Jan 21--Brian Bradley

Brian Bradley

Selected by Calgary Flames round 3 #51 overall 1983 NHL Entry Draft.

Bradley began his career as a standout in junior with the OHL's London Knights. After three spectacular years with the Knights, and a incredible 1985 World Junior Championships in which Bradley dominated with a 9 goal, 15 point effort.

The Flames sent him to the AHL to work on his game but he did impress with 28 points in 40 games in 1986-87. His defensive game was questioned by coach Bob Johnson and the club was very deep at forward. Bradley joined the Canadian National Team for the 1987-88 season and participated at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Shortly after the tournament, Bradley was traded to the Vancouver Canucks.

The tricky pivot was a solid playmaker and power play specialist for parts of four seasons in Vancouver. In January 1991, the Canucks sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for mobile defenceman Tom Kurvers. His play was up and down on the mediocre Leafs and the club opted to leave him unprotected in the Expansion Draft. Bradley was chosen by the Tampa Bay Lightning and went on to play his best hockey.
In 1992-93, Bradley scored a personal high 42 goals and played in his first All-Star Game. He recorded two more 20-goal seasons and played in the 1994 All-Star Game until injuries began to interfere with his careerBrian Bradley, a two-time All-Star with the Tampa Bay Lightning, announced his retirement on September 23, 1999. He was another victim of the NHL's most dangerous injury heading into the new millennium -post-concussion syndrome.

Received these blue ink signed cards TTM.

Jan 20--Lou Fontinato

Lou Fontinato

  Leapin' Lou Fontinato, so-called because he left his feet when delivering body checks (some claim the "Leapin'" referred to his antics when called for a penalty when he would jump up and down while berating the referee) was a rugged defenseman. He started his career with New York during the 1954-55 season.

"Fontinato did indeed rule the hockey wars - until Howe challenged him that famous night in 1959. It all started ironically enough, when a Detroit player thudded against a young Ranger rookie named...Eddie Shack. Shack, still a season away from joining the Maple Leafs, was a main principal in the proceedings, as Fontinato recalls things. Shack was being his usual rambunctious self, and his aggressiveness was lifting the entire Ranger team. Rangers were winning 4-1 when Detroit's Pete Geogan, a hard hitting defenseman, decided to do something about Shack. He bounced him into the boards so hard that Shack's flying body broke a sheet of protective glass bordering the rink. This set up a chain reaction of events in which Shack later tangled with Howe. Shack wobbled away after getting caught up with Howe's stick and later required three stitches.
Fontinato was the Ranger policeman, the self appointed protector of youngsters like Shack. Fontinato remembers skating over to Howe and saying, "Keep your stick to yourself and lay off Shack." It was his job to issue such threats. Thirteen seconds later, Howe and Shack collided heavily behind the Detroit net. Howe lost his footing as Shack skated away in pursuit of the puck.
Howe was scrambling to his feet when Fontinato came out of nowhere and knocked him down again with a solid check. Sticks and gloves hit the ice, and everyone semed spellbound as Howe and Fontinato rolled and scuffled in the area between the goal and the end boards. Howe snatched Fontinato by the shirt and tagged him with a series of uppercuts. Fontinato got in a few good shots himself, dislocating Howes finger and opening a gash over one of his eyes. Several days later it was also discovered that Howe's ribs were broken. Press accounts of the event varied wildly. According to the New York papers, the confrotation lasted les than a minute and the outcome was indecisive, but a Detroit paper put it a full 3 minutes and declared breathlessly that Gordie Howe was the new heavyweight champion of hockey. What made Fontinato clearly a loser were the photos published in the next day's papers his nose, already broken four times, was mashed and bloody and looked like a rudder swung hard to starboard. Though each played the remainder of the game without incident, after the game Fontinato entered the hospital for surgery on his busted nose. "

Fontinato's career came to an abrupt and violent end in 1963 at the Montreal Forum when he missed a check on left-winger Vic Hadfield of the Rangers behind the Montreal net, slammed head first into the boards, and became paralyzed for a month.

