do you feel luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc-ky?

sometime during the last year i sold all of my hockey card sets, and a few years ago i sent all of my non-pc hockey cards to captain canuck.  i've been doing some more organizing lately, and i've removed all of my pc hockey cards from their binders, except for a couple of players.  one is wayne gretzky and the other is my favorite player - luc robitaille

i found that 1994 sports illustrated for kids card in a nickel box a few months ago, and it resulted in me taking stock of my luc collection.  i realized that i did not have a rookie card of the hall-of-famer, so i corrected that quickly by picking up a 1987-88 topps card

i grew up not only following the dodgers, but the kings as well.  i believe i was actually wearing a kings t-shirt  as a toddler before i ever wore a dodger t-shirt, courtesy of my uncle.  anyway, i generally started following hockey around 1979. my dad and my uncle were big fans, and we used to go to kings games a couple of times each season. my dad took my brother and i to the 1980-81 all-star game at the fabulous forum in los angeles. that was the first time i saw gretzky play. luc obviously wasn't there, but the triple crown line (charlie simmer, marcel dionne, and dave taylor) was.  i thought that gordie howe was there, but i must be thinking of a game we went to the previous season to see him playing with the whalers because i definitely remember seeing number 9 skating with his son, mark (mark was at the all-star game, so that is probably lending to my confusion).  i'm getting off track - i was just trying to establish my legit hockey fandom that stretched from the late 1970's into the late 1990's.

i moved to orange county in time for the gretzky years (i even attended his first regular season game with the kings), and i spent too much money on game tickets and cards during that time.  it was so much fun being a kings fan during those years, as the team was popular and the organization did a lot to connect with the fans.  even though they lost the stanley cup to montreal, it was a great time to be a fan.

when i moved from socal to minny, there was no nhl team in the twin cities.  i did sign up to be a season ticket holder for the wild in their first season along with some friends (just as i had done with the mighty ducks of anaheim back in their inaugural season) and i really enjoyed it.  i was really excited in 2002 when the red wings won the stanley cup because luc was on that team, but my attention span for the nhl was waning.  the lack of a season in 2004-05 pretty much killed my fandom, although i did watch a few stanley cup finals games here and there in subsequent years, including game 6 of the 2011-12 finals that saw the kings finally raise lord stanley's cup.

luc was in the front office then, but it was still a great moment to see him hold the cup as a king.  

robitaille continues to show up in hockey product apparently, but i am not really actively seeking out his cards.  i do have a final tribute from 2006-07 fleer flair showcase

those numbers are ridiculous, including more goals than any other left winger.

i'm definitely keeping my luc collection, and will hold on to the gretzky cards for the time being, but i still have a bunch of hockey cards featuring most of the key players from the late 1980's into the mid 1990's if anyone is interested.

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.