Marcus Foligno Team Canada Jersey Card

Marcus Foligno is becoming a reliable, hard-working checking winger who can at times chip in with timely goals. Casual fans might not have noticed him these past couple of years because ''timely'' was hard to associate with the Buffalo Sabres, but in 2013-14, out of his 7 goals, 6 were at even strength, 1 was shorthanded, and a whopping 3 (nearly half) were game-winners.

While he was a point-per-game player in the AHL with the Rochester Americans in 2012-13, he didn't really have a history of doing so even in Juniors, where he only achieved the feat in his fourth and final season (2010-11), the second year after his hometown Sabres made him the 104th pick at the 2009 draft.

He'll still barely be 24 when the next season gets underway, so he hasn't hit his peak nor exactly found his groove yet, but I foresee a reliable, 10-goal, 25-to-30-point man down the line.

His father, Mike Foligno, was a Sabres great when I was a kid, surpassing the 50-point mark 5 times with 5 seasons over 25 goals, including a peak of 41 in 1985-86; he ended up posting over 700 points in over 1000 NHL games while also suiting up for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and playing his final 39 games with the Florida Panthers.

As a local kid, Marcus gets a lot of attention in Buffalo, often appearing in team promos, and because he's good-looking, a (probably) mock Twitter page has him hitting on lady-fans and calling out/laughing at fellow players in the style of Roberto Luongo's page, but a tad ''jockier''.

Of course, my main reason for featuring this card today is because it features him playing for Team Canada at the 2001 World Juniors (held in Buffalo), wearing his father's #17 (he wears #82 with the Sabres):

It's card #TC-MF from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition series, showing him in Canada's red (''visitors'') uniform, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Alexei Kovalev Autograph Card

In a repeat performance, Team Russia will face Team USA in the World Championship semifinal in Prague on Saturday after beating Sweden, which was arguably missing the best goalie in the world (Henrik Lundqvist, whose New York Rangers are still in the NHL playoffs).

It is believed the Russians will have Alex Ovechkin for the game, which will be a boost, and reminds me of when another Russian Alex was viewed as All-World and could have a tremendous impact on games, Alex Kovalev.

Easily the best forward to play for the Montréal Canadiens in the past 25 years whenever he decided to ''turn it on'', ''Kovy'' was named the All-Star Game MVP in front of the home crowd at the Bell Centre as he dominated a game that featured Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Carey Price and the rest of the league's star players.

As I wrote nearly a year ago:

Did he have a tendency to take two or three nights off per week? Short answer: yes. In fact, though, the more honest answer would be this: never in important games, never in the playoffs, never when sporting a letter (be it the captain's 'C' or the alternate's 'A') on his chest, and never in front of an adoring hometown crowd cheering him on. And never when he could take center stage.

If there was a spotlight, he wanted it shined on him, no matter who else was there. The only time it didn't happen was during his rookie season, on a Stanley Cup-winning Rangers team, where Mark Messier stole the show; any other time, even playing alongside Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr, Kovalev looked like the best player on the ice... (exactly) half the time.

Here he is deking and going through a Finnish goalie to score a goal while playing for the Soviet Union (notice the CCCP letters on his jersey, which no longer existed when the card set, Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player collection, from which this is card #S182 - the S stands for ''signed insert version'' - featuring an on-card thin black-sharpied autograph, was released):

The card is part of the set's World Class sub-set, where they could use a player's picture while suiting up for his national team.

Ulf Samuelsson Autograph Card

The Eastern Conference finalists will both be teams who play in blue at home and white as visitors, as the New York Rangers have joined the Tampa Bay Lightning as the final teams standing in the Eastern time zone.

As a treat, I will once again feature Ulf Samuelsson, who used to be one of their bruisers on defense for four seasons at the tail end of the 1990s and is now their assistant coach.

''Bruiser'' might be sugarcoating it, though, as he is generally considered one of the dirtiest players of all time, and certainly the dirtiest of his era, holding the title on his own for the second half of the 1980s and sharing it with Bryan Marchment and Darius Kasparaitis in the 1990s. His knee-on-knee hits were on the wrong side of legendary, and his ''Robocop'' nickname is possibly the most sarcastic use of a euphemism hockey has produced in the last 30 years.

Still, he was a force to reckon with, and was actually a very good physical defensive defenseman. As a matter of fact, the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired him from the Hartford Whalers (along with Ron Francis) specifically to cement and strengthen their entire six-man defensive unit, which he did right away, helping the team to two straight Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.