He played in a total of 535 games and scored 26 goals and 78 assists. He had 1247 penalty minutes.

Received these blue ink signed cards TTM.

Return envelope postmarked ????

Jan 19--Ed Kea

Ed Kea

Kea never played Junior hockey, nor did he play collegiate hockey but he managed to turn professional in 1969 nonetheless. After two years with the Jersey Devils, and stops with the Seattle Totems and the St. Petersburg Suns, he was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Flames in 1972.

The defenseman made his NHL during the 1973-74 season when he played three games for the Flames, but he was a regular the following season. Kea spent the next five seasons playing his solid, steady game on the Flames blue line before being dealt just prior to the 1979-80 season.

Kea was traded to St. Louis along with Don Laurence and a second round draft pick in exchange for Garry Unger.

With the Blues Kea played three and half seasons before being sent to the minors. During the 1982-83 season St. Louis shipped him to their farm team in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, while toiling for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles tragedy struck. Kea hit his head on the ice during a game and suffered severe head trauma and was left handicapped as a result. Though a series of operations saved his life, Kea's hockey career was obviously over and he retired and spent time with his wife and children.

Sadly, this wouldn't be the only tragedy for Ed Kea and his family. In September 1999 Kea drowned at his family cottage. Kea was just 51 years old.

If he is known at all to new generations of hockey fans it is as Joe Nieuwendyk's uncle.

Received these red ink signed cards TTM.

Also included this signed b/w photo. Signed mostly in blue ink but somehow wrote my name as Steve in red.

Jan 18--Josh Holden

Josh Holden

Selected by Vancouver Canucks round 1 #12 overall 1996 NHL Entry Draft.

An offensively gifted forward, Holden made his professional debut with the Canucks during the 1998-99 season. Holden went on to play 30 games with the Canucks, while playing the remainder of the season with the club's AHL affiliate in Syracuse. Over the next two seasons the young pivot continued to hone his skills in the minors, while seeing occasional work with the Canucks before being claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2001 Waiver Draft. Upon being claimed by the Hurricanes, Holden went on to play a mere eight games with the club before he was claimed on waivers yet again by this time by Vancouver.

After finishing the 2001-02 season with Vancouver's AHL affiliate in Manitoba, Holden was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2002 and over the course of the next two seasons, spent most of his playing time with the club's AHL affiliate in St. John's.

To date, he has only appeared in 60 NHL games, scoring five goals and nine assists.
In 2010, EV Zug  of Switzerland's Nationalliga A and Josh Holden announced a long-term contract extension.

Pulled from packs 95 Classic Draft Picks
 #2530/5000


Back in the day, it was something to pull a numbered autograph from a pack. This one got the special treatment--rookie card snap tite holder.

 But wait, I pulled another auto of the same guy????  These were in a "shoebox" together with other special cards.  But it's now nowhere to be found. Que sera sera.

Jan 17--Tim Bernhardt

Tim Bernhardt

Selected by Atlanta Flames round 3 #47 overall 1978 NHL Amateur Draft.

Bernhardt was a standout for three years with the QMJHL's Cornwall Royals. He led the league with a 3.63 goals against average in 1976-77 and was a member of Team Canada at the 1978 World Junior championships. He was also placed on the QMJHL second all-star team in 1976 and the first team in each of the next two seasons. He was constantly placed in the minors since the parent club had Dan Bouchard and Rejean Lemelin.
In 1982-83 he made six appearances for the relocated Calgary Flames but posted a disappointing 0-5-0 record. He joined the AHL's St. Catharines Saints in 1983-84 and wound up winning 25 games and being voted on to the league's second all-star team. Bernhardt was signed as a free agent by the Toronto Maple Leafs in December 1984 when youngsters Ken Wregget and Allan Bester faltered. Considering he had very little defensive support, Bernhardt's 13-19-4 record and 3.74 goals against average were very impressive.
Bernhardt slipped down the depth chart in 1985-86 when Toronto acquired veteran Don Edwards and Ken Wregget's play improved from the previous year. He remained with the Leafs' AHL affiliate until his retirement following the 1989-90 season.

