Max Pacioretty Swatch Card

Presently making his place with my hometown Montréal Canadiens after tearing it up in the AHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs is American powerforward Max Pacioretty. Earlier tonight, during the Heritage Classic held in Calgary, he was playing alongside Tomas Plekanec on the team's top line.

A former first-round pick (22nd overall in the 2007 draft), he is generally considered a blue-chip prospect. He basically only started the season in the AHL because coach Jacques Martin is a bit tough on young players (ask Jason Spezza) and it seemed Max wasn't ready to expand on the flashes of brilliance he had shown under Guy Carbonneau two seasons ago.

Fortunately, Randy Cunneyworth and Randy Ladouceur built his confidence back up and by Christmas, he was ready to come back to the NHL, much to the delight of Habs fans everywhere. He'll likely miss out on an AHL scoring title, but I'm sure he's happier to be in the big league.

In my current NHL11 dynasty, however, he never had to go back to the minors. As a matter of fact, in my pretend 2010-11 season, he scored 29 goals and added 14 assists (good for 43 points) with a staggering 567 minutes of penalty in only 72 games. Needless to say, the PIMs total was a league-best. He also scored 4 powerplay goals and was a +7 for my Cup-winning Habs.

Between 2010-11 and 2013-14, he hovered between the team's second and third lines while winning 3 Cups in 4 seasons scoring 29, 34, 23 and 31 goals in the process. With Daniel Alfredsson retiring after the 2014 Cup, Pacioretty now patrols the first line at the right of Michael Cammalleri and Plekanec in my fictitious team, and Chris Neil has been hired to help dispense discipline. After 41 games, Patch stands at 16-20-36 (+25) and 149 PIMs.

But this card belongs in real life. It's from Panini's 2010-11 Donruss set, the Boys Of Winter sub-set, and is card #45 in the collection. As was the case with the Shea Weber swatch, Panini doesn't disclose whether it's from a jersey, or a sock, but specifies it's guaranteed to have been game-worn. It's red, round and pretty.

Shawn Horcoff: 4 Autographed Cards

It's the Month Of New Captains, I guess! After Brian Gionta and Shea Weber (a jersey card, but still!), these four Shawn Horcoff cards came in the mail today, a month to the day after I sent them to him along with a fan letter congratulating him on the captaincy and saying how confident I was that he and Ales Hemsky would be able to turn the franchise back into a constant contender by leading the next crop of kids like Sam Gagner, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle.

All four cards were signed with a dying black sharpie - and what an interesting signature it is!

As usual, I sent cards showing him in different uniforms. The first one, the 'home' white jersey from the late 90s to the mid-00s:

It's a beautiful card from the always-top-notch 2007-08 Artifacts set (card #91), by Upper Deck. The Artifacts and Ice sets always have amazing graphics and textures, the are works of art. This particular card has a bronze-coloured foil imprint for the brand name, company name and the player's name, adding a touch of class to the already royal design.

There is also my favourite ''third jersey'' ever, created by Todd McFarlane when he owned the team:

The card is from Fleer's 2007-08 Fleer Ultra set (card #119), by Upper Deck, on the back of which we learn that he scored the game-winning goal in his 400th game. The jersey is reminiscent of the Gretzky-era Los Angeles Kings', but with a shade of dark blue instead of black that gives it its uniqueness. And that oil drop logo looks awesome!

And, of course, there are the Reebok atrocities... First, the white 'away' pyjamas (notice the Oilers' 30th Anniversary patch on the right shoulder that saves it from being too unprofessional), from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Victory set (card #81):

And the blue 'home' jerseys that look like practice uniforms, from the 2010-11 Black Diamond set (card #45) by UD:

A fourth-round pick (99th overall, hmm!) in the 1998 NHL draft, Horcoff has spent his entire career with the Edmonton Oilers, after four years at Michigan State and a third of a season in the AHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs. He can generally be counted on to score nearly 20 goals per season and account for roughly 50 points; his career highs are of 22 goals, 51 assists, good for 73 points, all achieved during the magical 2005-06 season, which included a Cup run where they lost in the Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes in 7 games. To this day, I still believe they could have reversed the tide by putting on the McFarlane jersey in one of the last two games and won the series on psychological edge alone, although the loss (to injury) of Dwayne Roloson was too big a gap to fill, and his shoes were indeed too big for Ty Conklin to fill.

Horcoff shares a record with Wayne Gretzky - of all people! - for the most points tallied in a single period by an Oiler, with 4, all assists. He has also appeared in three World Championships for Team Canada, winning gold twice (2003 and 2004) and silver in 2005.

He is a very good cornerstone upon which to graft young kids looking for a leader. These Oiler kids are in good hands.