Sure, it helps to have enough depth to stick Hall Of Famer Francis on a second line behind Mario Lemieux, with Jaromir Jagr on the wing, and Larry Murphy anchoring the powerplay on defense, but you also need to stop the puck from going in you own net, and that's where Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson came in, along with Tom Barrasso in nets. And playing with Lemieux somehow brought Ulf some respect as a protector rather than a mere instigator - or maybe that's just my childhood innocence talking.

In any event, here he is sporting the Rangers' classic white (then-home) uniform, from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set, the signed insert version of card #126, autographed on-card in thin black sharpie:

Sure, he seems like he's open and expecting a pass to help out the offense, but that's not what the opposition players are worried about. His 57 career goals and respectable 333 points in 1080 games (and two Norris Trophy top-10 finishes) kind of do pale in comparison to his 2453 penalty minutes...

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault Autograph Card

Well, hats off to the Tampa Bay Lightning for ousting the Montréal Canadiens tonight. It was a hard-fought series, and while my usual self would be inclined to say Tampa won 4-2 because Ben Bishop outplayed Carey Price, it's also true that the Habs have only one true goal scorer (Max Pacioretty) and just didn't have the firepower to match when goaltending is close to being even.

What I was happy about was that for the decisive game, head coach Jon Cooper opted to dress Jonathan Audy-Marchessault to replace Ryan Callahan (out after having had his appendix removed last night), keeping a right-handed physical player in the line-up, which dressing Jonathan Drouin may not have achieved (he's a play-making lefty who has yet to consistently make plays).

Also, Audy-Marchessault was a point-per-game player in the AHL and has been for his 4 seasons now (or in the vicinity, at least). And he had two points in two games with the Lightning earlier this season.

I've been sitting on this card of his for over a year now, and I was waiting for the right time to feature/criticize it:

Nice-looking card, right? The Columbus Blue Jackets' awesome alternate jersey, lots of silver foil (looks better scanned, but decent in person), with a short but well-placed on-card blue-sharpied signature, from Panini's 2013-14 Dominion set (#108 in the collection, part of the Dual Rookie Class, numbered 212/299).

I criticized the set (and its swatch cards) in this Erik Karlsson post last October, so I won't repeat my main gripes with it here (price was definitely an issue), and while I'll admit the autograph cards' silver foil makes the logos and letter easier to decipher, I HATED the difference in thickness between the auto cards and the swatches:

That's right - in an effort to thwart customers who ''feel'' packs up before they buy in an attempt to try to get the best ''hits'', they made the autograph cards double the thickness of the already-pretty-damn-thick jersey cards - meaning I can't store them in binders with my regular cards and, therefore, pretty much want to get rid of them instead of having them garner dust on some shelf or end up in a box in my closet.

You had one job, Panini, and you were too thick to cut it.

Pekka Rinne Jersey Card

There's a lot of talk about goaltending in the current NHL playoffs, some narratives truer than others. Henrik Lundqvist has played well enough to warrant still being The King (and the best goalie in the world), but Braden Holtby has been up to the challenge in facing him after not being quite as good as Jaroslav Halak in the first round.

Carey Price has been outplayed by both Craig Anderson and Ben Bishop so far, and his save percentage for the second round just barely made it back above the .900 mark after Game 5, so Playoff Price is back, but there's no question he was on the ball in the regular season with Vezina and Hart nods, and sharing the Jennings.

In the West, Frederik Andersen has put any doubts about his lack of experience to rest for the Anaheim Ducks, as have Karri Ramo (Calgary Flames), Eddie Lack (Vancouver Canucks), and Scott Darling (Chicago Blackhawks), while Devan Dubnyk, like Price, may have been shown the postseason is a while different animal, as can be seconded by Corey Crawford, who while spectacular at times and arguably one of his team's MVPs with Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane when he was on, was replaced by Darling as the starter in at least a couple of games.

Which brings me to the Nashville Predators' Pekka Rinne, who had okay numbers against the Hawks in the opening round, going 2-4 with a 2.68 GAA and .909 save percentage (as well as an assist) against the powerhouse team from Chicago, but he really finished his (also-Vezina-nominated) season with a bang by accepting Team Finland's invitation to play overseas.

Taking inspiration from his incredible performance at last year's edition (where he posted a 170-minute shutout streak, nearly three games long), he actually did better this year, posting an IIHF World Championships record 237-minute shutout streak, including three full shutouts (versus Denmark, Norway and Slovenia), then finally letting a goal in against Belarus.

