luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc and the cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup

a couple of months ago, brian at hsca showed off his stanley cup on a card collection.  a long time ago, i showed a card featuring lord stanley's cup that is no longer in my collection.  i noted in that post that i  considered holding on to the stevens card because of its greatness, but in the end it went to calgary and is hopefully resting comfortably in captain canuck's collection.

when i saw brian's post, i was moved to scan two of the ten or so cards that show the cup in my collection, and send the rest to brian (minus one or two that might be headed elsewhere).  the two i scanned will remain in my collection until i'm gone.  that's because they feature my favorite hockey player and the subject of the lone hockey player collection i've kept - luc robitaille.

here's the first one:

that's a 2012-13 upper deck black diamond championship rings card, and it features robitaile as a king (sort of) celebrating their first cup win ever.  of course, luc was in the front office by then.  i was sure that he was going to win a cup back in 1993 (i didn't make it to a stanley cup final game that year, but did attend game 3 of the campbell conference finals) but there was stickgate and three straight overtime losses, and robitaille never got back to the finals as a king.

now, i don't recall if game 7 of the 1994 finals ever came to a finish in the film 'sudden death', but i do recall luc (in his pittsburgh penguin days) scoring the game-tying goal to send the game into overtime and give jean claude van damme the time he needed to defuse some bombs and save the day.  in all seriousness, luc did not win a cup with the penguins or rangers, but he did win in detroit, and i have a card to prove it.

that's a 2010-11 certified champions card marking the red wings' 2002 championship, as well as the first time robitaille ever touched the cup.  i remember watching the deciding games in both the 2002 and 2012 finals and then waiting for the cup to be passed to luc. it didn't take long in '02 - steve yzerman gave it to scotty bowman, and then to domink hasek, and then it was robitaille's turn.  and that's when it got pretty dusty in the room. in 2012, it took a while longer for the cup to get to luc, but it was still a great moment.

the 2017 stanley cup playoffs start next week, and even though the kings didn't make the cut, i'll probably keep an eye on the wild.  although i am no longer as avid a hockey fan as i was growing up (and i was an avid one, thanks to canadian parents) and into the late 1990's, i've always perked up a bit during the playoffs.  playoff hockey is the best, and i'm hoping that the finals go to overtime in game 7.