Vincent Lecavalier Swatch Card

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Vincent Lecavalier's name is all over the Tampa Bay Lightning's record book: most career goals (383), second in career assists (491) and points (874), the team's longest-serving captain (6 seasons) and up until tonight, its single-season points leader (108).

Nikita Kucherov's season for the ages, however, has now put the latter in the past, as he's now at 110 points with 13 more games to go in the regular season. This marks Kucherov's second-consecutive 100-point season, and he's been so impressive that he's rendered offensive stars like Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Brayden Point mere afterthoughts.

Then again, Tampa's so strong this season that both of its goalies - Andrei Vasilevskiy and Louis Domingue - have each had 10-game winning streaks this year. Of course, they're playing behind what is by far the best defense in the league in Norris winner Victor Hedman, All-Star Ryan McDonagh, potential future Norris winner Mikhail Sergachev, Anton Stralman, Braydon Coburn, and Dan Girardi. Any of the first four could be a first-unit player on any other team.

The Bolts are even more balanced than in Lecavalier's heyday, when he was surrounded by the likes of Hall of Famers Martin St-Louis and Dave Andreychuk, Brad Richards, Fredrik Modin, Cory Stillman, and Ruslan Fedotenko up front, Dan Boyle, Pavel Kubina, Cory Sarich and Jassen Cullimore out back, and "The Bulin Wall" Nikolai Khabibulin in nets. Some of those guys were extremely talented, and they did win the 2004 Stanley Cup, but they don't stack up against the All-World talent on this year's team, which was the fourth-fastest of all time to reach 100 points (although, of course, this warrants the asterisk for happening in the shootout era where there are no longer tied games).

Here is Lecavalier, sporting the captain's "C" on the Bolts' alternate jersey from last decade, on card #1 from Panini's 2011-12 Titanium set and Game-Worn Gear sub-set:

It features a black swatch that is more likely to be from the Lightning's black (away) uniform. I'd like to note that I like this jersey a lot better than the team's current alternate, the "Black Ice" uniform:

Urgh. Tampa Bay's batting average for jerseys is among the worst in the league with the Buffalo Sabres.

Vincent Lecavalier Jersey Card

So, Vincent Lecavalier has been a healthy scratch for the past 12 games, yet spent yesterday getting treatment on his back. Is he healthy or not? Is his health part of why he hasn't been traded yet?

In any event, after being bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning, it now appears the Philadelphia Flyers were not the right team for him, as the playmaking center with the soft hands has gotten slower and could never be paired with the right snipers, because they were set up with Claude Giroux or Brayden Schenn.

Some Flyers writers have explained the situation as nothing more than his needing to be utilized better, which I agree with in general. But in the few instances where he was given a legitimate shot at better minutes, he did prove to be inconsistent, whether it can be attributed to rust or age, no one knows for sure.

And for all the flak he gets from Flyers fans, they forget that he still scored 20 goals in his first season with the team in 2013-14, the 13th time in 14 seasons that he had reached that mark - and the one where he hadn't was the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, where he scored 10 goals in 39 games, a pace of... 20 on a full year. Sure, gone are the 100-point and 50-goal days of 2006-07, but we're talking about a former NHL captain, a member of a gold-winning Team Canada and a Stanley Cup champion wth hardware (a Rocket Richard Trophy and a King Clancy), the type of leader you'd pay just so your young players could learn around him, let alone produce at a half a point per game clip as he had prior to this year (he has just one assist in 7 games).

I hope he finds a new home soon. I could see him on the Nashville Predators, Edmonton Oilers or Calgary Flames. Here he is sporting the Bolts' black (home) Reebok Edge pajama-style rags from 2007-11, from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Series 1 set (card #GJ-VL of the UD Game Jersey sub-set):

It contains a bright/dark blue game-worn jersey swatch from the underarm lining.

