The Lightning Card of the The Week (That Never Existed) - Matt Gilroy 2011-12 OPC Update

When you get old your memory gets a bit hazy.  And when you have a couple of thousand Tampa Bay Lightning cards in your collection, you sometimes start writing a post about a card you think you have.  Then when you’re done and looking for an image you find out that not only do you not have the card, it doesn’t even exist.  Which leads us to today’s post.

As I was doing research (watching YouTube videos) for the Steven Stamkos endorsement post, I kept stumbling across a video showing all 60 of his goals from the 2011-12 season.  Being a disciplined writer I waited until I was almost done the post to watch it.  It was glorious.  He scored all of the goals. One of the things that stood out (other than the fact that he only had two empty net goals during the campaign) was the number of times Matt Gilroy showed up in the highlights.

For those of you who might not remember him, Gilroy was signed in the summer of 2011 as a free agent for a reasonable 1-year, $1 million deal.  General Manager Steve Yzerman was looking for a defenseman with speed who could move the puck and contribute on the power play.  You know, someone to fill that Dan Boyle-sized hole that hadn’t been filled since the Cowboys era.  Gilroy was cheap and had potential so it seemed like an ok idea.

Besides, who doesn’t like an underdog?  According to the St. Pete Times article about the signing, Gilroy walked onto the team at Boston University and suited up on the blue line, not because that’s what he played growing up, but because that was the only spot open on the team.  He seemed to take to it pretty well as he earned the Hobey Baker award for best collegiate player in 2009.

Here’s how to end a college career.  Walk-on from Long Island switches to defense to make the team, becomes captain of that team, wins award for best player in college, assists on dramatic game-tying goal in the national championship (which they end up winning) and then signs a 2-year $3.5 million contract with the legendary New York Rangers.  Not a bad little story.

Things didn’t quite pan out in New York and when his contract was up they didn’t re-sign him.  Paired up mostly with Marc-Andre Bergeron, Gilroy played pretty well for a Lightning team that struggled to capture the magic that had propelled them to the Eastern Conference finals the year before.  While the team might have had troubles, a young Steven Stamkos was an unholy terror on the ice.

Having refined his game from a kid with a big slapshot from the circle, Stamkos was scoring from every way from everywhere.  Slapshots from the circle still went in, but he was also in front of the net deflecting goals or tapping in crazy passes from Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier.  He was dekeing goalies and snapping wristers past them.  And there, on the blue line, was Gilroy setting him up.

Matt Gilroy had 2 goals and 17 assists in his too-short Lightning career.  His first point was a primary assist on a Vincent Lecavalier goal on October 17th.  He would assist on a Stamkos goal that night as well.  His next four points were also primary assists on Stamkos goals. In all he would assist on 6 of Stamkos’ 60 goals. His production and ice time would pick up when Victor Hedman was sidelined with a concussion. With the Big Swede on the sidelines, Gilroy would see upwards of 20 minutes a game.  When Hedman came back, the former Boston Terrier would see his ice time dwindle and eventually he was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Brian Lee (who would also assist on 6 of Stamkos’ goals).

Gilroy would help the Senators make it to the playoffs but would find himself a free agent again after the season.  The Rangers signed him to an AHL deal during the lockout and he did play his way onto the roster once the season resumed. However, he only appeared in 15 games and failed to register a point.  His last season in the NHL came in 2013-14 with the Florida Panthers where he recorded a goal and an assist in sixteen games.  He is currently playing for Spartak Moscow in the KHL where he has 15 points in 49 games.

To this day he is the only player to wear the number 97 for the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The reason for choosing that number is a bit heart-breaking (seriously how has Disney not done a movie on this guy yet? Are they waiting for him to return from Russia to help the Islanders win a Stanley Cup or something?)

In my mind Gilroy was with the team much longer than 53 games.  Maybe it was because the Lightning churned through so many defensemen that year.  Along with Gilroy and Lee there was Brandan Mikkelson, Keith Aulie, Bruno Gervais and Evan Oberg, all youngish players who were brought in to fill gaps in an aging blue line. Other than the 21-year-old Victor Hedman the other regulars on defense were 31 or older.

In fact, I thought he was around long enough to have a card produced with him wearing a Lightning uniform.  Unfortunately he wasn’t. So let that be a lesson to you kids.  If you have an idea for a post that you want to shoehorn into a reoccurring gimmick, make sure it actually fits before you spend an hour writing it.

So here is a photo of his rookie card which I do not own (but it could be yours for $3.99 on eBay!)

Lightning Card of the Week - 1997-98 Pacific Omega Alexander Selivanov

Throughout the first decade of the Lightning's existence Alexander Selivanov was the closest thing the Lightning had to a sniper. From his debut in 1994 to his trade to Edmonton in 1999 the Russian-born winger scored 78 goals in 304 games. For me, however, he will always be remembered for three things:

1. Having his Mercedes repossessed during a practice.
2. Marrying the General Manager's daughter
3. Scoring the playoff overtime goal in the team's first playoff home game in history.

And yes, that is the order I remember them in.

The Car:

In 1998-99 the Lightning were not a very good team. Their record peaked at 6-6-2 on November 8^th. . On November 10^th they would lose 10-2 to the New York Rangers (I was there!) which plummeted them into a nine game losing streak. A 2-1 win against Edmonton on December 4^th would break the streak but they would go ahead and lose 15 of their next 19 games to...umm...fall out of contention.

They won only 19 games. Their “best” goalie was Corey Schwab and he had 8 wins and 3.52 GAA. Darcy Tucker of all people led them in scoring with 43 points. The highest plus/minus was +1 by a Andrei “Skippy” Skopintsev who somehow managed that while playing in 19 games for a team that gave up a league-leading 292 goals.

Their head coach/general manager was literally illiterate and helping his wife deal with cancer. Their captain, John Cullen and pro scout, Peter Mahovlich, were also battling cancer. Forward Benoit Hogue had to leave the team for a bit because his sister had been murdered in Montreal.

It was not a good year.

On a quiet Thursday in October, Selivanov had his $80,000 Mercedes repossessed from the parking lot of the Ice Palace. Despite making a reported $1.5 million that year he had somehow missed a couple of payments on the car. He blamed it on moving to a new address and not notifying the bank. Man, life sucked before online payments.

The Wife:

Flashback to a few years prior and Selivanov was having a great year. Despite being a Russian in a small market hockey town with no other Russians on the team he was playing well on the ice. In his first full season in the NHL, Selivanov's team leading 31 goals propelled the Lightning into the playoffs for the first time in their history. He looked like the dynamic, if sometimes inconsistent, scoring forward that could be a breakout star for the team.

Off the ice his life improved quite dramatically as well. In October of 1996 he married a girl named Carrie. Her last name happened to be Esposito. Which was the same name of the Lightning's General Manager Phil. Which wasn't really a coincidence since she was his daughter. She was also the Director of Team Services for the Lightning. Which kind of conflicted with a “no fraternizing with the players” rule he had set up with his employees.

