1191 regular-season games (with 36 goals, 145 assists, 181 points and 1090 penalty minutes to show for it, and 80 more playoff games (3 goals, 6 assists, 9 points and 52 PIMs). He finished in the minuses in both.

He was a fringe player.

Upon retiring, he became part of the Chicago Blackhawks' management team, first spending three seasons as a pro scout, then one as an assistant coach, then two seasons as the Director of Player Personnel (winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 in the process), before being named assistant general manager, a position he held for 11 months until he signed on with the Habs. When filling out his staff with the Canadiens, he picked former Hawks staff members Rick Dudley (assistant GM) and Martin Lapointe (Director of Player Development) to help get his vision across.

Bergevin's put his stamp on the team, although the three main core pieces (Carey Price in nets, P.K. Subban on defense and Max Pacioretty up front) as well as the veteran leadership group (Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov) were inherited from previous regimes.

This summer alone, he signed Mark MacMillan, Noah Juulsen and Daniel Audette to entry-level deals, RFAs Alex Galchenyuk, Jarred Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu, Michaël Bournival, Christian Thomas, Greg Pateryn, Brian Flynn, Morgan Ellis and Gabriel Dumont, his own free agents Jeff Petry and Torrey Mitchell, as well as unrestricted free agents Alexander Semin, local kid Mark Barberio, Joel Hanley, George Holloway, and Ryan Johnston to contracts. He also traded fan favourite Brandon Prust for Zack Kassian. That's what I call keeping busy!

The NHL's getting tighter each year, with many teams from the bottom improving and few teams actually regressing, save for your Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes, which means the Habs will once again challenge for the top seed in the Atlantic Division, all the while fighting off some good teams who will fall just short; I envision six teams seriously vying for the four available playoff spots: the Habs, the Bolts, the Detroit Red Wings (another former team of Bergevin's), the Boston Bruins, the Ottawa Senators and the Florida Panthers in a tight race. My heart's with Montréal, Ottawa, Florida and the Wings, but Tampa Bay will boot one of them out for sure, possibly the Sens.

It's a tough league, but the Canadiens are set with their management team, which clearly ranks among the best in the business. And Marc Bervein's smack-dab in the middle of it, dancing the night away.

Randy Cunneyworth Autograph Card

After the Buffalo Sabres hired Randy Cunneyworth as a scout a couple of years ago, it was rumoured he might eventually be tapped to take on its head coaching position should the Ron Rolston/Ted Nolan experiment fail.

Those rumours were only half-founded, as he was instead chosen as the head coach of their AHL affiliate Rochester Americans this week. He had already coached the team for eight years in the past (from 2000-01 until 2007-08) and captained it as a player.

His coaching resume also includes a division title with the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs in 2010-11, and one of the worst seasons in Montréal Canadiens history in 2001-12, one many see as a means to just eject him from the organization altogether as a scapegoat. Hey, at least it allowed the Habs to draft Alex Galchenyuk third overall that summer.

In an NHL career that started in 1980-81 and ended in 1998-99, Cunneyworth played a total of 866 regular-season games (189 goals, 225 assists, 414 points) and merely 45 more in the playoffs, playing for cellar dwellers such as the Sabres (twice), the 1980s Pittsburgh Penguins, less than 30 games with the Winnipeg Jets, the Hartford Whalers, the 1993-94 Chicago Blackhawks, and the mid-1990s Ottawa Senators. In 16 NHL seasons, he played for 15 different head coaches.

He served as the Sens' captain from 1995 until 1998, between Gord Dineen and Alexei Yashin, which is a fitting way to feature him as #7 in my Sens Numbers Project with the signed inset version of card #175 from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set:

It shows him in the beautiful, original black (away) Sens uniform (with my favourite logo of theirs), as the captain, and is signed on-card inn thin black sharpie.

Boyd Devereaux Autograph Card

Boyd Devereaux was the Edmonton Oilers' first-round pick (6th overall) in 1996 ahead of Ruslan Salei (9th), Marco Sturm (21st), Daniel Brière (24th), Matt Cullen (35th), Steve Bégin (40th), Zdeno Chara (56th), Tom Poti (59th), Mark Parrish (79th), Toni Lydman (89th), Michal Rozsival (105th), Andreas Dackell (136th), Pavel Kubina (179th), Willie Mitchell (199th), Tomas Kaberle (204th), and Sami Salo (239th).

All things considered, he was definitely worth selecting in the first round (as would have been those I mentioned, though not in the same order), and he must have made the Oilers proud after scoring the game-winning goals in both the semi-finals (against Russia) and Finals (against Team USA) at the 1997 World Juniors, to lead Team Canada to gold. He was going to be clutch, and the Oilers were going to need that.

Also, keep in mind every Edmonton first-round selection between Jason Arnott (1993, 7th overall) and Ales Hemsky (2001, 13th overall):

1994: Jason Bonsignore (4th overall)
1994: Ryan Smyth (6th)
1995: Steve Kelly (6th)
1996: Devereaux (6th)
1996: Matthieu Descoteaux (19th)
1997: Michel Riesen (14th)
1998: Michael Henrich (13th)
1999: Jani Rita (13th)
2000: Alexei Mikhnov (17th)

Not exactly generational talents, save for Smyth, who was captain material. Which also makes Devereaux stand out as an NHL-caliber player, playing in 627 regular-season games (67 goals, 112 assists, 179 points) and winning the Stanley Cup in 2002 with the Detroit Red Wings. It probably would have been much more had his first AHL game not garnered him a concussion, and had he not suffered another one on a Dallas Drake hit that left him in convulsions.

And, to top it all off, after two seasons spent shuttling between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Marlies in 2007-08 and 2008-09, he moved to the Swiss League's famed HC Lugano, which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary; unfortunately for both the team and himself, as the season was paused and the team participated in the Spengler Cup, he was on the wrong side of a check that left him with fractured vertebrae. His career was over.

But he's always had an interest in artistic endeavors, having started his record label Elevation Records while still in the NHL, and now operating a video production company called Waking Sound Productions. Full disclosure: Elevation released a record by Thisquietarmy, who have ties to my UnPop Montréal festival via the Montreal Nintendo Orkestar/Symbiose family.

That being said, of course I was going to feature Devereaux as an Oiler, and he also counts as #19 in my Oilers Numbers Project with this card showing him in the team's late-1990s blue (away) uniform, with the ''oil driller'' shoulder patch:

It's the signed insert version of card #237 from Pinnacle Brands' 1997-98 Be A Player set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie.