TTM Mailday: Boyd Devereaux

I was really happy to find a home address for Deveraux as I really enjoyed his play with the Leafs. I really thought he was a good character player in the NHL, who put in an honest effort each and every game.

Deveraux wrapped up his NHL career with the Leafs by netting a hat trick in his final game. How many players can say that they managed a hat trick in there last NHL game. The Leafs brass was bringing in a youth movement and they decided not to bring Devereaux back.

I'm glad to land these three cards. I'm always happy to add signed cards of world junior alumni, as I really enjoy watching the tournament every Christmas season. The 08-09 OPC is a set card and the  05-06 Parkhurst is a set card as well.

I have been getting around to sending out a few requests these days and I hope to see my mailbox more full in the future.

Al Montoya



Ever miss out on a card on eBay and wish that you had bid more? Recently a Montoya FW Patch auto card went up for auction and I lost out by a few dollars. Luckily, a week and a half later, a buy it now for the card was posted and luckily the seller and I agreed to a price.

This is easily one of my favourite cards in my collection. I have always really wanted a future watch patch card and I'm glad to land one of a current player I collect. My only disappointment was that the patch on the front is from a "photo shoot worn jersey" not a game used. Still, a really cool card to own.

What drives me nuts right now is that while Montoya is 2-2 with a .930 save and 2.01 GAA, he has been stuck in the press box. I understand that the Islanders net is a log jam, that Nabokov is more proven and that Dipietro is getting paid a lot of money but Montoya deserves more of a chance. He is a young goalie with a lot of talent and athletic ability. The one knack against him at this point is his rebound control.

You would think that with his promises he would get more of a chance. All it took was a slightly below average start (4 goals against on 30 shots) to have the Islanders coach Jack Capauno to go with Nabokov. I would like to point out that Montoya's overall numbers are slightly better then Nabokov's, not to mention Nabokov's age: 36. You would think they would give a guy ten years younger more chance to develop. Just my two sense.

I really hope Montoya will get some more starts and prove his worth. I really enjoy collecting him as his style of goal his similar to mine and the fact that I think he is a positive role model. Here is an NHL who regularly admits to how appreciative he is of his chance at being an NHL player and that he's always going to give nothing but his best.

TTM Mailday: Jeff Hackett

This mail day features some of my favourite childhood cards and I'm really happy to get them back signed. I started to get nervous considering I was waiting about 4-5 month's to get these back.

1992-93 Fleer Ultra is one of my favourite sets of all time. I love the look of these cards! My Mom bought me so many packs of these cards as a kid. I love the old school Sharks jersey, hackett's old school mask and pads. If I could, I would wear those exact pads and mask while playing goal right now!



Another series I really like: 92-93 Upper Deck and I love the camera angle of the this card. Another favourite from my childhood.

I don't know what it was about goalies on bad teams, with bad stats but faced a ton of rubber every game. I always respected those goalies a lot as a kid, going into every night knowing you were probably going to lose, but busting your butt to win anyways.

Cool story about this card. My family was hosting a get together and someone brought over a case of pop. In the case we found a few 91-92 OPC cards. Mind you this was when the set had come out and it was promo done by Pepsi or Coke. I thought this was pretty cool at the time!

TTM Mailday: Dan Cloutier

I made this custom and sent it off to Cloutier last spring. I am really happy to have this one back! Sorry for the crummy pic, I have been taking pictures of my pickups with my cell phone as my scanner has been down for sometime.

Cloutier was a pretty solid NHL goalie who's fall from grace was pretty surprising. His peak came at the age of 28 and it was all down hill after that. He never was the same goalie after the lockout and he put up some pretty weak numbers.

While his end was pretty abrupt, I will always remember his time with Canada at the World Juniors, his mask and mean streak. This is a very nice add to my autograph collection!

TTM Mailday: Wendel Clark!

I sent off a few card's to Wendel via his restaurant in May and I was starting to think I wouldn't see these babies anymore. I saw a few people get the dreaded RTS, so I'm glad to have these cards back! I really needed these three cards for TTM set's I'm working on.

This is the one card, I really wanted back the most, a 90-91 Topps for my set I have been working on. I'm currently sitting at about 135/396 cards in the set.

I was working by Clark's restaurant up until mid-summer and I saw his car there plenty (he has his own parking spot labelled just for him) and it was a really nice car, so I figured he was there. This kept up my hope's that I would see my card's again signed.

I really love the look of the "greats of the game" base set. I know I will never complete this set, considering all the star power but I figured I could at least try.

I had a lot of nice stuff come in recently and I hope to get some posts up with scans in the next few days.

98-99 UD CC Box Break

Seems like everyone is breaking these boxes these days and I've had a few boxes sitting in my sealed wax box collection so I busted one.

Overall it was a lot of fun! My girlfriend helped me and it was the first box break together. I told her we were looking for cards with gold borders (starquest gold). After a few packs she got bored and started opening up the packages slightly to peek in for gold foil. I stopped that pretty quick!

Here are my favourites from the break!

Not sure why they would take a picture of Dino Ciccarelli feeding a rhino but I think it's pretty funny! A very random photo indeed!

I love the look of this card! If you can't tell by the picture it's a choice reserve insert of Mathieu Garon playing for team Canada. I love goalie cards and I really like cards from the World Junior so it's a great combo.

Another choice reserve card, a Patrick Roy checklist. Anything Patrick Roy is gold in my books and although Sawchuk is my favourite goalie of all time, I think Roy may be the greatest goalie of all time.

I really like the look of this card, the red from triple star quest goes really nicely with the Habs uniform.

The crease subset cards are great and I have always liked the look of them. I was really happy to pull this choice reserve version of the card and it's going straight into the Cujo PC.

I'm always happy to land another Bure card for the collection. I never really thought I was a fan of the Canucks uniform Bure is wearing but I think it's grown on me over time.

No gold starquest but I still managed to hit some nice cards. I pulled the full set of the blue starquet with plenty of doubles. I am very happy with this box for $8. It's too bad more boxes weren't this cheap!