Robyn Regehr Autograph Card

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My first reflex upon seeing that the Calgary Flames' "Reverse Retro" uniform was, in fact, the return of the "Flaming Horse" black jersey, was "Cool! A return to the Darryl Sutter and Jarome Iginla era!" I always appreciated that uniform as an alternate; it's really beautiful, even though I have a soft spot for the classic/current red-and-yellow as the "main" team identity.

Of course, at this point, Sutter is actually back behind the team's bench, riding a three-game win streak after defeating Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the rival Edmonton Oilers last night.

Another staple of Sutter's success is Robyn Regehr, who not only was a member of the 2004 Flames team that made it to Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, but he was also on the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings team that won its second Cup in three years with a Conference Final sandwiched in the middle. A mostly defensive defenseman, Regehr hit the 20-point mark three times (with a high of 26 in 2005-06) and, while he was rugged, generally remained below the 75-penalty minute threshold and never reached the century mark.

He is remembered fondly, with many seeing him as one of the best Flames players of all time (14th via Flames Nation, and 'best #28" for Matchsticks And Gasoline), which says a lot considering he was traded for the much-beloved Theoren Fleury; my own quick estimate has him ranked around the 20th spot, probably behind Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff, Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Mike Vernon, Mark Giordano, Gary Suter, Fleury, Johnny Gaudreau, Joel Otto, Joe Mullen, Hakan Loob, Kent Nilsson, Lanny McDonald (who in terms of career achievements would likely land top-three or top-five but as a Flame is within reach of the top-10) and perhaps Sean Monahan and Guy Chouinard. In his prime, there was no one in Canada you wanted to avoid meeting in a corner than him.

Of course, he fits perfectly as #28 in my Flames Numbers Project with the signed insert version (gold variant) of card #154 from In The Game's 2000-01 Signature Series collection:

It features a thin black-sharpied, on-card autograph with his jersey number tagged at the end. What a beautiful card!

Marc Chouinard Autograph Card

Hockey runs in Marc Chouinard's veins; his father Jean played in the IHL, uncles Jacques (captain) and Pierre (alternate) suited up for the Québec Remparts in the LHJMQ and each wore a letter, uncle Guy played in the NHL for over a decade with the Atlanta Flames, Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues before coaching in the LHJMQ for 30 years and in the Québec Collège system for the past decade or so, and cousin Éric Chouinard was a first-round selection of the Montréal Canadiens, so when Marc's name was called 32nd overall by the Winnipeg Jets in 1995, narry a soul was surprised.

Marc may have been 6'5" tall, he wasn't much over 200 pounds for a lot of his career, usually playing between 200 and 205, only reaching 218lbs in 2003-04; he was likely drafted to become a power forward, but even in the "Q" - a league that produced a fair portion of the NHL's toughest players from 1995 until the year-long lockout - he was more of a point-per-game gentlemanly player than a tough guy.

He had his best offensive seasons around the lockout, posting 11 goals and 21 points (with 17 penalty minutes) in 45 games in 2003-04 and 14 goals and 30 points (34 PIMs) in 74 games in 2005-06, both spent with the Minnesota Wild. He only started piling up penalty minutes when he moved to Europe, first with 30 points and 72 PIMs in 54 games over two seasons playing for Swtzerland's HC Fribourg-Gotteron, then 11 points and 20 penalty minutes in 19 games with the Cologne (Koln) Sharks in Germany in 2009-10. In both places, he was a much better point producer in the playoffs than the regular season, doing so at a near point-per-game clip.

I feel the best uniform he's worn, however, is the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim's turn-of-the-millennium garbs, as seen on the signed insert version of card #18 from In The Game's 2001-02 Be A Player Signature Series set:

It looks darker in the scan than to the naked eye; it's really sharp in person, the silver and darker grey foil letting the uniform's colours pop out of the card. It is signed very clearly, in black sharpie.

Jyrki Lumme Autograph Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Arizona Coyotes would finish sixth in the Pacific Division in 2019-20).

The Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes have been bottom-dwellers since their relocation in the late 1990s. They've employed superstars at various positions - Wayne Gretzky as a head coach, Brett Hull, Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick and Shane Doan up-front, Oliver Ekman-Larsson on defense, Curtis Joseph and Nikolai Khabibulin in net - but never won their division, and only once made it (accidentally) to a Conference Final, with the seasons before and after proving it was a fluke.

