Back Stories: Red Light Artie

"The power punch in Pittsburgh's offensive repertoire, Kevin Stevens is a master at his craft...scrapping for goals. A three-time NHL All-Star, Stevens has netted at least 40 biscuit tucks in each of the past four seasons, collecting 50-plus twice. The Penguins' power plant is a net crusher of the first degree, possessing a gunslinger quick release on his shot, Herculean strength for taking root where he stands and the tenacity to take multiple whacks at any rebound within his reach."

 

I could talk a lot about Kevin Stevens as he was one of my favorite players while he was on the team back then. The guy, some say, was a product of his environment, benefiting as many did from playing with Super Mario. It's hard not to look back on that and disagree, as his best years were in Pittsburgh where he put up 70 points or more five times with two seasons over 100 points. It's also interesting to note that in his 16 year NHL career, his seven trips to the playoffs were all with the Penguins (both stints).  

I won't bring up all the crazy stuff...or maybe I will. Like the time he almost ended his own career hitting Rich Pilon so hard that it knocked him unconscious and broke most of the bones in his face. He literally had to have his face and head peeled in order to reconstruct the bones and install metal plates. Or his time on Boston where he not only got demoted to third and fourth line duty but was even benched. Or the time he was caught doing crack with a prostitute in a St. Louis motel room. Or the conspiracy and possession charges for oxycodone. If you get a chance to watch the "Shattered" documentary that was on Sportsnet years ago, find it. It sheds some light on how athletes become addicts. 

But it's better to think about the good, like his two Stanley Cups (three if you count the one as a scout). Or his three All-Star selections. Or his second stint with the Penguins where he got to reunite with Jagr and Lemieux, scoring 23 points in 32 games. Or his membership in the Penguins Ring Of Honor. Or how about his time as talent scout for the Penguins from 2005-2012. Or his time as Special Assignment Scout in 2017. But nothing tops his most recent accolade, enshrinement into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024. 

So if you like cliches and over-blown sports writer prose, this is the card for you. It comes from 1994-95 Fleer Ultra and is an insert from the 10 card Red Light Specials set. Stevens is card number 10. 

 

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Back Stories: Downtown Robbie Brown

"Rob's career has come full circle from prolific junior scorer, to 49-goal man with Pittsburgh in 1988-89 and then to the minors where he assembled four straight 100-point seasons. He made it back to the NHL last season when he won a spot on Pittsburgh's roster based on a training camp tryout."

Just reading that little backstory paints a small picture of the yo-yo career of Rob Brown. When you look up prolific scorers of the IHL, he's the posterboy. After putting up an astonishing 259 points in 61 games for St. Albert's of the AMHL, he went on to continue his reign of terror as a Kamloops Blazer, scoring a ridiculous 464 points in 192 games. He even outscored budding superstars Theo Fleury and Joe Sakic in the 86-87 WHL season. That was enough to get him noticed by Pittsburgh and he became a Penguin with the 67th pick in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft. He would go on to spend and he spend three, very productive seasons (some say as a Mario coat-tail rider) on the Penguins. 

He's then traded to Hartford and proceeds to spend the next seven seasons bouncing up and down between various NHL teams that he couldn't seem to stick with, and still putting up a 1.6 PPG performance in the IHL, winning their scoring title three times. [ring...ring...] Pittsburgh calling again. He then goes on to put up solid numbers (40P/24P/23P) in his second, 3-year stint on the Penguins. After that, he went back to the Chicago Wolves of the IHL, who a year later joined the AHL, all the while continuing his onslaught of scoring and averaging over a PPG.

Why couldn't his scoring talent carry him through as an NHL regular? There are many who speculate it was due to him having a hardcore lifestyle away from the rink. Others point to him as being a known "diva" of sorts with an attitude that affected his play and clashed with management. Still, it's hard not to see that despite having a ton of offensive skills, he completely lacked in defensive prowess and his skating was sometimes a liability. 

This card is from the 1998-99 Be A Player set that was put out by In The Game. The card is number #265 in the set and it's the Gold parallel.

