1977-78 O-Pee-Chee #312 Rick Bourbonnais

A case of mistaken identity is not the most uncommon thing in the world of hockey cards, but collectors definitely notice when it happens -  believe me!

Through my own experiences of selecting photos to appear on trading cards, something inevitably slipped through the cracks and the revelation of each mistake (usually in the form of a snarky email or message board posting) was like a punch to the gut - especially when you think you made every effort to ensure that you had the right player. Sometimes, the photographer marked the wrong name on a slide or file. Sometimes, you forgot to check a minor detail.

Shit happens, right?

In the days before the collecting world went online, and even before the boom years, there were no scathing criticisms posted for the world to see and the photo editor had already moved on to other duties by the time anyone had really noticed. If only I had that luxury during my decade at In The Game! Usually, Dr. Price blew his top in an epic fashion once a mistake went public. However, the explosion was normally quick and within a few minutes, we had all moved on. If I made a mistake, I simply owned up to it and kept pushing to make sure it was not going to happen again. Try as you might, though, it inevitably would - but not from a lack of trying on my end to aim for perfection. It's funny, but I can remember most of the big mistakes and they still sting to this day. It's embarrassing, but at least there's a good story to tell.

Speaking honestly, I think collectors need to move out of the "gotcha" mentality when a card company makes an error like that, but I know that is just not going to become a reality.

All that being said, one of my favourite error cards of all-time is perhaps a bit obscure compared to some, but it does have a Hall of Fame connection to it.

The 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee set has a distinct lack of key rookie cards and a rather bland design which has kept it from being a hobby favourite, but it did have an unintentional cameo on the debut card of then-St. Louis Blues prospect Rick Bourbonnais. A fourth round pick in 1975, he played in just 71 games at the NHL level before settling in the minors and moving on to Europe. The player that actually appeared on the card had a much greater impact, though.

Who was it? Oh, only one of the greatest players in franchise history - Bernie Federko.

There are some hockey fans that simply discount Federko's on-ice accomplishments and that is a bloody shame. They will say that he never deserved to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but that mentality is simply ignorant in my opinion. He spent 13 seasons with the Blues and shattered more than a few team records. Playing in a smaller hockey market like St. Louis might have kept him from the richly-deserved spotlight and if he had played in New York or Boston - or even a Canadian market - his legacy would be a lot different today.

When I was younger, I knew he was a special player. He consistently put up great numbers and made a couple of All-Star Game appearances (only two, really?), but the Blues played in the Norris Division, which was always perceived by some as being weaker in some ways, and he only came close to a Stanley Cup Final once (Wales Conference Final in 1985-86). To me, he was an underappreciated star who never got his proper due - even after being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I was pleased to sign him to a trading card deal on at least a couple occasions and he was more than gracious in our interactions.

So, how on Earth did he end up on the Rick Bourbonnais card? Well, I asked my old pal and iconic hockey photographer Steve Babineau about it and he theorized it was simply a small mistake where someone at O-Pee-Chee or Topps thought the 24 on Federko's sleeve was actually the 28 worn by Bourbonnais. Case closed.

By looking at Federko's game log for his debut campaign, we can determine the exact date the photo was taken at Boston Garden - February 3, 1977. At the time, the Blues were in the middle of a season where they finished first in a very weak Smythe Division with a 32-39-9 record. They were in their 10th season at that point and had only missed the playoffs once (1973-74) at that point. They were also on the brink of transitioning from a consistent middle-of-the-pack team to a bottom feeder as the wheels came off over the next two campaigns before rising back to contention by the dawn of the next decade.

So, what was so special about this night? For starters, the Blues were hungry for victory and were riding a five-game winless streak - the previous game being a 3-3 tie that came at home two days earlier to the same Bruins club.

The seventh overall pick in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft, Federko had been called up to the Blues for a three-game trial in December, 1976 and the first-year pro had been sent back to the Central Hockey League's Kansas City Blues. Over 42 games in the minors, he simply proven to be too good for that level of competition with 30 goals and 69 points and his arrival in St. Louis was to be expected.

A quick look at the box score for this particular contest shows that Federko scored his first career goal on fellow Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers to tie things up at one in the second period. He also earned his first assist on Ted Irvine's late goal. but it was not enough as Boston won by a 5-4 margin.

Of special note as well, legendary enforcer John Wensink of the Bruins scored for the first time that night on Doug Grant.