They're also one of those teams that always changes their uniforms, proving they're unstable and don't know what they're doing. Heck, they seem to be for sale every other year. I hear Hartford, Québec, Houston, Hamilton, Kansas City and Saskatoon are looking for teams to relocate there...

For now, Arizona is the NHL's retirement home, where players extend their careers by a year or three, cashing in their final cheques while remaining in the vicinity of what looks like a team, fully aware that they'd be forced to retire and turn to player development in any other city.

Which brings me to Jyrki Lumme, a former Montréal Canadiens draft pick (third round, 57th overall, 1986) who became a star with the Vancouver Canucks for most of the 1990s. Mostly known as a good skater, good passer and good shooter, the fact that he wasn't ready to put as much effort into defending (and because the Habs already had very good powerplay point men) in the earlier part of his career is what got him traded out of Montréal; it took him a few years of good offensive play on middling Vancouver teams to realize he had to become a more complete player, but when he did, he helped the team reach high levels of success, including a Stanley Cup Final in 1994 that was ultimately won by the New York Rangers.

When he turned 31, after two straight seasons with games missed to injury and a production that fell well below the 50-point mark, the Canucks opted not to re-sign him, so he left as a free agent and signed with the Coyotes, with whom he reached the 40-point plateau for the last time in 1999-2000.

After three seasons in Phoenix, he suited up with the Dallas Stars for 15 games and the Toronto Maple Leafs for the bulk of two seasons, before going back home to finish his career with a third stint (pre-NHL, lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, and 2005-07) with the only Finnish team he's ever played for, Ilves Tampere, which he now co-owns.

Here he is wearing the Yotes' Kachina-style original jersey which the team now uses as an alternate, on card #259 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player Signature Series set:

It's the "Gold" variant and includes an on-card black-sharpied signature.

Steve Konowalchuk Autograph Card

The Washington Capitals have clinched the Presidents' Trophy for the second consecutive season, but getting out of the Metropolitan Division won't be a cakewalk, seeing as it's home to three of the top five teams in the league - points-wise, at least, although the division's basement-dwellers were among the worst in the league - but it must be pointed out that one of those will be eliminated when the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Hopefully, the Jackets make it through.

The Caps really are a force, having the most offensive depth in the league (Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Justin Williams, André Burakovsky, Tom Wilson, Marcus Johansson, Lars Eller, Daniel Winnik, and Jay Beagle), the best goalie in the game in Braden Holtby, a very reliable defense that operates without a superstar (John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, Matt Niskanen, Karl Alzner, Brooks Orpik, trade deadline acquisition Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt, John Erskine and Taylor Chorney), and one of the best coaching minds in the league in Barry Trotz.

Here's an error card of former Cap two-way center Steve Konowalchuk (spelled "Konowalchuk"), showing him with the team's turn-of-the-millennium dark blue (away) uniform with the Capitol building logo, which is the signed silver version insert of card #13 from In The Game's 2000-01 Be A Player Signature Series set, autographed on-card in thin black sharpie:

When he first joined the Caps, who had drafted him 58th overall in 1991, he was slotted behind Dale Hunter, Dave Poulin, Michal Pivonka and Joé Juneau but climbed the ranks steadily, earning his teammates' respect enough to serve as captain (2001-03) until he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche. He could be depended upon for 40-some points each season in the era between the first two Gary Bettman-led lockouts (from 1995-96 until 2003-04).

He earned enough league-wide respect to not only be selected as a depth player for Team USA's 1996 World Cup run, but even to suit up in a game and help it earn the win. He also played in the 2000 (5th-place finish) and 2002 (7th place) World Championships.

Following his playing career, he spent time with the Avs in player development roles and two seasons as an assistant coach before becoming the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds head coach in 2011-12; the team lost in the Finals last season and boasts an even better record (46-20-0, for a .681 win percentage) this year.

Steve Sullivan Autograph Card

The Chicago Blackhawks are currently in the conversation as to who will finish first in the Western Conference, with the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild also in the mix. The Hawks are firing on all cylinders, with all their stars - Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Artemi Panarin - scoring, and rookie Nick Schmaltz filling in for the injured Artem Anisimov; Corey Crawford and Scott Darling are also doing their part keeping the puck out of their own net.

As the NHL is preparing for its 100-year celebration, the Hawks are currently in their 91st season. Unlike the Toronto Maple Leafs, which started out as the Toronto Arenas and were also known as the Toronto St. Patricks before taking on the Leafs moniker, the Hawks' only name change was its spelling, as they were known as the Chicago Black Hawks from 1926 until 1986, when they combined the words to become the Blackhawks.

For many of its formative years, the Hawks were comfortable sharing last-place with the New York Americans and New York Rangers. Things turned even worse during the James E. Norris era (1944-1966), as the Detroit Red Wings' owner - who also owned Chicago Stadium and had the Hawks as tenants - bought the franchise, essentially making it a farm club for his Wings... and one less adversary to bother with, essentially cementing their playoff position every year by winning against their own B team.

Things got better upon Norris' death, as Arthur Wirtz and son Bill orchestrated the Hawks' move to the weaker Western division and plowed through the expansion teams for most of the 1970s. Sure, the WHA dealt the team a serious blow when the Winnipeg Jets hired Bobby Hull (and, to a lesser extent, André Lacroix), but they still won seven division titles in the decade. However, when it came to championships, the team could not compete with the Eastern Division come playoff time - especially not the mighty Montréal Canadiens.

The 1980s brought forth Denis Savard, Steve Larmer and Doug Wilson, so, again, the team was competitive enough to make the playoffs, although it was never a true contender. The decade was all about the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets out West, and the New York Islanders, Habs, Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Québec Nordiques (for the first half) in the East.

The franchise peaked with a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1991-92 for the first time in 19 years, powered by the likes of Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick and Ed Belfour, but it was all downhill from there. Bill Wirtz saw his team trade away all of its stars and finish near the bottom of the standings from 1997-98 until 2008-09, with the sole exception of their first-round exit in 2001-02.

In 2004, ESPN even named the Hawks the "worst franchise in sports", as their arena was empty - partly because the team was so awful, but also as a protest towards Wirtz' media blackout where the team's local games were not televised.

In 2007, Rocky Wirtz took over the franchise after his father's death and revised many of the team's policies, including that of the TV blackout. GM Dale Talon had built the foundation of the team's depth and drafted Toews and Kane as the franchise's offensive cornerstones. They hadn't necessarily tanked prior to building their contender - they just sucked - but they were on a definite upswing, one that remains to this day, as Chicago can proudly claim to be this generation's dynasty team, with three Stanley Cups to date with the same core, supported by a bunch of two-time winners.

In speaking of the Hawks' history, I decided to feature a card that showed them celebrating their 75th anniversary; granted, it was during a bleak period in their history, but one they had to get through to become what they are today. And so I present you the signed version of card #83 from In The Game's 2001-02 Be A Player Signature Series set, it of the ''gold'' variant variety:

It features hard-working nearly-point-per-game winger Steve Sullivan, wearing the team's classic red (then-away) uniform, with the 75th anniversary patch on his chest. It was signed on-card in thin black sharpie.

These days, Sullivan is an Arizona Coyotes player development coach.

Ciara Price Autograph Card

Happy Valentine's Day!

To get there, here's card #RB-CP from Benchwarmer's 2015 Signature Series set, featuring none other than Ciara Price, the Maine-born model-turned-DJ:

It features a black-sharpied on-card autograph (with a heart tagged at the end of it) and a superb gold/black/red design and colour palette.

Here's the back:

If I remember correctly, she now has a tattoo on the left side of her back where her bikini top is, and another on her right butt cheek.

Formerly linked to rugby player Mitchell Pearce, UFC fighter Sean Loeffler and the Dallas Stars' Tyler Seguin, she usually likes her men built and slightly bearded - and her sports tough and physical.

She was Playboy's Playmate Of The Month in November 2011, and also graced the cover two more times after that.

Mark Grudzielanek: 2 Autographed Cards

As far as shortstops go, Mark Grudzielanek made his mark in three and a half years with the Montréal Expos, but he wasn't the finest they've ever had at the position; Spike Owen was the best defensive infielder in the National League for a few years, and Wilfredo Cordero was an All-Star, so the competition's impressive.

Then again, Grudzielanek was an All-Star himself in 1996 (grounding out in his only at-bat), and a Gold Glove winner in 2006 with the Kansas City Royals, so he's no slouch either. He also led the NL in at-bats (649) and doubles (54) in 1997, his last full summer with the Expos, as he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers near the 1998 trade deadline and played parts of five seasons in L.A., where he set an unusual MLB record, with 35 straight home games with at least a hit in 1999, the year he finished sixth in the NL with a .326 batting average.

