Today in Penguins History (12/17/2011)

Today in 2011 marked milestones for a number of players on the Penguins roster.  In a home game at Consol Energy Center, the Penguins skated to an 3-8 win over the Buffalo Sabres.  But that wasn't the highlight of the evening as a few feats were completed.

1.  Current KHLer, Simon Despres scored his first NHL goal of his career, a power play goal at that, making the game 0-2 Penguins in the first and assisted by Jason Williams and Tyler Kennedy. 

2.  Evgeni Malkin scored his 7th NHL hat trick with his third goal, a power play goal, coming midway through the third period.  Malkin scored his 12th hat trick mid way through the 2018-19 season (he has two others in the playoffs).

3.  With the 3-8 victory over Buffalo, Marc-Andre-Fleury earned his 200th win of his career, with 16 saves on 19 shots.  As of this posting, he has 452 all time regular season wins.

4.  Brooks Orpik picked up his 100th point in the NHL, assisting on Evgeni Malkin's first goal of the game in the first period. Not known for his scoring prowess, Orpik would put 15 more apples on the board that year.

5.  This game marked the 700th NHL game for Pascal Dupuis and with his assist on Deryk Engelland's goal in the second period, he also notched his 300th career point.  He finished his career with 871 games and 409 points, retiring in 2015 due to complications with blood clots. 

6.  Carl Sneep recorded his first point with the assist on Evgeni Malkin's second goal of the game in the first period.  Interestingly enough, this would also be his last point.  Sneep never played another NHL game for the Penguins, or any team for that matter.

Precognition Is A Wonderful Thing

I posted about 15 hours ago now at 7AM this morning a new autograph on the Pens Auto Project site.  It wasn't just any autograph.  It was a rookie auto of Brooks Orpik, long time defenseman and alternate team captain of the Penguins.

Now, he is the hero of Game 6 and the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Penguins.  Orpik scored from the blueline in overtime to send the Islanders packing.  That is Brooksy's first game winning playoff goal in his career.  In fact, it's his first goal against New York since 2011.  And now the Penguins finally get out of the first round.  What a relief!!

And all this was brought to you because I posted about Orpik this morning.  Am I psychic or what?

Stuff...Both Random And PC Related

I've been hard pressed for time and hard pressed for ideas as of late.  With the NHL season winding down and the 2nd season getting ready to start, the NFL draft the last couple days, and both my kids playing baseball this year, I'm more interested in watching the sports rather than blogging about them.

But I'll throw a bone to my readers just to let them know I'm still alive. 

The following are some newer additions to the old collection.  There are a few PC cards in there, a couple intentional and one by accident.  Enjoy the digital cardboard for your eyes.

First, I am unofficially collecting the 2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures autos as I have already mentioned here and in my original box break post.  Here are a few more I have received from successful bidding.

Here we have Cliff Ronning, who played the better part of six seasons with Vancouver in his 18 year career and Rod Langway, one of the last "grandfathered" players to play without a helmet.  Langway definitely doesn't get the credit he deserves as he played on some pretty awful Capitals teams.  But he did get a Cup while with Montreal in 1979.   

I also picked up this nifty Jethro auto.  Both Gillies and Langway were enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.  Ronning isn't but with over 300 goals, over 800 points, he might very well get the nod someday.


I picked up this nice Bill Guerin.  I already had this OPC Retro Parallel but this one is the "Blank Back" version.  These are hard to find so I figured I better strike while the iron was hot.

Here is the front and the back of the card.  Although, I don't know why I'm showing the back.  That blank cardboard could be anything.  I could be lying to all of you.  I'm not, but I could be.  At any rate, I can cross off another elusive Guerin card from my list.

I'll be featuring this over on my autograph project blog too but I figured I would give it a shout out now.  This is a 2002-03 Upper Deck Trilogy Script Autograph of Brooks Orpik.  The long-time defensive mainstay for the Penguins was a scratch in tonight's romping of the Hurricanes but will be firing on all cylinders for the playoffs...I hope.  This was/is the first auto I have of Mr. Orpik.  He has kind of a lazy signature but it is still recognizable somewhat.

