TTM Success: Chris Nilan

  Chris "Knuckles" Nilan  was only the second NHL player to reach 3000 PIM.  He retired with 3043 PIM, which is currently good for 9th spot all-time.  Nilan is best remembered as a Montreal Canadien, a team for which he started and ended his career with.  During his career with the Canadiens, he won a Stanley Cup, led the league in PIM twice, and is only one of six players to have ever recorded 20 goals and 300+ PIM in a single season.  Nilan scored 21 goals to go along with 358 PIM in the 84-85 season.  Today, Nilan is still fighting  While during his hockey days he would fight bullies on the ice, now he fights bullies by using his words.  Nilan tours schools spreading the message of stopping bullying. Nilan has also his own website, Knuckles Nilan.

TTM Success: Sean Burke

  Sean Burke played 820 NHL over 18 NHL seasons.  He also played in two Olympics,earning a Silver medal in 1992.  Burke bursted onto the scene in 1988.  After helping Team Canada win a Silver medal at the Olympics, Burke would create a major buzz in the NHL while playing for the New Jersey Devils.  At the time, the Devils had only made the play-offs once in the franchise's existence.  An existence that included 2 seasons as the Kansas City Scouts and six as the Colorado Rockies.  As  Wayne Gretzky once said, they are "running a Mickey-Mouse operation on the ice." But things were looking up for the New Jersey Devils in 1987-88.  They had just come off a franchise record of 64 points the season before, and they were still in the play-off race in March.  Cue Sean Burke.  Burke went 10-1-1 in 13 games for the Devils.  Burke would win his final 7 starts, including two against the Pittsburgh Penguins and one against the New York Rangers, teams they were chasing in the standings.  On April 3rd, 1988, the Rangers beat the Quebec Nordiques, forcing the Devils to either win or watch the playoffs on tv.  The Devils played the Chicago Black Hawks and the regular season ended in a dramatic fashion.  John MacLean nets the winner in over time and the Devils were going to the play-offs.  A playoff run that would bring the Devils all the way to the Stanley Cup semi-finals before being bowing out to the Boston Bruins.  While Burke would go onto a lengthy career, he never did live up to the expectation set as a rookie. 

  Mr. Burke signed 5 of 4.  He signed and returned the extra copy of the Team Canada picture.  He personalized every card, but he did it with care.  Sometimes personalizations push the actually auto off of prime real estate, but in each of these cards, they share the limelight, with the personaliztion, never overpowering the auto.  I really liked how the Ice card turned out.  I was worried it wouldn't hold the auto, but it looks killer in person.

Let's Trade Some Junk... err... I mean good stuff

  We all have a bunch of base cards laying around.  Cards that will likely never see the light of day.  Holed up in a cardboard box below the bottom shelf, just gathering dust.  I am proposing a trade.  Your under-appreciated junk for my under-appreciated junk.  I live in the Arctic, so I can't even visit my local dollar store for a cheap fix.  So perhaps you can help me.

  10-50 card lots, low-value.  A mixture of stars and commons, from the 80s, (mostly) 90s, and the 21st century.  Shipping methods and protection can be discussed. PWE or Bubble.  Top loaders, sleeves or a piece of cardboard.  I am all for keeping the s/h down on this endeavour. Themes can be suggested, but it will be mostly a mixture.   Post below if you'd be interested.

TTM Success: Bernie Federko

  Bernie Federko was a star center with the St. Louis Blues from 1976 to 1989, before finishing his career with a final season as a Detroit Red Wing.  He is also generally known as the whiping boy for the HHOF lack of standards.  While Federko scored 1130 points in 1000 games, he was never considered a dominant player in his era, never won any post season awards and only once led the Blues past the second round of the play-offs.  In his 14 year career, he only played in the mid-season all-star game twice.  I am not sure if he was injured every year at that time but Brian Sutter or Rob Ramage would represent the Blues instead of Federko.

 

  So does Federko belong in the HHOF?  Many people say he is vastly underrated.  He played on a small market team who never achieved any post season success.  If you look at Federko's teammates, he never had a 1A type player.  In New York, there was Bossy-Trottier.  In Edmonton, Gretzky-Kurri.  In Montreal, Lafleur-Shutt.  In Quebec, Stastny-Goulet.  In St.Louis, Federko linemates were the like of Brian Sutter and Wayne Babych.  With Federko's help, Babych was a 50 goal scorer in 1981 and Sutter consistently put 30 goal seasons.  It wasn't until the mid 1980 when, fellow future HHOFers, Joey Mullen and Doug Gilmour proved the skill level to help Federko put together three straight 100 point seasons.  Unfortunately, both Gilmour and Mullen would suffer similar fates, being traded to the Flames, albeit in different seasons.  While the Blues didn't have any play-off success, Federko consistently found the scoresheet in the postseason.  Federko scored 101 points in 91 post season games.  Federko would eventually be traded to the Detroit Red Wings in a deal that gave the Blues Adam Oates.  Federko would play a single season in Detroit before retiring.
  What do you think?  Is Federko the poster boy for the HHOF low standards?  Or is he the poster boy for the under-rated small market superstar?