Esposito didn't punish his daughter for marrying a Russian by trading him away (although I wouldn't have put it past him if he had a decent deal on the table). However, a couple of inconsistent seasons in a row (he would score a total of 31 goals in the next two seasons) and a large contract extension would lead to acrimony from his critics and the nickname Alex Son-in-law-ov was born. See, people could be assholes even before Twitter.

Esposito would soon be removed as General Manager and in January of 1999 Selivanov would be shipped out to Edmonton in a trade that netted the Lightning the legendary Alexandre Daigle. Carrie Esposito would follow Alex around for the next decade plus as his hockey career took him to Columbus, Germany and Russia. Unfortunately in 2012, at the age of 43, Carrie passed away from an abdominal aneurysm.

The Goal:

The early Tampa Bay Lightning teams were not great, but they weren't horrible. During the first three seasons of their existence they finished 6^th in their division twice and 7^th once. As an expansion team in the 90s they were built through other teams castoffs and high draft picks so some struggle was expected, but they were improving as a franchise.

In the 1995-96 they finally made the playoffs. They finished with a franchise best 38 wins (a number that wouldn't be bested until the Stanley Cup year of 2003-04). They won three out of their last four games in the season to snatch the 8^th see in the Eastern Conference away from the defending Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devil.

Their reward for the best season in franchise history? A match-up with the powerhouse Philadelphia Flyers. Not many gave Tampa a chance against the Flyers when the series started. After all, what chance should an upstart, sunbelt hockey team have against a team with Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Ron Hextall and Rod “The Bod” Brind'Amour? Plus the Lightning had an injured goalie in Daren Puppa who was playing with a bad back, an injured Brian Bradley who missed all of Game 2, oh and young defenseman Roman Hamrlik announced that he hated playing for coach Terry Crisp after the Lightning got shellacked 7-3 in Game 1.

Game 2 was a different story as the Lightning took advantage of some injuries to the Flyers to win 2-1 in overtime and send the series to Tampa tied at a game a piece. Selivanov had tied the game in the second period and Brian Bellows won it in overtime.

Game 3 was back in Tampa. In a converted baseball stadium then known as the ThunderDome, 25,945 fans watched the Lightning battle back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to send the game into overtime. Then, 2 minutes into overtime Selivanov scored the game winner.

There are several great things about this goal.

Selivanov throwing a check at the blue line to keep the puck in the zone

Brian Bradley's pass to Bill Houlder. And you thought cross-ice passes were a recent Lightning phenomenon.

Houlder's great fake and then horrible pass. Watch the slow-motion replay. He sold the slapshot and then fired that puck right into Selivanov's skates.

Selivanov getting mugged by Dale Hawerchuck as he skated in front of the net. Late 90s hockey at its obstructioniest best.

The sheer noise from the crowd after the goal. That would have been awesome to be a part of.

Sadly that would the high water point for the series and the organization for the next few years. Puppa's back broke down and he couldn't carry the team any more. The Flyers won Game 4 in front of a NHL record 28,183 fan to tie the series. They would win the next two games as well, ending the series in six games. Would things have been different if Puppa didn't have the back of an 85-year-old man? Possibly.

The organization would fall on hard times after that playoff season. Owners would change, coaches would change, Selivanov would be traded, games would be lost. Many, many games would be lost. And for Lightning fans sitting through three straight seasons of under 20-win seasons. There was one lonely banner that hung in the Ice Palace. It wasn't a Stanley Cup banner, or a conference title banner or even a division banner. It was a banner celebrating the record crowd.

And we had the memory of Selivanov's goal. For most organizations that would be barely a footnote in a team's history. Heck even more recent Lightning fans probably don't rate it in their top five memories,but for a generation of Lightning fans that will be one of the greatest moments in Lightning history.

Selivanov would have a good season in Edmonton before falling out of their graces. He would play one season in Columbus before moving on to the KHL and German leagues. He last played in the Netherlands in 2011-12 before retiring. He had been coaching in the KHL with HC Admiral Vladivostok but does not currently appear on their website.

The Card:

I don't have many of the 1997-98 Pacific Omega cards.  I picked this one up in a Zistle trade where the other guy was super generous and sent me a box of Lightning cards in exchange for a couple of extra Topps Heritage cards I had.

I like the horizontal design, but the borders are a little too wide on the side.  The next year's design was much better (see the Vinny card on my last post). I also like the Rob Zamuner cameo in the background. 

The back of the card has no stats but mentions Selivanov scoring two goals in 39 seconds against the Flyers in November of 1997.

Lightning Card of the Week - Ryan Callahan 2015-16 MVP Green Parallel

2015-16 Upper Deck MVP Green Parallel Ryan Callahan

Welcome back to a semi-regular series on The Hopeful Chase – the Lightning Card of the Week. For this week it's everyone's favorite check-throwing forward, Ryan Callahan.

Callahan made the news yesterday when it was noted that he had successful surgery to repair a labral tear in his left hip. According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, the well-paid forward had been struggling with the injury for most of the second half of the season and the playoffs.

After five minutes of research on labral hip surgery I feel a little better about his recovery and this not being the degenerative type of hip issues that has sidelined Bo Jackson and Albert Belle. As a fan I don't like hearing a player that is having issues with their hips, their backs or their feet. Those are three problem areas that never seem to get better.

However, it seems like this surgery involves repairing cartilage around the hip area. With a rehab time frame of 4-5 months Callahan should be back on the ice sometime around November. Will he be able to continue to play the same type of crash test dummy, aggressive forechecking style that fans love? That is the big question.

While the condition itself isn't anymore degenerative than pulling a hamstring or breaking a leg, it is something that can reoccur if you keep smashing your hip into other players and the boards. Think of a pitcher who tears the labrum in his shoulder. Surgery fixes it, but the very act of throwing a baseball could lead to it tearing again. The very act of Ryan Callahan being Ryan Callahan could lead to him doing more damage to his hip.

With him under contract for another four seasons that could be a bit of concern for Lightning fans. If Callahan can't play his style of hockey, is he any good for the team? He has been surprisingly durable for the Lightning having played in more than 70 games in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2008-09 and 2009-10. He did chip in 24 goals in 2014-15, but fell off scoring only 10 last season. Of course, playing with a painful hip could be a reason he had the lowest goal output of his NHL career.

I think he can find a role with the team as a defensive forward who chips in 15-20 goals a year while slowing down the opposition's top line. I don't think he can ever stop being who he is and it will lead to more injuries along the same lines as his hip issue. That was one of the drawbacks of the long term, big-money deal he signed. When you have a player that throws his body around the ice game in and game out there is a chance the damage is going to catch up with him and cause his career to crater quickly.

