Gary Inness for the win...

I went to a card show this morning... just the small one near my house that comes every two weeks. Thought I might pick up some singles of the new releases, fill out a couple of sets.

None of that happened.

There's a dealer I keep in touch with via email. He has amazing vintage singles. Boxes of them. All in unbelievable condition. I swear he prints them in his basement. Anyways, awhile back I had asked for some specific Gary Inness cards for a ttm attempt I was wanting to do. He had two of the three I wanted, and brought them today.

a 76/77 OPC

 and a 77/78 OPC WHA card

total cost, a $1.

And that's all I came home with. Sad. I know. I just wasn't feeling it today. On the plus side, I still have the $30 in my pocket I went with.... and I now have two really cool vintage goalie cards.

Sports history to be made...

When young 23 year old Blake Geoffrion takes to the ice Saturday night in Dallas as a member of the Nashville Predators, he will make sports history as the first 4th generation player to play in the NHL.

 His father, Danny Geoffrion, played 2+ years in the NHL with Montreal and Winnipeg. He scored 20 goals and 32 assists in 111 games.

 His grandfather, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion played 16 seasons for the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers, scoring 393 goals and 429 assists in 883 games. Oh, btw, he also invented the slap shot. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1972.

 His great grandfather, Howie Morenz, was hockey's first Super Star.  The Mitchell Meteor was the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame when it was established in 1945.

Good luck Blake. No pressure buddy....

Ladies and Gentleman, at long last, Mr Al Montoya.

With all of the Islanders troubles with injured goalies, they made a trade with the Phoenix Coyotes. They sent a sixth round draft pick to Phoenix in exchange for goaltender Al Montoya. A former first round pick (6th overall) of the New York Rangers in 2004.

Al never got a shot with the Rangers. After a bad injury further put his career back, Al was traded to Phoenix in 2008.

Al went 3-1 with a 2.08 goals against average and a shutout for the Coyotes in the 08/09 season. He was then sent back to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. Never to be seen again. Until now.

With the Islanders, Al has gone 3-0 with a 1.23 goals against average and recorded a shutout in his first game with his new team.

 Let's hope that Al actually gets his shot this time. He's waited a long time for this. Battled through injuries, and doubt.

Good to see the kid do well, 7 years after being picked in the first round. Never give up kids... never give up.

Card Show Pickups...

Saturday's card show really didn't have anything that grabbed me right away at first glance. The three usual guys I buy from had nothing new for me. By chance I looked at a table from a guy that I don't normally buy from. We exchanged pleasantries. I saw a stack of autos on the table and picked them up. He said to me I was just in time. He was having a surprise sale. I asked him on what? He replied, anything you want to buy.

Well alright then. Let's dig in. I would've bought more, but I ran out of cash. Here's a tip kids, only bring cash to a card show, and only bring as much as you are willing to spend. A lot safer that way.

Team Canada autos

Multi Gold Medal Winning goalie Charline Labonte, sticker says $30 slashed to $20. I paid $6.

 Multi Gold Medal winning and personal friend, Danielle Goyette. Again, $30 slashed to $15, I paid $5

 Jennifer Botterill, $25, down to $12, I paid $4

 current Montreal Canadien Tom Pyatt, $20, down to $10, I paid $3

 Washington Capitals goalie, rookie Braden Holtby. $20 down to $10, I paid $3

 Jumping sets to 07/08 ITG Between the Pipes
Florida Panther goalie Tomas Vokoun, $25, down to $20, down to $10, I paid $2!!!

 and finally, I grabbed this instead of another auto I had my eye on... an 07/08 UD Young Gun of goalie Jaroslav Halak. $25 down to $15... I paid $5.

Let's hear it for surprise sales!!!

Glen Sharpley, anyone?

A wee while ago, some outstanding young blogger posted a ttm success from former North Star great, Glen Sharpley.

The problem is, my memory ain't what it used to be. Would someone please enlighten me as to which blog it was?

Merci.

It's National Hockey Card Day!!! Yay!!!

to celebrate National Hockey Card Day, Upper Deck claims to give away free packs of hockey cards. I say claims, because I'm pretty sure that hobby stores have to buy them, albeit cheaply, and then they give them away. You can also get free packs at Rexall Drugs, and London Drugs. Why only there I have no idea.

