Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Hall of Fame Class of 2012

This year's Hall of Fame Class was announced earlier today. The NHL elected Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin in their first year of eligibility, as well as Adam Oates and Pavel Bure.

Let's take a look at what matters most. Their cards. Rookie style.

Joe Sakic
1989-90 OPC #113

Joe scored 625 goals and 1016 assists for 1641 points in 1378 games. He also Captained his teams to two Stanley Cups. 12 All Star Game appearances to go with a Hart and Conn Smythe trophy.

A spanky mint copy of his only RC will set you back $2-3 bucks. If you don't have one, why not?


Mats Sundin
1990-91 OPC Premier #114

Mats scored 1349 points in 1346 games including 564 goals. Mats played for 18 seasons, but never won a Cup, or any other type of trophy.

Mats' rookie cards inlcude 90/91 UD #365, 90/91 Pro Set #636 and 90/91 Score #338. The OPC Premier pictured above is probably the most desirable and can be had for about $2.


Adam Oates
1987-88 OPC #123

Adam potted 1420 points with 1079 assists in 1337 games. He was a playmaker. He made a lot of 'goal scorers' look better than they were. Five All Star Games with no Cups or personal hardware.
He's not really identified with any one team, as he played with seven of them over his 19 year career. He played the longest with Washington.
Coincidently, he was named the new head coach of the Washington Capitals earlier today. A pretty exciting day in the Oates household.

His OPC rookie shown can be bought ungraded for about $7.


Pavel Bure

1990-91 Upper Deck # 526

Kind of the surprise of the group. Didn't expect to see old Pavel in the Hall.

Bure had four seasons with at least 58 goals scored, twice hitting 60. That combined with the fact he only got 437 goals in his career shows he was a very big hit or miss player. Mostly miss. Scoring a 117 goals in 8 seasons to me is not a Hall of Fame player.... despite getting 317 in those previously mentioned four seasons.
Hello consistancy?
Six All Star games, a Calder trophy and two Henri Richard trophies, but no Cups.

Pavel's only rookie card is yours pretty much anywhere for $3.

So there you have the 2012 NHL Hall of Fame class. Congrats to those that made it.

As for the rest of you, go out and grab those rookies of the newest Hall of Famers. It won't cost you much.

Friday, June 15, 2012

idle hands....

this is what happens when you're up at 3am and can't go back to sleep.

I need help.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Masked Marvels

The last card show of the 'year' was today. Things will start up again in September.

It was a pretty low key affair. This was the first time ever there was a card show in June around here.... It was good to hang out and chat with a few people.

Card wise it wasn't much to get all excited about. I raided a quarter box for about 5 bucks worth. My big purchase was picking up some Mask cards for my 2012 ITG:BTP Masked Men set.

7 Masks for $20. A little more than I've spent on the ones I've acquired so far, but still a decent price.

Everyone's favourite Canuck, 'Bones' Bromley.

Jonas Hiller showing off the mask he wore for 'Mo-vember'. Pictures of all of his teammates, with moustaches drawn on them. Nice.
Dwayne Roloson with, I believe, Thor. I think we'll be hearing a retirement announcement from Mr Roloson any day now.

Miikka Kiprusoff! You can't go anywhere in Calgary on any given day and not be involved or overhear a conversation about if Kipper will accept a trade, be traded, etc....
The Penguins new goalie, Tomas Vokoun. I wonder how Fleury took that news?

Carey Price wearing his charity mask to be auctioned off to help fight breast cancer. I already had Carey in my set, but this one can go in my Carey binder.

Finally, Patrick Roy. One of two Roy cards in this set. The other featuring his Avalanche mask.

Seven more cards for $20. Six of them for my set. I now sit at 42/50. I need Craig Anderson, Curtis Joseph, Chris Mason, Kirk McLean, Ryan Miller, Bernie Parent, Jonathan Quick, and the aforementioned Patrick Roy.

I used to have CuJo, but gave him to a buddy who needed him as he was closer to his set. Now I still need him. Figures. I also have a Quick, but the gold /10 version.

But it's okay... it's a hobby, not a race. Thanks for reading.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Thursday, June 7, 2012

It Just Keeps Getting Better.... Richard Sevigny Autograph success

I've wanted this one for a long time. One of my favourite goalies from the '80's. Richard Sevigny.
I love that mask. Love, love, love it.

Richard started his career in an odd way. During the Stanley Cup finals in 1979 between the Canadiens and the Rangers, Habs goalie Ken Dryden did not play well in a Game One loss. So much so that Coach Scotty Bowman informed backup Michael Laroque that he would start Game Two.

Well wouldn't you know Laroque was injured during pre-game warmup forcing Dryden back into the nets, and a young rookie named Sevigny onto the bench in a backup role. Dryden and the Canadiens won that game, and the next three to win their fourth straight Stanley Cup.

And Richard Sevigny got his name engraved on the Cup before he had even played his first game.

Dryden retired that off-season. And in 1980-81 Sevigny led the league with a 2.40 goals against average. 20 wins 4 losses and 3 ties were good enough to earn him the Vezina Trophy along with Denis Herron and Michael Laroque.

Tomorrow's autograph guest really owns his profession. More famous for being a goalie than if he was one.... I can't wait.

Still no guesses?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Rogie Vachon autograph success.

Day two of autograph week here on Just A Bit Offside. I promised you epic, and our journey begins with Rogie Vachon.
My wife saw this and exclaimed, "Where's his mask??!" After an explanation she muttered, "He's fu*&#ng nuts." ..... That's my sweetie!

I love the auto and the Stanley Cup inscription... but maybe we don't need five authenticity stickers at the bottom of the photograph. From my days working on restoring cars, I appreciate the need to establish provenance, but FIVE different ways? One from the NHLPA, two from the NHL, and two from the photo/auto providers. Sheesh.

Anyways... Rogie fits nicely into my goalie collection. As do the next two to be featured. One who played in the NHL, and one who never made it, and yet may be more famous than if he did...

Any guesses?

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Gerry Cheevers autograph success

this past weekend I had the opportunity to meet with two former NHL/WHA players. Gerry Cheevers and Al Hamilton.

Gerry Cheevers is best known as goalie for the Boston Bruins. But he was also goalie for the Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA for four seasons. I was hoping to find a nice 8x10 of him in a Crusader sweater, but no such luck.

I'm not sure how Cheevers got inducted into the Hall of Fame as he never led the league in games played, wins, shut outs, or goals against average. Not even once. He did win two Stanley Cups, but was the primary goalie in only one of those playoff runs.

I can't tell you what it was like to be a Habs fan in a queue of about 25 Bruins fans. There was almost a line brawl a couple of times. Thankfully they were Bruins fans though, as most of my wise assed comments weren't understood. I need a wingman.

Al Hamilton played parts of six seasons inthe NHL before being selected by the Alberta Oilers in the WHA expansion draft. Al played with the Oilers for all seven seasons the WHA existed. Hamilton was protected by Edmonton upon entering the NHL and player one more year with them in the NHL before retiring.
Al Hamilton was the first Edmonton Oiler to be honoured by having his number retired.

Again, I was hoping for an image from his WHA days, but no joy. Still a nice addition to my collection though.

Up next, three posts of autograph awesomeness. Epic awesomeness. To the max. Yeah, I said to the max.