Bourbonnais and Federko were actually linemates during the 1976-77 season and were joined by another rookie in Brian Sutter (who had his first career point as well, an assist on Federko's goal).

By the time this card hit convenience stores in early 1978, Bourbonnais was playing the last few games of his NHL career, but Federko and Sutter were only warming up. By 1978-79, the pair had a perfect new linemate in Wayne Babych and a year later, their defensive woes were placated with the arrival of Mike Liut (who was drafted in 1976 along with Sutter and Federko!). From 1979-80 to 2003-04, the team did not miss a single playoff appearance - a remarkable feat indeed when you consider how close they were to packing up an moving to Saskatoon in 1983!

While most people who own this card may dismiss it as a mere common, it truly is so much more than that. It will not cost much to own one and you may get it for the price of a basic card from this set if you are lucky!

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee #3 Phil Roberto

Whether you support fighting in hockey or abhor the concept entirely, it is perfectly clear that the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association do not want to see it on licensed trading cards.

Their position is perfectly understandable. It is a controversial subject at the best of times, but there have been a few occasions in the past where fisticuffs, or the aftermath thereof, have been immortalized on cardboard.

While I could probably fill a book with my own experiences in helping build the Tough Customers and Enforcers releases produced in years past by In The Game, I want to instead talk about one of the greatest hockey cards ever made.

At the suggestion of one of my oldest and friends in the hobby, John Pichette, it was only natural to pay tribute to the 1973-74 card of Phil Roberto. The first full-fledged fight shown on a hockey card, it is the product of an era where licensing and approvals were not as rigid and there is so much to appreciate about this 2.5" x 3.5" piece of cardboard.

First off, astute hockey fans will instantly notice that Roberto's opponent is none other than Hockey Hall of Famer and New York Islanders icon Billy Smith. That fact alone puts this card in a lofty spot in the hockey card collecting community, and with a little bit of research, a story can be discovered.

While this card was covered in Ken Reid's excellent book, Hockey Card Stories, with perspective from Roberto himself, there are some more details about the incident that can be shared. The moment itself was immortalized by photographer Lewis Portnoy, who shot out of St. Louis throughout the 1970s and early 80s. He also shot a few other cards in the set, but strangely, his work was not used much on hockey cards (if at all) beyond that until the past decade or so. Even still, his collection is something that should appear more on cards as it currently resides at the Hockey Hall of Fame waiting to be explored fully.

Getting back to the exact moment, I decided to try to figure it out a few years ago while working on my book, Changing The Game: A History of NHL Expansion. Knowing that the photo was taken during the disastrous first season for the Isles, I then examined box scores to determine if there were any games between them and the Blues in St. Louis where Smith or Roberto were assessed a major penalty.

It did not take long to figure this out thanks to the Hockey Summary Project.

The game took place on March 10, 1973 as the Islanders were mired in what became a six-game losing streak. With a rag-tag roster that lost a lot of potential talent to the debuting World Hockey Association, the Islanders were not setting the league on fire. However, with original Blues member Craig Cameron opening the scoring at the 1:49 mark of the first period, they were a little feisty that night.

At 4:34 of the opening stanza, things went a bit crazy as Roberto and Smith dropped the gloves. Portnoy got his shot and the photo editor for Topps eventually selected it for use on a card a few months later. Needless to say, it was something that was not to be repeated again. Sure, you will see a few post-fight shots once in a while in the sets that have come out over the past 45 seasons, but this is something truly unique and worthy of the praise it receive. It's Old Time Hockey at its finest and card collectors know it.

As for the game itself, the Islanders jumped to a 2-0 lead in the second (Dave Hudson), but the Blues tied it up before the siren rang out. Who scored those goals? Roberto, of course!

Once the puck dropped in the third, the Blues pulled away with goals by Pierre Plante, Chris Evans, and Garry Unger. In the late stages, the Isles tried to rally with tallies from Bryan Lefley and Ralph Stewart, but it was not enough to even force a tie.

While the O-Pee-Chee card shown above has distinct red borders that chip easily, the Topps version has green borders instead. Additionally, nitpickers who love getting every variation of a vintage card will know that this O-Pee-Chee set can be found with light or dark backs.

1968-69 O-Pee-Chee #1 - Doug Harvey

This is where, for most collectors, the classic O-Pee-Chee Hockey Card era began.