Oh yeah, and before you scratch your head too much, yes, National Hockey Card Day is actually tomorrow. But I hate waiting, so I got some today. Connections you know.***

I scanned the whole set, so we'll start at card #1 and work our way through, mmmmmkay?

Taylor Hall. Surprise!

 Oh yeah, the wrapper, for those of you interested in that kind of thing....

 #2 Tyler Seguin - dioes he even play anymore? He was scratched against Montreal the other night. Not enough of a goon I guess.

#3 Jeff Skinner - everybody's favourite. But be careful, he's only 18. You can't even take him across state lines without parental permission.

 #4 Jordan Eberle - I'll take him on my team anyday.

 #5 P.K. Subban!!! Woot!

 oh yeah, here are the card backs for you stat geeks. Uh.... oops. There are no stats.

 #6 Jason Spezza - if anyone can afford his contract, Ottawa will trade him to you. So that means he's staying a Senator.

 #7 Dion Phaneuf - we HAD to have a Leaf in the set, so Dion gets the nod.

 #8 Jarome Iginla - I can't believe people were talking about trading Jarome earlier this season. Where are those people now? In the hospital getting treated for ankle injuries from jumping on and off and on the bandwagon.

 #9 Roberto Luongo - ditto here what I said about Jarome.

 #10 Sid the Kid. Get well soon man, the game needs you.

 #11 The Ghost of Patrick Roy... no wait. That's just some weird sepia thing UD did to the photo.

 #12 Mario Lemieux - must all Penguin superstars be injury riddled?

 #13 Gordie Freakin' Howe - I once saw him crush 8 walnuts to dust in one hand. Hey, you try it.

 #14 Bobby Orr. Wow. Either him or Gordie for best ever. What might have been for this guy if not for injuries.

 #15 Wayne Gretzky. Nice hat.

 Checklist showing 15 of the 16 cards available, #16 Jonathan Toews is a hobby store exclusive. I'll pick him up tomorrow on, well, you know, National Hockey Card Day.

 and an advertisement for the upcoming Heritage Classic. I can't wait. I hope the weather holds out. It's starting to warm up around here....

There you go boys and girls.... hopefully I can get a set to give away here... some sort of contest or just a random freebie. Hopefully.

What to do? And look! Tall Boys!!

Almost a year ago, I bought this box of '94/95 Parkhurst from my newly discovered local card shop. I just got around to busting it a week ago or so. Yeah, that's how I roll.

 Anyways, there isn't a lot of information available on this set, so I'm kinda winging it here. Near as I can tell, it's a reproduction of the 1964/65 Parhurst Tall Boy set. 180 cards in the set. 24 packs in teh box, 10 cards per pack.

 I have no idea if the originals came 10 per pack, but I doubt it. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any of the original '64/65 Tall Boys in my greedy little mitts collection.

Let's take a look at thes colourful cards. I have to admit, it was a blast pulling all of these names out of packs.
Jean Beliveau

 Charlie Hodge and his first mask.

 The Golden Jet, Bobby Hull.

 Tim Horton. I always feel like getting a coffee when I pull one of his cards, and I don't even drink the stuff.

 Gordie Freakin' Howe.

 Alex Delvecchio

 Jacques Plante as a Ranger. Gotta give the Blueshirts some love.

 and lastly, a Bruin. Wayne Cashman to be precise. Wayne would later become captain of the Bruins during Don Cherry's tenure as coach.

 For those of you unfortunate enough to not be familiar with the Tall Boy cards, here's a comparison for you.

 Now here's my dilemma. I made a complete set out of 23 packs. Which, for you math majors at home, I have one unopened pack left.

 This set has three different insert sets to chase. First, American/Canadian Greats at a rate of 1:126. Or 1 every 5 1/2 boxes. And I pulled one!!! None other than the Big Train himself, Lionel Conacher.

Seriously, if you've never heard of the dude, read up on him. Awesome. These inserts are done up in the '51/52 Parhurst style.
Next we have Future Star cards at 1:32 of which I did not pull any. And finally autographs. Yes, this set came with autographs of all the surviving members, inserted at 1:261 or 1 every 11 boxes.

