Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk
Just look at Carlyle’s face on his 1987-88 Topps trading card. Is he experiencing bad gas? Or a toothache? Did playing for the Winnipeg Jets in the late 1980s take its toll on him?Or…is Carlyle having that daydream again? You know, the one where he’s the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs 25 years in the future? Well, he won’t have to worry about that anymore.
Regardless, this is one of the few hockey cards that Carlyle will not autograph. ■
This is one of the earliest photograph of Ed Belfour as an NHL player. It predates his “Eagle” mask. In fact, this photo is so old that he’s wearing number 1. Practically every photo you find of Belfour with the Blackhawks shows him wearing number 30, which was his number from 1990 to 1997. His 1990-91 Upper Deck rookie card (and 2003-04 Topps Lost Rookies card) shows Belfour wearing number 31. But Eddie the Eagle started his career wearing number 1 for six weeks — the same number that Glenn Hall donned for a decade. Continue reading “Ed Belfour Originally Wore Number 1”
The Lost 10 Point Night: Searching for My Hockey Hero, Jim Harrison is not your typical biography. Instead of the usual formula — early days, career and post-career with current reflections woven throughout — this is a story about both the subject and the chronicler, liberally flip-flopping between past and present. The result is a book that, in many ways, is more about the journey than the destination.
First off, I would like to thank everyone who visits this blog, reads my stuff, trades cards with me, and generally enjoys talking hockey. 2014 was a good year for Puck Junk, with many new readers visiting and commenting on this site. So, I’ve taken a look to determine what were Puck Junk’s top five articles in 2014. There’s proof in numbers, so if you missed one of these the first time around, give it a read; you’ll probably like it. Continue reading “Puck Junk’s Top 5 Articles of 2014”
2014 was an eventful year for the hockey card industry. So much went down in our humble little hobby, which is always overshadowed by baseball card collecting, that it felt like the 1990s again. There were exclusive deals, company mergers, rookies galore and even a book about hockey cards. Here is a rundown of the ten biggest hockey card news stories for the year. Continue reading “Top 10 Hockey Card News Stories of 2014”
Have you ever looked at an old hockey card and wanted to know what the story was behind the photograph? Or wondered what the player thought of their own card? That is exactly what author Ken Reid thought when he wrote his new book, “Hockey Card Stories: True Tales from 59 of Your Favorite Players.” Reid, an anchor for Sportnet Central, interviewed former NHL and WHA players, picking key cards from each player’s career — sometimes their rookie card, other times just a card of interest — and talked about them. His book is a page-turner for anyone who grew up loving hockey cards. Continue reading “Book Review: Hockey Card Stories”
Chicago-area native Scott Darling has played very well for the Blackhawks in seven games this season. [Photo by Mel]
Goaltender Scott Darling has been the surprise story for the Chicago Blackhawks this season. In two call-ups from the AHL this year, he has posted a 5-2 record and a 1.97 goals allowed average. A far cry from 2010, when Darling was near the bottom of the pro hockey landscape. Off-ice troubles led to him to leave the University of Maine after two seasons. And despite being drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2007, he did not make their team.
But in 2011, Darling made a conscious choice to turn his life around. He stopped drinking alcohol, lost weight and worked diligently with his goaltending coach, Brian Daccord. Darling quickly moved up the pro hockey ranks, playing a second season in the Southern Professional Hockey League, then progressing to the ECHL and last year to the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals. The Blackhawks noticed Darling’s play in Milwaukee, and signed him to a two-way contract over the summer. He is currently the number one goalie for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.
Born in Newport News, Virginia, Darling “moved around a ton until second grade,” living in Washington state and Alabama before his family finally settled in the Chicago suburb of Lemont. He followed the Blackhawks avidly during his youth. Now, he’s played seven games for them, and is likely to play more before the season is through. I recently spoke with Darling about his ascent to the NHL, being teammates with Gustav Nyquist in college, his appearance on “Road to the Winter Classic,” and getting into a goalie fight.
Sal Barry: What were your earliest hockey memories?
Scott Darling: When I lived just outside of Tacoma, Washington, my dad played goalie. I used to go watch him play in a men’s league. We also went to Tacoma Rockets games. We were season ticket holders. I was probably in…gosh..I don’t even know if I was in kindergarten yet. I used to go to every game. Those were probably my earliest hockey memories, going to the Rockets games and watching my dad play in a men’s league.
The Chicago Blackhawks traded winger Jeremy Morin to the Columbus Blue Jackets for defenseman Tim Erixon on Sunday. But this was more than a simple player swap; it was the symbolic end to the Dustin Byfuglien trade from four years ago. At this point, it is safe to say that trading Byfuglien was a bust for the Blackhawks. Continue reading “With Morin gone, Byfuglien trade officially a bust for the Blackhawks”
As much as I like odd pre-production items like promo cards, proof photos and so forth, I’ve steered clear of printing plates. This is because they tend to be expensive. And really, who wants to spend money on a card that only shows only one-fourth of the image; either the cyan, yellow, magenta or black areas that makes up the photograph. But then I saw this card on eBay — a 2014-15 Upper Deck Series One Yellow Printing Plate of Nashville Predators goalie Carter Hutton — and had a conundrum. I collect all of Hutton’s cards. Do I go after this one too? Or do I let it slide by me, since it isn’t really a card? Continue reading “Carter Hutton Yellow Printing Plate”
This is not a very flattering hockey card of Randy Carlyle. No, it isn’t as embarrassing as Glen Hanlon’s OPC Leaders card, or as bad as Bryan Pitton’s Score card. But it still sucks.
Or…is Carlyle having that daydream again? You know, the one where he’s the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs 25 years in the future? Well, he won’t have to worry about that anymore.
