The Art Of The Sweep

When I started the draft for this post the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs were in full motion. The Finals series to determine the 2019 Champions between the St. Louis Blues

and the Boston Bruins

was just beginning. So yeah this post draft had a full length playoff beard that almost rivals Rip Van Winkle's beard. The Final Series is long long over and the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup.

Their fourth time in the Final Series and now their first WIN.

Among many things that were interesting about this season's playoffs was the results of the Eastern Conference Champions Road to victory.

The Boston Bruins representing the Eastern Conference had a somewhat normal road to the Cup Finals.

In round one the Bruins beat the Maple Leafs in 7 games.

Then for round 2, in 6 games they beat the Blue Jackets.

Who had swept the Tampa Bay Lightning round 1.

The Bruins then swept the Carolina Hurricanes.

Who in round one beat my Washington Capitals,

then in round 2 swept the New York Islanders

who had swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in round 1.

I just find that a neat sort of pattern.

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Note: The cards I showed here were totally picked at random. Most of them were in the same semi-unsorted box. The box is only sorted somewhat by sport and/or set.

Early 1970s OPC Six-Pack

I think this is my last post from one of my sportlots onslaughts, I have another onslaught or two but I don't think I'll blog about every single card like I have with this one. I don't feel like making one of them about 57 Baseball cards from 1972 Topps, maybe I'll hit some of the highlights from that group. Anyway these six Hockey cards from O-Pee-Chee are from the 1971-72 and 1972-73 sets. For team counters there are Two Sabres, Two Blues a Red Wing and a King.

1971-72 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1971-72 OPC Hockey 139 Bill Collins Red Wings

One of the things I like about OPC cards better than their Topps counterparts is the cleaner backs they have. Even though the designs are nearly identical the OPC cards are usually on white card stock or a lighter bleached card stock which makes reading their backs easier than on the Topps. (Sorry I don't have any back scans of these cards here, I do have an earlier back scan of my Topps vs. O-Pee-Chee post. Those cards are a bad example because both look awful in the back image scans. Sigh! Anyway Bill here I don't think is any relation to that musician guy Phil Collins. Just a typical upper body portrait shot with a color background here.

1971-72 OPC Hockey 162 Steve Atkinson Sabres

Here is Mr. Atkinson weighing in from his diet (sorry I wanted to make some kind of Atkinson Diet joke). We have a head and shoulders "bust" shot here with a plain color background. The cards with these pics look like mini portraits you might find in a family living room or hallway. I think that is what attracted me to this set at first. I really haven't paid much attention to the style trends of the jerseys (sweaters) over the years but the 70s did seem to have a few of these "swashbuckling" front laced jerseys instead of the full pullover heavy sweaters of old.

1971-72 OPC Hockey 225 Peter McDuffe Blues

Ah here we have a goalie almost in full gear, he doesn't have his face mask but if he did you wouldn't be able to tell who he was now would you? Man Mr. McDuffe (is the end "e" pronounced or not? McDuff or McDuff-ie?) looks like he's still a teenager in this photo even though he would have been 23/24 at the time. Part of the illusion is the big goalie knee/leg pads and the way he is crouched over a little.

Moving upward and onward to:

1972-73 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1972-73 OPC Hockey 35 Barclay Plager Blues

Growing up I had a few of the Topps version of these cards, my brother had a few more I think, but sadly most of those from "both collections" disappeared over the years. These OPC versions are a good example of the cleaner backs. For some reason I have always liked the design of this set even with the "off centering" of the border to allow the team name to run vertically down (or is it up?) the left-hand side. I could have sworn they alternated left/right but looking at a gallery of the set on Zistle.com. (hmm I think you need to register to see the "library") it appears they only have the team name on the left-side and top for the landscaped cards. We also have the solid color backgrounds which some colors work well others look blah.

1972-73 OPC Hockey 182 Rick Martin IA Sabres

 Speaking of landscaped cards here is one of them. It is one of the IA (In-Action) cards they also seem to have used the landscaping for the Stanley Cup and championship games cards and a few of the All-Star cards. Here we have Rick Martin of the Sabres no relation to the Latino singing heart-throb Ricky Martin.

 1972-73 OPC Hockey 193 Harry Howell Kings

As I said somewhere above these cards have the solid color backgrounds some which work, like the green here and some that don't. Also I think they work better with headshots and upper body shots than they do with the full body posed shots.I don't have enough of either set, or the time to study research to see how they determined which color to put with which player/card. It looks like it might have been a by team thing.

I need to concentrate on building these sets both in the OPC and Topps versions.

Hockey Poker: A Pair

From the 11 FEB 2012 sportlots onslaught. We hit the ice and go back to 1969-70 Canada, sort of these are the O-Pee-Chee versions. One thing I've notice with this particular year is it seems that all the player's photos were taken in hallways or some corner of the locker room. The walls you can see are plain painted cinder block walls. I don't know much about the guys from this era of Hockey since I was just a little tyke at the time and it would be another 4 years or so before I became a hockey fan because the Capitals were not in existence yet. I think I was a semi Bruins fan because of Bobby Orr and the Phil and Tony Esposito Hockey game we had. I used to think both Esposito brothers played for the Bruins but it looks like that was only Phil. Back then I thought Tony was the one on the Bruins. On with the Cards:

1969-70 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1969-70 OPC Hockey 14 Ron Anderson Blues

 Here is a nice card of an Anderson. I tend to collect players with that name because it is similar to my last name Andersen. OK so technically its the same name but spelled different. The origin of the name means "Son of Ander" no matter how you spell it or where you come from even if you add a couple of "S"s.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 143 Jimmy Peters Kings

This card is almost a mirror image of the other card if you squint and are blue/red color blind. A typical posed photo of the player holding his stick down. I wonder if they were actually in their skates when these photos were taken? As I said the walls of the room are plain so they could have been taken while the players were suiting up. Yeah I'll keep thinking that.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 173 Dick Cherry Flyers

My first reaction to this card was Dick Cherry - I wonder if he is related to Don Cherry? (Player/Coach best known for coaching the Bruins) The answer is YES he is related they are brothers. Thank you Wikipedia. Again we have a player in a typical pose with his stick "on the ice". Only there is no ice here.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 197 Ken Broderick North Stars

This is why I kind of dig vintage cards of goalies. Check out the huge leather pads, OK so modern pads are still huge but they use foam and nylon and plastic and simulated leather now. This Mr. Broderick is no relation to the Actor Matthew.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 199 Tom Polonic North Stars

We got another North Star here and another faux "stick on the ice" pose. I bet he doesn't even have his skates on.