Should I open that last pack looking for an elusive auto???? Or just leave it be, preserved for all time?

another one punch goalie fight, and a Bruin shows his stripes

Montreal played in Boston tonight. It started out as a hockey game, but became something else. Boston, well known as one of the top two cheap shot teams in the NHL, decided beforehand to cement their well deserved reputation.

200 minutes in penalties. 7 fights. 7 misconduct penalties. 6 game misconduct penalties. And one very lucky Boston goalie.

Montreal won the fights, 5-2, lost the game 8-6. Take that for what it's worth.

What get's me is why Boston insists on the cheap shots. They're a really good team, but insist on playing like, well, idiots. Everytime there was an altercation on the ice, Boston got the extra penalty or penalties for starting it, or doing something stupid.
For example, the third period was disgraceful by the Bruins. If I was a fan of theirs, I would've shut off the tv. Marchand and Subban were about to dance, and Milan Lucic, the biggest cheap shot guy in the league besides Matt Cooke, comes crashing in from behind and earns a third man in and a misconduct.
David Krejci jumps Benoit Pouliot from behind, but then goes down after one punch from Pouliot.
Andrew Ference hits Travis Moen from behind, then gets pummelled after Moen gets back up.
Then Boychuck and Thornton do away with the Canadiens defence pairing of Spacek and Hamrlik, with Thornton jumping Hamrlik after a linesman ties up Hamrlik.
And finally Adam McQuaid nailing Max Pacioretty from behind, throwing punches while the play goes on. He gets 4 minutes, Pacioretty scores on the power play.

All of these are from behind. Maybe that's how the Bruins prefer things. Don't ask, don't tell and all that. But Montreal got 5 power play goals because of this. It just goes to the class and character of an organization. In the Pouliot fight, Benoit knocked him down and out after two punches, and then did nothing. He did not hit him anymore.
As you'll see in the Price / Thomas fight, one punch and down goes Thomas. Everyone in the league knows how tough Carey Price is, and Price really wants nothing to do with it. He spends most of the time laughing.

The Bruins? Every time a Habs player was on the ice, they were swinging. Hitting while they were down, or while an official had them tied up. That, and about 18 Stanley Cups, is what seperates Montreal and Boston.



and can anyone tell me why Thomas was not ejected from the game as is the rule? At the end of the video you can see backup Tukka Rask getting ready to go in, but the ref said no. Brent Johnson got tossed when he went down to challenge DiPietro the other day, why does Thomas get the preferential treatment?

1/3 of the Triple Crown Line.....

I was thrilled to get back a ttm request from Charlie Simmer. It took 98 days, which at first seems odd as Charlie lives about 8 kilometres from my house. But his job as the Calgary Flames colour commentator has him travelling with the team, so it's really not that bad.

Charlie Simmer was the left wing on the Triple Crown line consisting of him, Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor. They were unstoppable in the early '80's. In '79/80, Charlie posted 56 goals and 45 assists for 101 points in only 64 games, becoming the second player ever to score at least 50 goals and not record a hat trick. In the '80/81 season, Charlie had a great year improving to 56 goals and 49 assists for 105 points in only 65 games.  The day after the season ended, he married Terri Welles. Terri was better known as the 1981 Playboy Playmate of the Year.

Like I said, Charlie had a really good year.

The first photo is amazing in it's awesomeness... first, we have the gold and royal sweaters from the Kings. Next, the old Colorado Rockies, and finally, Charlie's trademark moustache.

 Next up, a pic of the Triple Crown line at the All Star Game. You don't see entire lines going to All Star Games anymore. I love that they are still wearing their Kings breezers and socks. This photo is now on it's way to Dave Taylor....

 Charlie also signed three cards for me.... a '79/80 OPC rookie card

 an '80/81 OPC

 and an '81/82 OPC

Charlie had played with the California Seals and the Cleveland Barons for three seasons before joining the Kings in 1977, I wish there had been a card made of him in those uni's... I would love to get those auto'd.
I may have to make one now....