The green parallel of last year's MVP set are available online only. Through Upper Deck's e-pack site you can purchase or trade packs of MVP cards. If you acquire 20 of one particular card you can merge them together for the exclusive green parallel. So far I've been able to trade for Callahan and Ben Bishop. I just had them sent to me and they do look pretty nice in person.

Lightning Card of the Week - Witness the Death of the Personal Collection

That's it. I'm done. I'm throwing in the towel, stopping the fight before someone gets killed. That somebody being me. The reason – see below.

How that signature is "Brett Connolly" I have no idea

Yup, that's a Brett Connolly 2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Relic/Auto numbered to 99 Rookie. I received it on February 27^th. By sundown on March 2^nd Mr. Connolly was no longer a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Following in the grand tradition of buying out Vincent Lecavalier and trading Dustin Tokarski, General Manager Steve Yzerman orchestrated a transaction to personally piss me off.

Therefore I'm done. No more new personal collections. I'm sticking with what I got, because I can't bear the responsibility of having MY BOY NIKITA KUCHEROV or Alex Killorn or Radko Gudas (wait what?) traded simply because I focused on him for my collection. Better to hunt for circa 2001 Lecavalier cards then have the blood of an innocent rookie on my hands.

As for the trade itself I'm not really that surprised. It was kind of expected that at some point Connolly was going to be traded. Despite being the first player drafted by Mr. Yzerman it seemed like the former Prince George Cougar was always the odd man out. The ascension of the TKO Trio kind of bumped Connolly and fellow non-personal collection forward J.T. Brown down the depth list. Once Vlad Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette joined the roster and didn't fall flat on their faces it was only a matter of time until Connolly was on his way out the door.

The return for Connolly was decent (a 2^nd round pick in 2015 and a 2^nd round pick in 2016) and helps Mr. Yzerman recover some of the assets that he lost in picking up Braydon Coburn at the deadline as well. Since he dealt one of his 1^st round picks it was nice to get back into the 2^nd round (the Lightning lost their initial pick in the round to the Rangers once they re-signed Ryan Callahan) and a chance to keep the prospect pipeline flowing into Tampa.

If the organization is going to be successful long term, they are going to have to keep drafting well. They don't have the financial resources to keep signing big name free agents in the off-season so they have to fill the roster from within. They also can't afford to constantly trade away 1^st round picks for deadline acquisitions like the Penguins have been doing. So if they do trade a 1^st rounder like they did for Coburn it makes sense to use a surplus asset (like young forwards) to recoup their losses.

It's interesting that Mr. Yzerman has now traded away the first three picks he made as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Connolly was his first (drafted 6^th overall), Brock Beukeboom, a 3^rd round pick was traded to St. Louis for Eric Brewer and Radko Gudas, also drafted in the 3^rd round, was part of the deal that brought Coburn to Tampa this winter. I guess he kind of wants a do-over for that draft.

One of the few photos of Brock in a Lightning uniform and he is apparently auditioning for the Tonight Show.

Connolly was a stretch pick from the moment the Lightning called his name. While some evaluators had him as one of the top offensive talents in the draft that year, a hip injury had limited him to only 16 games during the 2009-10 season. When he was drafted everyone's favorite bald analyst Pierre Mcguire called him, “either a grand slam or a ground out”. Bob McKenzie pointed out that Connolly's right-hand, his dominant hand, had been crushed in a metal gate when he was a kid and that it “lacked structure”.

In the end, Connolly was more a less a solid double. He bounced back and forth between the AHL and the NHL, bounced back and forth between lines before finally settling as a 3^rd liner who was starting to find his scoring touch having netted a career-high 12 goals in 50 games for the Lightning this year. The Bruins were looking to add his presence for a playoff run, but a broken finger suffered in practice has pretty much shut down his season.

Compare the 2010 draft to the one a year later where four of the six picks (Namestnikov, MBNK, Nikita Nestorov and Ondrej Palat) have played for the Lightning and the other two players (Adam Wilcox and Matthew Peca) are among the organization's best prospects. Now that's a pretty good draft year. In fact, in terms of games played for the organization, it's probably the best draft since the Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Dmitry Afanasenkov, Martin Cibak draft of 1998 and the players are still on their entry level deals.

One of the problems of having so much young talent on the roster is that it does make it hard to figure out which individual players to invest in be it with cards or jerseys. I did take the plunge on drop a few bucks on a Kucherov jersey just because:

A – he shoots the puck a lot

B – not many people rock the 86

C – Nikita Kucherov is a bad-ass hockey name.

However, there is no guarantee he'll be here long term. The Lightning have a crazy amount of good young forwards who adapting well to the NHL level. While that is all well and good while they are under team control, it can get a bit expensive once they hit the open market. There is no way the team is going to be able to keep all of the players that they are developing now.

As a matter of fact I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see another team try and snatch one of the restricted free agents from the Lightning be sending them an offer sheet. Luckily, most of the players are actually signed through next season, but the 2016-17 off-season could be very, very interesting. Killorn, Brown, Kucherov and Paquette are all RFAs that year and could garner some interest. Oh and there is also the fact that Tampa Bay could still be trying to sign some old man named Steven Stamkos in that same summer.

Those, however, are headaches for the future. For now things are looking mighty bright. While my personal collection might be lying broken on the floor at least the team playing on the ice is moving right along. And I'll move on. In fact I actually went to a card show this weekend and acquired some new cardboard. The first card I picked up (at a ½ off sticker price box):

Signature is a little better in this one.

The Lightning Card of the Week Returns! Draft Day Edition

There are certain cards out there that you have to have because they are awesome cards (1971 Topps ThurmanMunson). There are some cards that you have to have because they are iconic (1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr). And there are some that you have to have because they represent a specific moment in history.

For me, the 2011-12 Panini Rookie Anthology Draft Year Vincent Lecavalier/ David Legwand because it represents the draft that the Lightning got right and started building into a Stanley Cup winner. The fact that it has Vinny on it and two jersey swatches makes it a little bit awesome as well.

Let's talk about the 1998 draft. Heading into it, it was clear that there were two players at the top of the class and then a bunch of decent players after that (sounds familiar). Both of those players were centers (sounds familiar). There was a consensus number one pick, a franchise savior, a “Next One” if you will, but the other player was quietly gaining in popularity to the point that some think they might go first overall depending what team ended up with the overall pick (sounds familiar). One was Canadian and one was American (again, sound familiar).

So yes, there are a lot of parallels between the 1998 NHL draft and the upcoming 2015 draft. Instead of McDavid vs. Eichel we had Lecavalier vs. Legwand. Lecavalier played the part of McDavid, dominating Major Junior hockey for years leading up to the draft, while Legwand was the hard-working American kid that may be having a better year (mostly because of McDavid's injury, but hey I'm trying to build a narrative here!)

It's odd looking back now that fifteen years have passed, but there was talk that the Lightning might go with Legwand instead of Lecavalier. At the time, Legwand was actually considered the more offensively gifted of the two players by some. Now, it was quite apparent that the Lightning were all aboard the Lecavalier train, but that doesn't prevent experts from speculating.

Would things have developed differently if Art Williams had declared Legwand the “Michael Jordan” of hockey instead of Lecavalier? Would he have blossomed into the scorer under the defensively lax guidence of Jaques Demers and Steve Ludzik? Would Lecavalier developed into a solid two-way center instead of the 50-goal scorer under Barry Trotz's offense-stifling style of play?

One thing is certain – Lightning fans wouldn't have had to sit through a decade of “Lecavalier to Montreal” rumors. Talk which actually started before the Lightning had drafted him. In an April 1998 St. Pete Times article, Tim Buckley mentions that Montreal was rumored to be dangling Saku Koivu inexchange for the pick.  Joe Sakic's name was also floated around as potential trade bait.

While Sakic and Koivu never ended up in Tampa, without a couple of trades this card would look a lot different. The picks used by Tampa and Nashville were not their original first round picks. The number one pick used by the Lightning was originally held by the Florida Panthers who traded it to San Jose for Victor Kozlov. At the time the deal was made (November of 1997) the Panthers were 5-9-4 (the last column was for ties. Yes Little Jimmy in the '90s games could end in a tie). They were struggling, but not necessarily out of the playoff hunt. General Manager Bryan Murray thought Kozlov, 23-years-old at the time, would be more beneficial to the team in the short run then what he thought would be a mid-round draft pick. “Certainly we thought we'd be a playoff team and never expected the top pick, but we'll have a top player in Kozlov for many years to come” he told the Sun Sentinel after the draft order was announced.

While Kozlov never reached the upper echelons of stardom he did have some solid seasons for the Panthers topping out with 22 goals in 2002-03 before getting dealt to New Jersey in 2004. Oddly enough Kozlov has the distinction of being traded for a #1 overall pick (Lecavalier) AND a #2 overall pick as his rights were traded from Hartford to San Jose for a package that included Chris Pronger in June of 1993.

Speaking of the Sharks, they kept that first round draft pick all of four months when Lightning General Manager “Trader” Phil Esposito came a' calling. For Bryan Marchment, David Shaw and the Lightning's first round pick Espo received the Sharks first round pick and Andrei Nazarov. Marchment himself had barely unpacked in Tampa before getting shuttled off to San Jose. He had been part of a trade with Edmonton that had sent former first overall pick Roman Hamrlik to the Oilers. It was a busy year for Mr. Esposito as he managed to pull off 10 trades over the season. 

So the Lightning had the number one pick and drafted Lecavalier. So why isn't David Legwand a San Jose legend? On the day of the draft the two teams swapped positions with San Jose moving down to draft third (where they would pick up defenseman Brad Stuart and a second round pick that they used to draft Jonathon Cheechoo who would score 56 goals in 2005-06 for the Sharks, a year before Lecavalier would score 52 for the Lightning) and Nashville moving up to get their franchise center in Legwand.

All-in-all I think it ended up alright for everyone involved (maybe not Florida). Despite never developing into a scoring juggernaut Legwand had a long tenure in Nashville and still holds just about every offensive record for the team. And despite some rough going early on (and suffering the shame of having the captaincy stripped from him) Lecavalier put together a pretty decent career in Tampa before economics and nagging injuries made him a contract buyout casualty.

All three of the top picks from that year have logged more than 1,000 games in the NHL which is kind of special in itself (Kozlov ended up playing in 897 NHL games and is still kicking around in the KHL). In the last 30 years only three other drafts can boast that – the 1987, 1988 and 1997 drafts. We have a few years left to see if the 2007 and 2008 drafts can be added to the list, but the top three players in both drafts are still in the NHL so there is a chance!

One thing that began to bother me after staring at this card for the last couple of hours. Panini surely could have used better pictures/cropping. Vinny is missing part of his hand. Meanwhile they went with the LinkedIn profile practice of cropping Legwand out of a group photo – most likely this one:

They get credit for using draft year photos (and for both of them sporting the dress shirt/tie/jersey combo. However, a little more time in the Google Image search probably could have led to some better results. Despite that, still a pretty neat card to add to the Lightning collection.

The Lightning Card of the Week Returns!

Finally, it is time to return from yet another self-imposed writing hiatus. This one dragged on a bit longer than normal and featured a couple of posts that died before they had a chance to live. Lucky for you I am feeling rejuvenated and raring to go again. Of course I have no idea what to write about so I'll kick it off by leaning on a semi-regular crutch – The Lightning Card of the Week!

A once regular feature that has been mothballed (much like boxing coverage and Through The Mail posts) due to sheer laziness I figure it's a good way to keep writing with the lull between the end of the season for the Bolts and the upcoming draft/free-agency season. Let's see what the box of hockey cards has in it:

A 2001-02 Upper Deck Tantalizing Tandems Vincent Lecavalier/ Brad Richards insert.

Look at those two – so young, so unaware of their careers would take them (they haven't even starred in “The Punisher” yet. Just two kids from Canada having fun playing hockey in Tampa. When the card was issued Vincent had finished his third full season in the NHL, scoring 20 goals in the regular season for the second year in a row (a streak that would continue for 12 seasons) and was the youngest player to ever be named captain of a NHL team (Sidney Crosby and Gabriel Landeskog have since stolen that accolade).

Richards was the dynamic rookie who had lead the team in scoring in his first full season and finished second in the Calder Trophy race. This was the year that the original “Big Three” of Lecavalier, Richards and a young cast-off from Calgary named Marty St. Louis played together for the first time. The nucleus of the 2004 Stanley Cup team was born that year.

On the back of the card, the copy writers for Upper Deck wrote that “Tampa Bay will look to young and talented centers Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier to ignite the offense” and that the team was “hoping to be one of the most improved teams in the NHL in 2001-02”.

The Lightning did improve their record in 2001-02 by winning three more games over the year before. Oddly enough their offense actually decreased year-to-year. The 2000-01 squad scored 201 goals while the 01-02 team only scored 178. While Richards submitted numbers that were almost a carbon copy of the year before, Lecavalier struggled as he only scored 37 points under the burden of the captaincy.

The notable change was on their defense as the 00-01 defensive corps surrendered an unconscionable 280 goals (which is what happens when Kevin Weekes, Dan Cloutier, Wade Flaherty and Dieter Kochan occupy time in the crease). The next season would be the first full season for the enigmatic Russian Nikolai Khabibulin. With the “Bulin Wall” in net only 219 pucks would cross the Lightning goal line.

Richards and Lecavalier were both fresh-faced 20-year-olds when this card was first inserted its mylar wrapper. Over a decade later, they are now gray-haired veterans wearing uniforms for other teams. Richards, reunited with St. Louis in New York is currently battling for another Stanley Cup. Quite a turnaround from a year ago where he was a leading candidate to be bought out after being benched in the playoffs. Lecavalier fell victim to the amnesty buyout sword in Tampa and struggled through another injury-plagued season in Philadelphia. He did, however, knock off a bevy of career accomplishments by scoring his 400^th career goal, his 500^th career assist and 900^th career point during the 2013-14 season.