Jude Millien Autographed Comic Book

Jude Millien is an artist whose work in the comic book industry is mostly concentrated in the 1995-99 era, before the distributors' war. He is most known for his work with London Night studios, notably the Razor titles for which he was writer, penciller, inker and cover artist. His specialty was drawing femme fatales.

When the comics industry downsized at the turn of the millennium, he went back to university to finish his bachelor's degree in animation.

These days, he takes orders for commission work, drawing any comics character of your choice, even some he didn't work on (Superman, Batman), at prices ranging from $25 (pencil) to $35 (pencil and ink) to $70 (full colour), background not included.

Here is a copy of Lethal Strike #3, which at the time sold for $3 in the U.S. and $4.25 in Canada, signed in gold sharpie at the bottom by Millien himself at a comics convention.Through the magic of Ebay, I got it for less than the cover price. Much less.

Shea Weber Swatch Card

One captain leads to another, I guess. This time, a card from Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber in what may be the first feature I have of a Preds player.

Weber is part of an exclusive club, the Canadian Golden Boys as I like to call them - players who have won gold representing Team Canada at the World Juniors (2005), World Championships (2007) and the Olympics (2010). In 2009, while playing with Canada's silver medal-winning World Championship team, he made the tournament's All Star Team and was voted best defenseman; he was also on the Olympic All Star Team in 2010.

He currently holds the Predators' record for road goals in a season by a defenseman (12, established in 2009-10) and the team record for goals by a defenseman in a single season (23, achieved in 2008-09). He is the only team captain (out of 5) to have been drafted by the Preds. He was named captain in July 2010, about a month before his mother died of cancer relapse.

With everything he's accomplished so far, it's hard to believe Weber only went in the second round of the 2003 NHL draft; then again, it was an exceptionally great year, possibly among the best crop of all time, spawning no less than 17 NHL All Stars, 5 of which weren't chosen in the first round. He's an All Star himself, having played in the Young Stars game in 2007, and with the big boys in 2009 and 2011.

It's also difficult to remember he's barely 25 years old and has what could very well be his best years ahead of himself.

This card is from Panini's 2010-11 Limited set, is card #83 and is numbered 91/199; it is probably a jersey card, but we can't be sure, because the word 'jersey' appears nowhere on the card; instead, Panini phrases it this way:

The enclosed game-worn swatch is guaranteed by Panini America Inc.

So, all it says is it's clothing, and was worn in a game. Could be a piece of jersey, or a piece of sock; it could have been worn by anybody, too. What it is, though, is a square piece of dark blue fabric.

Brian Gionta: 4 Autographed Cards

Ladies and gentlemen, the captain of your Montréal Canadiens... Brian Gionta!

Indeed, before the season started, Gionta was named 28th captain (and second American-born, after Chris Chelios) of the Habs, in the second season of his 5-year deal with the team. I sent him a fan letter congratulating him for the honour on September 30th, along with these four cards, and I got them all back, signed in thin blue sharpie, this morning, four and a half months later - a tremendous return, especially considering everything that is required of a captain for this team, in this city. He added his jersey number on each, 14 for the cards in which he's wearing the New Jersey Devils' colours, 21 with the Habs.

As usual, I did my best to send in cards with pics of him wearing different uniforms; first the Devils' red jersey, as seen in these cards:

The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Victory set, the Stars On Ice sub-set, and is card #SI10 in the series. It's the first sub-set card I have autographed, I think. On the back of the card, we learn that Gionta holds a Devils' record for most consecutive playoff games in which he's scored a goal, with 5. The card on the right is from Upper Deck's 2005-06 SP Authentic set (card #60), on the back of which we learn he was an All-American in each of his 4 seasons at Boston College.

I also sent the following card, in which he's sporting the Devils' white uniform:

It's from Fleer's 2008-09 Fleer Ultra set (card #43), manufactured by (of course) Upper Deck. The back of the card doesn't say anything interesting, but I'd like to add that he's won a Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2002-03 and still holds two other team records, most goals in a season (48) and most powerplay goals in a season (24), both achieved in 2005-06 playing alongside Scott Gomez, his centerman in Montréal as well.

And speaking of the Habs, he was assistant captain in his first season with the team, one of eight players to wear the 'A' in the only captain-less season in the team's 101-year history. Notice the 100th patch on his shoulder:

Sorry for the crooked picture of this 2010-11 Victory card (#100 in the set) by Upper Deck. In just 61 games with the Habs last season, he managed to score 28 goals (10 of which came on the powerplay), despite being the second-shortest player in the league. As a Montrealer, he now also sports the unshaven look, like most of us here. Another ''famous New Jerseyer'' does, too: Dr. House.