His career batting average was a decent .289, but towards the end, he was often injured.

Post-retirement, he has moved into a managerial career, first as the Arizona Diamondbacks' Class-A manager, then as part of their Player Development staff.

He probably signed the two cards I'm featuring today in the late 1990s - so, likely as a Dodger, which is ironic considering the other notable #4 for the Expos in my youth was Delino DeShields, who was also a middle-infielder who was sent to L.A. Both cards were signed in blue sharpie and show him wearing the Expos' grey (away) uniform.

First, here's card #76 from Donruss' 1996 Leaf Signature Series set:

And here's card #267 from Topps' 1997 Bowman collection:

You get a good feel of his batting stance with those cards. As you might expect, he fits very well in my Expos Numbers Project.

Nicole Loum Autograph Card

Ealier this summer, I received Benchwarmer's 2015 Fathers' Day set with a few added inserts, and this was one of them:

It's card #60 from BW's 2015 Signature Series set featuring Canadian model Nicole Loum (it also acts as her de facto "Rookie Card" seeing as it's her first presence in a full set, but she'd appeared in special-edition mini-sets prior to this one); she signed it in black sharpie and appears to have made a mistake in doing so, judging by the smudge in her signature.

Loum hails from Sainte Catharines, Ontario (currently actually lives in Toronto) and burst onto the modeling scene in 2014 with a bunch of photo shoots of very proud photographers and onto a few red carpet events with Benchwarmer CEO Brian Wallos, as well as a few card collectors' events in Las Vegas.

I anticipate her popularity to blow up in the coming years, as she's quickly becoming a BW staple and will soon grace magazine ads and covers.

Lyle Odelein Autograph Card

Lyle Odelein was the Columbus Blue Jackets' very first captain, serving in that capacity for their first two seasons, before they traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks for Jaroslav Spacek. He'd previously acted as alternate captain for both the Montréal Canadiens and New Jesey Devils, and both in successful Stanley Cup runs (the Habs in 1993, the Devils in 2000).

He was a tough customer, but not an actual enforcer; he didn't back down from a fight but rarely instigated it. Instead, he rarely made defensive-zone mistakes for most of his career (save the early years as he was learning the ropes) but only once did he really make a notable and amazing offensive contribution, an end-to-end rush in which he deked everybody and scored on Ed Belfour. There was also the time where he had 5 assists in a single game, tying a Habs record he now shares with Sheldon Souray and Doug Harvey (for my money, the best defenseman in NHL history).

So, yeah, he may not have been a superstar, but he was kind of a big deal.

So here he is wearing the Jackets' original blue uniform, without the "C", so during a pre-season game, from In The Game's 2000-01 Be A Player Signature Series set (it's the signed insert version of card #88, the silver variant), which he signed on-card in thin black sharpie:

I very much prefer their current uniforms; these original ones are too simple, with too much of one colour and not enough design or thought having gone into it.

Patrick Lalime Autograph Card

It's often forgotten just how good Patrick Lalime was, probably because his Ottawa Senators would fall to the Toronto Maple Leafs every Spring. However, he finished in the top-10 for Vezina Trophy votes twice - and not even in his spectacular rookie season, where he went undefeated in his first 16 NHL starts, going 14-0-2 with the Pittsburgh Penguins after injuries befell Ken Wregget and Tom Barrasso - not unlike the situation Andrew Hammond faced with the Sens this year - and got an All-Rookie Team nod.

Upon leaving Ottawa, Lalime had somewhat underwhelming seasons with the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks (due to injury in the latter case) before redeeming and reinventing himself as a reliable backup with the Buffalo Sabres for his final three seasons in the league.

He then turned to broadcasting, first as the colour commentator and analyst for Sens games on RDS, and this year for Montréal Canadiens games on TVA Sports. While he currently pales in comparison to his Habs counterpart on RDS broadcasts (Marc Denis), as his whole network does, hopefully he can improve enough over the 11 remaining seasons of his station's broadcast deal to make up for lost ground.

Like Jeff Glass before him and Robin Lehner nowadays, Lalime wore #40 with the Sens, as can be seen here in this beautiful silver foil card from In The Game's 2002-03 Be A Player Signature Series card (#035 in the set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie with his jersey number tagged at the end), showing him wearing the team's beautiful, original white (then-home) uniform:

He's exhibiting the perfect butterfly-style basic position, with his glove around the mid-body like I teach kids to do (except I prefer when it stands out straight, not downwards like here, because split-seconds matter more than ever before nowadays). His masks were cool and pretty much always featured Marvin The Martian from the Looney Tunes animations.