As for me, I was living the good life in 2001-02. I had just bought my truck (man I miss that truck) and was still living in a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Largo, Florida. I was working at the Super Happy Fun Company making more money than I should have while not saving anywhere near enough. My game-day attire probably would have been shorts, sandals and a Lightning name-less third jersey (the one with the lightning bolts down the sleeves). Tickets to games were unbelievably cheap. So cheap that scalping them wasn't necessary. I'm pretty sure I was single.....yup definitely single.

Lightning Card of the Week - Hamrlik's Back Again

Shiny cards and scanners don't mix

Roman Hamrlik 1995-96 Donruss Elite #36

We’ve been over Hamrlik’s story before so instead – a brief story on how the card came into my collection.

A few weeks, or months, ago I received a small brown parcel in the mail.  My first thought was, “Sweet! My cocaine is here!” Then I saw the postmark was from North Carolina and remembered that I don’t get my cocaine from The Tar Heel state.  In fact I don’t get me cocaine from anywhere because I’m not rich enough to have a coke habit. What I mean is - DON’T DO DRUGS!

I wasn’t really expecting anything in the mail so I was intrigued as I started to rip off the brown wrapping paper and newspaper (which was secured really, really well).  I didn’t trade with too many folks in North Carolina and hadn’t bid on anything on eBay (well, anything that would constitute an actual package) so I was completely stumped as to what was in the box.

When I finally tore through the last bits of paper I saw a plastic cube filled with cards and a note on top.  The cards were shiny and the note was from my Pops, apparently he had spent a day at a flea market in Stuart, Florida (Sailfish Capital of the World) spending my inheritance and stumbled across a guy selling sets of cards.

I then remembered a voicemail he had left me a couple of weeks before asking me to call him back to see if I wanted him to buy some “ope dee or whatever you call them” sets.  I missed his call because I was sleeping off an overnight and assumed he had passed and moved on to the guy selling golf equipment.

Instead, because he is an awesome dad, he grabbed one set and sent it to me when he got back home. Now I own the 1995-96 Donruss Elite base set.  Not a bad set for a couple of bucks as it had all of the stars from the mid-nineties (including Jaromir Jagr’s fabulous mullet).   In addition to the Hamrlik card Brian Bradley makes an appearance in a Lightning uniform.  Hey there wasn’t much to choose from in the early days!

One card did make me laugh when I saw it.

"I wonder if Roman Vopat is at the beach right now. I liked the beach."

The Great One with a, “What the heck did I do to end up here?” look on his face as he rocks the St. Louis Blues uniform. 

If my memory serves me right this is the third set my old man has bought me over the years.  The first one being a 1987 Topps Baseball base set which is, to this day, my all around favorite set of all time.  I’m pretty sure he paid about $15 for it and the last time I checked I think it was still worth $15.  Not much of a return on investment, but I still page through that one from time to time just to look at the wooden borders and cool “Future Star” script that was a staple of the late 80s sets.

The second set he bought me was a Christmas present.  And back in the junk wax era it was one of the sets to have.  I’m talking about the 1990 Leaf set that was released as competition to Upper Deck’s 1989 base set and kind of cemented the idea of “premium” sets.  The big card of the day Frank Thomas’ rookie, but marquee names from the 90’s were also in there.  Names like John Olerud, Marquis Grissom, Dave Justice and Larry Walker.

It’s kind of funny to type those names and realize that they probably don’t mean much to kids under 25 these days.  But back then, those guys were the stars and that set demanded a premium.  So much so that I actually broke the set to make a little money.  No it wasn’t Thomas that I sold, or Ken Griffey’s second-year card.  It was a rookie card of young slugger in Cleveland named Albert Jujuan Belle.  I believe I got $10 from my buddy Mike at the time. 

There would be a hole in the set for many, many years until one day I was combing through a dime box at a flea market in Florida (odd how that seems to be a running theme) and stumbled across a copy of the missing Belle.  I was shocked, shocked and happy, to see one of these cards languishing in a box of commons. Much like the Belle card the value of the set as a whole has taken a bit of a hit. Still, for me it’s the first premium set I owned and now that it is complete again I don’t plan on breaking it up any time soon.

Not only did my ol’ Pappy support my habit financially by paying me an allowance he also instilled the best advice on the industry that I’ve heard, advice that I still follow to this day.  One day when I was rambling on about how much a card was “worth” he put down his pipe, swirled his rocks glass filled scotch and said, “Son. Those cards are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them.” 

If he told the story I bet he would say there was no pipe or newspaper or scotch, but whatever.  To this day, in trades and selling cards I remember what his advice. No matter what Beckett says, or what the “experts” say – the cards are only worth what someone is willing to give up for them.  If no one wants it, then no matter how rare or how foiled up a card is it’s not more than a piece of cardboard.

Of course, that can work for you.  For instance, my buddy Mike who bought the Belle card from me overpaid because he was such a big fan of the recalcitrant slugger. I exploited that and charged him way more than book value to have that card.  Same with the John Rocker cards that I made a mint off of back when yahoo had auctions and the reliever made some dumb comments about Mets fans.

So like the other two sets, this one will get slid into pages and then into a binder. And no matter what Beckett says, it’ll take way more than $15 for someone to pry it out of my collection.   

The Lightning Card of The Week -Tik Toc The PC is

So much red in this card.

2008-09 ITG Between the Pipes Future Stars Dustin Tokarski #15

Well, it looks like another personal collection bites the dust.  I woke up to the news on Twitter that the Lightning had traded goaltending prospect Dustin Tokarski to the Montreal Canadians for Cedric Desjardins - the once and future Tampa Bay net minder.  Not exactly the type of news I wanted to see at the crack of 9:30am (hey I worked till 1:30 last night).

Most people have no idea of who either of those players are, heck to most hockey fans it's a minor league deal involving a couple of at-best back-up goaltenders.  For me, however, it's yet another waste of eBay money and trades.  I have a small (about 20 cards) collection for the former 5th round pick, but unlike my other PC's this one was speckled with some higher-end cards.  That's the joy of collecting a prospect for a sunbelt team, I guess. It's easy to pick up decent cards for rather cheap prices.

It's funny, when a favorite player is traded it feels like their career is ending.  With Tokarski that's hardy the case. At only 23-years-old he definitely has more than enough time to establish himself as a NHL-caliber goalie. For some reason his progress in Tampa has stalled.  He had been usurped in the organizational rankings by Jaroslav Janus and Russian prospect Andrey Vasilevskiy and his inconsistent play seem to frustrate management.  General Manager Steve Yzerman alluded to the fact that it was time for a scenery change for Tokarski when discussing the move with the press.

