Ales Hemsky Autograph Card

The Dallas Stars seem to be in a selling mood, with the prospect of missing the playoffs one year after leading the Western Conference now becoming a reality more and more every day.

The off-kilter season started with a slew of injuries to their star players suffered at the World Cup, continued with the poor goaltending of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi, and just never let up.

One of the forwards lost at the World Cup was Ales Hemsky, who appeared in a single game before it was deemed he would need season-ending surgery to repair his hip. While he wasn't exactly lighting it up in Dallas, he did have back-to-back 30-plus-point seasons (32 and 39, respectively) with the Stars, decent middle-six numbers in this day and age, although way below his career highs (77, 71 and 66 with the Edmonton Oilers after the 2004-05 season-long lockout), and below what he usually puts up with the Czech Team in international competitions; he did lead his country in points at the 2014 Olympics, in addition to his securing a 2006 Olympic bronze medal and 2005 gold and 2012 bronze medals from the World Championships.

Here he is on card #SFS-AH from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Trilogy set and Scripts One sub-set, showing him in the Oilers' late-1990s white (home) uniform with the team's 25th Anniversary patch:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph that makes him the perfect entry for #83 in my Oilers Numbers Project.

Patrick O'Sullivan Autograph Card

What's cool about platforms like Twitter is that you can interact with other people on any subject - even professionals, as was the case today when Patrick O'Sullivan and I disagreed on not just Patrick Roy leaving his dual position as Colorado Avalanche head coach and VP of Hockey Operations, but goalies as coaches in general.

I think Roy saw that GM Joe Sakic wasn't going to provide him with another top-4 defenseman - although some are still available on the free agent market, namely Kris Russell, whereas the Avs also have decent trade chips up front with the likes of Matt Duchene to acquire one from another team, be it one of those who have already moved (Adam Larsson, Erik Gudbranson, Dmitri Kulikov, P.K. Subban, Shea Weber) or someone who is currently under the radar (Torrey Krug, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Alexander Edler or Nathan Beaulieu).

And while a lot of people discredit Roy's Jack Adams Trophy because the team's possession stats have always been skewed, that's more the product of a D that cannot find a way to get the puck to their forwards than of a coach who doesn't understand what system to play or what buttons to push; other former goalies have done (Gerry Cheevers) and are doing wonders behind the bench, such as Jeff Blashill and Peter Skudra, not to mention Jacques Martin's work on the Pittsburgh Penguins' sub-par defense group, enabling them to play to their strengths and hide their weaknesses on their way to this year's Stanley Cup.

And that's saying nothing of the work the likes of Félix Potvin and Jocelyn Thibault are doing in Juniors and the fact that a good portion of NHL in-game analysts have played the position, the best of whom are Marc Denis, Kelly Hrudey, Darren Pang, and Glenn Healy, and José Theodore being one of the worst. That shows a pretty deep understanding of the game...

I, of course, might be tooting my own horn:

That being said, here is O'Sullivan wearing the Los Angeles Kings' former white (home) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Trilogy set (and Script 1 and Young Stars sub-sets):

That's card #S1-PO in the series and features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.