This video clipshows highlights from the 1991 NHL All-Star Weekend January 17 to 19, 1991 in Chicago. It is from a VHS tape that the Chicago Blackhawks sent their season ticket holders.
There are many interviews with great players like Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Jeremy Roenick and Mark Messier. It also addresses the controversy of goaltender Ed Belfour being snubbed as an All-Star selection.
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s in the video:
0:10 to 1:45 – All-Star skills clinic & autograph session
1:46 to 4:05 – Heroes of Hockey Game
4:06 to 7:47 – NHL Skills Competition
7:48 to 10:55 – 42nd NHL All-Star Game
The video is a bit long, so I understand if you don’t want to watch it. However, I took a screen shot from the 2:20 mark:
Yes! My 15-year old self is in the background of Dennis Hull’s interview.
This was after the All-Star skills clinic held on Thursday. I honestly don’t remember seeing myself back in the video “back in the day,” so I was quite surprised to see this while digitizing the footage.
Upper Deck will continue National Hockey Card Day for a third year in a row–or NHCD as us cool kids call it.
On Saturday, February 12, 2011, hockey card collectors in Canada can get a free pack of hockey cards at their local card shop or at participating chain stores. The cards themselves are from a special, 16-card NHCD set that will feature some of Canada’s most popular players.
That’s right–this year the set will have an extra card, whereas the previous two NHCD sets had 15 cards.
Personally, I wish Upper Deck would also have NHCD in the United States. Yes, hockey is “Canada’s sport,” but the U.S. has 80% of the NHL teams. Go figure. Plus, there is greater opportunity to grow the hobby in the U.S. with such a promotion.
What if Upper Deck were to have International Hockey Card Day next year, and give out cards in Canada and the U.S.? They could even take it a step further and give out different sets in each country.
While the NHCD setstrictly has Canadian players (Gretzky, Crosby, Lemieux, Toews), the United States counterpart could feature some awesome American players from past and present (Joe Mullen, Chris Chelios, Jim Craig, Ryan Miller). And you’d end up with collectors in one country trading with collectors in the other country so as to get both sets. This idea has potential.
Would someone pick me up a complete 2011 NHCD set? I will gladly trade for this year’s set (plus a wrapper), or purchase one if the price is right.
Former enforcer Chris Nilan almost played in the 1991 All-Star Game. His controversial selection changed how All-Star rosters are picked.
Back in the day, the coaches of each All-Star team would select the reserve players. Fans still voted for the starters, but it was up to the coach to choose the rest of the team.
Enter Boston Bruins head coach “Mad” Mike Milbury, who coached the Wales Conference team. Milbury picked Bruins enforcer Chris Nilan over more, ahem, traditional choices like Guy Lafleur or Kirk Muller.
He *IS* smiling. Can’t you tell?
Milbury loves tough guys and physical play. Of course that’s meant in the most manly, bludgeon-each-other-over-the-head way possible. Nilan, who had 277 penalty minutes in 41 games with the Bruins in ’90-91, fit that to a T. He had the numbers all right…just not the numbers one would normally consider for inclusion in the mid-season classic.
In the end, Nilan did not play due to a broken ankle, and the NHL changed how reserve players were selected. Now a panel decides what non-starters are in the game, instead of leaving it up to the coaches.
What I never understood, though, is why Chris Nilan did not get an All-Star card.
The 1991-92 Pro Set Hockey set featured cards of players from the 1991 All-Star Game. All of the players.
Except for Nilan.
Yes, Nilan was injured. But so were these players…
Brett Hull also sat out due to injury. His inclusion on an All-Star card is understandable, as he was voted to the starting lineup.
Brian Skrudland was another controversial selection by Milbury. Skrudland was a defensive forward — and a fine one too. He also sat out because he was injured, but still “suited up” for this trading card photo.
The player who replaced Nilan in the All-Star Game was Bruins’ teammate Dave Christian.
But nowhere on Christian’s card is it noted that he was a replacement for Nilan.
Click to see much larger.
Did the NHL tell Pro Set to exclude Nilan from the set? Perhaps. Nilan was not in the game, and most likely not at the pre-game photo shoot either. Thus no photo. But removing any mention of him seems just like the strange, yet spiteful, kind of thing the NHL would do.
It looks right…but feels wrong.
It is as if the NHL wanted everyone forget that Nilan was going to play in an All-Star Game. And if it wasn’t for Wikipedia and my All-Star Game program, they might have gotten their wish. ■
This hockey puck is a small–yet important–piece of memorabilia from my 1991 All-Star Game collection. The front shows the All-Star Game logo.
Unlike previous years’ logos that used a “shield shape,” the 42nd NHL All-Star Game logo is a round shape that fit perfectly on the surface of a hockey puck, leaving very little “black space.” Continue reading “1991 All-Star Game Puck”
If you haven’t noticed by now, I have been waxing nostalgic lately about the 1991 NHL All-Star Game. Here is the program that I purchased that weekend. It has been tucked away, bagged and boarded the past 20 years so as to remain in mint to near-mint condition
The front features a generic All-Star goalie standing in front of the Chicago skyline at night. I don’t think it is meant to be any specific goalie, just someone from the “home” team–that being the Campbell Conference.
But the cover quadrupled in coolness when you unfolded it…
Click on the image to see super-sized.
Yes! Generic All-Star goalie versus Hall of Fame and all-time Blackhawks great Stan Mikita! Even the mightiest generic All-Star goalie is no match for Stan the Man.
The program itself has pictures both the All-Stars and the retired players who participated in the Heroes of Hockey Game. There is also history about the Chicago Blackhawks (for the out-of-towners attending the game) and info about the Skills Competition.
I think I paid $5 for this, which was kind of steep in ’91, considering that a standard program cost $3. I didn’t mind, though. How many times do you go to an All-Star Game? And with league expansion imminent in 1991, I knew that the All-Star Game would not return to Chicago for a very long time.
Maybe another 10 years and Chicago will get its turn again?
With the NHL All-Star Game on January 30 just a few weeks away, I’ve started thinking a lot about the one and only All-Star Game I got to go to.
Twenty years ago, I attended the 42nd NHL All-Star Game, which was held at old Chicago Stadium on January 19, 1991.
My Aunt Gayle and Uncle Pat had seasons tickets to the Chicago Blackhawks, and I was lucky to go to a lot of games from 1989 to 1992.
During the first half of the season, you could always find All-Star Game ballots and ballot boxes in the Stadium hallways.
Like every other kid, I used to vote for my favorite players as much as humanly possible. Hey, it’s hard to stuff the ballot box when you are just 15 years old, and this was before online voting and writing programs to stuff the ballot box for you.
Former collegiate goaltender Tom Fenton–who appeared as an emergency backup goalie for the Phoenix Coyotes last month–is getting his own hockey card. Today, hockey card manufacturer In the Game announced that Fenton will be a part of the 2010-11 Between the Pipes set.
“You’re not going to see him in any other products this season,” stated ITG president Dr. Brian Price in a press release, “so it was important that we do our best to bring his cards to collectors.”
Between the Pipes focuses exclusively on goaltenders, and this year’s set will feature both signed and unsigned cards of Fenton. As ITG does not have an NHL license, they will most likely show Fenton from his playing days with the American International College Yellow Jackets.
As a hockey card collector, I am excited that Fenton is going to get a card. While Fenton’s role as a one-game backup goalie hardly significant in the grander scheme of pro hockey, it is still pretty darn cool.
Besides, do we really need another card of Brodeur, Roy or Luongo, when we can have one of someone who played a small, but interesting role for a night?
A few months ago, I subscribed to a magazine called The Want List, which focuses exclusively on hockey cards and memorabilia. Recently, they asked some of their readers to rate what they thought the most influential hockey jerseys were.
I just got the new issue yesterday, and on page 37 I am quoted in The Want List’s 25 Most Influential Hockey Jerseys article.
OK, so it’s not like I wrote the Declaration of Independence or anything. But it is still cool to see my name on paper.
Two issues in, and I’m really enjoying my subscription to The Want List. The majority of it is about hockey cards, but some of it also covers hockey jerseys (obviously), hockey toys, hockey pucks, hockey DVDs…the key word here is hockey.
I’m also learning some new stuff from this mag, too. One article in the new ish was about hockey cards made by the Paterson and Paulin chocolate companies during the 1920s. Admittedly, I don’t know too much about cards from that era.
The Want List is chock-full of hockey card articles. If you are interested in learning more or subscribing to the magazine, check out their website.
Thursday, I watched the movie Tron Legacy. Never mind that there were 13 perfectly good hockey games on Center Ice last night–I really wanted to see the new Tron flick, and finally had the chance to do so. I loved the original Tron from 1982, and could not wait to see what an updated take on this film would be like.