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Back Stories: McEachern Madness

"Shawn McEachern used his tremendous speed to become an offensive force on a Pittsburgh Penguins' team full of talented scorers. The former U.S. Olympian showed flashes of his ability at the end of the 1991-92 season and put it all together last season"

 

Waltham, MA native Shawn McEachern became a Pittsburgh Penguin with the 110th pick in the 1987 NHL Draft. As the card mentions, when he finally debuted for the team, he played 15 games to end the season and logged another 19 in the playoffs, earning the 22 year old his name etched on Lord Stanley's mug. He went on to play the 1992-93 season, putting up 61 points...good enough for 8th in team scoring. That's what happens when you are on a roster chocked full of future HOFers.

The Penguins, looking for more grit to help protect their offensive weaponry, traded McEachern to the LA Kings for a familiar face. In his second stint with the team, Marty McSorley put up 21 points with 139 PIMs in his first season back with the team. Meanwhile, Shawn went from playing with Mario Lemieux to playing with Wayne Gretzky and quietly scored 21 points (hey, same-sies). Expecting more out of the kid, the Kings gave up on that experiment pretty quick and packaged Shawn along with Tomas Sandstrom for trade. Their partner this time? The Pittsburgh Penguins, again. The trade capital this time? Marty McSorley, again!

This card is from the 1992-93 Leaf Gold Leaf Rookie insert set and is card #7.

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Back Stories: Statistically Speaking

 

"Jaromir played in both the world junior and senior championships. He led Kladno in goals and points and was the first Czech player to attend an NHL draft without having to defect. He was the fifth player drafted in 1990. Even though Jaromir was the youngest to suit up for an NHL game this season, he scored three game-winning goals (three of the team's five at that point) in Pittsburgh's first 12 games. Pittsburgh moved the left-handed shot to right wing. Jaromir's an accurate shooter, converting 21 percent of his chances in the early going."

The Jagr story is a good one. Pro Set doesn't really paint the whole picture here with the line about not defecting because it wasn't really that simple. In a nutshell, Jaromir left Czechoslovakia to join the Penguins after being drafted but failed to notify the Czech hockey officials of his sudden departure. He was already under contract to play with the Poldi Kladno team and had one year remaining on that deal. But seeing that he signed that deal before he was 18, the Penguins asked the NHL to nullify the contract so he could be signed to the NHL. It's a great story that I'll leave for a later date.

Everyone has seen this card by now. Probably 100 times at least. You may even own 100 of these. As we all know, there's no shortage of 1990-91 Pro Set hockey cards in the world. Most collector's know that 1990-91 Pro Set was riddled with spelling mistakes, errors, misprints, and printing defects. The Jaromir Jagr rookie card is no exception to that phenomenon. 

The most common version of this card shows an alignment issue on the back in the stat box toward the top of the card. Where it lists the stat headers of GP, G, A PTS, PIM, the line is shifted to the left, causing the numbers below to be skewed. The vast majority of the Jagr RC's you find out in the wild will display the back this way. The more "rare", if you want to call it that, version is the corrected, aligned version you see here. I probably have at least a dozen of the error version of the card but for some reason, have never pinned down the corrected copy. This card arrived in a #mailday from my pal John Malone (@BugsyMalone_17)...along with a host of other fanciful goodies I'll probably also use for these posts.

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Back Stories: Woolley Bully

"Jason came over from Florida to join Pittsburgh during the 1996-97 season, his sixth year in the league. He was originally selected by Washington in the third round of the 1989 NHL entry draft. Woolley won a silver medal with Canada at the 1992 Olympics."

Jason was on that rag-tag expansion "Rat" Panthers team that eliminated the Penguins from the playoffs just one year earlier before getting traded to Pittsburgh. The Penguins also received Stu Barnes in the deal, sending Chris Wells to Florida in exchange. 

He was on the 1992 Team Canada squad at the Olympics as the card notes. At 20 years old, he left Michigan State after his junior year, making the Olympic roster after four months of tryouts. What the card fails to mention is that he has the distinction of being the first Canadian to score in an Olympic shootout. 

