Anyone Remember Tommy Soderstrom? I Sure Do...

[IrbeFan4Life]

Time to mixup the memorabilia. Got a bunch of jerseys for the 'ole collection recently,but haven't really had a chance to add any other type of goalie piece in awhile. I'll be honest, that with the opening of my martial arts business, work,and life's existential questions continually hounding me, I even forgot that Ipicked this piece up.

This here isa Tommy Soderstrom game worn goalie blocker, used by him in the 1993-94season's latter half. Soderstrom, born July 17, 1969 in Stockholm, Sweden was an 11th round pick of the Flyers in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft and made his NHLdebut in 1992-93, taking over the starting role from the recently traded RonHextall, appearing in 44 games and recording five shutouts. The following year,the sophomore jinx may have hit Soderstrom as his record dipped to 6-18-4 in 34games. He was traded to the Islanders before the beginning of the 1994-95season. There, he played for the three seasons, eventually mentoring a youngTommy Salo, before leaving the NHL after the 1996-97 season. In 156 games forthe Flyers and Islanders, Soderstrom recorded a 45-69-19 record with a 3.63GAA,10 shutouts, and a 0.884% save average.

Thisblocker, which can be definitely photomatched to the 1994-95 Fleer Ultra basecard of Soderstrom was used in the ending half of the 1993-94 NHL season.An unusual curved style of blocker, itfeatures amazing puck indentations and a brilliant embroidering of Mr.Soderstrom's name on the top of the thumb portion of the blocker. A great pieceof an oft-forgotten goaltender!

[mralex69]

That's an awesome photomatch!!!

[IrbeFan4Life]

Thank you for the comment! Took some work to even find him using that model of blocker, but the first picture I actually found was this card and *boom* photomatched. Didn't hesitate for a second in buying the blocker after that.

[doniceage]

Nice pickup and thanks for sharing.

Don

[ravens_creed]

I remember Tommy well... tandem with Dominic Roussel if I'm not mistaken. Ah, some dark days in the Philly net, lol.

On a hobby-related note, I remember buying a few packs of a tallboy set that was briefly made back in the early 90s called "Powerplay", and I hit a Tommy Soderstrom insert in one of my packs. Heck, I wonder if I could track that card down on Ebay, just for kicks and the visual. Let's see... *goes on Ebay and starts looking*

Yup, it wasn't even that hard.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-94-Powe...item486916d2fb


Sweet blocker!

[IrbeFan4Life]

Haha, thanks for the comments guys! Looking at that mask, though...yuck. Easily the ugliest protective bucket in the history of the game right there. The cage is too large and makes his head look novelty oversized.