TTM Success: Garth Butcher

  Garth Butcher played 897 career NHL games in 14 seasons. A tough, stay at home defenceman, Butcher accumulated 2302 PIM in his career, good for 31st all-time. Garth was selected 10th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1981 draft. That winter, he helped Team Canada win its first ever Gold Medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship. After the tournament, Butcher would make his NHL debut, playing 5 regular season games and a single game in the Stanley Cup finals. Butcher would lead the Canucks in PIM for five consecutive seasons from 1984-85 to 1988-89. Butcher would spend a few seasons in St Louis before finishing his career after brief stops in Quebec and Toronto. Garth signed 4 of 4 and kept the extra copy of 1982 custom card, as offered.
  The custom was a 82-83 OPC design.  You can see the front and back of it on this post.

TTM Success: Peter Stastny

  I have covered Peter Stastny a few times before on this blog.  First time I posted his legends card from the 88-89 OPC tribute set, briefly covered his defection to Canada, and the second time was my first ttm return from Peter.  This time, let's look at the numbers.  From the 1980-81 to the 89-90 season, only Wayne Gretzky scored more points than Peter Stastny.  Stastny scored 100 points or more in his first six seasons and was the first NHL "rookie" to score 100+ points.  His 70 assists is still a record, which he now shares with Joe Juneau.  In his rookie season, Stastny set a rokie by scoring a combined 14 points in consecutive games, including a rookie record of 8, 4 goals and 4 assists, versus the Washington Capitals.  When he retired, he was tanked 11th in career points, 1239.  As of the end of the 2011-12 season, he ranks 36th all-time.  He was inducted into the HHOF in 1988.  Stastny is a strict one-per-request signer and I am passively pursuing the 2006 Parkhurst set.  This is the 26th card I have signed form the set.

The Lost Rookies: Mike Moffat

    Can you name the goalie who backstopped Team Canada to it's first ever World Junior Hockey Championship (WJC) Gold medal?  If you said Mike Moffat, you are either know your hockey, or you guessed it from the title of the post. 
  Mike Moffat, a 8th round draft pick by the Boston Bruins in 1980, played his junior hockey with the Kingston Candians.  He played good enough, a 4.14 career OHL GAA which was actually good in those days, to get himself on Team Canada for the 1981 WJC.  Team Canada had never won a Gold medal in the WJC before.  With the exception of 1978, the Memorial Cup winners would represent Canada.  After a dismal 7th place finish in 1981, the Canada's Program of Excellence was created and the best under age nineteen players would represent Canada the following year and every year since.  Team Canada, not favoured to medal, exceeded all expectations.  They went 6-0-1 in the tournament, including a shocking 7-0 trouncing of the favorites, Soviet Union.  Mike Moffat recorded the shutout and he was between the pipes during the final game versus Czechoslovakia.  Team Canada, once again the underdog, needed a tie to clinch the Gold medal, while the Czechs needed a win.  Moffat would turn aside a late barrage by the Czechs to preserve a 3-3 tie and Canada's first WJC Gold medal.

  Moffat would make a splash in the NHL before the season was over.  Mike started the last two games for the Boston Bruins and was then anointed the starter for the play-offs, over incumbents Marco Baron and Rogie Vachon.  Although as shocked as anyone, Moffat played brilliantly through the first round and carried the Bruins into the second round.  Still only a teenager, the pressure started to get to Moffat as the Bruins fought the Quebec Nordiques in a grueling seven game series.  The fans and press were comparing Mike Moffat to a  young Ken Dryden.  As the series went on, Moffat allowed a few weak goals and the Bruins would eventually fall to the Nordiques in game seven, by a score of 2 to 1.  As the last few seconds ticked off the clock (and as Terry O'Reilly takes a swing at referee Andy Van Hellamond) Bruin coach, Gerry Cheevers attempted to console his young goalie.
 

 

  Mike Moffat would never again reach the level of play he had achieve in the 1981-82 season.  He would only play 17 more NHL games and by age 22, Moffat would officially retired from professional hockey.  The pressure of the Stanley Cup play-offs was too much for a 20 year old who previously had a total of 2 career professional hockey games under his belt.  Here's a quote from a Boston.com interview

“My mental game needed massive rebuilding,’’ he says. “I should have dealt

with that in the offseason, but I just kind of denied it, put my head down. I was 

fighting the demons and it was nobody’s fault but my own.’’

  I find Mike Moffat's story tragic.  A young player who is living the dream at age 20.  Winning a Gold medal for Team Canada and earning top goalie honours.  Starting and staring for the Boston Bruins in the playoffs.  Except by the time the 1982-83 season had started, Moffat was already on the downside of his career.  He was mentally worn out.  The Bruins must have had wind of this, as they traded for Pete Peeters in the offseason and to further Moffat's decline, Peeters went on to win 40 games and the Vezina  trophy.  What I also find tragic is that, based on the few interviews I have read, Moffat does not appear to cherish his time in the NHL.  In regards to the press clippings of his playing days, Moffat claims to never look at them since "“I guess it would make me cry."  I really do hope that's not the way he truly feels about his hockey days.  He just had too much pressure too soon. His career may have been totally different if had a few seasons in the AHL instead of being thrown directly into the spotlight.

  Mike Moffat never had a NHL card.  For the 1982 set, OPC went with Rogie Vachon, the Bruins #2 goalie during most of the 81-82 season, and newly acquired, and airbrushed, Pete Peeters.  Leaving rookie Mike Moffat and the teams #1 goalie Marco Baron without cards.  Coincidentally, Marco Baron never has never had a rookie card either.  So below is Mike Moffat's lost rookie card.

82-83 OPC -Lost Rookie - Mike Moffat

82-83 OPC -Lost Rookie - Mike Moffat - back