Why I Collect Who I Collect: (Long Read Ahead)

[creasecollector]

Hey there,


In a spontaneous way of thinking, today I wanted to post up a well-informed and thought out post about why I collect who I collect, and the passion that drives me not only as a collector, but also as a person who is deeply involved with this great hobby just like all of you have been at some point.


So relax, put on a pot of coffee, and enjoy the read. (Or if you’re more of a tea person like me, then go nuts!)


Growing up outside of Toronto, Ontario, all you heard about was the Leafs. Leafs this, Leafs that, it was awesome. From the get-go, I was a hockey fan through thick and thin. I loved everything about the sport, and although I didn’t start playing organized hockey until I was about 10-years-old, I kept developing my road hockey and mini stick skills with either my dad or the bedroom wall, just in case I had to step into Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to stretch out and stop a game-winning breakaway at the last second with my right toe, you know?


After a few figure skating lessons (yes, that was my mom’s idea! I was terrible at it.), stepping into my first pair of skates, grabbing my sweet no name branded hockey stick, I was all set to start my first year of organized House League hockey the following season. I was pumped. Writing this post has been thinking even deeper into those memories. Awesome. Thank you, spontaneous thinking!


Okay, so my first hockey season didn’t go as planned. Don’t get me wrong, I loved every second of it. At the time, I prided myself on my ability to make some sweet passes and I did even manage to score a few goals, including my first ever goal: A diving Bobby Orr-like swipe at the puck in the crease. A true gem of a garbage goal, if I do say so myself. I even had the unique opportunity to play hockey with my twin brother as well, as we were both signed up to play that same year, to see if we liked to continue the sport. My brother tried his best at hockey, he really did, but athletics definitely wasn’t his ‘thing’ at that age. There were some stories of us on the ice that we still go back and laugh about today years later. Even though he doesn’t like hockey, he can still find some great humour reminiscing about his quick playing days, even if they weren’t his greatest moments. Haha, awesome. So, you see, I really did love my first year of hockey, but something was missing. I longed for something I could call my own. Something more… specialized if you will.


After my first year as a player, and leaving my brother to do his own thing, I quickly signed up for another year of hockey, once again as a forward, playing Right Wing. During the course of this fun-filled year, I would repeatedly ask my dad if I could play goalie full-time next year, and he wouldn’t let me, and told me I needed to work on my skating ability (in hindsight, that was actually a good idea. Goalies need to be the best skaters on the team). I remember being the goalie in practice a few times, as the goalie position was usually handed off to other players week-to-week, but I never got a sniff of the idea of being a full-time goalie for my team, something I desperately wanted at that time. Still a fun year though, including the sweet Player of The Game roll of tape I received near the end of the season. These white rolls of tape were nothing special, pretty standard stuff really, but to me it was a nice thing to receive for my hard work and dedication to the sport I enjoyed, especially at that young age. It was my Stanley Cup. I actually still have that white roll of hockey tape, and you’ll never catch me using it, either.


Once fall rolled around, I was desperate to play goalie. We were getting older, and players started solidifying their positions as ones that they would carry with them for the rest of their minor hockey “careers” and whatnot. The pressure was on. I should also mention that I was always I shy kid growing up, so the idea of approaching the coach 1-on-1 and asking for the goaltending spot was something that terrified me, so that was a no-go. Luckily for me, on the first day of practice with my new House League team that season, the coach (who I actually knew, as he was part of our small-town community), walked around the room with his clipboard and position spreadsheet. After getting to me, one of the last players in the room, I somehow blurted out if the full-time goalie spot was available for the team. To my surprise, it was!


Let the excitement & fear begin.


At the time, I had been preparing for this for my entire 12-year existence, yet you wouldn’t know it during my first game of the season. Making my debut as full-time goalie, sporting my heavily worn all-black gear that the league gave me (I didn’t even have my own gear), I let it my very first ever shot on goal. Soft wrist shot down the left wing. Yep, it definitely wasn’t my proudest moment, but something I can look back on and laugh. After that, and probably every single game that followed until I was 18-years-old, I always got really nervous before each game, and just dreaded the first shot I would face in the 1st period of the game. Just one of those things I guess.


Over the years that followed, I had to try and develop my skillset as much as I could, and I’ll spare you the super fancy technical details of the goaltending position, but as the smallest player on the team almost every year, I couldn’t necessarily rely strictly on my size in goal to make the save. I needed footwork, speed, vision, and a good technical foundation in order to be one, two, even three steps ahead of the play in order to make what some people would call a “routine save”. For those goalies who are reading this, I think we all know how much technical skill & hockey sense you need to be a goalie, at any level you get the chance to play. From House league to even Juniors, in some ways it’s all the same. Different, but still the same at it’s core.


