Tony Amonte Jersey Card

For Day Three of my Tough Guys month, I decided I could feature Tony Amonte again, what with Team USA having had an awful last-place showing at the World Cup, on a team that was supposed to resemble the seminal 1996 group that had won it, with Amonte scoring the deciding goal against Team Canada on September 14th - my birthday - at the then-Molson Centre.

Drafted by the New York Rangers, Amonte scored 35 goals in his rookie season to finish third in Calder Trophy voting, behind Pavel Bure and Nicklas Lidstrom, and ahead of the likes of Pat Falloon, Donald Audette, Kevin Todd, Benoît Brunet and Derian Hatcher. He accumulated 76 points the following year, but had a disappointing 1993-94, leading the Rangers to trade him to the Chicago Blackhawks, essentially for Stéphane Matteau.

It was with the Hawks that the five-time All-Star would become the pre-eminent power forward in the NHL, hitting the 40-goal mark three times, with 35- and 31-goal seasons as well. Like Charlie Sheen, he had one speed: "Go!", and made the opposing goalie's crease his home, fighting off cross-checks to the back to stay in position.

Perhaps not as talented as the likes of John LeClair and Keith Primeau, and certainly not as mean as Keith Tkachuk or Mark Messier and Eric Lindros, he still willed his way into a 900-point career (416 of them goals), and played in four deep playoff runs (i.e. more than 10 games played).

In addition to his World Cup title, he also has a silver medal from the 2002 Olympics. He also captained the Hawks from 2000-02, between Doug Gilmour and Alexei Zhamnov, as can be attested by card #8 of Pacific's 2001-02 Atomic collection and Authentic Game-Worn Jerseys sub-set:

It contains a red game-worn jersey swatch while showing him in the Hawks' black uniform.

Tony Amonte Jersey Card

My hometown Montréal Canadiens beat one of their most bitter rivals tonight, the Philadelphia Flyers, in a 2-1 overtime nail-biter. Sure, the Flyers aren't contending this year, but they always play extremely well against their most important rivals - the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Rangers, and the Habs; this wasn't going to be easy, but Ray Emery was spectacular and Philly hung in there until the end.

Which seemed like the right excuse to feature this card of Tony Amonte, showing him as both a Flyer and a member of the Calgary Flames, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set (card #J-TA of the Game Jersey sub-set), featuring a decent-sized orange swatch and showing him in the Flyers' black uniform:

Honestly, my memories of Amonte are hazy, because right now, I'm not sure I remember him playing for the Flames. To me, he - and Jeremy Roenick for that matter - will always be the guy who played for Philly and the Chicago Blackhawks. I remember his rookie card from his days with the New York Rangers, but it was in white and black (with the third colour being either red or orange) that I mostly remember him.

And he was such a dominating player - six straight 30-goal seasons, three of them above 40 - that I have trouble fathoming he retired with ''only'' 900 points and didn't hit the millennial mark.

But mostly I remember the inaugural 1996 World Cup, and his scoring the Finals winner with less than three minutes remaining, on my birthday, at the then-Molson Centre as Team USA beat Team Canada, who had opted not to put Patrick Roy on its roster because who needs the guy who won a Stanley Cup three months ago and already has two Conn Smythes anyway (and would eventally win a third, sitting as the only NHLer ever to do so, one more than the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, and Bernard Parent, and two more than the likes of Jean Béliveau, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Ken Dryden, Mike Bossy, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Serge Savard and Steve Yzerman)?

But I digress. As it stands, Amonte is the 11th American-born NHL points leader, and 81st overall in career goals with 416. He's in the top-100 for career shorthanded goals, career game-winners, and straight-flush 100th for points. Granted, players in the early days like Newsy Lalonde and Jack Laviolette didn't play anywhere close to 80 games a year, but Amonte definitely left his mark in hockey history. I'd put him on the level of Eric Lindros and where I would have put Mats Sundin: just outside the Hall Of Fame, but definitely on a plaque of dominant/star players of the 1990s.