It also appears that Mr. Yzerman wasn't comfortable with either Janus or Tokarski as an option should the Lightning need them this season.  Despite having less actual game experience in the NHL than Tokarski (2 games to 3) his age and experience lend to Desjardins an edge should the big league club need him.  There is also the fact that Coach Boucher is familiar with the 27-year-old from his days in Hamilton.

I don't follow the minor leagues much, but it seems Syracuse was struggling with getting consistency in the net (seems to be an organizational problem) and this move will hopefully shore that up. That Crunch seem to be a team in flux especially with all of the recent call prospect call ups.

Hopefully, the storyline stays in Syracuse as that means all is well between the pipes in Tampa.  As for Tokarski it is a chance for him to start over in a new organization (although one where he is stuck behind a  guy named Carey Price). Wherever he has gone he has won, from juniors to the national team to the AHL.  We'll see if that continues.

As for my collection, I think I'll hold on to it for now (unless, of course, some Canadians collector comes along with an offer I can't refuse) and maybe add the occasional Tampa-clad card to it.  I doubt I'll replace him with another player in the personal collection folder, especially since I won't be able to get my hands on any Cory Conacher Lightning cards until next season.

Lightning Card of The Week - National Hockey Card Day (Canada)

2011-12 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day Steven Stamkos #9

Perhaps the only thing that I'm lazier about than my writing is my trading.  Ninety-percent of the time I receive cards before I even think about finding the cards I need to send out.  Recently I had a rash of trades where I offered cards I didn't even have. Okay, it wasn't really a rash, it was two trade, but they happened right in a row and made me feel like my mind was going. Luckily the trades were with folks I had dealt with before so I don't think I lost too much credibility in the trading world.

What does any of that have to do with young Mr. Stamkos?  Nothing, but I figured you needed to know that.

It is indeed the Canadian day of hockey cards. A special set of cards will be available only in hockey shops around the country which means I have to rely on my Canadian brethren or eBay to pick up this year's version of Stamkos' card.  I haven't seen a checklist yet (lazy) but I'm assuming he is the only member of the Lightning that is represented in the set.

Next week will be the United States turn to celebrate hockey cards and I'll be celebrating by standing out in the cold at Soldier Field for the Hockey City Classic.  In lieu of the NHL hosting an outdoor game I figured a day of outdoor college hockey would be just as good.

As of right now there is a 76.4% chance I'll write about it.

Lightning Card of the Week - And Now...It Begins

Little Known Fact - Marty is the same size as Lord Stanley's Cup

  

2010-11 Certified Champions Martin St. Louis #17 297/500

I really, really like this insert series, I really, really like this card.  It's serial numbered, has a definite theme and the layout is fantastic.  I'm sure it's a happy coincidence, but I really like how the Lightning logo on St. Louis' sweater is centered right on top of the "Certified Champions".  Well done, Panini!

Watching a player, especially one on your favorite team, lift the Cup is really why we put up with all of the nonsense that the NHL puts us through.  It seems such a long, long time ago that the Kings had their victory skate.  Through all of the blustering, meditations, false hopes, gloom and doom we can finally get past the sniping at the podium and back to the sniping from the left face off dot (Stamkos shooots and SCOOOOOOORRREEESSSSS!)

It's been so long that someone asked me the other day what the Lightning gave up for Anders Lindback and my response was, "ummmmm a lot?"  (For the record it was 2 2nd round picks, a 3rd round pick, and the rights to Lightning Legend Sebastien Caron for Lindback, Kyle Wilson and a 7th round pick.) So I'm a bit rusty on my current Tampa Bay Lightning squad, but it will only take a few games for me to get back into the flow, so hopefully I'll piece together some sort of preview by the end of the weekend.

My one NHL protest will probably be buying my next jersey from a Chinese distributor instead of an approved NHL dealer.  That's right, baby - DAMN THE MAN!

Hopefully, the short season lends itself to exciting action on the ice as each team fights for every point available.  The last thing the league needs is a rash of injuries to major stars (I'm looking at you, Sidney).  If they're extremely lucky, one of the offensive studs starts off the season red-hot and garners some interest in a possible 50 goals in 48 games scenario. And hopefully for my fantasy team that offensive stud is Alex Ovechkin.

As for Mr. Saint Louis, I'm thinking he has a bit of a bounce back season as he spends the entire season on Stamkos' line (up-and-comer Cory Conacher seems to be penciled in as Lecavalier's wingman). It's no doubt that his career is winding down, but perhaps, with the extra time off, he can stave off Father Time for one more season.   

The Lightning Card of the Week - Version 2.0 (Now with more Barnaby!)

The NHL is back and I am excited.  Yes, that means I’m a sheep. I’m part of the problem.  I don’t care. Professional hockey is my favorite sport and the fact that I was denied it for 3 months sucks.  So why would I deny myself even more of it with some damn, fool idealistic crusade of revenge that in the grand scheme of things doesn’t really mean anything?  Owners will still be rich and so will the players.  So I say, “Bring on the Pucks!”

In honor of the news that the boys will be dropping the puck again in about two weeks I’m bringing back the Lightning card of the week.  I know Version One of this project was shorter than a Blue Jacket’s winning streak, but that’s not my fault.  I got a job and that cut into my writing time! I got married and that cut into my writing time (not sure how, but I’m sure it did). I started working overnights and that cut into my writing time (well that one is kind of true).

So let’s start out with an addition to the personal collection.

Look how loose those chinstraps are - correlation to concussions?

2002 Pacific Riding Shotgun Vincent Lecavalier/ Matthew Barnaby

As a Lecavalier fan I’m half-heartedly collecting as many cards of his as possible. Around Christmas I was doing a little surfing on COMC and stumbled across this card.  What a perfect card to sum up the early-2000s Tampa Bay Lightning.  Their best offensive weapon paired with……Matthew Barnaby.

The back of the card notes that Barnaby’s “hard-nosed playing style” was brought to Tampa to play as Lecavalier’s winger. Which I guess is a good thing, because he surely wasn’t there to score.  In 58 games spread over two seasons he managed just 8 points with the Lightning (although he did rack up 167 penalty minutes).

Although it looks like Lecavalier had a hand in at least ½ of Barnaby’s 8 points so I guess they had some sort of chemistry.  From what I can remember Nils Ekman rounded out that power-packed line.  All of those points came in the 2000-01 season as Barnaby managed to go 20 games in 2001-02 without scoring a point before being shipped off to the Rangers for a Slovakian named Zdeno. Sadly his last name was Ciger not Chara (Big Ciggy did score 12 points for the Lightning before heading back to Slovakia).

Matthew Barnaby would continue to do Matthew Barnaby things for another four seasons before briefly being a tv commentator. He’s had a few run-ins with the law since he retired and has spent most of the last year or so off the radar apparently running some youth hockey training camps.

As for Lecavalier, he finally found someone to really ride shotgun for him as Vinny Prospal came to the team and within three seasons he had a Stanley Cup and a string of 30+ goal seasons.  