This card has no real bearing on anything for my collections.  I don't collect Fuhr.  I'm not a Blues fan.  I'm not even a goalie hoarder.  I found this card in a box of football cards that were in The Garage (which has subsequently become The Storage Locker).  I found it interesting because I have some of these and they only have a small "chip" down on the bottom where the Champion Salute ring is.  This one was different though.  The "chip" is much bigger, sticks up much higher, and basically makes this card not fit in a normal top loader.  Turns out...It's a PROMO.  I'm going to guess these were giveaways at various shows and events by Pinnacle back in the late 90s.  Either that or they were given to dealers as samples.  Regardless, I thought it was interesting so I figured I would share.

This scan isn't very good but you can at least see what it is.  This is another in a long line of 1/1 Tangradi Printing Plates I have been pursuing.  This is my 9th printing plate from The Cup set.  This happens to be the Black plate from the SPA set from that year.  I have the magenta already.  In fact, of all of my plates, I have 2 magenta, 2 cyan, and 5 black.  Not a single yellow to be found yet.  I'll keep looking.  If you want to check out all of them together, you can go to my main web site and my Wall of Tangradi.


So after winning an auction online, waiting a couple weeks for Canadian snail mail, and opening my package, I was pleased to find a bonus pack of 2011 National Hockey Card Day cards.  They were, of course, the Canadian version, of which I have none (except maybe the Crosby).  Lets see what was in there...

We have a "Rookies" card of Jordan Eberle, which wasn't such a bad thing.  I don't know if it can really be considered a real "rookie" per se since this wasn't a major release.  I don't mind though.  We also pulled a "Heroes" subset card of Wayne Gretzky.  Not a bad looking shot of Wayne here.  I don't know why he is staring over there at the side panel of the blog.  Maybe he wants you to go click on some other blogs to read?

There were also these two "Pride" cards of Roberto Luongo and Jason Spezza.  I don't know how these slipped my radar because I really like the design pattern Upper Deck used.

And finally, the accidental PC card that I mentioned...

I don't know about any of you, but Mario looks tired on this picture.  Must be a combination of the cancer and the back issues.  Right now, he's looking at the giant Diet Mt. Dew can on my desk.  I know you want a drink of this Mario.  But you can't.  This is mine. 

Well Thought Out Yet Completely Random Penguin Cards of the Week: Game 7 Edition

With the unofficial self-proclaimed theme of the Pens being "Out For Justice", it is fitting that it all comes down to one game. 

WIN OR GO HOME!!!! 

With that being said, I wanted to present not one random Pens card but a multitude in the hopes that it may bring some luck.  These are the guys that need to play on some kind of Zen level tonight if the Pens are going to make it out alive.  I am not superstitious or anything but I did notice myself sidestepping all the sidewalk cracks on the way to work this morning.  I'm just saying...

2007-08 OPC Micromotion Brooks Orpik

Orpik was quoted as saying, "When you play a best of 7, usually the best team wins.  So, I think we're pretty confident going into it."  Let's just hope not TOOO confident.  Brooksy can be a game breaker and he is going to have to bring it.  Out For Justice!!

2008-09 Upper Deck Winter Classic Kris Letang. 

Tanger must play the game of his life tonight.  No more random shots AT the goal.  We need shots ON the goal.  Experimental gameplay time is over.  Out for Justice, indeed.

2009-10 Upper Deck Bill Guerin. 

When asked about game 7, Guerin said, "It's obviously not what we were looking for."  Yeah?  Well, you got it.  Now do what you do best and make it happen.  Your leadership is unparalleled in that locker room and whatever is left in that tank needs to be emptied tonight.  Out For Justice!!

And last, but certainly not least are the three key elements to tonights game.  If either of these three gentleman is having an off night, tee times will be early tomorrow for sure.  The time to show what we are made of is now.  There can't be another game 6 performance.  Out For Justice!!!

2009-10 Collector's Choice 3 Star Selections Crosby/Fleury/Malkin