Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A Tribute to the 2013 Stanley Cup Champs

Well a huge congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks capturing their second cup in four years and their fifth cup in their franchise history. I am very pleased that they did win primarily because I am a fan of the 'Hawks and their winning almost feels like winning second place in a beauty contest! Rather than share autos and hits I have already shared, I am going to share something from back when their made their first appearance in my lifetime.

I was and am a huge Ed Belfour fan and I really thought they were going to stand up well against the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 1992, little did I know the Pens were on a mission to win it for Badger Bob and nothing was going to get in their way. Here is an autograph of Eddie from back then:  

1992-93 High 5 Preview Ed Belfour Auto #1500
 
I own two Ed Belfour autos in my collection and this one of my favourite. It features Eddie as a Hawk and those goal pads were ones I used to picture myself wearing when I was outside getting pelted with slap shots by the neighborhood kids while wearing my Blackhawks jersey. Sadly Eddie would never get to another Cup final while with Chicago and by 1997 Eddie left the Windy City and would have a resurgence a couple years later.
Here is the backside of the card. Please don't let the relatively high serial number fool you, this card actually books for about 40 bucks. 

11-12 Elite Passing the Torch Belfour/Lehtonen Dual Auto /100

Eddie's best years may have been in a Stars uniform as he would finally win a Stanley Cup and lose in another Cup final as well. From 1997-02 Eddie was dominate once again winning 160 games over those 5 seasons and he finished with a sub 2.00 g.a.a twice. 


                                            


 The backside of the second Belfour auto in my collection features an auto of Kari Lehtonen. Kari came into the league as a second overall pick ahead of players like Cam Ward, Alex Semin, and Duncan Keith. True his draft class is far from spectacular, but the pressure was and is still there to perform. To this point, he has proven himself to be a solid starter but I am not sure if Cup dreams are in the wings for Stars fans at this point and it could be a while before they are doing what Belfour helped them do and what the Hawks were doing last night!

Thanks for putting up with a twisted and abstract post, but I did want to honor the Champs and I did it Belfour style!


1 comment:

  1. Very nice autos, I especially like the first which I had never seen (or even heard of) before. Great stuff.

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