Of Smudges and Do-Overs: Lightning Card of the Week

I was hoping to put up a Marc Bergevin card today in order to honor the former Lightning defenseman’s new job as the Canadians General Manager. However, I don’t have any.  Actually, I probably do have some but due to the great monster box tragedy of 2012 I can’t find it right now. So instead we will go with another member of the pre-Cup era.

Mikael Renberg 1998-99 Be A Player

Good lord is this is an interesting card.  Actually, not really. It’s just really foily.  I’m not sure it scans well enough to show how much silver (and bronze?) foil covers the front of this card.  God forbid you need to send a card from this set in to get grade on it. There is no way a card could get a perfect grade after sitting around in a box somewhere for the last 14 years. I imagine there are stacks of these cards stuck back-to-front in closets all across Canada these days.

The back is a little better (and glossy). It has a nice picture of Renberg looking glum and provides us with the following biographical information:

“Off the ice, he enjoys a host of water sports including boating, water skiing and windsufing.”

With those activities you’d think he would have stuck around longer.

Renberg rose to prominence in Philadelphia as part of the famed “Legion of Doom” line with John LeClair and Eric Lindros. Following the Flyers Stanley Cup loss in the 1997 to the Red Wings, Renberg would become entangled in one of the more “interesting” moments in Lightning history.

Looking to get bigger on at the center position Flyers GM Bobby Clarke signed Restricted Free Agent Chris Gratton to an offer sheet.  Unbeknownst to him or Gratton, Lightning GM Phil Esposito was working on trading Gratton to the Blackhawks.

Esposito received the paperwork regarding the offer sheet, but claimed he couldn’t read the numbers because they were smudged by his fax machine (oh the 1990s!). The league didn’t buy his claim and the Lightning had seven days to match the offer or let Gratton go for draft picks.  Esposito knew he couldn’t match the 5-year, $25.5 million deal, but also knew that he couldn’t sell the fan base on waiting around for the draft picks to develop. 

So he let Gratton go and then traded the draft picks BACK to Philadelphia for Mikael Renberg and defenseman Karl Dykhuis. Despite working his way into the mess, Esposito did a decent job of getting young talent back instead of the picks. All he needed was for Renberg to keep up his goal scoring ways.

To say it didn’t work is an understatement. Despite being handed the “C” immediately upon his arrival he never really had a chance to break out the water skis in Tampa. Injuries and a dearth of overall talent overshadowed Renberg's tenure in Tampa. By December of 1998 he was on his way back to Philly for Mike Sillinger and yes, you guess it, Chris Gratton.

While he was in Tampa he scored 20 goals in 88 games. After suffering a hand injury during the season he was never really the same shooter.  Injuries and Renberg definitely go hand in hand.  Throughout his career he’s broken a thumb, sliced the muscles in his bicep in a boating accident, was hospitalized with an infected blister and fractured his jawbone while playing in the Swedish Elite League.  Hopefully he’s walking around in bubble wrap these days.

Renberg wasn’t the only one to struggle during his tenure with the Bolts. Despite missing 14 games in 1997-98 he still tied for the team lead in goals with 16.  That’s right, 16 goals was the team high. To put that in perspective Steven Stamkos had 16 goals in 19 games in March and April this season.  Needless to say the 97-98 Lightning weren’t very good.

I’m not sure if his stint in Tampa broke his will or if the injuries were too much to overcome, but Renberg would never be the same player.  After scoring 109 goals in his first four seasons with the Flyers he would only score another 81 goals in the next six years playing in Philly, Toronto and Phoenix.

After the lockout in 2004-05 he would return to the Swedish Elite League (where he would play with a young Johan Harju) and finished out his career.

While most people will always remember him as part of the Legion of Doom, I choose to remember him as the guy who best rocked a turtle-neck under his Lightning uniform.

Hamr-time! Lightning Card of the Week

1997-98 Pacific Invincible Roman Hamrlik

First of all, let us talk about the card shall we? If there is a set that defines all that was wrong with the the industry in the 1990’s it’s all here in the 1997-98 Invincible set:

Lots of gold foil – check

Hard to read type on the front – check

Floating head inserted on card – check

One of about 765 sets released by Pacific that year – check

Massive overproduction - probably

I’m not really sure how “Invincible” is represented by a mostly gold card that is “scratched” away to reveal a sky blue accent.  To me that actually makes it quite “vincible”. It also makes it hard to find cards in good condition as nothing shows chips and dinged corners better than gold foil.

I generally enjoy acetate cards, but for some reason on this card it seems an unnecessary touch. In fact, it gives me a strong impulse to poke it out with something sharp.  The back of the card doesn’t really add much other than another photo and two or three biographical sentences.  There is no breakdown of stats or anything along those lines.

Now for the player. Roman Hamrlik has the distinction of being the first player selected by the Lighting in the NHL Entry Draft.  He was also the first of three players drafted number one over all by Tampa Bay (Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos are the other two). Other Lightning draft picks from that year include Drew Bannister (2^nd round), Brent Gretzky (3^rd round), Aaron Gavey (4^th round) and Derek Wilkerson (7^th round).

Overall, the 1992 draft wasn’t the strongest one in history. While it’s filled with a lot of solid players one would be hard pressed to find any first ballot hall of famers among the list of players picked. Sergei Gonchar (1^st round by Washington), Kirk Maltby (3^rd round by Edmonton) and Nikolai Khabibulin (9^th round by Winnipeg) might get some passing consideration, but none of them will make a voter think, “My God he has to be in the hall!”

As for Hamrlik, he immediately jumped into the Lightning line-up and posted 21 points in his rookie year of 1992-93. He would mature into a steady blueliner for the Bolts, and experienced his best season with the club in the 1995-96 as he racked up 16 goals, 49 assists and 103 penalty minutes for the playoff bound team.

He was also the subject of one of the more entertainingstories from the Lightning’s days of playing at the State Fairgrounds.  As head coach Terry Crisp was about to start a pre-game meeting, he noticed that Hamrlik was missing. The young defenseman was soon discovered fishing beside a duck pond located a stone’s throw from the dressing room. Hockey Paradise, indeed!

After the initial success in his career, the team itself began the gradual descent into mediocrity that would eventually net them Lecavalier as the overall number one pick in 1998. Along the way Hamrlik became more valuable as a trade chip then he did as a defensive cornerstone to build around.  In December of 1997, Hamrlik and Paul Comrie, were shipped to Edmonton for Jason Bonsignore, Bryan Marchment and Speedy Stevie Kelly.  Marchment would end up being the key to that deal as he was later shipped to San Jose in the deal that landed the Lightning the first overall pick that they used to draft Lecavalier.

The Czech defenseman would last 2 ½ seasons in Edmonton before being traded to the New York Islanders in a package that included current Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer. Hamrlik would end up playing for Calgary and Montreal before signing with Washington this season.  He has returned to taking regular shifts with the Capitals recently after spending several games as a healthy scratch around the trade deadline in February.

