09-10 SPx Brad Marchand Auto Rookie /799

With the win yesterday, Team Canada is on to the finals and if you told me this time last year Brad Marchand would be on the team I would have had two thoughts. Really? and Good for him! After this past season and the World Championships I would have been disappointed if he had been left off the roster because as much as I'd love to see the best pure offensive players Team Canada has to offer, we still need to work both ends of the ice and kill penalties. So far this tournament Brad Marchand has been excellent and completely deserving of his spot on the team and on the line with Bergereon and Crosby.

09-10 SPx Brad Marchand Auto Rookie /799

09-10 was the last season before Upper Deck would have a joint license with Panini so if you're an Upper Deck fan, there were plenty of options for Marchand rookies. I already had a couple before getting this one, most notably was my Young Gun. I used to have a Marchand auto as well but I traded that away for some HOF autos so I was hopeful that I would eventually land another and this was the one that came my way as a replacement.

Brad definitely has one of the more interesting autos out there with his number 63 the only legible aspect on this particular auto. Other times you can see Brad but his last name in my experience is more difficult to decipher.

As far as Marchand goes, I have been a fan of him to some degree since his junior days. I remember seeing him play for the Mooseheads and I would see him do things on the ice no other players would (with the puck) and of course he is still known for doing this other players wouldn't (without the puck). Seeing him have this success is nice being a Nova Scotian and I wish him the best of luck for the rest of this tournament and the rest of his career. He's truly a player in the mould of Claude Lemieux or Esa Tikkanen and when it comes to building a winning team, sometimes you need one or two of these guys. Thanks for stopping by!

A Tribute to the Champs

Well Boston won the Cup and I want to congratulate all of their fans. The team played well during the regular season and seemed to look better each round of the playoffs. They definitely deserved the win, but Canuck fans shouldn't hang their heads. Making it to the dance is a feat in itself and hopefully the Devils will meet the Canucks in the final next year!

Here is a small tribute to the champs with cards of current Bruins from my collection. I pulled all from packs with the exception of Seguin which I landed for 99 cents plus shipping from Ebay.

Zdeno Chara

Either you love this guy or you hate him. I am still not a fan, but last night he earned some of my respect by getting down low (which isn't easy for him) and making a save on an open net with his arm! A good captain who won't go down as the best in history but he plays a good North American game.

Milan Lucic

Here is a card I consider to be a RC (for my own purposes). Lucic is a player I do like a fair bit and was a big reason why the Bruins played so well in the regular season. Didn't contribute much offensively this post season but he is able to change the game in other ways. Definitely a poor man's Cam Neely.

Brad Marchand

11 goals this post season! I hope Brad is able to carry that momentum into next year and put up numbers that are reflective of how well he played this post season. I see no reason why he can't be a consistent 60 point guy in his prime. He is coming to my neck of the woods at the end of July and I hope to get a few autos. HOPE is the key word, I have heard conflicting reports on what he is like in person so I will have to judge for myself.

Tuukka Rask

With how Timmy played, he wasn't much of a factor this post season. This will be his team in a couple of years if he is able to earn it and I think one off season isn't anything to worry about but if he doesn't bounce back next year he may be off to other pastures.

Mark Recchi

I love this card so much I decided to show front and back. One reason why I am a big fan of the 90-91 UD was their use of photos on the back which features a nice in action slap shot. On the front of this card, you get a photo which looks like Recchi just had been hit by a truck.

Michael Ryder

Ryder chipped in with a solid post season performance. 8 goals and 9 assists have fans thinking he may be back to his early career form.

Tyler Sequin

Seguin showed some real flashes of brilliance this post season (6 points in 2 games) and then fell off with 1 point in his other 11 games. I think he has the potential to be a Marc Savard type player and much like Savard he may take a little more time to grow into that type of player. Julien is going to have to give him minutes to grow and he will need to adapt a little more to NHL calibre play if this prediction is going to be true.

Congrats Boston and bring on the NHL Entry Draft!

Countdown to draft day – Boston Bruins

Boston is an original 6 team which means they have been a part of every entry/amateur draft since 1963, when the first draft took place. In that first draft, Boston had the 3^rd overall pick and they selected Orest Romashyna. Orest, never made it to the NHL but he did end up playing for the University of Waterloo which is where I did my undergrad degree. We should give the Bruins a break because that wasn’t exactly the most loaded draft in NHL history with a total of 21 players being selected and only 5 making it to the NHL. The best player from that draft ended up being the second overall pick Pete Mahovlich.

The Bruins over the years have had some pretty good luck with the draft with years like 2006, 2004, 1997 all proving to be loaded with full-time NHL players. But when you try to pin down Boston’s best year you need to go a little further back. In my opinion I would have to say their finest year was 1979.

-taken from hockeydb.com

Every player selected in that draft, eventually played in the NHL. In fact, 5 out of the 7 picks would end up playing at least 400 games and the gem of their draft was selecting Ray Bourque with the 8^th overall pick. Other guys like McCrimmon, Crowder and Krushelnyski all would go on to have very successful NHL careers.

It is difficult to determine which draft was the worst in Bruins history. In 1963 none of their 4 picks would skate in the NHL. Boston’s last four drafts have also yielded few NHL skaters at THIS point but it is a little early to classify them as busts. At this point, I am going to have to suggest that the worst draft for the Bruins was in 1996.

-taken from hockeydb.com

For starters you get a gold star if you actually heard of any of these players other than Aitken or Whitfield. They ended up being the only two players out of the 10 drafted that would go on to play an NHL game and even then, their first pick Johnathan Aiken would finish with his NHL career with 44 games, 0 goals and 1 assist. Bruins would make up for this draft the following year when they would use their first overall pick to get Joe Thornton who as of today is one point shy of 1000 for his career.

Interesting fact that year, the San Jose Sharks had the second overall pick that year so they missed out on selecting Thornton but drafted Patrick Marleau. Thanks to a trade with the Bruins, both Marleau and Thornton are united on the same team (picks 1 and 2).