Sure, the original run of O-Pee-Chee cards took place from 1933-34 to 1940-41 as Canadian youth got to collect the stars they heard about on the airwaves from Foster Hewitt conveniently packaged with a piece of sickeningly-sweet gum for a cool penny. There were five series of traditional cards produced up to the 1937-38 season before the company took a brief hiatus and moved to a 5" x 7" format for two seasons before wartime paper and sugar rationing made trading card production a moot point due to bigger problems in the world.

In 1954-55, Topps entered the hockey card market with a gorgeous set focused on the four American-based teams at the time. In a conversation I had with Sy Berger a few years ago, he noted that he was not at all interested in the game of hockey, but he took a chance on making the cards. O-Pee-Chee distributed them in Canada that year and starting again in 1957-58 with sales taking place essentially in the Great White North for the next decade. The cards were often designed stateside, but printed and packaged in Canada starting with the 1960-61 release.

EXPANSION

With the NHL expanding in time for the 1967-68 season, Topps realized that it could produce a set in 1968-69 for American kids while Canadians could have something unique from O-Pee-Chee that would include French text and additional players and even a second series.

Thus was the birth of the Classic O-Pee-Chee Era and the first set kicked off in perfect fashion with one of the NHL's established stars in Doug Harvey.

Then in the waning days of his Hall of Fame career, Harvey had revolutionized the defense position in the 1950s as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. and was a key part of five straight Stanley Cup championships. By the end of the 1960-61 season, the team mistakenly considered him to be expendable and shipped him off to the New York Rangers - where he won his seventh Norris Trophy in eight seasons and finished second in Hart Trophy balloting to former teammate Jacques Plante.

Did I also mention that he was the coach of the Rangers that year as well?

By 1963-64, Harvey was on his way out of a regular NHL job and was essentially exiled to the minors. It is likely that alcoholism and mental health issues may have played a factor here as his struggles are well-documented, but he was determined to still play the game. His AHL stops included Quebec, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh and he even got back for a two-game stint with the Detroit Red Wings in the last year of the Original Six era, 1966-67.

THE COMEBACK

Once that season ended, he was asked by the expansion St. Louis Blues to serve as a player-coach for their Central Hockey League affiliate, the Kansas City Blues. The team had a 31-29-10 record that year, but once they were out of the playoffs, the parent club asked the grizzled vet to join them for the playoffs. It was a smart move as he assisted on Larry Keenan's Game 7 overtime winner in his first outing back!

Moving forward, he was able to provide some strong leadership in a seven-game thriller with the Minnesota North Stars as well before the Blues were swept in four straight by the Habs in the Stanley Cup Final.

Instead of heading back to Kansas City, Harvey was able to join the Blues for one last season in 1968-69 and fittingly, he was chosen to be the first card in the O-Pee-Chee set. The Topps series had Boston Bruins goaltender Gerry Cheevers in that spot instead, but there is little rhyme nor reason at times for this O-Pee-Chee set.

Flipping the card over, there is a brilliant cartoon which states that Harvey is known as "Mr. Smoothy", but that is a nickname that seems to be lost to the mists of time. Maybe it's time to bring it back. Or not.

The photo of Harvey is airbrushed, likely due to the rush in putting the set together and probably dates back to his time with the Rangers. There is a bit of a glaring error that went uncorrected as well. The text states that he is 45-years-old, but by the time this card came out in roughly January, 1969, he was in fact only 44. It's a small mistake, so most would have never noticed it. You can check out the back of the card courtesy of the fine folks at Trading Card Database here.

Looking at Harvey's 1968-69 campaign, he managed to play 70 of 76 regular season games and finished second on the team's blueline corps in scoring behind Noel Picard. On January 3, 1969, he scored the final goal of his career against the Oakland Seals and made his last appearance while battling the Los Angeles Kings on March 29. He did not make an appearance in the playoffs as the Blues went to the Stanley Cup Final yet again.

AFTERMATH

In retirement, Harvey endured many struggles and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973. Around that time, he served as an assistant coach for the WHA's Houston Aeros and for a brief spell in the mid-1980s, was a scout for the Canadiens - who finally retired his number in 1985.

He passed away at the age of 65 on December 26, 1989. In 2017, he was named one of the NHL's Top 100.

BONUS CARD

The second series produced by O-Pee-Chee in 1968-69 featured 22 Puck Stickers which kids could punch out, lick, and stick to a flat surface. As one of the game's greats, it was only natural that Harvey was included in the checklist.