Oh, and you remember the "skate in the crease" goal by Brett Hull in the Buffalo/Dallas Stanley Cup? He had a front row seat to that. After only 57 games for Pittsburgh, he was traded to Buffalo for a 1998 5th round pick (which turned out to be Rob Scuderi).

This #mailday card comes from the 1997-98 Pacific Crown Collection set. This one is the "ice blue" parallel version of the base card. The card is number #279 in the set. Fun fact about this set, card #66 is missing and wasn't printed. Coincidentally (or the complete opposite), Mario Lemieux doesn't appear on the set checklist. On April 5, 1997, he announced his retirement due to the lingering health problems he faced. In 2001-02, Pacific would later rectify the missing card by including it in their flagship release.  

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Back Stories: A Case of the Kasparaitis'es'is

"The trade that brought defenseman Darius Kasparaitis from the Islanders to Pittsburgh last season instantly stabilized the Penguins blueline and provided the club with one of the NHL's most-agitating physical players."

Over 30 years ago, Darius Kasparaitis was a household name in Pittsburgh that equated to thoughts of anger, disappointment, rage, and wishes of ill will. You need only to look at game 6 of the 1992-93 Division semifinal if you don't believe the torment he instilled in both the players and the fans (and then look to David Volek...stupid David Volek in game 7).

Fast forward three years and that anger and rage morphed into acceptance, excitement, and the proverbial hockey hug from the city, when Kasper was traded to the Penguins. For the next six seasons, Darius became a fan favorite, not for his offensive prowess (he had 15 goals the entire time in the Burgh) but his tough and gritty play. Before being traded to Colorado in 2002, DK logged 661 penalty minutes!

This #mailday card is from the 1997-98 Upper Deck set. It's numbered #391 as part of the base set and is from the subset "Physical Force" that was in Series 2 that year.  It's super shiny with that "black diamond"-type finish so it's hard to not get a glare on the photo. Other players featured in the Physical Force subset included Darren McCarty, Matthew Barnaby, Derian Hatcher and HOFers Chris Chelios, Chris Pronger, and Scott Stevens among others.

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Back Stories: With Arms Wide Op...Sven

"As an extremely talented defenseman who is seldom caught out of position, Sven's style of play is reminiscent of NHL great Larry Robinson. Possessing both superb skating skills and a long reach, Sven was undeniably a steal as the third pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in this years NHL entry draft. Undeniably, Butenschon's outstanding talent gives him a great future in the Penguin organization"

Whew! By today's hockey card standards, that's a lot to be printed on the back of a card. But it's true. The Penguins did have high hopes for the Itzehoe, Germany/Winnipeg d-man. He was drafted 57th overall in 1994, played two more seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings and then played another year on the Penguins AHL team, the Cleveland Lumberjacks. 

Problem is that when you have such high praise and expectation, rarely does it work out. Especially for defenseman. He appeared in all of 33 games with Pens over the better part of five seasons and was really only ever an injury call up. He never recorded more than 17 games in one NHL season for the Pens, with his best performance in the organization coming in Wilkes-Barre in 1999-00, where he picked up 19 goals and 40 points. That got him the "A" for the following season. He was eventually traded to the Oilers (for Dan LaCouture), who then dealt him to the Islanders in 2002.  All in all, from a longevity standpoint, he has over 800 games under his belt between the AHL, NHL and DEL.

These four cards came in the same #mailday package which is both weird (that someone would have four together), and awesome at the same time. These are from the 1994 Signature Rookies Tetrad set. That was a multi-sport set that Signature Rookies put out and sold both retail and hobby. Each pack had six cards and there was one autograph in every pack. Back then, that was crazy considering other manufacturers were only getting into the infant stages of regularly putting autographs in products. 

The base set of these had a print run of 45,000 and were all Roman Numeral numbering up to 118, or I suppose, CXVII. High numbers included the Titans subset (#'d to 10,000), 119-130 and the Top Prospects subset (#'d to 20,000), #131-134. Sven here is number CIV in the auto set and these are hand numbered out of 7,750. The "7,750" is actually printed in gold foil while each card has it's number written in blue ink along with the signature.

