Hockey Card of the Day #45

NNO - Sergei Federov
90-91 - ?
(back)

Does anyone know what set this off-brand card comes from? There is no company name or copyright date anywhere on the card. I'm hoping this was from some illegal, unlicensed set. The thing is, it's much higher quality than some of the crap that came out in 90-91 (I'm looking your way Bowman).

If it's any help, this foil Eric Lindros card seems to be from the same set as well.

Hockey Card of the Day #44

NNO - Stan Mikita
72-73 O-Pee-Chee Team Canada
(back)

These decapitated heads were inserted in packs of 72-73 O-Pee-Chee. I like them much better than the regular 72-73 OPC cards, though I think I would like this card even more if Mikita was wearing his trademark bulbous helmet.

Actually, this card probably ranks in my top ten favourite hockey cards, coincidentally with a couple of other cards that also feature people who have had their heads removed-- though in these cases they were reattached on someone else's body: 71-72 Rogie Vachon and Mike Corrigan.

Also notable in the category of cards featuring head transplants is the '74 Nabisco Sugar Daddy set that placed pro-athletes heads on cartoon bodies. Derek Sanderson's card is my favourite of that bunch.

Hockey Card of the Day #43

#10 - Mike Dunham
95-96 Edge Ice - The Wall
(back)

Whatever that thing on Dunham's mask is supposed to be (a grotesque red-faced gorilla?), it gets my vote as the creepiest goalie mask ever.

This card was part of a insert set of minor-league goalie masks that featured such minor-league staples as Rick Knickle, Troy Gamble, Wendell Young and Pokey Reddick. These cards were inserted in packs of 95-96 Edge Ice, which was an ambitious 200 card set of AHL/IHL players. Like most companies that only released minor league sets, Edge Ice did not return for a second year. If anyone has one of these sets they want to get rid of, I want one.

Worst Ever Hockey Cards #21

#157 - Mike Corrigan
71-72 O-Pee-Chee

My new favourite card of all-time.

Hockey Card of the Day #42

#69 - Randy Ladoceur
94-95 Stadium Club
(back)

Anytime I see someone wearing these jerseys in public I assume they are slightly retarded.

Hockey Card of the Day #41 - Grand Poobah of Unibrows

#65 - Rick Hampton
75-76 Topps
(Buy it)

This guy has it all wrong-- he's got his eyebrows on his upper lip and his mustache on his forehead. And I though Thomas Jelinek was the Lanny McDonald of unibrows. . .

Hockey Card of the Day #40

#116 - Corrado Micalef
83-84 O-Pee-Chee
(back)

I've seen pictures of this guy without his helmet on and he doesn't have a big down syndrome forehead or Gary Smith-esque 'fro. So what's in that dome?

Despite having such a relic of a goalie mask in his NHL days, Micalef was hip enough to wind down his career with four seasons in the RHI with the Montreal Roadrunners, Orlando Jackals, and San Jose Rhinos from 94-97.

Hockey Card of the Day #38

#412 - Link Gaetz
91-92 Pinnacle
(back)

I like what this card insinuates. But as much as I wish this card was made by some harsh Link Gaetz critic, the back actually talks about how Gaetz raises award-winning chickens. . . which I guess is kinda bizarre when you think about the guy. But if he was such a great chicken breeder, why is he working construction in Mission, BC? SPCA complaints?

Hockey Card of the Day #37

#AR2 - Gilbert Dionne
92-93 Upper Deck All-Rookie Team

What a douche!

Hockey Card of the Day #36

#334 - Peter Ihnacak
83-84 O-Pee-Chee
(back)

This is my favourite one-third of a rookie card that I own. It was given to me by a friend who salvaged it from a wall in a house he was renovating along with a pretty sweet 82-83 O-Pee-Chee Pete Peeters card. I trust that the gods of worthless hockey cards have already taken care of the person responsible for the destruction of this card.

Hockey Card of the Day #35

#440 - Doug Gilmour Checklist
93-94 Leaf

After 1993 the NHL stopped including an open cocaine bar at the awards shows. Gilmour came prepared with his 'good vibes' bowtie, but when Chelios giggled through his acceptance speech and Turgeon tried to fill the Lady Byng trophy with some of that good shit to bring back to Long Island the NHL finally had enough.

Hockey Card of the Day #33, 34

(Left) #20 - Rick Nash
07-08 Upper Deck Series 1

(Right) #275 - Rick Nash
07-08 Upper Deck Series 2

Rick Nash walking on, and off, the ice! If you would like to see more photos of the Columbus Blue Jackets not playing hockey, you may also want to check out card numbers 271, 274, and 276. Just because no one cheers for Columbus doesn't mean you can be lazy, Upper Deck.

Hockey Card of the Day #31, 32

#326 - Jonathan Cheechoo
07-08 Upper Deck Series 2

San Jose vs. San Jose? Bullshit! They had half a season to get a photo of Cheechoo and they the use one from the team's intra-squad game.

#271 - Pascal Leclaire
07-08 Upper Deck Series 2

Why is it that Schwarzenneger gets to be in all the best hockey villain movie scenes?

Hockey Card of the Day #30

#327 - Colorado Rockies (Records)
77-78 O-Pee-Chee
(back)

The best thing about this card is the stats on the back for most shutouts in a season and in a career which say "never accomplished." I know the team had only been in Colorado for one season, but if you include the stats from the team's time in Kansas City, it still would read "never accomplished."

Doug Favell eventually recorded the team's first shutout early in the 77-78 season, a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. That one shutout gives Favell a share of the team record for most career shutouts by a Rockies goaltender. Bill Oleschuk and Bill McKenzie were the other two goalies to get shutouts during the team's six years in Colorado before they were moved to new Jersey for the 82-83 season.

Hockey Card of the Day #29

#239 - Craig Cameron
75-76 Topps
(back)

Now that's a million dollar smile!

Hockey Card of the Day #28

#26 - Alexander Andrijevski
93-94 Upper Deck
(back)

I bought a box of 93-94 Upper Deck Jumbo Packs because I remembered that jumbo packs ruled when I was a kid. I didn't get any Wayne Gretzky cards, but I did get four Alexander Andrijevski's. Luckily, I needed this card for my collection of worthless and forgotten hockey players.

Hockey Card of the Day #27

#156 - Rogatien Vachon
71-72 O-Pee-Chee
(back)

In the 80's, O-Pee-Chee was into airbrushing the jerseys of recently traded players. That looked bad, but just as bad was their cut and paste technique of the 70's. Rogie doesn't even have the same colour skin as the body they've pasted him on. And Larry Hillman, a defensemen, had his head pasted on a goalie's body (Joe Daley's, who was traded to Detroit after the 70-71 season).

Hockey Card of the Day #26

#344 - Adam Graves
90-91 Upper Deck
(front)

Some guys grow playoff beards, Graves grew a playoff scumstache.

Hockey Card of the Day #25

#72 - Brian McFarlane
06-07 Parkhurst
(back)

Here is the highly sought after rookie card of the author of my second through fifth favorite books on hockey: It Happened in Hockey, More It Happened in Hockey, and Still More It Happened in Hockey. In case you are wondering, Ed Willes' The Rebel League, about the WHA's short but amazing history is my favourite book on hockey. When Ed Willes gets a hockey card, I will gladly pay up to 25 cents for it.

Hockey Card of the Day #24

#231 - Dennis Kearns

71-72 O-Pee-Chee
(back)

He may look like a midget with a beer gut, but look closely at the marks on his neck and his self-satisfied grin-- the ladies loved him.