J.P. Dumont Autograph Card

It looks more and more like the Buffalo Sabres will finish last in the NHL to ''gain'' a 20% chance of winning the draft lottery and pick first; at the very worst, the last-place team can pick second overall, and there are allegedly at least two ''generational'' players available in this year's crop (Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel).

But the same was also said of Pat Falloon at some point, and Alexandre Daigle was another ''can't-miss'' sure shot. The point being: it's not just about raw talent; luck, development and environment also comes into play, as does character.

I hope the Sabres or Edmonton Oilers win the lottery, because I'd like the talented guys who can potentially turn a team around go to a loyal fanbase who deserves it, not build one from scratch. But ideally, I'd go back to how it used to be - and how it remains in the NFL - which is, the team that finishes last picks first. It's the best way to ensure parity, that the rich don't keep getting richer, and that there's a rotation of potential talent.

Representing the Sabres today is Jean-Pierre Dumont, seen here from behind in the team's turn-of-the-millennium white (home) uniform:

It's card #4 of In The Game's 2001-02 Be A Player Signature Series (signed insert of the ''gold'' variant variety, though the scan looks greenish), signed on-card in black sharpie.

Originally a first-round pick (third overall in 1996) of the New York Islanders, he is one of the many blunders of then-GM Mike Milbury, he who traded away an entire Stanley Cup-contending roster of players during his tenure on Long Island, with a stud two-time gold medalist Olympian, former captain and perennial Vezina-nominated goalie (Roberto Luongo), Olympian goalie Tommy Salo, a Norris-winning defenseman and NHL captain (Zdeno Chara), other top-line defensemen (Vladimir Malakhov, Bryan Berard and/or Wade Redden, and Bryan McCabe), another two former first-round pick defensemen (Scott Lachance and Canadian Olympian Eric Brewer), an All-Star 100-point center and former NHL captain (the draft pick that became Jason Spezza), an Olympic medalist center who was an NHL captain (Olli Jokinen), the biggest brawns-for-pounds power forward of the 1990s (Todd Bertuzzi), and known pests Jarko Ruutu and Raffi Torres, in addition to Dumont.

Dumont is a six-time 20-goal scorer (with a high of 29 in 2007-08 with the Nashville Predators), eight-time 40-point producer and three of those being 65 or over, with a high of 72 in 2007-08. He got Lady Byng votes four times in his career (though he's only had 20 or less PIMs five times in his career) and retired having surpassed the 800-game, 200-goal, 300-assist and 500-point milestones.

He also has 17 goals, 17 assists, and 34 points in 51 playoff games, including 14 points in 18 games in a fine run by the Sabres in 2005-06.

I played with him in Midget AAA with the Montréal-Bourassa / Collège Français Canadiens in 1994-95, and he went on to play with my high school teammate (with the Notre-Dame Sabres) Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre both in the LHJMQ's Val D'Or Foreurs and the (NHL) Sabres. He also played with Steve Bégin, Luongo, and Francis Lessard on the Foreurs. (My rights belonged to the Laval / Collège Français Titans in 1995-96 and Halifax Mooseheads the following year, but I never officially played in regulation, I was a goon who was tapped to pretend to play goal but instead started a fight; somehow HockeyDB doesn't acknowledge my 100-plus PIMs because I didn't register a complete minute of play for the Titan).

He also played with another of my high school teammates, Ben Guité, with the Preds in 2009-10. His is a small world.

He had started his career with two seasons playing for the Chicago Blackhawks as a complement to sniper Éric Dazé, but was ultimately sent to Buffalo with an aging Doug Gilmour for Michal Grosek, essentially.

Mike Ribeiro Autograph Card

Well, congratulations are in order for Mike Ribeiro, who seems to once again have found work centering an NHL team's first line, this time with the Nashville Predators (possibly the last team in the West without a #1 center), where he'll be able to feed James Neal enough perfect passes to once more reach the 40-goal plateau.

The pair had previously been teammates with the Dallas Stars, and a natural passer combined with a natural shooter, both with things to prove, just might be what makes the Preds a playoff-bound team. That, and the play of Pekka Rinne and Shea Weber, of course.

