Teemu Selanne Jersey Card

It was just a few hours ago that the Anaheim Ducks retired Teemu Selanne's number, in an hour-and-a-half ceremony that was classy, solemn, and yet a tad lengthy (the jersey itself could have taken less than 8 minutes to get to the rafters, for example, even Selanne and his family looked at a loss at some point), but more than his speech or the rising itself, what got to me the most was that both the Ducks and the Winnipeg Jets (not quite the franchise that had drafted him, but its spiritual successor of sorts) wore not just Selanne jerseys, but different ones, with the Jets sporting their early-to-mid-1990s white uniform (with horizontal arm stripes), and some Ducks even sporting the much-maligned Disney third uniform (and too many orange ones from last year's Stadium Series, probably so they could sell whatever's left over):

We could think of no better way to honour Teemu. pic.twitter.com/h0SUmQJlAZ
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) January 12, 2015

By now, I'm sure you're aware he's going to be a first-ballot Hall Of Famer. Before even coming to North America, he won the Finnish League's trophies for best goal-scorer, most gentlemanly player and his team (Jokerit Helsinki) won its league championship.

He holds the NHL rookie scoring records with an astounding 76 goals and 132 points, and finished his career with 684 goals (good for 11th of all-time) and 1457 points (15th of all-time) in 1451 games. The only team with which he was far from the point-per-game rhythm was his season with the Colorado Avalanche, where his 16 goals and 32 points in 78 games were a bit of a disappointment.

As a member of the Ducks franchise, he leads the team with 457 career goals, and his 988 points are just short of the 1000 mark. He also had 44 goals and 88 points in 130 playoff games, including 15 points in 21 games in 2006-07 when he won the Stanley Cup.

Both his 500th and 600th goals were scored against the Avs.

Sure, he had four 100-point seasons and two more in the 90s, but his point production that struck me the most were his 80 points in 73 games at the age of 39 in 2010-11. He was also - fittingly - the first recipient of the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy as top goal scorer in 1998-99, marking the third time he led the league in goals.

He also won a Masterton Trophy and was a perennial contender for the Lady Byng and Hart as well, though he was often a finalist but never a winner of those. He did end up on two end-of-season First All-Star Teams, and two Second All-Star Teams as well, and played in a total of 10 All-Star Games.

Internationally, the Finnish Flash has probably won his own weight in medals despite playing for often-neglected and perennial underdogs Team Finland, often classified behind Canada, the United States, Russia and Sweden if only because Finland has a smaller population. Still, he has a silver (2006) and three bronze (1998, 2010, and 2014) Olympic medals, and his 43 career points at the Games are, indeed, an IIHF record, and he also has silver (1999) and bronze (2008) medals from the World Championships. He was named the MVP of the 2014 Games and the best forward of the 2006 ones, and MVP of the 1999 Worlds.

I wrote to him in April, and I never really expected an answer back - I just wanted him to know how I felt about him as a player and as the classy human that he is. I tried to save up enough money for a trip to his final game in Anaheim, but I just couldn't get it together fast enough. It turned out to be a tear-inducer, though.

I have a couple of jersey cards of his, and I thought I could feature this one today, from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Pros & Prospects set (#TS of the Game Jersey sub-set), showing him with the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim's classic white (home) uniform and featuring a black swatch:

The Finnish Flash retired as one of the most charismatic players in the game; Grandfather Time, Jaromir Jagr, seems poised to take up the mantle, but Selanne will never be forgotten.

Two Marshall Faulk Jersey Cards

One jersey card of one of the best running backs in NFL history is pretty cool; two identical ones rocks hard. That's what I got when I purchased an unusually large cello pack of Upper Deck's 2001 Pros & Prospects football cards, only to find the same Marshall Faulk Game Jersey card, complete with dark blue swatch, the only difference being one has tears in the seams (see the card on the right) and the other one is mint. The 2011 Hall of Famer must have gotten in a few tussles in that game...

Faulk has had a distinguished career as the only player to ever rush for 12,000 yards and catch for 6,000 more; as a matter of fact, only two can claim the combo of 10,000 and 5,000... Add that to 7 Pro Bowls (one Pro Bowl MVP title), 6 All-Pro nominations, 15 different trophies won, a Super Bowl victory, having his jersey number retired by the St. Louis Rams and ending his career as the tenth leading rusher of all time and you have got yourself a unique athlete.

I, for one, look forward to his commentating on NFL games that will be officiated by the best referees in the world for the next 8 years, refs who don't decide to call or not depending on the score, amount of time left, of time of year but instead make the right calls because it's what they saw - not like the NHL.

This card (#MF-J) is valued at roughly $25 (each).

Emmanuel 'Manny' Fernandez Autographed Card

It's pretty hard to believe the Philadelphia Flyers signed career minor leaguer Sébastien Caron yesterday from a team who was eliminated in the Swiss league to send him straight to face the Montréal Canadiens tonight when there's an NHL-caliber goalie who has actually won hardware in the best league in the world (the Jennings trophy, twice, once with the Minnesota Wild and once with the Boston Bruins) and is a free agent - Emmanuel 'Manny' Fernandez.

It started perfectly for Fernandez: he was picked 52nd overall by the Québec Nordiques in the 1992 NHL draft and was destined to form a superb all-francophone duo with Stéphane Fiset that would dominate for years... but he kept being surpassed by others in the team's hierarchy, notably Jocelyn Thibault, so the Nordiques sent him to the Dallas Stars, where he proved to be a more than capable backup, perhaps even a good starter, and then the Wild took a chance on him. With Dwayne Roloson, they were probably the best goaltending duo in the league for a few years running. When Roloson left, Fernandez did a decent job as the team's #1 goalie, until Niklas Backstom, younger, was deemed mature enough to take the reins himself.

That's when Fernandez signed with the Bruins. His first season was marred with injuries, but in his second season, he and Tim Thomas proved to be the league's best goaltending duo as they won the Jennings. Signing Thomas to a long-term, high-paying contrat this summer showed Fernandez the door, though, and he is still a free agent today, thus available to the Flyers.

This beautiful card (#42), from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Pros & Prospects set, was signed in person by Fernandez in blue sharpie, while we were both guest teachers at a goaltending summer school in Montréal, in the summer of 2004.