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Back Stories: Kapanen "the Lesser"

"You have received a trading card autographed by Kasperi Kapanen in the presence of a representative of The Upper Deck Company or provided, and certified as to it's authenticity, by Kasperi Kapanen. Enjoy your autograph card!" Signed -- The Richard P. McWilliam Family

Ok, so I know that's not really a story on the back of this card but since this is a mailday post, I gotta work with what I have, right? 

Kapanen was always an enigma for the Penguins if you ask me. Each time he was with the organization, he was expendable. They spent a 1st round pick on him in 2014 just to trade him to the Maple Leafs the following summer. Just as he was looking to have solid 20-30 point regular potential, the Pens picked him back up. After a decent, but shortened, season, he followed that up with nothing but disappointment. Failure on his part, management's part, coaches' part, probably all three for sure, but he just wasn't used the way he needed to be. He was claimed off waivers by the Blues back in February of 2023 looking to bolster some scoring capability. He finished that season with 14 points in his last 23 games so it wasn't completely horrible. However, he finished the 2023/24 season with six goals and 22 points. I won't even bring up his off-ice issues he's struggled with either.  

But somehow, someway, I've always had a soft spot for Mr. Kapanen. Maybe it's that I feel he still has untapped potential. Maybe it's that I always want my teams #1 pick to be a success. Maybe it's because I used to watch his dad play in the NHL and have always had the expectation of that same level of staying power, completeness, toughness, and professionalism.

 

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Back Stories: Practice Jerseys Make Perfect?

"Robitaille continued his goal-scoring ways in 1994-95, finishing second on the Pens."

I know I haven't posted one of these in awhile. Why? Because they are reserved for maildays and since I haven't had a mailday, well you get where I'm going. But this was still laying on my desk as a "mix up" in a COMC order from a few weeks ago so I thought I would share it now.  This comes from the 1995-96 Collector's Choice set. 

After spending his first eight seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Luc was traded to the Penguins in July 1994, in exchange for Rick Tocchet and a 2nd Round pick in the 1995 draft. If you're keeping score, that pick turned out to be Pavel Rosa, a solid Czech winger that never really panned out in the NHL. 

In his only season with the Penguins, Robitaille did, in fact, finish second in goals in 94-95 (23), right behind Jaromir Jagr (32). He finished the season with 42 points as well. But isn't that low for the future HOFer? Absolutely. Remember, the 1994-95 season was a short one because the players were locked out by the owners until the first of the year. The NHL only played a 48 game season (plus playoffs) from January 20th - June 24th that year. Robitaille played in 46 of those, hitting his 400th goal milestone that year after returning from a 2-gamer for a high sticking incident in New Jersey.

 

 

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Back Stories: A Masterpiece

 "A highly decorated player, Mullen earned a pair of Lady Byng Trophies as well as the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1995. The three-time Stanley Cup winner became the first American-born skater to total 1,000 career points."

They left out the part that he was also the first American-born player to score 500 goals as well, but there's only so much room on the back. Mullen went on to be inducted into the US Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1998 and the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 2000. 

As you can probably see in the picture, this is the blue border parallel #/50 for this card. The painting was rendered by famed artist Chuck Gillies. Chuck has published his art for over 40 years and you can see his work across a number of products. He has done over 80 book covers, two children's books, and his acrylic paintings have been featured in hundreds of books, prints, posters and of course, trading cards. YOu'll find his stuff in a number of Upper Deck products over the years including the Masterpieces set as well as the Hockey Heroes sets and others.

 

 

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Back Stories: Jan Hrdina

"Jan is another of Pittsburgh's stars from the Czech Republic. In 1998-99, he finished fourth among rookies in scoring and was the only Penguin to appear in all 82 games. 

And what made him fourth in scoring after playing in all 82 games? 13G, 29A, 42P. He was really all the Penguins could ask for and more, considering. He ended the season with 55 votes for the Calder, including 1 first place vote which I can't fathom who cast that one.

