hockey memorials from the dollar store

hey, we're two games into the league championship series, so now seems like a good time for some...hockey?

well, i need to acknowledge the envelope that i received the other day from sportscards from the dollar store.

doug sent along a few cards for my 'memorials' project, and didn't just stick to baseball.  now, please know that i am not attempting to acquire memorial cards from all sports as part of the project (please, no basketball) but there have been some hockey (and even a football) memorials on the blog before.  here are the hockey cards doug sent (he even provided a list letting me know for whom the patches were being worn).

1990-91 bowman jim sandlak

that's a 'babe' patch for babe pratt, worn by the vancouver canucks during the 1988-89 season.  although pratt had retired well before the canucks entered the league, he was an analyst based in vancouver who also served (according to wikipedia) as a 'goodwill ambassador' for the canucks.  he died during the first intermission of a game in december, 1988.

1997-98 pacific michael pivonka

pacific made hockey cards?  that's a patch for jack button - his initials and a bulldog.  button was an executive for the pittsburgh penguins during the early 1970's and then joined the capitals organization in 1979.  he discovered quite a few players as a scout (including mr. pivonka there) and was still working for the team as director of player personnel when he died in 1996 of leukemia.

1998-99 upper deck mvp rob zamuner

this is an odd case.  the lightning wore that shamrock '12' patch for teammate john cullen who had been diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma.  cullen was able to briefly return to the ice the following season, but retired as a player soon after.  it's good to see that cullen is still around today.

2002-03 upper deck vintage steve konowalchuk

konowalchuk is wearing a patch for the victims of september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  i am guessing that the rangers probably wore something similar?  the kings wore the 'am' patch for their two employees who were aboard one of the hijacked planes.

2006-07 o-pee-chee scott gomez

the devils wore a 'jm' patch for their owner, john mcmullen, who died in september of 2005.  mcmullen had owned the team since 1982 when they were the colorado rockies, and moved them to new jersey.  at the time, he was also the owner of the houston astros, and remained so until 1993.

2008-09 upper deck mvp adam burish

that 'www' patch, complete with what looks like one of the blackhawk's feathers, is for the team's owner bill wirtz, who died of cancer in 2007.  the blackhawks weren't very good during his 40 years at the helm, and so fans apparently didn't care much for wirtz.  according to wikipedia, they booed during the moment of silence dedicated to wirtz at the team's 2007-08 home opener.  yikes.

2009-10 itg heroes and prospects shea weber

here's a minor league memorial.  the milwaukee admirals wore a 'ks' patch to honor their broadcaster kyle schultz who passed away in october, 2005 at the age of 41.  the patch also says 'old time hockey' which apparently was a favorite phrase of schultz's.

2009-10 upper deck mikhail grabovski

doug wrote that the leafs' 'ace' patch is for leafs' hall of famer ace bailey.  makes sense, but bailey (this is a different ace bailey than the one that worked for the kings and died on september 11, 2001) passed away in 1992.  as near as i can tell, the leafs wore this patch to mark the anniversary of an all-star benefit game held for bailey in 1934 after his career was ended by a check from behind during a game against the bruins.  that benefit served as the inspiration for what later became the league's all-star game.

2009-10 upper deck national hockey card day rick nash

nash is wearing a patch for john h mcconnell, who was the founder and owner of the columbus blue jackets.  he passed away in 2008.

2012-13 leaf certified jeff skinner

skinner is wearing a patch for former carolina hurricane josef vasicek, who was one of the players in the russian league to die in a plane crash back in september, 2011. he had been a part of the hurricanes' stanley cup championship team in 2005-06.

thanks doug for the cards - i'll show the baseball memorials eventually!

a fancy clancy memorial

i know.  hockey.  i am no longer much of a fan, even though i grew up in a hockey minded household and now live in the state of hockey.  i came back to the fold slightly a couple of years ago when the kings made their triumphant return to the stanley cup finals, and seeing luuuuuuuuc raise the cup for the kings (although he was in street clothes) felt like closure to me.  another season starts tonight, but i won't be watching.

