Eddie the Eagle and a dozen others

Back onto the mask theme that has driven a few posts out of me lately.  I've found quite a few Ed Belfour cards for the frankenset so far; no surprise as Belfour's mask is a timeless classic, and as I mentioned recently comes in more than one color.

Eddie started his career in Chicago, and boy did I hate seeing that red eagle play against the Leafs.  But there's no denying how good the mask looks, especially in the 91-92 Upper Deck team checklist art card.  The only one of the 4 cards that doesn't give a great shot of the eagle is the 98-99 Black Diamond in the lower right.  That card also represents a color of the mask I really don't remember him wearing, gold.  That might be the one that be replaced over time. 

These 4 are all low numbers, 19,26,31 & 81. 

Can't go wrong with red and orange, the color of fire, especially on a mask.   I love Fred Brathwaite's mask, with the C in flames on the forehead, and paying homage to the original location in Atlanta with the old flaming 'A' on his chin.  Trevor Kidd always had cool designs on his mask, and although it is hard to see on his 97-98 Upper Deck card, the fire breathing dragons are no different.  JS Giguere and Tyler Moss round out the quartet of Flames cards that are part of the set so far.

Cross off #'s 23-30-108 & 156

Best shot of these 4?  Easily the Johan Hedberg on the lower right.  Great photo of Johan about to get hit in the mask with the puck; as long as it doesn't hit his trademark moose that is on the right hand side then all is good.  The Andy Moog OPC card from 90-91 might feature the most boring mask that he sported as a Bruin.   Some of his later designs were fantastic, especially the one with the growling bear.  I hope to have one of those in this collection later on.   Fredrik Andersen's "blue knight" and Nikolai Khabibulin's "Bulin Wall" mask also grace this group of 4.

#'s 289-291-294 & 296 can be taken off the list.

Some early 90's love here with Allan Bester's card from Pro Set, Ron Tugnutt's 91-92 Upper Deck card (one of my favorite masks of his) and Bob Essensa from 92-93 Pro Set Platinum.  Finally, Steve Shields who I featured the other day in his Gerry Cheevers mask, is shown here in his San Jose Sharks mask which looks as if the shark is going to bite the cage off.  A couple of these could get replaced over time, we shall see....

These 4 knock off cards 275-277-278 & 285.

Seeing these masks made me think of some other mask cards I'd love to have.  San Jose's Brian Hayward comes to mind, I also mentioned Andy Moog's Bruin mask.  There are some older cards that come to mind, goalies such as Ken Dryden (bulls eye), Mike Palmateer (jagged tooth) and Murray Bannerman (Blackhawk logo) are three that come to mind right away.

There's still lots of time to find those.

Thanks for reading, Robert

The Blue Jays Reorg #800: 2012 Bowman Chrome Eric Arce

Sometimes it's a bit depressing finding an older Bowman Chrome card of an unheralded player such as Eric Arce.  Eric was a 27th rd. pick of the Jays in 2010, and a 25th rd pick a year later.  He wound up playing parts of 3 seasons in the Jays system, not advancing above rookie ball.

After leaving the Jays system in 2013, he played in the Frontier League with the Normal CornBelters, getting into 10 games and hitting just .176 before leaving organized baseball. 

Now while I'm glad that Eric got to live a dream and play organized baseball for a couple of seasons, but on the other hand card companies could be a little more selective with their player choices for sets such as Bowman Chrome.  I'm sure that there are dozens more cards such as this one that fill  commons boxes all over the country though, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #21: Nolan's Dugout

I had posted my want list for the 2016 A&G set on a blog post a couple of weeks back, hoping that I'd get lucky.   Thankfully, Kyle from the Nolan's Dugout blog saw the post and offered up a few cards off the list.  The trade grew and eventually I got a nice stack of cards to knock a bunch of numbers off of 2 want lists.

Baseball players dominated the 19 A&G cards sent my way; the only two non-sports personalities were Colin Cowherd and Michele Steele (not pictured).  3 Hall of Famers came my way, along with 5 of the short prints. 

To go along with the A&G, Kyle sent 41 cards from the '90 Leaf set my way.  I decided to scan just a portion of them, it was accidental that the Jay Bell and Brett Butler bunting cards wound up side by side on one of the scans.  Seeing the Leaf cards brings back a lot of baseball memories, and the remainder of the cards had a bunch of great players such as Mark Langston, Doug Jones, Vince Coleman and Dave Parker to name a few.