Hrdina went on to play 366 games for the Pens before being traded to the Coyotes during the 2002-03 season, in the midst of the continued dismantling of those 90s teams. We was sent to the desert along with Francois Leroux in exchange for Ramzi Abid, Dan Focht, and Guillaume Lefebvre. Household names for sure.

 

 

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Back Stories: Morozov Memories

"Aleksey set career highs in goals (20), assists (29) and points (49) in 2001-02, eclipsing his previous bests (12 G, 19 A, 31 P) from 1999-2000, when he wore this Pens home sweater."

Notice in the wording it says "this Pens home sweater", assuming they mean this exact one we see here. As in, "We tracked down the sweater that was in this exact photo on here, cut it up, and stuck a small piece of it in this card that you now hold in your hand. Enjoy!" 

At least, that is certainly the way I'm taking it now and will into the future. It's way better than the typical BS that is printed on many cards these days. Something more like, "This piece of whatever it is in this trading card was worn or used or looked at or possible was in the same room as the person/place/thing in the picture. We can no longer confirm or deny it's authenticity. Best of luck to you in the future. Happy collecting!"

Cards were different 20 some years ago.

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Back Stories: January 15, 2014

 "Unable to take the lead all game, the Penguins finally jumped ahead of the Capitals on Jan 15, 2014 thanks to the timely touch of Maatta. The rookie blasted home a shot with just 1:54 to go, allowing Pittsburgh to skate off with the 4-3 win and the defenseman to record his first career game-winning goal."

What they don't mention on the back is that earlier in the 2nd period, Maatta also had an assist on Taylor Pyatt's (yes, that Taylor Pyatt) goal that tied it 2-2. Also scoring in the game were Kris Letang and Jussi Jokinen. Matt Niskanen had two points as well and of course Sid had a point assisting on the Letang goal in the first.

That was Maatta's fourth goal of the season, beating Michal Neuvirth on the slapper. He finished his rookie campaign playing in 78 games and scoring 9 goals and 29 points.

 

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Latest Puck Junk Podcast: The One Where We Get Patrick On The Phone

In this very special episode of the Puck Junk Podcast, Sal & I are joined by Hockey Hall of Famer, Miracle On Ice assistant coach, former GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins and current commissioner of the new 3ICE Hockey League, none other than Craig Patrick!  This was an honor and privilege for me and I can't help but fanboy-out throughout the show. It was unprofessional, I know. But I don't claim to be a hard-hitting professional journalist. I'll leave that to my co-host. Check it out as you don't want to miss it.

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Hockey History As Told By Cardboard - Sidney Crosby

 

Crosby hit the century mark in points for the sixth time in 2018-19, when he ended the season by assisting on Jake Guentzel's late goal against the Rangers on April 6.

The last two seasons, with all the turmoil and health issues in the world, Crosby only put up 47 in 41 games in 2019-20 and 62 in 55 games in 2020-21.  Despite that, he is still a guaranteed future HHOFer.

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Hockey History As Told By Cardboard - - Jeff Carter

Carter skated in his 1000th NHL game on November 16, 2019, and celebrated the milestone by scoring the game-winning goal in Los Angeles' 4-3 home victory over Vegas.

These days, Carter, the London, Ontario native, spends his time being awesome on the Penguins, helming one of the top lines in the absence of Crosby or Malkin or sitting on the third line putting up points. Apparently he was also a New Year's baby.  I didn't know that.

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Elvis Has Just Left The Igloo

Not mine, but wish it was

It's been a helluva run in Pittsburgh for Mike Lange.  The voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last 46 years has finally decided to unplug the famous, old-school headset and retire from announcing. 

Here is some background for those not familiar with Mike Lange's career.  Mike never would have gotten into hockey at all if it wasn't for his friend from college, Len Shapiro, coaxing him to go to a game back in 1969. He has said on many occasions that he never had been to a game, or even watched a hockey game in his life up to that point.  But, all it took for this life-long baseball fan, was one hockey game to change his fate.  