i was compelled, however, to track down a card from the 1987-88 o-pee-chee set for my memorials collection, thanks to the colorful memorial patch that the toronto maple leafs wore for king clancy after his death.  here's greg terrion's card which shows the patch on his left sleeve

here's a closer look at the patch

clancy won two stanley cups with the ottawa senators in the 1920's before joining the leafs in 1930 and helping them to a cup of their own in 1933.  he spent the vast majority of his post-playing career with the leafs in a variety of capacities, and was still a member of the team's front office when he died in 1986.  in addition to the patch which was worn during the 1986-87 season, the nhl established the king clancy memorial trophy during the 1987-88 campaign.  that award recognizes "the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community".  i recall the kings' dave taylor winning the award at one point, which was nice to see because that was at the height of the gretzky years in la, and taylor was certainly due more attention than he received.

thanks again to whomever it was that sent me this link to a uni-watch article about memorial patches.  i would not have known about this fantastic specimen (the third hockey related memorial patch in my collection) without you.

hockey?

believe it or not, i used to be a pretty big hockey fan.  i was born into it, and attended many kings games while growing up in southern california.  i was at the 1981 all-star game at the fabulous forum (the first time i saw wayne gretzky play) and was an inaugural season ticket holder for the mighty ducks of anaheim and the minnesota wild.  i still have a pretty good luc robitaille card collection, as well as a few other stars of the 1990's.  and, with the stanley cup being won last night by the blackhawks, i figured now was a good time to show some puck stuff.

i have a bunch of random, more common hockey cards heading to captain canuck (once calgary dries out) in the hopes that they might be worth a dodger or two in trade.  one card that i almost held on to was this 2000-01 topps stadium club card of scott stevens.

that's about as pretty as modern day cardboard gets.

i did hold on to a couple of cards, though, and have decided to include them in my heretofore baseball only memorials collection.

one of those cards is this 1993-94 upper deck bryan mccabe world juniors subset card

as you can see, he's wearing a 'tdk 14' memorial patch.  the problem is, i am not sure for whom this patch is being worn.  trevor kidd was alive and well (and still is today) back then, even though he was no longer on the canadian junior team having last played for them in 1992.  if anyone has any knowledge regarding this patch, i would love to know more about it.

the other hockey card making it's way into my memorials collection is this 2002-03 upper deck top shelf jason allison card

allison is wearing the red, white, and blue 'am' patch in honor of kings' scouts ace bailey and mark bavis who were passengers on united flight 175 out of boston on september 11, 2001.  theirs was the plane that was hijacked and flown into the south tower of the world trade center in the terrorist attacks that day.

i used to have a kings jersey like the one allison is wearing on that card, and i had hoped at the time to add the patch to it, but never did.

i don't plan to add all memorial patches from other sports to my collection, but if anyone has a 2001 cowboys card showing the tom landry fedora patch or a maple leafs card with a good shot of the king clancy patch from 1986-87 i'd be interested.

finally, since this is a baseball card blog, i will tie today's hockey theme together by showing off some cards from upper deck's 2002 superstars release.

here's a ziggy palffy/shawn green jersey card

and another palffy, this time with adrian beltre.

note the 'am' memorial patch on ziggy's jersey, as it is on felix potvin's on this potvin/paul loduca jersey card

potvin will always be a maple leaf to me.  when i think of king netminders, i think of rollie melanson, kelly hrudey, jamie storr, and robb stauber.  and the failed grant fuhr experiment.  rogie vachon was before my time, unfortunately.

here's the last card of mine from the '02 superstars set that i will showcase - a shawn green/wayne gretzky/kobe bryant jersey card

this card is begging for sandy koufax instead of greenie.  i really thought that the kings were going to win the stanley cup back in 1993 with gretzky, but stickgate and patrick roy were too much to overcome.  while i was happy to see luuuuuuuuuuuuc raise the cup in detroit, it was even nicer to see him lift it (although in street clothes) with the kings last year.

don't count on seeing any more hockey (or basketball) for that matter.  unless i have a king clancy patch to show off.