But with the additions of Ribeiro, Neal, Olli Jokinen, and Derek Roy, and with Mike Fisher set to return from injury in December to play along with the young prospects the organization has been grooming, it's safe to say Nashville has never been so deep in their top-6 forwards, despite some being in their twilight years (Jokinen and Roy, particularly).

And it's a cheap group, too, with Ribeiro out to make $1.05M, Roy $1M, and Jokinen $2.5M.

So it's a great time to feature this signed insert from In the Game's 2001-02 Be A Player Signature Series set (card #237, his First Signature Card as stated on the back, signed on-card in thin black sharpie with his jersey number - 71 - tagged at the end), showing him in the Montréal Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform:

Yanic Perreault Autograph Card

Might as well combine the opportunities to acknowledge St. Jean Baptiste Day (a.k.a. Québec's National Holiday) and score another one (#94) for my Habs Numbers Project...

It's my third Yanic Perreault post in nine months (with more in the pipeline!), so I might not have anything new to say, but as the Hall Of Fame inductees were named yesterday, I could only be happy that Eric Lindros didn't make it in, for the fourth time.

I make the parallel because both players were drafted in the same year, and both were dominating their own Juniors league - Lindros in the OHL, Perreault in the LHJMQ; but when they were opposed, Perreault usually had the best of Lindros, first at the pre-draft CHL All-Star Game, then in the NHL where while Lindros had three amazing seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, Perreault could shut him down by winning face-offs, as he was the best of his era in that specific category.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer a 100-point producing wrecking ball of fury than a guy who wins 60% of his draws yet passed the 55-point mark only twice. Generally.

Except Lindros came with so many other problems, chief among them his parents, who doubled as his agents. He refused to report to the team that drafted him (the Québec Nordiques), and after being given the Flyers captaincy, held out a whole season because of a contract dispute. He could never bring his team a Stanley Cup, and was below the point-per-game production at every senior international competition (34 in 36 in total despite a 17-point, 8-game World Championship in 1993 when his Flyers failed to make the playoffs), Canada Cup (5 in 8), World Cup (6 in 8 despite being in his prime), and he had a single goal in 6 games in the 2002 Olympics, the only time he medaled in three Olympiads, FOR TEAM CANADA.

And most of his supporters argue that his production is comparable to that of others who were struck with a history of injuries, chiefly Pavel Bure and Peter Forsberg. Except that's just looking at the first number of each stat line:

Bure: 779 points in 702 games, Soviet League Rookie Of The Year, Calder trophy, 2 Rocket Richard trophies, 1998 Olympics best forward award

Forsberg: 885 points in 708 games (171 in 151 playoff games), 2 Cups, Calder, Hart, Lester B. Pearson trophies, 2 Olympic gold medals (4 gold total), 5 silver medals, two-time Triple-Gold Club member, 8th of all time in points-per-game

Lindros: 865 in 760 games (just 53 playoff games), Hart and Lester B. Pearson trophies

Lindros played in 50 more games than Forsberg to get 20 less points. ''Oh, but Forsberg played on the same team as Joe Sakic''. Exactly: both were centers, and both were taking ice time from one another, not feeding each other for easy goals. As a matter of fact, they often had to split the talent level on the wing to try to accommodate both of them and balance things out, whereas the Flyers put their three best forwards on their Legion Of Doom and let them carry the team... to nowhere.

And so it is my opinion that Lindros shouldn't make it to the Hall, though perhaps they could set up a booth where they recall that the Legion Of Doom had a great three-year stint in which they could only be rivaled by the Vancouver Canucks' line of Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund.

And right next to it, a booth showing (all of) Yanic Perreault's face-off wins in a loop. The players weren't durable or consistent enough to warrant entry into the eternal shrine, but some of their feats were.

And so today's card is this 2002-03 Be A Player Signature Series card (#042 in the set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie, a beautiful silver foil card) by In The Game:

Pavel Rosa Autograph Card

Pavel Rosa was destined to have a great NHL career. An elite shooter and passer with tremendous speed, all he needed was to be surrounded by tougher players to protect him from cheap shots - as his LHJMQ team the Hull Olympiques did in 1995-96 when they had Peter Worrell, Colin White, Mike Coveny (whom I fought twice in the same pre-season game that year and, yes, I was a goalie), Gordie Dwyer (whom I also fought), Mario Larocque (a distant cousin of mine), Sean Farmer and Russell Smith, all of whom were willing to stand up and protect the likes of Rosa, Martin Ménard and Jonathan Delisle, or those who dared come into contact with José Théodore.

