Sports Card Tour 2018 - Vancouver

Canada week continues on The Collector's Sports Card Tour. Today we're in Vancouver. 

Three pro sports teams call Vancouver home, including the BC Lions of the CFL and Whitecaps FC of the MLS. But this post will focus on the Canucks.

The Canucks are 0-3 in Stanley Cup Finals - losing to the Islanders in 1982, the Rangers in 1994, and the Bruins in 2011. 

The classic skate/sled logo (and the team name) bewildered me when I was a kid. As I started collecting older hockey cards I found it even more peculiar that the Canucks' logo was on the sleeve - not on the chest - for a few years in the early '80s.

Back when my hockey obsession (and my income) was at its peak, I bought a lot of items from out-of-market teams through the River City Sports catalogue. This Canucks "Colour of Hockey" plaque has been in my collection for at least 15 years. It's still sealed because I've got no place to hang it.
 

Cam Neely's rookie card was one of the first cards I saw from the 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set. Part of the reason why I'm collecting this set is to relive the excitement I had when I first saw these cards. Neely only wore the flying V for three years; he was traded to Boston in 1986. 

 

Trevor Linden was the 2nd overall pick in the 1987 NHL draft. He was one of the youngest captains in NHL history and led the team to the Stanley Cup Final in 1994.

 

He's also my wife's all-time favourite athlete. [Before both of our girls were born, D declared "If it's a boy, we're naming him Trevor."] Her collection of Linden items isn't as mind-blowing as this guy but it's quite extensive. 

She has two authentic Trevor Linden jerseys (one with the skate logo, one with the orca) a half-dozen figurines including McFarlane and Starting Lineup, a Beckett Hockey Price Guide from 1992, at least two mini-banners and a pin from his jersey number retirement (similar to the card above) and two Trevor posters. One of them is called "Trevorland" - which is what her room would be if she could display all the items in her collection. 

I don't know exactly how many Linden cards I have because I gave them all to D. Last night I counted all the cards in the box...here's a breakdown:

• 256 Trevor Linden Canucks cards (counting dupes)
• 5 multi-player/checklist cards, 3 Panini stickers
• 5 all-star cards, 2 Capitals cards
• 20 Canadiens cards, 24 Islanders cards
• 315 total cards (not counting oversized/box toppers)

I've been adding Trevor cards here and there - like this base card from The Cup - but she hasn't actively collected cards since the lockout. (Which, btw, Linden helped resolve.)

Needless to say she was crushed when the Rangers beat Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Final after they had defeated the Devils in an equally thrilling Conference Final. That '94 Canucks team was barely above .500 (41-40-3) in the regular season but somehow came within a goal of winning the title.

Hall of Famer Pavel Bure was Vancouver's marquee superstar at the time. The "Russian Rocket" scored 60 goals in back-to-back seasons but he couldn't score on a penalty shot against Mike Richter.

I have 29 Bure Canucks cards in my collection - though many are not mine.

Di told me that Bure was the player she pulled the most back in her collecting days, which worked out well for her since the Canucks were her favorite western team. 

Check out these old VHS tapes I found in her collection.

The running time on the Bure video matches his jersey number: 10 minutes. 

Bure was traded to Florida in 1999. He ended his brilliant but injury-shortened career career with the Rangers when he was just 32 years old.

Anyone who has ever cheered for the Canucks - and I include myself in that since I was hoping they'd win in '94 - could not stand Rangers captain Mark Messier. (That goes double for Diana.) It was bad enough when Mess bested Linden, Bure & co. in the final. But then Messier made things worse...

 

He signed with the Canucks as a free agent in 1997. Why was that so bad? Canucks fans believe he usurped Linden's captaincy, then forced him out of town. What's worse, the six-time Stanley Cup winner failed to lead the Canucks to the playoffs in his three seasons with the club.

I have seven Messier Canucks cards, including the Upper Deck box topper. I thought the 1998-99 Finest 'no protector' refractor was a decent pull, but I couldn't give it away on Sports Card Forum or COMC. Messier returned to the Rangers at the end of his career.