He worked his way up from scorekeeper to PA announcer for the Sacramento State team, then moved on to announcing duties for both the San Diego Gulls and Phoenix Roadrunners of the WHL, before joining the Penguins in 1974-75. After the team went bankrupt (for the first time), he became a soccer announcer for a year, returning to the Pens in 1976-77.  He's been there ever since.  Let's put it this way...in my lifetime, he has always been the announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Mike's career is legendary and no team soundtrack, or my entire hockey fandom, would be complete without hearing "It's A Hockey Night In Pittsburgh" broadcast over the airwaves to begin a Penguins game.  Almost every iconic hockey play for the last 46 years in Pittsburgh has an equally iconic call by his legendary voice.  Through all of the good times with the five Stanley Cup Championships, to the bad times in the 80s and early 2000's where the team was in dire straits (not the band), Mike Lange left his indelible signature on each game. From 1976 until 2005-06 season, he had worked both the radio and television broadcasts, becoming the lead radio announcer in 2006.  I even remember a time in the late 80s when he called Pirates games as well. He even called this famous game between the Penguins and Blackhawks that I think we all remember...

One thing that his peers and mentee's alike have admired about him was his game preparation.  He would put tons of research into every game, trying to be extremely precise and as thorough as possible. He would spend hours going over players, stats, line pairings, and honing his awareness of the subtle nuances of the game.  It always surprised me how well he could predict the stars of the game during warm ups. So many times, you'd hear him talk about a player with some extra "pep in their step" on the ice and sure enough, that guy would be one of the three-stars at the end of the night. The ultimate perfectionist, Lange has said on many occasions that he felt he had only called maybe 10 "perfect" games in his entire career.  While I, and many others, would surely disagree, those ten games were good enough for immortality.  In 2001, Mike was enshrined in the Hockey Hall Of Fame, receiving the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his years of work in broadcasting with the Penguins.

After a Hall-of-Fame career and 46 years of broadcasting Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Mike Lange will be retiring from his play-by-play duties.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building.

Thank you, Mikey: https://t.co/zMePmPrTmM pic.twitter.com/M4jForHpSq

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) August 9, 2021

Most of all, it was Mike Lange's unique catchphrases that were the calling card of his career in broadcasting. While he certainly came up with many of these, he has credited fans and colleagues alike over the years for coining the phrases or at least, giving him the ideas. When I was 11, I had a t-shirt with all the "Langism's" along with some caricatures that embodied the sayings. Wish I still had that shirt, although it would be more suitable for framing not wearing on my now 33 year older body. 

Some of the more famous lines you could hear nightly included:

"Slap Me Silly Sidney"

"I'll Be Cow Kicked"

"Michael, Michael Motorcycle" 

"Eddie Spaghetti"

"Call Arnold Slick From Turtle Creek"

(pronounced Crick...if you know, you know)

"Lookout Loretta"

"He Beat Him Like A Rented Mule"

"Make Me A Milkshake, Malkin"

"Scratch My Back With A Hacksaw"

"Shave My Face With A Rusty Razor"

"Great Balls Of Fire"

"Elvis Has Just Left The Building"

"Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley. Bring Me The Brandy"

"Buy Sam A Drink And Get His Dog One Too"

"Let's Go Hunt Moose On A Harley"

______Whoever the goalie is 

"Just Lost His Liquor License"

______Whoever the goalie is 

"Doesn't Know Whether To Cry Or Wind His Watch"

"He Smoked Him Like A Bad Cigar"

"He's Smiling Like A Butcher's Dog"

"She Wants To Sell My Monkey"

"Get In The Fast Lane Grandma. The Bingo Game's Ready To Roll"

This is by far not a complete list of Langism's but it's a good start. You can look up many of his calls, thankfully, on YouTube, forever immortalized on the internets.  There is a silver lining here, however, as the Penguins press release mentioned that Mike will be staying with the Penguins Radio Network and we will all "continue to hear Lange's voice during radio appearances and various Penguins programming." Good news for sure.

I always wanted to meet Mike but never got the chance. Back in the 80s and early 90s, Penguins personalities were always somewhere, making appearances, doing promotions, signing autographs, etc. But there wasn't a time where I crossed paths with the legendary voice of hockey in Pittsburgh. I'll get an autograph one day.