With more than 1,300 games under his belt, Hamrlik has the distinction of being the active player with the most regular season games played without winning the Stanley Cup. At 37-years-old, his chances of raising Lord Stanley’s chalice are rapidly diminishing.  It would be nice to see him get one more shot at glory even if it means the Capitals are in the Finals.

Despite not having suited up for the Lightning in over a decade, Hamrlik still ranks among the top five all-time Lightning defensemen in games played (3^rd), goals (3^rd), assists (3^rd), points (3^rd) and penalty minutes (4^th). If there is ever a Ring of Honor placed in the Ice Palace, the name Roman Hamrlik should receive heavy consideration for inclusion.

We're Throwing This One Back - Lightning Card of the Week

Enrico Ciccone 2002-03 Fleer Throwbacks Stickwork Relic

What a fantastic card.  It’s from the pre-cup era (yes I’m defining Lightning history in eras now, a la the Star Wars expanded universe.  Deal with it), it has a piece of a hockey stick on it and it features Enrico Ciccone.  Perfect card?  Close, but not quite (needs more shiny).

I’m not sure Throwbacks qualifies as a retro-set, more like a “hey we don’t have a players’ license so let’s feature a set of retired players,” but it did do a good job of showcasing some older players for a new generation of fans.  It gave collectors a chance to pick up relics from retired players such as Dale Hunter, Dirk Graham and Bernie Federko.

The best part about this card is that it was totally unexpected.  It was part of a stack that Tim from The Real DFG had set aside for me and intended on giving me at the Sun Times Card Show a couple of weekends ago.  I was a no-show at the show (you liked that didn’t you?) so he left them with Sal.

Having nothing better to do on Saturday I met up with Sal at Tim’s Baseball Card shop to drop off an autograph for him and pick up my bounty from both Sal and Tim.  As usual, those two went way above and beyond what I was expecting. 

The Ciccone card was on top of a stack of about 67 Lightning cards of which I think I had maybe one.  It’s so delightful to get cards that I haven’t seen before since most of them pre-date my collecting career. My hockey collection is quite sporadic. It includes a lot of stuff from 1992-95(you know, the super cheap wax days) and then a lack of cards until about 2009.  There are a lot of delightfully horrific players from the Lightning’s past slapped on pieces of cardboard that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on.

Does Enrico Ciccone fit in that category of “delightfully horrific”?  I’m not sure.  He was good at what he did – get into fights.  Despite only playing 135 games a Lightning uniform he is 4^th all-time in penalty minutes with 604.  To put that in perspective The Little Ball of Fury, Steve Downie, played 79 more games in a Lightning uniform and still trails Ciccone by 50 minutes.

Granted it was a different time, a less-civilized time, when Ciccone wore the Silver, Black and Blue for the Lightning. Still, averaging almost 4 and ½ penalty minutes a game is impressive.   More importantly, it was fan-friendly.

Let’s face it, hockey in Florida started as a gimmick. The Lightning, not exactly playing in a thriving hockey market, needed something to gain fan interest.  In the early days of the club fighting, more than goal scoring or even winning, helped bring the fans in. On the 1995-96 team, Ciccone led the team with 258 penalty minutes. Four other players (Shawn Burr, Michel Petit, Chris Gratton and Roman Hamrlik) had over 100 penalty minutes as well. That team also was the first Lightning team to make it to the playoffs.  Coincidence? Probably.

Ciccone would be dealt to Chicago in March of 1996 for Igor Ulanov, but would find his way back to the Lightning a little more than a year later and play a handful of games in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

Never a big scorer (his career high for goals in a season was 2) he still managed to play in parts of 11 NHL seasons and he was well-liked in most of the towns that he played in.  In Tampa he was a fairly frequent guest on The Bubba The Love Sponge Show (yo yo yo yo) and provided the epic third-person sound clip of “Chico’s on the ice. Chico will take care of you”.

Players of Ciccone’s sort are being phased out of the NHL game. The brawlers, the intimidators, the protectors, the enforcers, whatever you want to call them are a disappearing breed as the league tries to dissociate itself with its violent past. There is still fighting in the league, but now it’s being done more and more by guys who can also chip in 15 goals a season.

It makes for a better game, skill should always trump brute force, but still there is a sense of nostalgia when I see cards of players like Ciccone and Bob Probert.  Oddly enough, it’s nostalgia for a game that I only have seen on YouTube or read in books since my real hockey involvement didn’t begin until around 1996.   Is it possible to fondly remember a type of NHL that I didn’t watch? I guess so.

Lightning Card of the Week - Autograph Prospects

OK.  This is starting to get downright uncanny.  On Sunday I got this.

That’s right, baby! It’s a hand-signed Steve Konroyd 8x10! He was signing at the Blackhawks game, there was a line, and I like standing in lines.  So I got an autograph.  Konroyd had a decent career in the NHL and now works with Blackhawks media.  It’s always nice to add a NHL autograph to the collection, but that’s not the reason I’m posting this.

You may remember that the last two times I picked up an in-person autograph of a former Blackhawk I ended up getting a Through-The-Mail autograph the next day.  Surely, that wouldn’t happen again would it? 

After working on a piece for The Hockey Writers I went downstairs to check the mail slot and low-and-behold I saw one of my self-labeled envelopes amongst the advertisements for Seamless.com and Comcast Cable (Hey Comcast, how about you match up your mailing lists? I just switched over to you).

Inside the envelope was this:

Brendon Mikkelson 2008-09 ITG Heroes and Prospects signed with what appears to be a small paintbrush.  Well at least there was no smudging on it this time.

Mikkelson was picked up by the Lightning in January for Blair Jones and has played fairly well since then.  The big, smooth-skating defenseman just picked up his first NHL goal in the 3-1 loss to St. Louis Saturday night and now has 3 point in 30 games with the Bolts. Though his ice time has dropped a little recently, he’s been playing around 15-17 minutes on a pretty regular basis.  Not bad for24-year-old with limited NHL experience.

A Restricted Free Agent after this season, I fully expect he’ll be brought back (and hopefully signed to a multi-year deal) once the CBA is figured out.  He’s not that flashy with the puck, but he can handle it, has decent speed (always a bonus) and has shown a proclivity for staying calm in the sometimes chaotic Lightning defensive zone. 

I guess I have to check the Internet and see when the next signing is happening in Chicago if I want to see any of my other TTM cards come back.  As they say in Norfolk, “Three isa fluke, four is a streak”.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my love for the ITG products in the past, and 2008-09 Heroes and Prospects was the first product I ever busted from them.  It's nice to rummage through around when the Lightning pick up players so that I can send the cards off quickly for autographs.

Showing him in his junior's uniform is kind of fudging the whole "Lightning Card of the Week" gimmick, but frankly I didn't want to subject you to back-to-back single card posts.  Aren't I a kind and benevolent blogger?