That year, his rookie year in Juniors, Rosa accumulated 46 goals and 116 points in just 61 games, and improved to 63 goals and 152 points in just 68 games the following year. He also had fine seasons in the AHL with the Manchester Monarchs, even finishing as the league's leading scorer in 2003-04, but he was never really given a chance to shine with the Los Angeles Kings, and when the 2004-05 lock-out occurred, rather than remain in the AHL where he was dominating, he opted to move back to Europe, first with two seasons with the renowned Moscow HC Dynamo and eventually the KHL's Avantguard Omsk and the historical Swiss team Fribourg-Gotteron HC (founded in 1938, and whose logo was inspired the by Montréal Canadiens').

All told, Rosa played in 36 games with the Kings over 4 seasons, scoring 5 goals with 18 points. He scored twice in his very first NHL game, and there was one season where he had two points in two games but wasn't retained to stay.

Still, I consider him a considerable talent, and I'm very happy to have this 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series card (#125 in the set) of his from In The Game, showing him in the Kings' turn-of-the-millennium white (home) uniform, signed in black sharpie:

Donald Audette Autograph Card

I made my predictions for the first round of this playoff season on my regular blog, and I followed my heart for all of the series except one (I'm rooting for the Detroit Red Wings against the Boston Bruins, who I believe are a stronger team with a much better goalie). That means I'm rooting for the Los Angeles Kings in their series against the San Jose Sharks, so I thought I'd feature a card that referenced them:

It's from In The Game's 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #121 in the set), a beautiful silver foil autographed insert card signed in thin black sharpie of Donald Audette, one of the consistent 25-30 goal scorer of the Dead Puck Era.

Oddly enough, in the year and a half he spent in L.A., he had a great impact, finishing second on the team in both goals and points in his lone full season with the team in 1998-99 despite playing in only 49 games. His 18 goals were a long way from Luc Robitaille's 39 (in 82 games), but two ahead of Glen Murray's total of 16 (in 61 games); his points total of 36 was far behind Robitaille's 74, but one ahead of Rob Blake's 35 (in 62 games) and two ahead of Jozef Stumpel's 34 (in 64 games).

He would have his best offensive output with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2000-01, with 32 goals, 39 assists and 71 points in just 64 games, which was his second-highest games total, behind only the 77 he played with the Buffalo Sabres in 1993-94. He never once played a full season.

All told, he finished his career with 735 NHL games played with 6 different teams (two stints with the Sabres), 260 goals, 249 assists, 509 points and 584 penalty minutes in the regular season. He also has 21 goals and 48 points in 73 career playoff games. He wasn't a Hall Of Famer, but his All-Star Game appearance (in 2001) wasn't a fluke either, he was a solid performer for most of his career.

These days, he's an amateur scout for the Montréal Canadiens, and I sent him a fan letter (through the team) earlier this season.

Kitana Baker Prop (Baseball Cap) Card

Kitana Baker's career has really taken off since first being ''discovered'' through Playboy's Girls Next Door contest, gaining major fame through her Miller Lite commercials in 2002 as one of the ''Catfight Girls'' with fellow model Tanya Ballinger, enough to start hosting shows on E! and The Playboy Channel, and to have cameos on WWE programming.

She has had small parts in such films as Auto Focus, Intolerable Cruelty and The Scorpion King, as well as in the 2008 flop B-movie-with-decent-actors-in-it Toxic, alongside Tom Sizemore, Susan Ward, Dominique Swain, Danny Trejo, Bai Ling, Lochlyn Munro and rapper Master P.

She was a Benchwarmer regular from 2003 until 2010, and this card is from packs of the brand's 2008 Signature Series collection:

As stated on the front of the card and obvious because of its colour, this ''Prop Card''  (#PC 7 of the 15 in the set) features a piece of the baseball cap she's sporting in the picture, possibly the largest item of clothing she has on. It just might be the thickest card I own, at nearly half an inch.

It is one of two BW swatch cards I own (unless I have another one hidden somewhere that I'm forgetting about) and is probably the one with the highest ''book value'' though, like most of my cards, I don't plan on ever selling it.

I do still have unopened boxes of this set, though; I might sell those some time in the future.

Brad Stuart Autograph Card

The San Jose Sharks keep finding ways to do well in the regular season and seed high in time for the playoffs... hopefully they also keep up with the early exit strategy...

