The original Senators: The hockey cards

Longtime Sens fans or followers will likely remember the 1992-93 Ottawa Senators, no matter how much they try to forget about them. Over the course of the 84-game season, the Senators won only ten games, losing 70 and tying another four. The records that the Sens set for that year include fewest road wins in a season (one game), longest home losing streak (11 games), and longest road losing streak (38 games).

But, with some recent successes in mind, I feel that it's safe to look back on some of those memories in fond, humble self-deprecation. So here is the final instalment of The Hockey Cards mini-series (at least for the foreseeable future) with what I believe were the first cards issued of the modern-day Ottawa Senators' franchise.


Oh, the classics. Remember Jamie Baker (bottom, middle) and Sylvain Turgeon (top left), who finished second and third, respectively, in team scoring that season? It was the first and only time a defenceman (Norm McIver) led the Sens in scoring.

Then there's Rob Murphy (top middle), who had scored ten points in his career before coming to the Senators, and doubled that career-total in Ottawa. After his year in Ottawa, he played eight more games in the NHL, struggled in the IHL, and went to Germany for a bunch of years after that. Memories...

Also pictured are Brad Shaw (top right) and Darren Rumble (bottom left), but the most memorable of them all is the Polish-born goaltending phenom Peter (or "Piotr") Sidorkiewicz. Selected with the Sens' first-overall pick in the 1992 Expansion Draft, Sidorkiewick played 64 games for the Senators in 1992-93, and won eight of them. He sits seventh all-time in games-played among goaltenders, and eleventh in career wins.

How far we've come.

Daniel Alfredsson: The Hockey Card

The golden god himself, my Daniel Alfredsson collection is next. Although I don't have that many game-used memorabilia cards (and those I do have are pretty boring), I've got a whack of rookie cards and some nice-looking base cards, too. (Just a note: If these posts are ridiculously boring and just waste your time as a reader, let me know and I'll give it a rest.)

First up are the rookie cards. I've put all six of them in the same photo, with time and computer's screen resolution in mind. My favourite is the top-left, and not just because he's wearing the Sens best-ever jersey style and the classic Jofa golf-ball bucket; I pulled a special Calder Trophy 'Award Predictor' card from a pack of 1995-96 O-Pee-Chee Collector's Choice (I think) with Alfredsson on it. When he won, I sent it in and received the set of Calder front-runners (and also the Norris ones, for some reason). The others are pretty basic rookie cards.


And below are just some base cards of Alfredsson, notable just because they're pretty nice. How did Upper Deck know that Alfie was a captain of tomorrow so early in his career, as they predicted in the left-most card? In the middle is his All-Star Game debut, and at the right is just a nice-looking Classic Portraits card.


Finally, the four game-used jersey cards I have for Alfie. The one at top right is a double-sided jersey card, with (regrettably, if also nostalgically) Patrick Lalime game-used swatch on the other side. The others are unspectacular because they're not patches, they're not short-printed, and they have extremely small jersey swatches. But you've got to fill out your collection somehow.


And that's my Alfredsson collection, aside from likely dozens of base cards that I've got. Including a bunch of doubles. In fact, if any interested readers would like to make a donation via PayPal to SensArmyBlog@gmail.com, I'll send out a few really nice Alfredsson base cards. All reasonable donations (in the dollars) will be rewarded with at least five cards (while supplies last), with all proceeds going towards buying Ben and me business cards so we can try and get media accreditation for Sens games. It's that easy, isn't it?

Antoine Vermette: The Hockey Card

Kind of random, but I happened to begin my "The Hockey Card" series with the Senators' two AVs, first Anton Volchenkov and now Antoine Vermette. Strange indeed. Here are a few game-used memorabilia cards of Vermette, starting with a rather unspectacular Bowman 'Premier Performance' jersey card.


The two cards below are a little more exciting. Especially the one on the left, which is a short-printed (092/245) two-colour patch variant of the card, meaning that it's got a piece of the Senators' crest (either chest or shoulder crests) rather than a straight-forward jersey swatch (as the right one, short-printed 068/650, has).



That's my Vermette collection. Soon to come: Daniel Alfredsson? Christoph Schubert? One of the two, anyway.

EDIT: Found a couple rookie cards I'd forgotten about. Might as well throw them on here, too. (I also added some RCs to the Anton Volchenkov post from a few days back.)

Anton Volchenkov: The Hockey Card

Hey, I've got a collection of hockey cards. They're gathering dust on a shelf in my computer room. There are a lot of Senators in this collection. So why not scan them, publish them, and offer some comments on each of them? I can see no reason why not. So, without further adieu, here is a collection of Anton Volchenkov rookie cards, each featuring its very own authentic piece of game-worn equipment.

First up is a commemorative card from Volchinator's performance in the 2003 NHL YoungStars game, with a black jersey swatch of the sweater he wore in the game. Look at his fresh-faced smile, so young and unmarked by Evgeni Malkin slapshots.


Speaking of the YoungStars Game, I've also got a double-stuff card, featuring a white swatch of Volchie's jersey and a piece of his yellow Easton graphite stick, short-printed number 05/25. Definitely one of the highlights of my collection.


And then there's the 2002-03 UD 'Shooting Stars' insert set, featuring Volchenstein and a two-colour swatch of his jersey. The series name is a bit of a misnomer; he's more of a Shot-Blocking Star than a shooting star, really.


This card's not really special, the 2002-03 UD Honor Roll Dean's List jersey card, except for the fact that it's part of a set which I'm trying to collect in its entirety (including a Gordie Howe signature card of which, rumour has it, only nine exist). I've currently got 83% of the set, with the missing cards being the most expensive ones.


Finally, a couple of early-career Upper Deck Rookie Inspirations comparisons. These are two of a three-card mini-set, comparing Anton to both Ed Jovanovski and also to Scott Stevens. (The third card, which I don't have, has Volchenkov compare to Rob Blake).


And that brings me to the end of my Anton Volchenkov rookie card collection. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as (or more than) I enjoyed filling time and struggling for content while waiting for training camp to begin.

EDIT: Found a couple of rookie cards to throw in with these game-used memorabilia cards. The top one's pretty cool, not your standard rectangular card, but it's die-cut around the Crown Royale lions.