The Other Richer

A couple of new additions to announce today, one of which has a semi-interesting backstory. In their history, the Lightning have had two players named Stephane Richer suit up. Two Stephane J Richers to be exact. WHile the latter of the two was a fairly well known and successful NHLer the first one played onle 3 games in a Tampa uniform, in the inaugural 1992-93 season, before being traded to Boston. He would also play a handful of games with Florida.

Now I've been using hockeydb to find the majority of the cards and check to see if they even exist for some of the more obscure players. Hockeydb has a feature that automatically searches ebay for the cards of the player you're searching. However, the two Richers results are always intermingled. I had never found one of the more obscure Richer before stumbling upon a card from the German DEL while wading through the other Richer's various cards. Needless to say I am pretty happy to have added Stephane J.G. Richer to the collection. (This is how the Lightning's media guide makes the distinction between the two. The other one is Stephane J.J. Richer.) Add in the facts that the card features a photo of an ad-filled Adler Mannheim jersey and is in German and you have one of the more unique cards of the set so far and an instant favorite of mine. I will get a picture of this card up sometime next week when the scanner is unpacked.

Since the last update I've also added pugilist Ryan Tobler and Adrian Aucoin (Calgary Flames).

Hidden Treasures

Preparing for my move I've been cleaning out my closet and came across a box of old (89-91 era) hockey cards that I had collected awhile back. Combing through I found another 7 former Lightning players. Steven Finn (Nordiques), Ken Hodge (Bruins), Grant Ledyard (Sabres), Troy Mallette (Rangers), and Kjell Samuelsson (Penguins). Also in the box were some older AHL Top Prospects sets and I was able to pull Lukas Krajicek (San Antonio Rampage) and Kyle Wanvig (Houston Aeros) out. All in all a pretty good haul from stuff I had completely forgotten about.

08-09 O-Pee-Chee Update Set

Just got my hands on these, adding David Koci, Steve Eminger, Andrej Meszaros, and Adam Hall, as well as Lightning versions of Gary Roberts and Mark Recchi. 163 down, 124 to go.

This will probably be the last set of new cards for a couple weeks as I'm moving into a new apartment. Once I get my scanner unpacked from storage I plan to start having a Card of the Week feature.

Updates

Some new names were added to the list today. The 07-08 and 08-09 O-Pee-Chee base sets arrived in the mail and 10 new names to the ledger, including Matt Carle (San Jose Sharks), Craig MacDonald, Jeff Halpern, Mike Lundin, Blair Jones, Ryan Craig, Shane O'Brien, Andre Roy, Nick Tarnasky, and Jason Ward. Additionally, Michel Ouellet now has a Lightning card to replace the Penguins one in the set. I don't think Matt Carle ever had a card in a Lightning uniform due to his short stint.

55%

Off On A Good Foot

After going through my various boxes of cards I have, I have figured out exactly where I stand. I am at 149/287 players, whihc is about 52%. Halfway there! The roster turnover of the past two season has really added a bunch of names.

I also want to add a thanks to several members of HF Boards who have graciously offered to help me complete the set from their own personal collections.

Here is the list of players needed to complete the set:
Kaspars Astashenko
Adrian Aucoin
Matthew Barnaby
Tim Bergland
Karel Betik
Mathieu Biron
Brandon Bochenski
Jason Bonsignore
Josef Boumedienne
Paul Brousseau
Vyacheslav Butsayev
Jim Campbell
Dave Capuano
Matt Carle
Alain Cote
Ryan Craig
Mathieu Darche
Louie DeBrusk
Xavier Delisle
Steve Downie
Gordie Dwyer
Karl Dykhuis
Allan Egeland
Nils Ekman
Matthew Elich
Steve Eminger
John Emmons
Steven Finn
Kyle Freadrich
Maxim Galanov
Bruce Gardiner
Randy Gilhen
Sascha Goc
Sergei Gusev
Bob Halkidis
Adam Hall
Jeff Halpern
Ben Hankinson
Dwayne Hay
Timo Helbling
Sami Helenius
Ian Herbers
Jamie Heward
Matthew Hervey
Jan Hlavac
Ken Hodge
Jody Hull
Jamie Huscroft
Dan Jancevski
Doug Janik
Andreas Johansson
Ryan Johnson
Blair Jones
Andreas Karlsson
Martins Karsums
Steve Kelly
Dan Kesa
David Koci
Zenon Konopka
Lukas Krajicek
Mario Larocque
Matt Lashoff
Janne Laukkanen
Jay Leach
Grant Ledyard
Junior Lessard
Brad Lukowich
Mike Lundin
Craig MacDonald
Marek Malik
Troy Mallette
Steve Maltais
Steve Martins
Chris McAlpine
Mike McBain
Sandy McCarthy
Josef Melichar
Andrej Meszaros
Glen Metropolit
VladimirMihalik
Craig Millar
Norm Milley
Michel Mongeau
Cory Murphy
Andrei Nazarov
Stanislav Neckar
Janne Niskala
Michael Nylander
Doug O'Brien
Shane O'Brien
Brent Peterson
Richard Petiot
Robert Petrovicky
Matt Pettinger
Alexandre Picard
Marek Posmyk
Nolan Pratt
Wayne Primeau
Kevin Quick
Herb Raglan
Darren Reid
Stephane Richer(2)
Normand Rochefort
Dale Rominski
Andre Roy
Jason Ruff
Darren Rumble
Kjell Samuelsson
Brandon Segal
David Shaw
Jeff Shevalier
Martin Simard
Reid Simpson
Andrei Skopintsev
Matt Smaby
Radek Smolenak
Corey Spring
Steven Stamkos
Shayne Stevenson
Karl Stewart
Jaroslav Svejkovsky
Michal Sykora
Paul Szczechura
Peter Taglianetti
Nick Tarnasky
Ryan Tobler
Pavel Torgayev
Vladimir Vujtek
Mick Vukota
Kyle Wanvig
Jason Ward
Noah Welch
David Wilkie
Ty Wishart
Craig Wolanin
Juha Ylonen
Thomas Ziegler

The Quest

First, an odd statement: I was not a fan of hockey before I moved to the state of Florida. But ever since my first game I have been hooked, both as a fan and later as a player. My favorite team is the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have been an up and down team since I've started following them, going from multiple 50 loss seasons to winning the Stanley Cup all the way back down to consecutive 3oth and 29th place finishes. Still, they are my favorite team in professional sports and I cannot see that ever changing.

But what does all that have to do with creating a blog? Simply put, I am attempting to create a complete team set of Lightning player cards, consisting of every player to suit up in a regular season or playoff game. I started this a few months ago, intending to simply gather a full roster of Lightning goalies. After rummaging through my assorted boxes of cards and buying a few cheap singles, I amassed a collection of all 31 Lightning netminders from opening night goalie Wendell Young to 2009 minor league call-up Mike Mckenna.

Now I will try and go for a full team set, all 287 players (as of the end of the 2008-09 season). While it won't be easy I do intend to keep it cheap, as I have yet to buy a single card over $2. I'm not looking for rookies, jersey piece cards, or anything special. Just regular base set cards. (Although I prefer them vertically oriented and depicting the player in a Lightning uniform, but it's not a deal breaker.)

I think that's about all. I will be posting updates on my progress, as well as odds and ends about cards from the "master set", and anything else Lightning, hockey, or card related that I find interesting. I also feel obliged to note that this is my first foray into the blogging world, but I hope to get the hang of it soon enough.

-Tom