Happy Belated Birthday To The Devils Greatest Coach...

Leading all head coaches in Devils history with wins it's Jacques Lemaire with 276 wins in the regular season plus a Stanley Cup in 1995 as head coach. As much as I loved all the Devils Cup wins, the first one was probably the most memorable and important as it turned our franchise from a Mickey Mouse one to a legitimate organization. This past week was Jacques' 71st birthday and I hope he is having a good time as the Special Assignment Coach with the Leafs. 

2012-13 ITG Forever Rivals Autos Jacques Lemaire

Oddly missing from my collection for a very long time was Lemaire's auto. I have autos from pretty much every member of that Cup winning team except the head coach (perhaps a few others I really should check). I came across this about 7-8 months ago at the LCS when the owner said he got a huge binder of these in and was looking to move them. I'm sure I could have found a home for all of them but this was the only one I bought. Now that I have this one crossed off, it takes care of part of my HOF project with him and my informal "let's get all the '95 Devils autos".

The card itself is a nice on card auto in red ink. I don't have many red ink autos but given it's the main colour for the Devils and Habs I believe it's very appropriate to use it on this card. In all this was a very well done product by ITG despite no license. As the years have gone by I have been less and less into ITG for reasons I am not too sure of. Leaf seems to be running the ship and oddly I see less and less of their stuff in the LCS and in the media in general. Have you noticed that too? Or is it just where I live and it's more prevalent in the USA now? I'm curious to hear your thoughts and as always, thanks for stopping by.

A Huge Thanks to '67ers

As some of you know, my LCS shop bought someone's collection and began liquidating everything as fast as they cool. Stuff was priced to sell and often unsorted to some degree. As I shared my experience with a 79-80 Topps box, '67ers from Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains was curious if there were other boxes that might contain similar treasures. He contacted me and asked if I could look, so I did and reported back what the cost would be and cost to ship and he was more than willing to pay those prices so the deal was done. I wasn't interested in cutting myself in on handling fees or anything like that, I just wanted to help out my LCS and '67ers wanted to have the same fun I had. Well as they say, no good deed goes unpunished, here is what arrived in my mailbox a week or two later...

Pure Vintage Goodness!!!

65-66 Topps Bill Gadsby

 An amazing defenseman who was ranked 99th all-time by the original The Hockey News top 100 players of all-time in 1998. He didn't post offensive numbers like Orr, but gave 100% every shift and could punish you both on the scoresheet and on the ice. According to Legends of Hockey, he had an insurance policy which paid him 5 dollars for each stitch he took playing hockey and with over 600 stitches in the face, he had two incomes!

70-71 OPC J.P Parise

 Another awesome card, this one of Zach's father. Shame he departed for the land of 10 000 lakes, but J.P will best be remember by me for what he did at the '72 Summit Series and for having grown up two towns over from where I lived in High School.

68-69 OPC Jacques Lemaire

Maybe the best coach in Devils history, this card is from VERY early in Lemaire's career. I believe this is his second year card, with his rookie coming from the lone set the year before 67-68 Topps.

71-72 OPC Jacques Lemaire

Here is a slightly older Lemaire from the Iconic 71/72 OPC set.

65-66 Topps Elmer Vasko

Here is another card from the 65-66 Topps set and MAN O MAN, is it in amazing shape. This card has corners that can put an eye out and the centering isn't too shabby either. Vasko was a beast and even though he didn't put up the same offensive numbers as Gadsby, he was a two-time NHL second-team all-star.

What an amazing selection of cards and all cards I didn't own! The condition and selection of cards '67ers sent me was awesome and I really really appreciate the gesture! Thank you very much and I still am enjoying them!