Vincent Lecavalier Jersey Card

Is Vincent Lecavalier back? He had a game-tying goal and an assist on Sunday, led the Philadelphia Flyers in shots, and played exactly the way the team thought he might when they hired him: physically, North-South, no bullshit, all effort. The type of attitude he'd developed as captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and one he further delved into after a grueling series against the Flyers - and Keith Primeau in particular - in 2004.

Lecavalier stills owns Tampa's single-season record for points (108), is second to Martin St-Louis on the team's all-time points and assists list, and tops the career goals mark for the Lightning - which will probably be surpassed by Steven Stamkos in the next five years. He's won a Stanley Cup, a World Cup in which he was named MVP while suiting up for Team Canada, a Rocket Richard Trophy (for most goals in a season), a King Clancy for leadership and serving his community, and has been a perennial All-Star, even once captaining his All-Star team.

He's not as fast as he used to be, but when he has the puck, he still has the strength to plow through the opposition, stand tall and not fall when checked, and can pass and shoot accurately. He won't be at an advantage playing on a fourth line with guys who can't keep up with his skill level for long, but he still managed to score 20 goals last year while changing linemates and positions pretty much every game in head coach Craig Berube's doghouse. Philly tried to trade him this summer but with most teams with money being strapped by the salary cap, GM Ron Hextall couldn't find any takers.

And so the back-and-forth with Berube continued, and Vinny was scratched for the first time of his (potentially Hall Of Fame-worthy) 14-year career a month ago. Berube, a career grinder, seemingly needs to see players showing their teeth and growling at opponents to be satisfied, whereas Lecavalier, though tough as nails, isn't an instigator, and is a classy and elegant player until pushed... where he becomes the very definition of a power forward. His captain-versus-captain bout with Jarome Iginla will forever be my favourite NHL fight of all time, because it pitted two superstars going at it in the heat of the moment, marking the end of an offense/defense battle:

He has also fought other stars (Zdeno Chara twice, Marian Hossa) as well as actual tough guys (Denis Gauthier twice, Brad Ference, Andy Sutton, Alex Petrovic) and some heart-and-soul guys (Alexandre Burrows, and Scott Hartnell), too.

As I said, he's a tad slower than he used to be, but I think he can still be a 40-50 point producer in the NHL, playing in the middle-six with some powerplay time which, with the two years he has remaining on his contract, should enable him to pass the 450-goal and 1000-point marks relatively easily.

Here he is wearing Tampa Bay's old black and white away uniform, from Upper Deck's 2006-07 SPx set (card #WM-VL of the Winning Materials sub-set), with a dual white swatch:

On it, he's sprting the alternate captain's "A".

Vincent Lecavalier Patch Card

I remember when O-Pee-Chee Premier was a top card brand; Jaromir Jagr's rookie card, that first year, was worth $25 - and I had 10 of them! Then the market crashed, and I lost most of my cards in a flood stemming from the 1998 ice storm anyway.

But the brand was revived by Upper Deck a few years ago, I'm not entirely sure why, and they incorporated their bad card ideas into it, like manufacturing patches vaguely representing something having to do with a player, then making a card that seemingly has something the player may have worn, used, or at least known existed. In 2007-08, they made one for Jason Spezza, commemorating his being drafted second overall in 2001.

Two years later, exact same design, nothing changed, as this Vincent Lecavalier card can attest to, from the 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Premier set, Premier Stitchings sub set (card #PS-VL). My guess is that people liked it the first time; my question is whether any of the players who made it in the first time are also part of it this time around - I hope not, seeing as the patch's design is exactly the same.

Personally, I think Lecavalier deserves better. We're talking about the youngest captain of all time before Sidney Crosby beat him - except Crosby was named in May, after a season and way before the next, for the sole purpose of being the record-holder, while the Tampa Bay Lightning waited for the season to be about to start to name Vinny. Lecavalier is also a Stanley Cup winner, a World Cup winner, a Rocket Richard Trophy (most goals in a season) winner, a King Clancy winner for leadership and serving his community, a World Cup MVP, a perennial All Star, his team's record holder in most categories - and still a team captain.