With performances like these, he's really making King Henrik's stay at the top of the goalie food chain one in which he can't get too comfortable or complacent in - and that's all the better for us hockey fans.

And so I close the run of cards I started last summer with this one showing him with the Preds' former blue (home) uniform, making a spectacular glove save, featuring a white game-worn jersey swatch, from Panini's 2010-11 All Goalies set (card #8 of the Stopper Sweaters sub-set):

These inserts came at one per boxed set, which contained the entire 100-card collection as well; these sets cost $10-15 apiece on Ebay nowadays, but multipacks are available, such as 4 boxes for $30 or 20-box cases for $120-150.

Caroline Ouellette Autographed Card

Women's hockey is a relatively young category in the sport, and I am one of those who feel a 25-year period needs to pass before pitting statistics, players, talents and eras in any form of comparison, but it's safe to say that when we start looking at ranking the best of all time, Caroline Ouellette will be among most lists' top-5s.

Hayley Wickenheiser was a huge part of making Women's Hockey ''a thing'' in Canada, and former Team USA captain Cammi Granato was also instrumental in advancing the game in the United States, and both were dominant players, but Ouellete brings a state of grace along with her talent that is reminiscent of Jean Béliveau, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. (The fact that she rarely gets penalized likely helps those comparisons.)

I see current Team USA captain Meghan Duggan (in whom I see a Joe Sakic-type of player) also eventually making such lists, but, really, Ouellette, at 35, remains a force to be reckoned with and has been for over a decade.

She's won scoring titles, MVP awards, holds records (NCAA/WCHA's 2 shorthanded goals in a single game, for one) at every level, and has elevated her game when the pressure was on to lead her teams to championships, as can be attested from her inclusion in the Triple Gold Club (Olympic gold, World Championship gold, and Clarkson Cup, the women's equivalent of the Stanley Cup).

And it's not like her teams have won one of each: she has four Olympic gold medals (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014), six World Championship gold medals (1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2012), six World Championship silver medals because the U.S. has to win sometimes (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015), and the two Clarkson Cups (2009 and 2011), including one where she was the playoff scoring leader.

Most women playing in the CWHL not only do it as a labour of love, but have actual jobs they need to get to outside of playing and training hours, because the league doesn't pay its players (most teams lose money as is anyway). 20 to 25 girls part of the Canadian Olympic program get an allocation for being full-time athletes (which roughly amounts to having a job that pays minimum wage, $350 per week), but the vast majority do it out of sheer passion. Here's a bit about what a 48-hour stretch might look like from Ouellette's point of view.

I met the humble superstar at a fundraising activity a few months ago and talked to her about how my minor-league teams growing up, from the atom level until midgets, all had at least one girl on them (making the team after camp, not through any type of entitlement program) and made all the boys better humans for it, and how I foresee the NHL having no choice but to draft and try a woman out within the next decade because the disparity in talent is shrinking (among the elite women and fringe men) and the teams' systems are rendering a lot of that gap irrelevant in all aspects except rugged play.

She was polite enough not to take a stance either way and left me with my illusions, just saying ''that'd be nice'', but the night was about the Montréal Stars' partnership with the NHL's Montréal Canadiens anyway, where the CWHL team will now share access to the Habs' training facilities (no more 11 PM practices!) and marketing team (which it didn't have at all) to, if not earn a proper living, at least make the players' working conditions optimal and provide the team with the means to try to ''make it'' on their own (and attract fans to Étienne-Desmarteaux Arena to watch their often-entertaining games, on the ice bearing Ouellete's name).

It was there that she signed this 2014 Team Canada Juniors/Women card (#80 in the set made by Upper Deck) for me, in blue sharpie, showing her wearing her famous #13 in Team Canada's classic red uniform:

Incidentally, the men's team featuring the likes of Sidney Crosby and Taylor Hall almost lost to France today at the Worlds... I'm pretty sure Ouellette's available to help out, and she isn't too far away, having just climbed a mountain a France (of all places), while the tournament is taking place in Prague (Czech Republic).

Rick Nash Jersey Card

After a 42-goal season in 2014-15 - a career high and the league's third-highest total - Rick Nash has fallen into familiar times this postseason, reduced to hoping for a favourable bounce to fix a 3.1 shooting percentage - an awful number for pretty much any NHLer, let alone a sniper of his caliber, and below even his career average of... 3.5.