CAREER NHL STATISTICS
Years	Teams	GP	W-L-T	GAA	SO	SV%
1982-1986	Calgary, Toronto	67	17-36-7	4.27	0	.866

Received this blue ink signed card TTM.

He also included this blue ink signed postcard.

Jan 16--Another no-show

Second day in a row, 18 players today-NADA. Today Brantford's own Len Hachborn. This is from the summer when I was on holidays and did not post. Just catching up on Sept 4th birthdate.

Len Hachborn

Selected by Philadelphia Flyers round 9 #184 overall 1981 NHL Entry Draft.

He was called up during the 1983-1984 season and played 78 games for the Flyers before being sent down the Hershey Bears during the '84-'85 season. During his stint with the Flyers, he had 16 goals and 38 assists.

Hachborn was sold to the L.A. Kings in 1985 and played 24 games for his new team during the 1985-1986 season before returning to the AHL. He has since played for a number of teams in North America and Europe and was signed by the Phoenix Mustangs in 1999.

Played left wing on line with Wayne Gretzky growing up in Brantford, Ontario. As 10-year-olds, Hachborn and Brian Croley were playing on Gretzky's line when Gretzky scored 378 goals in 84 games. The goalie on that team was former Red Wing Greg Stefan. I knew his brother's (ex) wife so I got these items signed IP--except I wasn't the person that got them. I also got to see the wedding invitation to Gretzky's wedding as they were invited. Gee, guess I should have asked for that.

CAREER NHL STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1983-1986 Philadelphia, Los Angeles 102 20 39 59 29

CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1984-1985 Philadelphia 7 0 3 3 7

Flyers blue ink signed postcard.

Blue ink signed photo with the Maine Mariners. Back in the days of the Cooperalls.



Jan 15--The dreaded "21 players"

Yup, 21 players with today as their birthdate and me, nothing to show. Made it to the middle of the month though so I'm doing pretty good.

I'm just going to throw out some random things on this cold Sunday.

“Enforcers for the Forces”

Starting yesterday, a group of 18 former NHL fighters who call themselves “Enforcers for the Forces” will begin raffling 150 signed and framed photo montages.

The Leafs-Rangers game Saturday at the Air Canada Centre is Canadian Forces appreciation night. This will be promoted during the game, and is also scheduled to be highlighted during the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.

The enforcers group includes ex-Leaf scrapper Wendel Clark, former Edmonton Oiler Dave Semenko and Joey Kocur. One of the posters will be raffled each week. The group hopes to generate between $10,000 and $50,000 a week.

The money will be donated to the Military Families Fund, founded in 2007 by Canadian general Rick Hillier, and the Soldier On program, which was created in 2010 to support disabled vets.

The raffle’s website is 

www.nhlalumniraffles.org.

"Pizza Time"

So, for this pizza promotion, the specials include The Hat-Trick, The Breakaway and The Overtime. I wonder what Schenner's favourite is. Now, when the grand prize winner has his order personally delivered by Luke, and he spends time with the winner and friends, does he stay and eat your pizza too. Or does he bring his own. Just wondering.

Now, for a look back at advertising from days of yore.

Campbell's Chunky Soup

 

 

 

 

So this will tie the previous two from above together.

Enforcer + Toronto Maple Leaf=Wendel Clark.

This might have been his first ad for Chunky Soup as I remember a few other TV commercials as well. Expiry date on coupon form is 1991. I never sent away for any of this merchandise but did eat plenty of soup. Hard to believe this is over twenty years old.

 Huh.

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