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Hockey History As Told By Cardboard - Ken Wregget

On March 28th 1992, Ken Wregget, who had only just joined the Pittsburgh Penguins a month earlier in February, posted his 100th career win.  In a 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, Wregget faced 31 shots, allowing goals from Brian Skrudland, Mathieu Schneider, and Sylvain Turgeon.  Penguins Rick Tocchet had 3 points including a goal and 2 assists.

Ken has said his two biggest hockey thrills were winning the Cup with the Penguins in 1992 and also beating the Penguins in the 1989 playoffs.

I Can't Believe It's Not Cardboard - Highlighting Other Personal Collectibles (Foodland Coupons)

These may look like your average, every day run of the mill 1991-92 Topps hockey cards. But...They're not! 

During the 1991-92 hockey season, Topps partnered with the Foodland grocery store chain in the Pittsburgh area to produce and distribute a sticker set. For four weeks, Topps created a 3-sticker sheet for a total of 12 stickers, that were distributed by the stores. The stickers were attached vertically in a strip and have dotted lines to cut them out. Finding them intact is a pretty difficult feat in my experience and even getting these was difficult because they don't come around too often.  

The reason??  There are two. First, they were simply used as coupons by our moms (or dads, I'm not discriminating). Secondly, the stickers were stuck on our books, binders, lockers, folders, drawers, sticker albums, bikes, helmets, etc. What good is a sticker if you can't stick it, right? When you do find them, it's difficult to get them in a decent condition. Since they had to be cut, many of the tops are off center with only the bottom card of each sheet generally having at least three of the four edges in decent shape (Murphy, Samuelsson, Stevens, Pietrangelo). You'd think the tops would be ok too but each sheet had a tab at the top that also had to be cut. 

If you look at the stickers, they look just like the regular Topps cards however the backs have a coupon for items that include such sundries as olives, dog food, coffee, and peanut butter.  I have no information whether these were eligible for DOUBLING but, nonetheless, saving 50 cents on Kraft Mayonnaise in 1991 seems like a steal.  

Since the backs are the coupons themselves, none of the stickers are numbered and there are no stats. Generally you will find checklists listing them in order of release by week. The checklist looks like this.  

1  Bryan Trottier

2  Joe Mullen

3  Larry Murphy

4  Tom Barrasso

5  Ron Francis

6  Ulf Samuelsson

7  Jaromir Jagr

8  Mario Lemieux

9  Kevin Stevens

10  Mark Recchi

11  Paul Coffey

12  Frank Pietrangelo

This is one of the very few times I will get excited about stickers so relish it.  Also, if anyone has Trottier, Mullen, Murphy, Jagr, Lemieux, or Pietrangelo, I'd gladly take them off your hands. 

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I Can't Believe It's Not Cardboard - Highlighting Other Personal Collectibles (Pens Cups)

In this weeks installment of Not Cardboard, I have a collection of drinking cups that were a cross promotion between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pizza Hut restaurants.

In March of 2010, Pizza Hut began selling commemorative player cups over a six week period. There were different players featured on the cup each week. They cost $2.99 at the time or you could order the "Penguins Power Pak" which was 2 medium pizzas and four of the collector cups.

As you can see here, I still have the Sidney Crosby which came out on March 1st, Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar, and Evgeni Malkin.  There are two that I'm missing, one being Max Talbot and the other is Marc-Andre Fleury. 

Souvenir cups are nothing new to promotions. Just look at every sporting event you go to and you will find some sort of commemorative drinking vessel available for you to take home at a slightly inflated price. But I had never seen one like this with the "magic motion" technology, otherwise known as lenticular. 

These reside on a shelf high atop my office/hobby room/man cave, and sometimes it looks like Crosby is watching you as you walk across the room.

_________________________ 

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 Check out TheRealDFG on Twitter @therealdfg. 

 Be sure to check out the latest #PuckJunkPodcast. Just search and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox, Castro, Overcast, TuneIn or SoundCloud.