After 41 games, the Sharks had 49 points, and Brad Stuart had 5 - all assists - which is normal, considering the bulk of prime powerplay minutes go to Dan Boyle and Brent Burns. As I mentioned back in September, he is back with the Sharks now after six-and-a-half seasons spent with the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings, with whom he won the 2008 Stanley Cup.

Below is a card from In The Game's 1999-2000 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #214, labeled 'First Signature Card' on the back), where he is sporting the late-1990s Sharks' away jersey, one I liked the colours to but hated the design, with what seems now like the ancestors of the Reebok RBK Edge 'piping' patterns:

Teal, grey and black work well together, just, you know, not that way.

Guy Hebert Autograph Card

I'm preparing for two hockey pool drafts (a keeper in its second year tomorrow, a one-season deal on Saturday), and my 2013 predictions for my regular blog, and I have to say I don't think the Anaheim Ducks will be making the playoffs this year, which doesn't bode well for my keeper pool, seeing as I have both Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf in it...

But it got me thinking about this Guy Hebert card from In The Game's 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series (card #5) - yes, another one from that set - signed in thin black sharpie!

I love Hebert's position in this card, awaiting the shot, focused, looking like a gladiator, his equipment white like his Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim (home) jersey.

Since the Ducks changed their name, we can almost view the Mighty Ducks as either a period of the team's history, or just a different team altogether, and Hebert, to me, pretty much represented the team. Sure, many will point to Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne as the key figures, but Kariya never produced as much without Selanne, who was lucky enough to also have Saku Koivu share to a special bond with.

But Hebert made Team USA 4 times (at the 1990 Goodwill Games, 1994 World Championships, 1996 World Cup and 1998 Nagano Olympics), the NHL All-Star team and, most importantly, had a character named after him in the short-lived animation TV series.

Also, apart from his first 37 NHL games (played with the St. Louis Blues) and last 13 (New York Rangers), he played all of his NHL games in Anaheim.

Mike Ricci Autograph Card

I was a big Mike Ricci fan as a teenager, maybe not when he was drafted 4th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1990 leading me to own over 100 copies of his 1990 Score rookie card, but certainly when the Flyers traded him to the Québec Nordiques with half a team for crybaby Eric Lindros.

The Nordiques being my favourite team, I saw a lot of Ricci on an up-and-coming team featuring Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan and Ron Tugnutt, and my heart followed them when the team became the Colorado Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup.

He was a gritty forward with a knack for scoring important goals, but when the Avs traded him to the San Jose Sharks - essentially for a draft pick that became Alex Tanguay - he added the title of ''reliable two-way forward'' to his resume. He helped make the Shalks perennial contenders for the new millenium, with the help of Nolan and Vincent Damphousse, of course. Speaking of which, this is a signed insert from In the Game's 1999-00 Be A Player Millennium Signature Series (card #216), signed in skinny black sharpie; seeing as I knew I'd write about this set when I stumbled upon some of the cards I already owned from it during the Holidays, I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it at $2 shipping included on Ebay. It's my only Ricci memorabilia, though, so maybe I'll write to him this winter, seeing as he's back into the Sharks' organization as an advisor nowadays.

Two Stéphane Fiset Autograph Cards

In keeping with yesterday's theme of Los Angeles Kings goalies, I'll feature Stéphane Fiset today, one of my favourite goalies of the 1990s.

I was lucky enough to pull autographs of his in packs of successive seasons of cards; the packs were purchased on Ebay at two bucks apiece, and opened within weeks of one another, last summer. Both are signed in black sharpie and made of black/silver foil.

First, wearing the Kings' white (home) jersey, from In The Game's 1998-98 Be A Player Signature Series (card #214):

And, second, from ITG's 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series (card #119), here he is wearing the Kings' black (away) uniform:

Both cards show his usual butterfly stance, his center of gravity very low (I always had the impression he was trying to sit on the back of his skates when I was watching him), but playing ''wide'' and taking up a lot of left-to-right prime real estate.

I didn't follow him that closely with the Kings, for a variety of reasons ranging from a lack of interest in the sport in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the fact that I'm on the East Coast and he was on the West - time zone differences, plus not all games were available to all regions back then - and because I was mostly interested in the Québec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche franchise he was no longer a part of.

But from 1990 to 1996, I saw over a hundred of his games and was rooting for him with all of my heart.