Getting a couple of 76-77 OPC wants out of the way

Within the orders that I had placed on COMC over the past couple of weeks came a pair of cards to knock down a hockey want list for a change.

I would love for Upper Deck to start using these types of team leader cards in their modern sets.  OPC would be the natural place for them to land, since the set size is so large.  They could even get away with it in the base set, put half of the teams in series 1, and the other half in series 2.

Anyone ever notice with these team leaders cards that there aren't goalies included?  Wonder why that is...

thanks for reading, Robert

Talk about an uphill battle

I'm not sure if I would want to be Craig MacTavish right now.

I think the deer in the headlights look on this card might be similar to the look he has in Edmonton right now.

It might be time to tear the whole team down, top to bottom, and start over again.  Imagine if this organization was somewhere in the sun belt.   They'd have moved to Quebec years ago due to lack of fan support.

Card looks nice though!

1977-78 Topps Wayne Thomas

I'm hoping to make this blog a little more relevant in 2015 with posts a little more often than once a month.  What I want to do is just grab a card that I have in my sights, and do a quick little post.

Do the backup goalies skate on the ice with a towel wrapped around their necks anymore?  Just seeing this brought me back to the days when I first started following hockey back in the mid 70's.

Flipping to the back....

I see that Wayne earned the Molson Cup for the Habs in 73-74, and played 42 games in net.  Then I think, wasn't Ken Dryden part of that club?  It appears that Wayne was the beneficiary of Ken Dryden's holdout for a better contract.  The next season, Wayne would sit on the sidelines for the entire season while Dryden and Bunny Larocque shared the goaltending duties. 

The Leafs gave up a first round draft pick to acquire Thomas so he could play a grand total of two seasons for the Leafs.  Wayne wound up losing the starting job to Mike Palmateer in 76-77.

Wayne wound up being waived at the beginning of the 77-78 season and was claimed by the Rangers, where he would play for 4 more seasons before retiring. 

Wayne is now a VP and assistant GM of the San Jose Sharks, 2nd in command to long time GM Doug Wilson.