Pierre-Marc Bouchard Swatch Card

After a season where he led his team - the Swiss NLA's Zug EV - in scoring and winning the league's MVP award, former Minnesota Wild standout Pierre-Marc Bouchard has decided to retire at age 31 from post-concussion issues.

He had only just begun to fill out the promise of being an impact player (I used to compare him to Mike Ribeiro, a terrific playmaker who had decent hands enough to make nice plays and deke - not the best shot, but perfect for setting up a teammate) when he suffered his first concussion, which took him a year and a half to recover from; he had suffered it in the very first game of the 2009-10 season and came back in December of the following year, posting a decent 38 points in 59 games in 2010-11.

After two more injury-filled seasons with the team that had picked him 8th overall in 2002, he signed with the New York Islanders for the 2013-14 season, but after posting just 9 points in 28 games, he was sent to the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, where he found his game and produced at a rate of 17 points in 20 games... before the Isles gave up on him and traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks, who also parked him in the AHL, this time with the Rockford IceHogs, with whom he had 20 points in 24 games.

That wasn't enough to convince faint-hearted NHL GMs to take a chance on him, and he signed with Zug, whom he led in scoring in both years he was there, first with 51 points in 49 games, and 67 points in the same number of games last year.

I have more cards of his to feature in the future, but I'll start with this odd one, which isn't necessarily a jersey swatch, showing him in the Wild's green uniform, on card #SS-PB from Fleer's 2006-07 Flair Showcase collection and Showcase Stitches sub-set, by Upper Deck:

It could be a piece of a jersey, or a fight strap, or part of the inner lining - or a sock. The back of the card just vaguely calls it "memorabilia", but what he know for sure is that it's got enough holes to see the glue inside the card, and that the hole it's sticking out of is shaped like an "S".

All told, Bouchard retires with 356 points (110 of them goals) in 593 NHL games (plus 4-5-9 in 21 playoff games) on a defensively-minded Wild team, mostly. He had Selke votes in 2006-07 and Lady Byng votes three times, finishing fifth in voting in 2006-07.

Anze Kopitar Jersey Card

So... last night I went to see the Los Angeles Kings play against my hometown Montréal Canadiens...

Many thoughts went through my head: even if the Habs don't play well, hey, it's the Kings. As long as Milan Lucic doesn't score, I'm good, with Drew Doughty, Tyler Toffoli, Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick and Marian Gaborik...

Doughty and Gaborik each had a goal and an assist, and Kopitar scored the other one, Toffoli and Lucic each got an assist, and Quick made 45 saves in a 3-0 shutout win. Alex Galchenyuk was the most dangerous forward for Montréal, playing on two lines in the third period, centering his own unit with Lars Eller and Sven Andrighetto, and playing right wing on the top line with Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty.

It was a very entertaining game, despite clueless idiots booing for the final two minutes as the Habs couldn't buy a goal or even get a shot through Los Angeles' four-man penalty-killing box.

What I like about L.A. is how they're so good, they never have to force anything. They're huge but fast, so they can match anyone's speed and overpower anyone. All they need to do is keep at it, relentlessly, pushing forward, and good things come. That's exactly what Kopitar brings as well. He could easily concentrate on getting 90 points a year and pad up his resume, but instead he plays a sound two-way game where he plays like all the other great two-way centres (Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron, Plekanec), stopping the opposition from stacking their own points, taking the puck away, winning faceoffs, getting his 70-plus points and Selke nominations (top-4 finishes in the last three seasons, including runner-up last year) relatively quietly. Oh, and winning Stanley Cups, the whole point of this.

The Kings wore their white, silver and black uniforms on Thursday, but here's a card where Kopitar is sporting their throwback purple one:

It's card #S-AK from Fleer's 2013-14 Showcase set (and Stitches sub-set), manufactured by Upper Deck. The game-worn jersey swatch that's incorporated in it is white, but it doesn't detract from the purple and gold at all.

The only negative point about my outing is that instead of staying to mingle with players after the game, I decided to show my friend, who was visiting from Mexico, the Ring of Honor on the highest wall around the rink; no less than four security guards stopped us to ask us what we were doing, while small groups of drunken frat boys were left alone as they were screaming obscenities while finishing their drinks.

One security guard asked if he could ''help'' us, to which I replied: ''why, sure, you could concur that Doug Harvey is the greatest defenseman of all time''.

Jordan Eberle Jersey Card

It was a pretty big possibility that the Edmonton Oilers would have yet another disappointing season last year, which can mostly be attributed to a weak blue line and defensive system. One thing I had not envisioned, however, was that Jordan Eberle would have his lowest goals total in a full season since his rookie year, with 24.

He'd reached 34 in 2011-12 and got close to that rate again with 16 in 48 games in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, but followed that one up with 28 before sliding again this past year.

In his defense, the team was a mess under initial coach Dallas Eakins, the ship was kind of steered right by Todd Nelson, but scoring was spread out more evenly - good news for Nail Yakupov, who reverted back to form while playing with Derek Roy, but a small dip for Eberle.

You might recall Eberle was my choice for captain of the team back in 2013, though they ultimately went with free agent signing and Stanley Cup winner hometown hero Andrew Ference (a fine choice at the time) and instead gave Eberle and Taylor Hall the alternates' ''A'', and now that Connor McDavid is in town, he might be next in line in two or three years, provided he lives up to at least 85% of the hype gone his way.

I'm not yet sold on having Cam Talbot - he of 53 career NHL games - being anointed the starting goalie to lead the franchise out of the depths of the NHL's standings, so perhaps there will be more Eberle trade rumours further down the line, though if I were GM, I'd be more inclined to move Hall of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (who will soon be expendable as a center with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the pipeline) to shore up the blue line with a true #1 or #2 defenseman, perhaps even as a conversation starter in Shea Weber talks.

Keep in mind, with Jordan Eberle, you're eyeing this guy:

And so, in all his splendor, here he is sporting the Oilers' retro-current blue uniform, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Fleer Showcase set (card #S-JE of the Stitches insert sub-set):

It includes a game-worn jersey swatch, albeit from their god-awful dark blue Reebok Edge lockout-era monstrosities.

Slava Voynov Jersey Card

Back in October when the news broke about Slava Voynov allegedly being involved in a domestic dispute, I cautioned to let the justice system run its course. Well, part of that includes trial dates getting pushed further and further back all the time, first from March until April, and now until July.

His wife refuses to testify so far, and refuses to explain why; from the start, she has argued that her English wasn't good enough to get her husband off the charges of domestic violence, and her only statement regarding the case is ''I do not believe Slava tried to hurt me'', which is still neither a denial nor a confirmation that (voluntary) physical violence did take place - and that's what the trial will (hopefully) try to determine.

What's messed up beyond the specter of the public watching something that perhaps should be better left private (i.e. ''wait until there is news to report at least'') - and the fact that, if true, is an incident that Western society wants to eliminate on a behavioral standpoint - is the more trivial and yet just-as-legally-complicated issue of Voynov's employer being a sports team (the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, of course) operating under a strict salary cap, and Voynov being a star defenseman whose salary accounts for a good portion of the allotted cap space and that while in society Voynov is still considered innocent until proven guilty, the NHL has basically strapped the Kings with penalties as though the organization was responsible for the alleged actions itself, while the player is merely ''suspended with pay'' (because the contrary would be against the law).

You see, by pushing Voynov's trial date after free agency begins, the Kings do not have any idea whether they will be allowed to replace his roster spot and cap space, and thus might operate ''a man short'', which is literally what they have done on the ice on a handful of occasions this season. If they do choose to replace him, not only are they sort of admitting they think he is guilty (and thus show the rest of the team that it won't have their backs if any allegations or trouble comes their way), but should he be cleared, will have one too many players on their roster and will be forced to trade people away, as the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks have done this year when faced with a cap crunch, and both usually-dominating teams are struggling to maintain their playoff position as we speak, with a week and a half left in the regular season.

The salary cap was supposed to even the odds for small-market teams, instead it hinders good teams' progress and forces unnecessary rebuilds and fire sales; the small market teams still suck, by the way, and last season saw the Kings and New York Rangers face off in the Stanley Cup Finals, with Chicago and the Montréal Canadiens as runners-up. Four of the richest teams in the league.

And yet, in the grand scheme of things, the most important point of order is to sort Voynov's criminal case. I'll point out, however, that in many high-profile cases, when police officers or District Attorneys make out-of-context and unsubstantiated claims to the press, trying to sway public opinion in their favor, it usually backfires; a courtroom is a place where straight, boring facts have prescience over personal vendettas. Usually. Mostly. Hopefully.

So, to keep us waiting until July (or later, you never know...), here's Voynov wearing the Kings' black (home) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Fleer Showcase (card #S-V of the Stitches insert sub-set), featuring a game-worn white jersey swatch:

Yes, the ugly design on the right side of the card is useless and detracts from pretty much everything else once your eyes set on it. I don't get it.

P.K. Subban Jersey Card

The Final Four teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs each had common traits: dazzling speed, a desire to push themselves until their limit, and a stud defenseman. The Los Angeles Kings have Drew Doughty, perhaps the best defender in the world this year; the Chicago Blackhawks have Norris winner Duncan Keith; the New York Rangers have Ryan McDonagh; and the Montréal Canadiens have reigning Norris winner and my favourite for the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) after three rounds of play this year, because the Habs would have gone nowhere without him: P.K. Subban.

Sure, I mentioned him in each of the last two months, but he is that electrifying - and I did get the cards. And I'm out of returns. And he is the reigning Norris winner, though he was not nominated this year (deservedly so, he only really got going after the Olympics, or when paired with Andrei Markov, perhaps the Habs' most consistent player this year).

He completely controlled the third period of the game I attended (Game 2 of Round 3, against the Rangers), but didn't have any teammates with the same fire (or strength or talent level or drive) on the ice with him; then again, it seemed like Michel Therrien kept Lars Eller and Rene Bourque on the ice for most of that period, despite their not doing anything worth that ice time in the first two. The Rangers ended up winning that one - and the series. And I got dumped, sort of. Well, a short while later, but possibly from the moment I took my cap off and my flat hair made me look bald. Could be a coincidence, but she never was the same again (even during the game), and we severed our ties a week later.

But I digress.

Subban is the real deal. And he keeps improving at everything he does all the time - even those he already does well. He may not be as ''complete'' (as reliable defensively as he is offensively) as Doughty or Shea Weber, but he's better at creating offense from the back end than anyone else in the league. If they rank as 9s (on 10) from both sides, Subban's a 9.5 going forward and at least an 8 coming back. And, as I said, improving. He's not as much a danger in his own zone as Paul Coffey was in the 1980s, or Kristopher Letang today.

And his smile can light Montréal up in a power outage. He oozes charisma like Samantha Fox does female charm, or like Patrick Roy does self-confidence.

And that's why I didn't feel like waiting to feature this card, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Fleer Showcase (card #S-PS of the Stitches insert sub-set), featuring a red jersey swatch and showing him with the Canadiens' white (away) uniform, protecting the puck from an oncoming member of the Edmonton Oilers, about to pull off a spin-o-rama move and break loose:

And, this being a 2013-14 UD set, it comes with the certificate of authenticity only a dead man can guarantee: