Old Time Hockey!

[30ranfordfan]

There's a "What will you miss most about Panini" thread going on in the Hockey Card Talk section right now, and my first answer was their ability to think outside the box. Include some really cool names in their set that other companies have not. Well, that's where the title comes from - because specifically I'm thinking of the movie Slap Shot. (If you've never seen it, do yourself a favour and do so. Easily the greatest sports movie of all time, and one of my favorites period). I'm hopeful that more can be added to this collection at some point (I'll talk about that as I go) but likely not a whole lot still out there.


Here's what I've got:



Love it!

Who do we have here?

All three Hanson Brothers, from ITG's Enforcers II: Dave Hanson, Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson.
From Enforcers I, a Goldie Goldthorpe Auto. No, he wasn't in the movie, but he was the inspiration behind Ogie Ogilthorpe
From ITG's Tough Customer's Box Set.... Goldthrope GU Jersey, and another auto.
Then three Panini Autos: Bruce Boudreau, Connie Madigan, and Michael Ontkean.

Boudreau, as you all know, has been an NHL head coach with the Caps & the Ducks. He had a cup of coffee in the NHL (IIRC) and played a longtime in the minors. He didn't Have a speaking role in the movie, but he was an extra, playing for the Hyannisport Presidents:



Connie 'Mad Dog' Madigan holds the NHL record for oldest rookie. He saw his first NHL action at the age of 38 with St. Louis. He never had a card (played 25 games total between the regular season and playoffs) but they gave him an Auto Rookie in Certified! He played the role of Ross 'Mad Dog' Madigan in the movie (an obvious play on his own name). The fact that he was a recorded breaking enforcers in the minors at the time (I'm sure) helped get him that role:




Michael Ontkean actually played NCAA hockey, and the role of Ned Braden was given to someone with acting chops (the only other role of his I know of is a main character in the TV Show Twin Peaks).





Here's the next group of nine:



These 'Fans of the Game' inserts were actually the first set that Panini use all three of the Hansons on separate cards in the same release. There's regular and auto'd versions. The Steve Carlson is actually sitting in my COMC inventory right now (has been for a couple of months) I'm just waiting to get enough cards to ship at once, so I get the shipping bonus, lol.


The bottom three cards are from 2002-03 Fleer Greats of the Game. Yup, Fleer used to make Hockey Cards that Upper Deck had nothing to do with :) Jack Carlson, of course, was never in the movie. He's just the brother of Steve & Jeff, two of the stars. These are the only three cards he's ever had made of him.... wasn't exactly a big star... the Base, Gold, and Platinum (/50) versions. The family relationship would have been enough for me to pick up the few cards anyway, but the story with him (and why he wasn't in the movie) is pretty cool too:

As legend has it, the Hanson brothers were actually based off the Carlson brothers. They were set to play themselves in the movie, but the production company didn't want to use their actual last name. So they switched last names with another minor league hockey player, Dave Hanson, who would play the role of Dave 'Killer' Carlson. Jack was called up to the WHA's Oilers as the movie was supposed to be shot, so since Dave Hanson looked enough like the Hanson (in hair & style, glasses you can throw on anyone) he switched roles, and Jerry Houser was taped to play the role of Kill Carlson instead.


Next up, I've got another sleeve with only two cards in it, lol:



Yup. That's a Dave Hanson / Christan Hanson dual auto! Christan.... and NCAA standout that played a few games for the Leaf, he's Dave's Son!

I've also got a Christian Hanson SOTT. Not something I would have chased, but I pulled it from a pack myself so I kept it!

I've got a couple of Christian Hanson Rookies (YG, SPA, Ultimate, Ice) also sitting in that COMC bucket I talked about before. If someone were to come along and offer me some cool Christian Hanson stuff for cheap (trade or cash, I'm game) I'd probably be intersted. Wouldn't mind filling out that page with other stuff of his. Considering I've got 2 cards already and 4 incoming - I'm now thinking I could use three more. A Cup RC will probably go with the stuff in the next picture... so someone find me three cool looking cards :) Okay, scrap that. I went looking on COMC while I was typing this and bought a Fleer Rookie Headliners. So I just need two more. How about an SPx Rookie and an OPC Signature Sensations? How about a couple of H&P Autos (09-10, 10-11)?? Someone convince me to part with money for these, ha!

Finally, the last shot. Really great one with some AMAZING cards (and I'm not just saying that because I own them):



The two on the top are Dave Hanson & Steve Carlson Rookie / Autos from Limited. These are the first pack pulled cards available of these two guys ever! When they were announced as part of the checklist, I had to have them! No Jeff in the set though (since he never got an NHL game, he didn't get a Rookie Card). No interest in the parallels, so I never picked them up.

The bottom row is really where it's at though!

There's a Steve Carlson Dominion Auto /RC (Dave Hanson is still sitting with COMC, lol) but the other two.... man alive. Probably my two favorite non-Ranford cards in my whole collection!

One is a Dominion PenPals tripple auto of the brothers. Card is limited to just 15 copies, and is just beautiful in person. Would really like to get the Enforcers II version of this..... but contrary to popular belief, ITG stuff sells for crazy money when it's SP'd. The few copies that have surfaced, they're going for more than 4x what I paid for this Dominion beauty. That being said, if you've got one you want to move, shoot me a price. Worst I'll do is say no!

And finally, it's a card I didn't think I'd own (but when I saw it on the checklist, I knew I really wanted it). It's a Paul Newman (or Reggie Dunlop, if you go with the character name) cut autograph! I suspect it stayed affordable becuase they used a signature that's a little big for the card. Newman's signature looks like this:



So they kinda got a copy of one that needed to be chopped. I will agree with anyone who says that's not the best way to do a cut, but the card is still pretty cool in my mind... and I got it for what I thought was a steal!



Anyway, thanks for looking!

And a shout out to Ed: Hope you enjoyed (and thanks again for that auction help!)

[hossa18sens]

What a cool group of cards. Love them all (Like the Connie Madigan the most as it was my only hit in a GB and glad it went to a good home)

Thanks for the show

[mikecole141]

"They brought their toys!"

[mq13]

Awesome Movie and awesome display of cards.

[brian045]

This is an awesome show and tell! I really like all of those slap shot autos, im sure there is no collection like this anywhere!

[30ranfordfan]

What a cool group of cards. Love them all (Like the Connie Madigan the most as it was my only hit in a GB and glad it went to a good home)

Thanks for the show

It's funny, it was becoming a hard one to track down. It was an SP in the set, and I know when trying to land one they were available... but a lot of people trying to take more than it was really worth. Was happy when you got one, and wanted to deal!

"They brought their toys!"

I'd rather have them playing with their toys than playing with themselves :)

Awesome Movie and awesome display of cards.

This is an awesome show and tell! I really like all of those slap shot autos, im sure there is no collection like this anywhere!

Thanks guys!

It's true, there is no collection like this one. That Newman ensures it :) Though there was a guy on eBay that had all the Limited Parallels (including the 1/1 versions) that he kept trying to sell as a lot.

[87sluggo]

I'm pretty sure I knew all of these cards existed, but to see them all together, that's realllll cooool, mannnn. Never seen that Goldthorpe jersey card before tho.......




I had to settle for a different version of a Newman cut auto :D















I also have the Madigan card and the Goldthorpe horizontal auto..........somewhere :/ And OOO! this one........
















It's a shame that Goon didn't become a hit, I guess it was just too rude for them puritans down in the States............

[30ranfordfan]

Dude, that Newman is amazing! Looks great framed up like that!. Nice Hansons auto'd picture too :)

The custom McFarlane's, also pretty awesome!



I've never seen that Carlson. Some kind of team issue'd card?

I remember an article in Beckett many moons ago, someone had stumbled onto an Itailian League card of Guido Tensi.


That Goldthorpoe Jersey card, big fan of it (yeah, they actually tracked down an old Syracuse jersey). There's also an auto'd version (/10) available.... and he's part of the Enforcer's redemption set too... jumbo swatches with Autos.

[87sluggo]

The Newman was quick and cheap and easy, $40 for the personalized signature on the bottom of a promo piece for The Verdict, snip snip snip. Eight bucks for the press kit photo, and then $40 more for the pre-cut matte and frame from Pastime Sports in beautiful DT Langley.

The Carlson coach card is from the 89/90 Johnstown Chiefs team set, no one else of note in it at all. The Chiefs used to be the Jets until they folded, and when Johnstown got a team again they couldn't pry the Jets name out of the rights-holder so they polled the locals and since the Charlestown Chiefs were originally based on the Johnstown Jets the new team was named the Chiefs!

[johnse27]

Wow awesome looking show and tells! Great looking old school players from a classic movie!