I'm almost up to 150 cards from the '90 Leaf set, close to 30% complete.  I've enjoyed putting this set together so far; my memories of this set are from when it was released and how pricey it was.  Now the entire set lists for just $50, and the only RC from the set that lists for double digits is the Frank Thomas. 

Thanks for the trade Kyle, the cards are fantastic!  Looking forward to our next deal.

Thanks for reading, Robert

An even bakers dozen

Still have quite a few goalie cards to show off, so I increased the number on tonight's post to 13.  I'm working my from the higher numbers to the lower ones, so it's easier for me to replace the cards back in the plastic case that I'm keeping them in temporarily. 

I tried to group the cards again this evening, it was a little tougher this time with the cards I wanted to show, but we'll see how I did...

The only horizontal card for today features the 03-04 Upper Deck card of Ron Tugnutt.  I looked up this mask last night and noticed that as Ron moved around later in his career, the "splash" design was common to each team he moved to.  I also noticed with this card is that quite a few of the goalie cards so far have also had pucks very close by.  Tugnutt's card is #307.

The first panel of 3 fit together for me because the masks are all blue.  I remember when Eric Fichaud on the right was going to be the next Leafs big goalie prospect.  But he wound up buried behind Felix Potvin at the time, and never played a regular season game in Toronto before being traded to the Islanders.  Love the whale on his mask though, as it was something you don't see very often. 
Damian Rhodes in the middle is another of the great head shots that I'm hoping to find more of. His 95-96 Upper Deck card shows him before he was traded to Ottawa that season and became a regular starter.
I always loved the white wolves on Jocelyn Thibault's Nordiques mask; it was probably one of the top 2 or 3 masks in the history of the team.

Thibault's card is #316, Rhodes is #337, while Fichaud is #338.

Tugnutt appears again on this panel, this time in a Canadiens uniform.  The "splash" theme didn't come in Montreal until the next season for Tugnutt, so for now we have his 94-95 Upper Deck card to use. 
Tommy Salo's mask I don't remember too well, but I believe that is a lighthouse on the one side, fitting for the Islanders.  Maybe I'll find something with a better photo than this 98-99 UD card.
Is it just me, or is JVB's mask on the right look like it's 3 sizes too big for his head?  The NY logo looks absolutely massive.  I prefer his Philly mask design, which I'm hoping to find later on.

Tugnutt is #321, Salo is #317 and Vanbiesbrouck is #339.

A trio of goalies from the old Southeastern division are on this panel.  Steve Shields' mask continued on with his Gerry Cheevers tribute mask that he wore as a Bruin.  I'd actually forgotten that Shields spent time here in South Florida.
Ondrej Pavelec spent his entire career with the Thrashers/Jets until he finally moved on this summer to the Rangers.  Hopefully there he'll get a bit more defensive support.  I always liked the old Thrashers logo, so this 07-08 Victory card may be the only one that features the old Atlanta squad.
What I've loved so far is doing some research on some of the designs, just to find out the inspiration.  Michal Neuvirth's mask is no exception.  Turns out that this is a tribute mask, it's a bit tough to see, but the left side has a portrait of Czech goalie legend Jiri Holecek, while the right side (not visible) has Olaf Kolzig painted on.  The eagle on the top of the mask for me is the icing on the cake.

Shields' card is #329.  Pavelec's card is # 334.  Neuvirth's card is #332

The last panel features goalies sporting Western Conference jerseys.  Dwayne Roloson on the left has a great wilderness design on his Minnesota Wild mask, featuring a bear on one side and a wolf on the other. 
Jose Theodor's Avalanche mask continues the gargoyle theme that I showed on last night's post.  The chin also matches the shoulder patch with the Bigfoot foot print. 
JS Giguere's mask is the half duck, half cyborg artwork that I don't remember.  Seeing these 3 masks makes me think I need to start watching some more western conference games this year.

Roloson's mask is #342.  Theodore's is #305, and Giguere is #319.

13 more cards off the list.  I'm loving this project so far...

thanks for reading, Robert

2 by 2 by 2 by 2

Lots of goalie cards to show off this week.   All I need is the discipline to sit down and scan the cards that will make the scans somewhat interesting.

I decided to start off by increasing the number of cards on tonight's post to 8 (from 5 yesterday).  With a big influx of goalie cards (near 50!) from Mike from NABCB the other day that I still have to put together a post for, by the end of the week I hope to have shown over 100 goalie cards.

