Collection Montreal Canadiens Collection

About a dozen years ago I worked in a cubicle behind a Packers fan named John. John was the only other Packer fan I encountered on a regular basis. He was a bit of a Boston Bruins fan back in the day, but had lost interest in hockey until he noticed that I was a hockey fan. Something about the Bruins' biggest rival had always bewildered him and so he asked me: why does the Montreal Canadiens logo have an 'H' in it?

I knew the answer to that, and I knew that Les Habitants had won more Stanley Cups than any other NHL team - and more championships than all but one team in North American pro sports.

However, because I didn't grow up in Canada I had hardly any knowledge of the players that continued this winning tradition year after year, decade after decade.

A few years ago my brother in law got us a hockey book as a Christmas gift. By "us" I mean my wife and by "hockey book" I mean the definitive book about hockey, Ken Dryden's The Game.

The Game didn't make me a Montreal Canadiens fan, but it made me appreciate the 1970s-era Habs. I'd never bothered to collect older hockey cards because the few big names that I knew were out of my price range and the "common" singles just weren't common where I grew up. This book inspired me to build a mini-collection of players who contributed to the six Stanley Cups won by the franchise from 1970-1979 (and ten cups in fifteen years going back to 1965.)

I've got about two dozen post-career cards of Canadiens from this era but for this post I'm only going to focus on cards issued in the 1970s.

Terry Harper won five Stanley Cups with Montreal (1965, '66, '68, 69, and '71). This was a gift from the crumudgeon who lived next door until he and his wife moved when I was about 12 years old. There's a small pen mark on the back.

Hall of Famer Frank Mahovlich won four Stanley Cups with the Maple Leafs in the 1960s, joined their arch-rivals in 1971 and helped the Habs win the Cup that spring. He won a sixth Stanley Cup with the 1973 Canadiens. I bought this ungraded for $3.15 on COMC in May 2015. I'm thrilled that it came back from PSA with a high grade - vintage OPC singles are notorious for centering and edge issues.

I somehow snagged this gem for just $5.09 on 4 Sharp Corners in March 2016. I know it's a Topps hockey card, but that seems low for a mint '70s single of an eight-time Stanley Cup champion (as a player.) 

Jacques Lemaire is well-known to my Devils-loving family as the head coach of the 1995 Stanley Cup Champs. The Canadian media critics who derided the Devils for employing the neutral zone trap and suffocating the sport fail to mention that Lemaire learned that strategy from his coach, Scotty Bowman.

Los Angeles Times June 22, 1995

Here's another Hall of Famer who coached a Stanley Cup-winning Devils team. Larry Robinson won six Stanley Cups as a player, three as a Devils coach, and a tenth Cup as an assistant for the Blues. He also won two Norris trophies and saved the sport of hockey from becoming wrestling on ice. This OPC single looks empty without a "1st Team All-Star" designation found on Robinson's Topps card. On the other hand, the ice and the boards are bare and I don't mind that at all. I bought this with a best offer of $6.60 on COMC in February 2017.

Some ungraded 1978-79 singles. Bob Gainey won four Stanley Cups with Montreal in the 1970s then captained the Canadiens to their 24th championship in 1986. I'm not sure where I got his O-Pee-Chee card. The Semi-Final single was picked out of a box at my LCS back in the day.

Pierre Bouchard wasn't a star, but he contributed to Canadiens Cup wins in 1971, '73, '76, '77, and '78. This 1977-78 Topps card cost me 64 cents on COMC four years ago.

I picked up this Ken Dryden for $9 on COMC last summer. I wrote about this purchase at the time since I wasn't expecting to receive my cards until December. Turns out I was a little impatient and had this order shipped to me in September. Good thing I did; the cards I purchased last Black Friday still haven't arrived :/

Dryden is a fascinating guy. He played seven full seasons in the NHL and won six titles. (Take that, Tom Brady!) In 1971 Dryden won the Cup and the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP before burning his rookie eligibility. Naturally he won the Calder trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1972. After winning his second Cup in 1973 Dryden sat out the 1973-74 season in a contract dispute, during which he worked at a Toronto law firm (hold that thought..)

This card is so seventies. It's glorious. I want it.

In September 1972 Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito split goaltending duties for the Canadian all-stars against the Soviet Union in the famed Summit series. Dryden was the winning goalie in the decisive game eight, besting his Russian counterpart Vladislav Tretiak (hold that thought...)

After winning his sixth Stanley cup and fourth in a row Dryden decided to hang up his skates. Years after his retirement, Dryden went into politics and sat in Canada's House of Commons. 

These cards are definitely not commons, haha.

Shortly after retiring as player Dryden joined Al Michaels in the broadcast booth for ABC's coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey tournament. Tretiak was on the ice for the Soviets in the first period of the "Miracle On Ice" game. Even non-hockey fans know Michaels' famous call "Do you believe in miracles?"; not everyone knows that Ken Dryden was alongside him at the time.

Last week I was shopping for some vintage hockey cards and searched vintage Ken Dryden singles on eBay. I prefer to buy graded vintage, mostly for the peace of mind that the cards haven't been counterfeited or trimmed. Most early Dryden cards are out of my price range in high grade, and since I already have some Topps singles I was hoping to pick up an O-Pee-Chee card.

I found one that looked sharp, and the price was right at just under $30. There was no scan of the back, and I was all but certain that there was a flaw I couldn't see on screen. Those old OPC edges terrify me.

Shortly after adding the card in question to my watch list  I got a notice that it was being discounted to interested parties. Now it was $25 shipped. With tax the card would cost $26.66. I was at work and didn't have much time to deliberate so I hit the "buy" button and paid for it when I got home.

The card arrived in today's mail. I looked at it from all angles and in three kinds of light. I don't see any flaws aside from one slight corner ding. 

For a second I thought that maybe it was a Topps card. But the seller (MainStreetSportscardsVT) knows their stuff. Notice the cartoon on the left? Ken didn't have to wait until his hockey days were through.

I took a bit of a gamble on this card and it paid off. As any skeptic of slabbed cards will tell you, paying a premium for high grades isn't always a good strategy. Take these Dryden singles, for example:

This card sold for $57+shipping (about $62 total.) The top edge is a mess, the bottom edge isn't much better, and there's a big dot on the right side of Dryden's head.

This one is even worse. The edges are a mess, the card appears to be at least slightly diamond cut, and that yellow blob by the 'A' should have been flagged as a print defect. I say this not to insult the card's owner but the card's appraiser - this is an ugly example of a fantastic card. How is this an 8?

I'm very happy with my purchase and I'm definitely going to consider ungraded examples for my Canadiens collection. I still need 1970's-era cards of Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, and more. And I don't need to pay $40 for a PSA-slabbed copy of these cards.

On the other hand...this is a pretty good deal at $25....

Should I pull the trigger?

Thanks for reading!





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