Some articles written about him are downright mean:

During Game 1 of the New York Rangers’ series against the Washington Capitals, NBC analyst Mike Milbury said that Rick Nash was playing a “marshmallow soft” brand of hockey, which wasn’t exactly fair, considering that marshmallows are visible.

Through eight playoff games, Nash has one goal and four assists. Against the Capitals, he has one assist. In his last 33 playoff games with the Rangers, he had four goals. In his last 33 regular-season games with the Rangers, he had 14 goals.

I get it: he makes a lot of money, eats a lot of cap space, and is relied upon to score goals, which he does amazingly well in the regular season, but seldom in the playoffs. I'd be mad if he were on the team(s) I'm rooting for, sure, probably, but these are the same playoffs where Steven Stamkos was shut out for 8 games, where grinders outproduce stars, and where all 8 teams remaining in the second round have a legitimate shot at the Stanley Cup (ok, maybe not the Calgary Flames, but one can dream/hope).

And he's a big body with good speed who still gets covered like a sniper, so he's helping his team by occupying the defensive players and creating more space for his teammates. That probably won't get enough to quell his critics, but it'll make his coach and GM appreciate some of his play, at least.

This card is very similar to the one I featured last October, in that it shows him wearing the Rangers' white (now-away) uniform, but has two game-worn jersey swatches from a black uniform, likely from the Columbus Blue Jackets' alternate uniform from the 2003-07 era, the only one he's worn that has black on it:

It's from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Black Diamond set (card #NYR-RN of the Double Diamond Jerseys sub-set).

Erik Condra: 3 Autographed Cards

Erik Condra is one of two Ottawa Senators who are the most likely to end up with the puck no matter what zone they're in if the puck carrier is in front of them, with Calder Trophy nominee Mark Stone; they force turnovers like a McDonald's Employee Of The Month, with the sole difference being that Stone converts many of his chances while Condra has just posted his career-best numbers with 9 goals.

Still, most coaches will agree it's better to have possession of the puck than surrender it, and there are no real bad shots in today's NHL, where all goalies are capable of playing in the Olympics as well as surrender a goal from behind the goal line or beyond center ice. And perhaps Condra just hasn't found his niche as a set-up man yet, and maybe he'd be better suited to rack up 30 assists than score 20 goals.

After all, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish alumnus who was a seventh-round draft pick (211st overall in 2006) not only was a point-per-game in College, even earning All-Rookie Team (first year) and Second Team All-Star (fourth year) nods, but never scored more than 15 goals in the NCAA/CCHA, so maybe he was always meant to pass it more than shoot.

The 28-year-old American is due for a nice raise in his last RFA summer, and will probably earn close to $3M per year, perhaps for as many as three seasons (up from his current $1.25M cap hit). Should the Sens not be willing to pony up that amount, I'm fairly certain his hometown Detroit Red Wings - a possession and positioning team if there ever was one - would.

For now, though, his Hockey IQ is important to the Senators, as they try to keep building towards a championship-level team game around a promising group of youngsters. And he's got some sweet moves, as this breakaway goal that left Carey Price dumbfounded proves:



And so it is with great pleasure that I add Condra to my Sens Numbers Project, and though Shaun Van Allen was already in for #22, Condra can take sole possession of the #38 spot with at least one of the cards.

Speaking of which, here they are, first with a couple from Panini's 2011-12 Score set:

The card on the left is his Rookie Card (#524 of the regular set, part of the Hot Rookies sub-set), showing him in the Sens' white (away) uniform, while the card on the right, showing him in his post-game ''gym clothes'' is card #3 of the First Goal sub-set; he actually scored two goals that night.

I also have one of him in the Sens' red (home) uniform, from Panini's 2012-13 Score set (card #339 in the collection), battling for puck possession with two Boston Bruins players:

I had sent him four cards on March 17th, 2014, and got these three back - signed in black sharpie - on May 4th, 2015, a mere 47 days later, after the Sens were eliminated by my hometown Montréal Canadiens.

Tyler Moss Autograph Card

As I wrote on my regular blog last Friday, The Calgary Flames' hopes lie with goaltender Jonas Hiller outplaying Frederik Andersen and/or John Gibson and keeping Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf silent and at bay. It sure wasn't the case in Game 1, as the Anaheim Ducks' superstars combined for 8 points in nothing less than a shellacking.

