OPC Gordie All-Star card

I recently went hog wild on eBay and put my eBay Bucks towards a bunch of 1967 Topps stars. They showed up today but I wanted to get this card posted before I dig into those.

This 1970/71 OPC Gordie Howe All Star is one I've seen a few times and just never got around to bidding on/buying. Then the same Net54 poster that had the Spahn card available had this for sale as well. 

The look on Howe's face is pure 'Gordie Howe'. He looks like he's eyeing the guy who just scored against the Wings and is celebrating a little too much. I'd hate to be that guy. The back of this card is hardly worth scanning, let alone posting. 

It's part of a puzzle (I hate 'puzzle back' subsets) and it shows just a piece of the border and some shadowing. The set had two different puzzles as part of the All Stars, Gordie and Gilbert Perreault of the Sabres. (I could be wrong on this, my memory is lax and I'm too lazy to do any digging right now.)

I did find a pic of the back of this Howe so I avoided having to crank up my cranky scanner.

 What did I tell ya? 😏

It's hockey, baby

Tonight is Game Six of the Western Semifinals with the Blues leading the Sharks 3-2. As is usually the case the semis produce some of the most outstanding games of the playoff season (Boston-Carolina this year being the exception).

I'll likely head to Houston's Midtown and watch at the hockey bar there. I have a friend from St. Louis who will be there and it's fun to watch with a crowd.

Meanwhile, here are some hockey cards. Up top is the Howe 'family' card from the 1974-75 OPC set. It's one of my favorites. I posted it when I picked it up back in 2015. Lot's of great memories wrapped up in that one.

these next are new to me. They are part of an oddball set called the Superstar Heroes Inc set from 1992. I've seen these on a blog I think but I can't find them now. I picked this 12 card set up from a dealer's table at the last TriStar show for a few dollars.

These are so Broder-ish! And the backs are better produced than the fronts.

And Go Blues!! I guess. I am a Joe Thornton fan so I could get into him playing for the Cup in the Finals. 

I see Hockey People

I bought these at the last card show I went to. I was looking for a theme here but I can't find one. So here they are, just vintage hockey cards.

I don't know why I buy cards of Phil Esposito as a Ranger, I really don't. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

I loved Vic Hadfield as a player. I liked him so much that I pulled out this card from a dealer's box of quarter cards and bought it. Today I found out I already had it, and had posted it here previously. But it's already been uploaded into this post so it stays where it is. My buddies and I called him 'Two Sticks' because that's what Ranger TV play-by-play guy Win Elliot would call him when his mind froze and he forgot player names, which was often.

Arnie Brown, the Ranger fan's resident punching bag. We blamed him if the reception on WPIX was off. We blamed Arnie for late buses. We blamed Arnie for everything.

Ken Hodge was obnoxious. I have no idea why I bought this card.

The story always went around that Roger Crozier would spend most of the pre-game puking his guts out. If I had to face Bobby Hull's slapshot with the crappy goalie equipment they wore back then, and no mask, I'd be puking, too.

I love the French-English backs of OPC cards. Crozier played for Buffalo almost as long as he played for the Wings but I always associate him with Detroit.