A couple of 2007-08 Upper Deck horizontal cards to start us off.  Lady Liberty has long been a part of Henrik Lundqvist's mask, and for me it doesn't get old.  I'm hoping to get a more recent shot of him with the glittery (for lack of a better word) mask that he wears.

Nittymaki had a couple of his Philadelphia masks feature portraits of gangsters on them.  That's part of the allure for me, finding out what goalies find interesting to them and seeing it put into art.

Lundqvist is card 364, while Nittymaki is card 380.

I've had a good bit of luck finding good shots from the 2007-08 Upper Deck set so far, and the Kevin Weekes card on the left is no different.  Kevin is an excellent analyst on the NHL Network, and has the knowledge from his well traveled years in the NHL.  The Black Panther mask is one of my favorites of his.

Jose Theodore's 2003-04 Upper Deck card shows his love of gargoyles (with thanks to Joesayfan and his blog for the info).   I would love to get a card featuring his Heritage Classic mask from the outdoor game in Edmonton back in the early 2000's (if there is one). 

Weekes card is #355, Theodore's card is #347.

Ilya Bryzgalov had a lot of different mask designs during his time with the Flyers, and this one with featuring Darth Vader and Yoda was one of his best.  The original light saber for Yoda was orange (Philly color as you can see), and the folks at Lucas Films requested that he change the color.  The 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee card you see here is #'d 384.

It's always a few games when goalies are traded mid-season before goalies can get a new mask/paint job, and the 94-95 Upper Deck set caught Craig Billington in that transition.  What's funny though is that Billington was traded in the off season of 1993, so over a year later, Billington hasn't spent the money to update his mask. Billington's card is #370.

For me, the two best cards of the post.  I love the close up head shots, which allow a good look at the mask.  Anyone who follows my Player Collection blog has seen a few cards of Felix Potvin's cat mask, which I hope to get one or 2 more of featuring either the Kings or Bruins colors.  The Potvin card is #367.

I don't ever remember Kirk McLean wearing a Scottish themed mask with the lion and the tartan on the top.  I love it though, and I will be hard pressed to ever remove it, even if someone does find a goalie card #'d 375.

Both of those cards come from the 97-98 Upper Deck set, which kept up with the previous years tradition of using some great head shots.

8 more down, I'm loving this set so far.  Can't wait to see if there's any good shots in this year's releases.

thanks for reading, Robert

A few more goalies for the frankenset

I already have a 150 count plastic case full of goalie cards so far, and I received a package of goalie cards this past week that I still need to write a post about.  So, with a need to get some posts out there on the blog, I'm going to try and post a handful (or more) masks for the next few days.  We're only about 3 weeks away from NHL training camps opening, so why not?

Jocelyn Thibault had some great masks during his NHL career, and the one he sported on this Pacific Complete set from 2002-03 is no different.  Even the "T-BO" on his chin looks great.  This is card #411.

I don't normally like to be harsh on athletes, but maybe the only thing that was good during Toskala's time in Toronto was his mask.  This video might be the defining moment.  Vesa lasted a couple more years in the league before returning to Finland to finish his career.  This 2007-08 Upper Deck card is number 397.

Sometimes you just never know where you're career will take you.  Niemi wins a Cup in Chicago in his first year, is traded to San Jose where he has 5 solid years, then ends up in Dallas and becomes a back up.  I remember picking up packs of 12-13 Score hockey at K-Mart like it was only yesterday, but this is already a 5 year old card.  Niemi is #392.

Most of the names you'll see in this frankenset you'll recognize, but even the most ardent hockey fan might be troubled to remember Pauli Jaks.  This photo was more than likely taken during his only NHL appearance, where he played 40 minutes and gave up 2 goals.  The mask represents his time in the IHL with the Phoenix Roadrunners.  This is card #387 in the set, and is part of one of my favorite UD sets, 94-95.

The Loch Nets Monster, Blaine Lacher, who lasted just two seasons in the NHL.  This might be one of the best mask shots that will appear in the set.  This is from the 95-96 UD Set, and is card # 385.
Love the claw grabbing the puck on the side of his mask.   Fantastic.

I thought that Jhonas Enroth was going to be the answer as a back up in Toronto this year.  Instead, this is the only base card from Upper Deck that Jhonas will appear on as a Maple Leaf.  Good shot though of the big Maple Leaf, ironically in front of a brick wall.  At least there's a goalie in spot #424 now.

There's another half a dozen spots off the list.   Still have a lot more ground to cover though, and I'm going to try and get through a bunch of cards this week.

thanks for reading, Robert