Back to hockey cards, shall we? While all this cool stuff was going on the ice, off the ice I was starting to get big into hockey cards again. I didn’t have the funds to afford big cards or boxes, so trips to the variety store with my pockets crammed to the brim with pocket change was going to have to do. As for the type of cards I collected, I was knee-deep into the goalie cards. I just loved the type of equipment that were featured on the card from a given year, and of course superstars like Martin Brodeur was one of my go-to goalies. But while I collected, I guess you could never say I really had a “true” or dedicated Player Collection. I just collected a bunch of goalie cards that I liked. Nothing wrong with that at all, and I still do that today, it just wasn’t as focused or a full-fledged player collection. Until later that is.


Back to the ice rink, yeah? Okay, so I always found it funny how playing a game growing up (at least in my experiences), nobody ever told you that you were too small to be a goalie when you were just a little kid, everyone was just having fun and enjoying themselves. That is until you tryout for a team or two, and get a front row seat into the world of hockey politics that rear their ugly head from time-to-time. I was unfortunately part of that conversation when I got older and wanted to prove myself at a different level of hockey.


Whether it was coaches or scouts not even looking your way because of your lack of stature in the net, or even former and potential teammates of yours making little comments, you find out fairly quickly that need to rise above all of that and make yourself standout in order to make these teams, and compete against a bunch of goalies for one of just two roster spots on a team. Of course, out of all the goalies going into camp, I was always the shortest one standing at a towering 5 foot 5 inches tall. So you get used to it after a while, and just stick to doing your own thing. Over the course of a few years, I made teams, been cut from others, and had a blast doing it. I wouldn’t have chosen to do it any other way. It builds character, it builds resilience, and it also makes for a cool story or two to tell to people who would be happy to listen.


On the backend of things, moving a few years ahead and leaning towards the end of my minor hockey career, these experiences have also constructed a fiery passion for a different avenue of card collecting I would soon join: The Player’s Collectors Club. Okay, so it might not be a legit club, but it sounded cool and I’ve always loved viewing different people’s collections, seeing who they collected, and glossing over these cards that they have obtained. I’ve always wanted to collect someone, but who? Who could I realistically collect, that wouldn’t break the bank, and would also provide myself with a personal connection or relate to that player in some sort of way that would enable my interest enough to collect their cards? I loved collecting cards, and really loved the goaltending position and my own personal attachment/experience with it, so how could I find that balance?


Enter Jhonas Enroth.


I remember hearing about him at the World Juniors tournament, even when Canada scored against him in overtime win Gold at the 2008 World Junior Championships. Though his skill level really caught my attention in 2010 while I was watching him record his very first NHL win, a 3-2 shootout win over my Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a cool moment seeing a fellow goalie accomplish a dream of theirs. Not only that, but seeing a goalie like Enroth was very fun to watch. As a smaller or “undersized” goaltender, I just really admired how Enroth handled himself in the net, and the patience he was able to demonstrate, not to mention his excellent technical abilities as a goalie. Like a lot of goalies, no doubt he heard the size factor being thrown around from time-to-time, but seeing him rise above all that and developing and performing as an elite level athlete was something I’m glad I was able to witness and inspire a collection in the process.
Ever since then, I have been trying to enjoy this great hobby while also trying to pickup more Enroth cards when I can, in true player collector style so to speak. So even when NHL relevancy may fluctuate with some players rather than others, as they can’t all be household names that stick in ‘The Show’ for 20 years, I believe their initial skills and determination to carve out any sort of NHL career is something worth talking about. And in our case, as a community of collectors, it’s worth following and collecting their stuff along the way, for however long that may be.


The point of this little write up was to bring to light on why I collect who I collect, and to give you some background info on how that love of the game and position came to be, something that ultimately inspired my enjoyment of card collecting as well. So next time you see someone collecting a player you may not know, or maybe even particularly enjoy, instead of asking "WHY Him???!?!!?!?!" ask yourself " ..... Why? Let's find out more :)".

If you want to do the same,and have something to share, please feel free. I’d love to hear it.


Thank you all for sticking around this far. I hope you enjoyed this just as much as I had writing it. Comments and kind words are always appreciated.


:D

[Chromagguy]

Great story! Always interesting to hear why we do what we do. I miss the days of the small goalie, Andy Moog, Darren Pang et all.

[sparty07]

I was raised to bleed Green by my dad's family who all lived within 20-30 minutes of East Lansing. As such, when I had the choice of where to go to college, Michigan State was my only focus (I applied to Arizona as a back-up, but had no desire to stay in AZ). I would watch the games whenever they were on TV (not often back in those days) and followed MSU and Ryan Miller his entire career wearing green and white. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see more than 2 games live while he was at State, but fall of 2003 had me in the Slapshots (student cheering section) goign to every home game from 2003-2007 and the occasional road trip to Ann Arbor/South Bend. Those final 2 years had me watching Justin Abdelkader score the game winning goal to beat Boston College in the hockey championship game. Then, being drafted by the Red Wings (2nd favorite team) sealed the deal as a player I would always like. While I only picked up the hobby last year, those 2 guys were the easy focus on a PC. I will collect the occasional other Spartan (Keith, Krug, Liles, etc)