In that game, the at-times terrific Swiss Olympian Hiller - capable of shutting out huge squads but surrendering awful goals the next game - was pulled after surrendering 3 goals in 22 minutes, and he also won't get to start Game 2, as backup Karri Ramo got the nod. In falling short, he reminded me of another former Flames goalie, who also wore #1 and caught the puck with his right hand: Tyler Moss.

Yes, this Tyler Moss:


(but that happens to everybody; I left my skate guards on at a tournament and fell to the ice in front of 5,000 people once - then proceeded to pull a 40-save shutout and win MVP honors).

But back to Moss who, unlike Hiller, was drafted - 29th overall in 1993, by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who then traded him to Calgary just about 4 years later, without having tried him at the NHL level. He had earned high praise and several honors in the OHL, saving the Kingston Frontenacs from embarrassment, and earning First All-Star Team nods while facing insane amounts of shots for three seasons.

He was so-so in 1996-97 with the Flames (a 2-3-1 record in 7 games with a 3.27 GAA and .892 save percentage) but had a terrific run with the AHL's Saint John Flames with a 1.91 GAA and .940 save percentage; the following season, he won the Hap Holmes Award in the AHL (shared with Jean-Sébastien Giguère) for having recorded the lowest GAA, and had a fine showing at the NHL level with a 2.51 GAA and .922 save % despite a 3-7-0 record in 11 games, more proof of how bad the Flames were than of his own play.

Still, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins who let him go after a single season, then signed with the Carolina Hurricanes, who finished the season with a tandem consisting of Arturs Irbe and Tom Barrasso, so he found himself out of the mix once again. His lone appearance with the Vancouver Canucks in 2002-03 left for some decent statistics as his NHL farewell numbers (2.73 GAA and .929 save %), but they weren't enough to have him keep playing in North America. Instead, he moved to Europe, where he played until 2011-12, in Russia and Germany.

He now works as a salesman in the oil industry in Alberta. Yes, that dirty tar sand oil.

Here is what he looked like as a Flame, from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set (card #17 of the signed insert sub-set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie):

The Flames have never had a terrible uniform, and I think I would rank this one as middle-of-the-road, not as pretty or iconic as their 1980s/early 1990s ones, and slightly ahead of the modern one, if only because the current one has a black logo that doesn't really make sense with reality.

Boyd Gordon: 7 Autographed Items

My returns from the Edmonton Oilers have been great so far this year, as this Boyd Gordon surprise marks my third return from the boys in blue this Spring, though technically, seeing as I'd sent it on March 30th, 2014 and got it back on May 1st, 2015 (a 396-day return!), it probably counts as one of those I sent last season.

Originally a Washington Capitals first-round draft pick (17th overall) in 2002, Gordon was seen by then-GM George McPhee as the team's second-line center for the foreseeable future, and a terrific 2005-06 season with their AHL affiliate Hershey Bears in which he tallied 38 points (off 16 goals) in 58 regular-season games and 8 more points in 21 playoff games en route to a Calder Cup sure hinted at that, but because right-handed centers who win faceoffs are such a hot commodity - and perhaps because the most points he ever produced at the NHL level was the 29 he got in 2006-07 - he eventually found his niche as a shut-down center and penalty killer, most notably with the Phoenix Coyotes, suiting up for 95% of their games for two years after 4 seasons of less than 70 games per with the Caps.

Because of that, I included two cards of his showing him with the team from Arizona, both in the Coyotes' white (away) uniform:

On the left is card #392 from Panini's 2013-14 Score collection, while the card on the right is from the 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee set by Upper Deck, and is #214 in the series.

Some coaches (hello Dallas Eakins) have tried using his ability at winning faceoffs as a way to jump-start their powerplay, but once the team had puck possession, he would usually be called off the ice in favor of another of the Oilers' top producers, which was a tad unfair and a bit of a thankless job.

I was a big fan of the Oilers signing him as a free agent to solidify their third line, so it made sense to also send custom cards depicting him in both the team's current/retro uniforms, including one of him in the faceoff circle:

They are variants C, B and A of card #30 of my own Hell's Kitchen 2013-14 Series 2 set.

He also signed the two index cards I had included to protect the cards:

Like everything else, they're signed in old-school, thick black sharpie, with his jersey number tagged at the end (15 in Phoenix, 27 in Edmonton). Some have smudged a little, but I don't mind, as my collection is for personal purposes, not monetary or exchange value, and is usually about players I respect and admire.