I did get a little cheese with my whine, thanks for asking!

Benefactor  noun:

1.  A person who gives money or other help to a person or cause.

If you've been reading at all lately in the blogosphere, I'm sure you're aware of the gentleman who has been providing joy to a lot of collectors, Mark Hoyle.  Mark has definitely been a benefactor to a lot of people lately, including myself. 

Mark noted on my latest post that he would be sending some Leafs vintage my way to ease the pain.  Boy was I shocked when I opened the envelope.  Probably the favorite group for me was the '74-75 Topps cards.

I always loved the league and team leaders cards.  The Doug Favell leaders card was interesting because on the back it had the asterisk with the line "minimum 30 games played"   Favell only played 38 for the Leafs in 73-74, but still got the nod as the best GAA in the eastern division.  I also got a kick out of the Leafs having Denis Dupere as one of the two scoring percentage leaders, even though Dupere only played 28 games and scored just 8 goals.  Henderson should have had that space to himself; at least he played the majority of the season and scored 24 times.

Down the middle the Leafs were deep, with three of the greatest names in Leaf history featured above.  Sittler was the team leader in scoring with 84 points and 38 goals. 

The Leafs were the first team to bring Swedish players to the NHL, one of the two being Inge Hammastrom, shown on the top right.   Inge didn't fare too badly in his time with the Leafs, scoring 20+ goals in 3 different seasons.  The Ron Ellis card is the only action card of the whole stack, and it's a pretty good shot of him circling the net while Gilles Villemure of the Rangers appears to be clearing the puck away.   Jim McKenny played right wing and defense during his Leafs career, and only 10 games in Minnesota kept Jim from being a career Leaf. 

Rick Kehoe actually is more noted for his time with Pittsburgh, scoring 312 goals with the Pens over 11 seasons.  "Cowboy" Bill Flett has a nicely air brushed card for your entertainment; the 74-75 season would be the only one he spent with the Leafs, scoring 15 goals. 

Red Kelly is still the only NHL player in history to win 4 Stanley Cups with two different teams, winning 4 Cups in 6 seasons with the Red Wings in the early to mid 50's.  Red then pulled the same trick with the Leafs, 4 Cups in 6 years during the mid 60's.  I spoke earlier of the Leafs bringing Swedish players to the league, and there were none better than Borje Salming.  Salming finished 3rd in the Calder trophy voting for best rookie, behind Tom Lysiak and HOFer Denis Potvin.  

I think the only card missing that would complete the Leafs team set for me is the Lanny McDonald RC.  That will be high on the list of cards to acquire, maybe at the show in May I'll get lucky.

There's still more in the envelope to show, some great cards from the 72-73 and 73-74 Topps sets will have to be displayed for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you Mark, the cards are very much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert