#219 - Ed Beers

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Ed Beers' name was the subject of lots of stupid jokes in the 1980s -- had I been of beer-drinking age, I would have made them, I'm sure.

I've always been under the impression that he was one of two players born in the Netherlands (the other being the late Ed Kea, who oddly, also played for the Flames and Blues), but sources seem to differ. Wikipedia, HockeyDB and his '83-'84 OPC hockey card all say he was born in Zwaag, Netherlands -- his '84-'85 OPC card and the Society for International Hockey Research say he was born in British Columbia.

He had some pretty nice numbers for Calgary from 1983 through 1985, and then was traded to St. Louis in the deal that brought Joe Mullen to the Flames. I'd expect that Beers was the showpiece coming the Blues' way, but unfortunately he only played half of one season for them, and then suffered a career-ending back injury. He was probably destined to play considerably longer in the NHL had that not happened.

Prior to his NHL career, he played for Denver University -- go Pioneers.

He's coached youth hockey in recent years, and now lives in the Vancouver area.


Ed Beers' profile at HockeyDB
Beers' profile at Legends of Hockey

Playing Catchup

Illness, home internet problems and general busy-ness have put this on hold, so I'll try to get back on track with a Two-For Thursday.

#365 -- Mike Bullard, Penguins Goal Leader

Mike Bullard was one of those great second-tier scorers of the 1980s that sort of faded into the background because he played for a lousy team and because the first-tier scorers were putting up such insane numbers. I'm pretty sure he was Pittsburgh's first-ever 50-goal scorer, with 51 in 1983-84. He also had one of the great mustaches of the 1980s, a style that always makes me think of highway patrolmen in, say, South Dakota. Yeah, he may have just busted you for speeding, but you know you're dealing with a good guy here.

Bullard started bouncing around the league pretty quickly after Pittsburgh traded him to Calgary in 1986, going from to the Flames to the Blues to the Flyers in quick succession. His career sort of derailed, too, as he went from scoring 103 points to playing in Switzerland in the space of about three years. He came back for an encore with the Maple Leafs (and while that was one of the least consequential of his NHL stops, I usually picture him as a Leaf), then went to Germany, where he carved out a really nice decade-long career as one of the league's stars. He's now a coach there, with EV Landshut, and that's where I got this card signed.

This is one of two Bullard cards in the set, and it's the less attractive of the two, but the signed regular card is also signed in the same green ink and it's pretty much impossible to see. While I love the '84-'85 design, I'm not crazy about the team leaders cards. Pastel blue and pink?

#193 -- Doug Wickenheiser

The story of Doug Wickenheiser always makes me sad, and when Eagles fans booed the selection of Donovan McNabb at the 1999 NFL draft, I thought of him. Sadly, unlike McNabb, Wickenheiser wasn't able to outshine the player (Denis Savard) he was picked over, and Montreal fans weren't the type to let that slide.

He earned a measure of redemption playing in St. Louis, where he was a key part of one of the great moments in Blues history, scoring the winner in the Monday Night Miracle game over Calgary. He also had bad luck -- the year this card came out, he suffered a severe knee injury during a team outing and missed the better part of a year. (St. Louis Blues parties seem to be a bit cursed -- Bob Gassoff died after one, and now Erik Johnson is out for the season after hurting himself on a golf cart.)

Wickenheiser played a few solid seasons for the Blues, then shuffled between the NHL and AHL for a while, went to Europe, came back and settled in St. Louis after his career, becoming a pretty well-known face in the Blues alumni. Sadly, he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and passed away in 1999, at just 37 years old.

The St. Louis Blues 14 Fund was established in his memory, and his father-in-law wrote a book, "The Last Face-Off: The Doug Wickenheiser Story." The Blues haven't retired his number, and as a fan, I wish they would.

#87 - Brian MacLellan

One of the (many) things I love about this set is its use of color. OPC unapologetically used the proper team colors as the borders, and it looks really good in conjunction with the uniforms, even on teams like the Kings, Flyers and Whalers. It's not too much, it's not a jarring contrast.

Brian MacLellan is a player that I've always had the wrong idea about. He had a face that looked like it belonged on Mount Rushmore -- steely gaze, set chin -- and I think because of that I figured he was a rougher player than he was. In reality, while no shriking violet, he only got above 100 PIMs in a season once. Part of the problem: I frequently, then and now, confused him with Brad McCrimmon.

He bounced around for about ten years (speaking of wrong impressions -- it seemed like he was around forever, and I would have imagined his career lasted 'til 1998 or so), and once he left the Kings, it was pack-your-suitcases time as he went from the Rangers to the North Stars to the Flames to the Red Wings.

He's now in the Washington Capitals management team, and that's where I got this signed.

Brian MacLellan's stats at HockeyDB
MacLellan's profile at Legends of Hockey
MacLellan profile at Bowling Green, his alma mater
MacLellan's bio on the Washington Capitals page

#340 - Morris Lukowich

Back from a weekend vacation, time to get this going again:



I've always thought the Jets cards are some of the best-looking in the set. Their early '80s uniforms are really interesting and I blame the later move to Phoenix on the sheer dullness that was the 1990s design.

Lukowich was a pretty good player in both the WHA and NHL, from a not-bad-at-all hockey family -- he's related to Bernie Lukowich of the Blues and Penguins and current journeyman defenseman Brad Lukowich. This signature is a bit curious. Every Lukowich signature I've ever seen (including several others in my collection) are either his full name or "Luke" followed by "12." This one, though, is "Luke 212." That suggests a Bible verse (and there's both a Luke 2:12 and Luke 21:2), but neither shed any light. Maybe he was just writing fast.

During this season, he was traded from the Jets to the Bruins; he'd also play for the Kings before calling it a day.

Morris Lukowich's page at HockeyDB
Lukowich's page at Hockey Draft Central
Lukowich's profile at Legends of Hockey
Lukowich profile at Winnipeg Jets Legends
Page for Morris Lukowich's "Hockey Mentors" program

#4 - Tom Fergus

Nice signature here from Tom Fergus, who went on to have several decent seasons with Boston and Toronto, before closing out his career with Vancouver. That's where I remember him best from, but only because I really liked playing Vancouver in the earliest Sega Genesis EA Sports hockey games, and he was one of the lower-liners on those teams.

Now runs Blue Leaf Limited in Toronto, and that's where I got this signature.

Tom Fergus's profile at Hockeydb.com
Fergus entry at Hockey Draft Central
Fergus profile at Legends of Hockey
Blue Leaf Limited's web page

#108 - Harold Snepsts

Harold Snepsts is one of the earliest players that made a lasting impression on my young mind, alongside more obvious selections like Gretzky/Bossy/Potvin. His physical appearance was and is pretty distinctive -- the man-mountain build, receding hairline, and of course that mustache. I think that mustache has made him into something of a cult figure in recent years, and it's kind of overshadowed his abilities as a defenseman -- people remember him less as a good, solid player and more for the 'stache.

This card came in his first season outside of Vancouver, and is the first to show the scourge of 1970s-1980s O-Pee-Chee cards -- airbrushing. Snepsts had been traded to Minnesota in time for this card to be updated, but there were no photos of him as a North Star -- so -- someone got drafted to hurriedly update his uniform. In other seasons, you'd see a severely cropped photo with just a hint of the jersey, but in 1984-85, O-Pee-Chee went 99.9% with full-body action shots, so there was nowhere to hide. This is hardly the most egregious example of the airbrusher's art -- a quick glance and you wouldn't notice anything (the autograph does obscure it even more, too). The artist managed to make Harold's shoulders even more imposing.

He lasted only one season in Minnesota, then bounced around between Detroit, St. Louis, Vancouver again and the minors for a few years. I'm pretty sure he's a youth coach in the Vancouver area these days, and does some work with the Canucks.

Harold Snepsts' stats at hockeydb.com
Profile at Legends of Hockey
Profile at Hockey Draft Central
Profile at Hockey's Tough Guys

#164 - Brad McCrimmon

Brad McCrimmon was a steady defenseman for a really long time, one of those guys you sort of forget about because he's not flashy, not hazardous, and not a thug. He spent nearly 20 years in the NHL and picked up a Cup with the 1990 Flames. I remember him most because in the early 1990s, it seemed like there was a minimum of one Brad McCrimmon card in every pack of cards I purchased.

More recently, he was a well-regarded assistant coach with my local team, the Thrashers, for several years. Word was that all the players wanted him to get the head coach job after Bob Hartley was canned, but it ultimately went to John Anderson instead and McCrimmon is now, I think, an assistant with the Red Wings (where he played for a few years, about the time I was stocking up on his cards). I don't know if he was seen as too much of a players' coach, or if the well-run machine in Detroit seemed more appealing after the dysfunction down here, or what.

Brad McCrimmon's stats at HockeyDB
McCrimmon's profile at Hockey Draft Central
McCrimmon's profile at Legends of Hockey