The emergence of Markus Naslund helped Vancouver clean up their Mess. Discarded by Pittsburgh in 1996, Naslund thrived in western Canada, winning the Lester Pearson award as player's choice for NHL MVP in 2002-03. He ended his NHL career in 2009..with the Rangers. 

At the 1999 NHL Draft Canucks GM Brian Burke swung a series of trades to acquire the second and third overall pick, allowing the Canucks to select identical twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

 I have 13 cards of each Sedin - but the 2000-01 SPx and Ice (found in packs of Rookie Update) are the only non-flagship sets in which I have both brothers.

Daniel Sedin is Vancouver's all-time goal scoring leader and led the NHL in points with 104 in 2011. Like Naslund eight years prior, Daniel won the Pearson/Lindsay award as players' MVP - but not the Hart Trophy as "official" MVP. 

Speaking of MVP...Di pulled the gold parallel #d/100 from packs we bought at Newbury Comics in Massachusetts. (Man, I miss that store!)

Henrik Sedin served as Canucks' captain for the past eight seasons and holds the team record for career points with 1070. His 112 points in 2010 led the league and he did win the Hart Trophy... but he didn't win the Lindsay Award (the players chose Alex Ovechkin.)

Let's take a look at some Canuck netminders...

Kirk McLean was originally a Devils prospect in the mid '80s, until arriving in Vancouver via trade in 1987. He was a finalist for the Vezina trophy twice and played every minute of every playoff game for the Canucks in 1994. The logoless card on the left is a Be A Player autograph; Pinnacle bought the brand a year later. He concluded his career in 2001... with the Rangers.

Corey Hirsch served as McLean's backup for four seasons. I recently found his article on The Players' Tribune in which he recounted his mental health issues including OCD. Some of the thought patterns he described really hit home for me.

Mike Fountain only played 11 NHL games - and I have one card for each of his six appearances in the Canucks' crease. He was the starting goalie for the AHL's Beast of New Haven in both of their seasons. My ex-girlfriend Fionna bought me the Oshawa cards.

Roberto Luongo was right at home in the Vancouver Olympics, winning gold for Team Canada in 2010. He was the first goalie to be named a team captain in modern NHL history, and led the Canucks to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

Ryan Miller was on the losing side of the gold medal game in 2010, but his brilliant play for Team USA earned him tournament MVP honours. Cory Schneider shared netminding duties with Luongo for three seasons before the Canucks traded both goalies. In one of Lou Lamoreillo's final trades for the Devils he sent the #9 overall pick in 2013 to Vancouver for Cory. The Canucks selected Bo Horvat.

You've probably seen my 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Retro Frankenset before - but I'm not sure if I shared the break from my only non-blaster purchase.

It was a Vancouver hot box-with five base cards, four Marquee Rookies inserts...
 

...and a Jake Virtanen Black Ice parallel #d to 99. 

More Be a Player autos. Bret Hedican married fellow U.S. Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi. Steve Staios was the Thrashers' team captain in 2000-01 and played in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final with the Oilers. Ryan Kesler was traded to the Ducks in 2014 - by team president Trevor Linden.

Vancouver also had a pro basketball team for six seasons. Sort of..

The Grizzlies never won more than 23 games in their six seasons in the Pacific Northwest, and finished last in the Midwest* division every season but one.

*why weren't they in the Pacific Division? 

All of my Vancouver Grizzlies cards fit into this one scan. With the logo card it's exactly enough for one page... but the Abdur-Rahim is an insert so I keep that in a 'hits' box. 

Bonus content!

And for all you How I Met Your Mother fans...

Favorite Canucks player (current): Sam Gagner
Favorite Canucks player (all-time): Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure
Favorite Grizzlies player (all-time): "Big Country" Bryant Reeves. I actually bought a Reeves jersey once, but it was a size too small and I had to return it.

Next tour stop: Washington D.C.


Thanks for reading!


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