Board Advertisements on Cards, Episode 6: Amtrak

Way back in 1978, the NHL allowed teams to start selling advertising space along the boards of their rinks. By the time I was a hockey card–collecting kid in the late 1980s, the trend had caught on. From snack foods to car manufacturers to banks to fast food restaurants, board advertisements really ran the gamut—and they still do.

This series will explore some of the advertisements that also managed to make their way onto hockey cards.

 

Previous entries are available here.

1991-92 O-Pee-Chee #201,
Wayne Gretzky Highlights

Here's Wayne Gretzky in that classic Los Angeles Kings uniform, sporting that silver Easton aluminum hockey stick. He's positioned along the boards, no doubt ready to receive a pass and set up yet another scoring opportunity.

 

The card commemorates Gretzky scoring his 2,000th NHL point. No one has done it since. (Jaromir Jagr is the closest, with 1,921.) The feat was accomplished against the Winnipeg Jets on October 28, 1990. However, the photo on the front of the card is not from that game. How can we tell?

Have a look just over Mr. Gretzky's right shoulder. I see a little piece of a New York Rangers jersey there, to the side of the mustachioed guy's face.

Additionally, have a look at the advertisement on the boards behind Mr. Gretzky.

 

It's for Amtrak. And I know for certain that an Amtrak advertisement was plastered on the boards at Madison Square Garden back then. You see, the Garden is right on top of Penn Station, which offers Amtrak train service to various parts of North America. (Winnipeg does not.)

 

I wonder if the folks at MSG were kind enough to cut them a deal on the advertising fee.

 

Even if they didn't, let's talk about Amtrak. 

 

In theory, it's great. Ride by rail. See the country, from the mountains to the prairies, etcetera. Enjoy our café car. And our bar car. And for the really long trips: our sleeper cars!

 

In practice, however, the experience can be less than ideal. Delays. More delays. Inadequate luggage space. Crowded cars. Inconsiderate passengers. (One time, the guy in the seat across the aisle from me immediately took off his shoes upon boarding, and stretched his bare, stinky feet out into the aisle.)

 

It's not all bad, of course. Sometimes Amtrak really does live up to its potential. The scenery as you look out the windows can be truly beautiful. And I've got some great memories of taking Amtrak from Penn Station to the Adirondacks in the summers as a young teenager, by myself, toting along a duffel bag and a guitar, to spend time with my family up there. Nothing else quite like it.

 

Speaking of nothing else quite like it, I'm not sure we need to mention much about Wayne Gretzky's hockey history in this post: the 61 NHL records that he still holds to this day, or the 4 Stanley Cup rings he owns, or the 18 All-Star games he appeared in, or the many times he suited up for Team Canada, or anything else. Instead, how about we link the guy to the board advertisement?

 

Here is a list of the four NHL cities Mr. Gretzky played for, along with just some of the Amtrak lines that run to and from each city. (I've included links that provide more information, for those of you who might fancy traveling by rail):

Edmonton: None

Los Angeles: Pacific Surfliner, California Zephyr

St. Louis: Missouri River Runner, Texas Eagle

New York: Adirondack, Northeast Regional, Vermonter, Carolinian/Piedmont

Everything else aside, you've got to admit that the folks at Amtrak have come up with some great names for their train lines. Who wouldn't want to take a ride on the California Zephyr, or the Missouri River Runner?

 

So how about you readers? Have you ever traveled by Amtrak or any other scenic railway? If so, what was your experience like?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

1980-81 NHL Scoring: What Was in the Water? (Part I)

A little more than a year ago I wrote about a largely forgotten NHL record. During the 1980-81 season, the Triple Crown Line in Los Angeles did something quite special. Each player on that line—Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, and Dave Taylor—finished the season with more than 100 points. And the folks at O-Pee-Chee commemorated the record with a card in the 1981-82 set.

That record-breaker card caught me by surprise, so much so that after writing about it I began looking deeper into the full set. Quickly I'd find the other record breaker cards. Have a look at the complete list:

#390: Hat tricks (Mike Bossy, 9)

 

#391: 100+ points by each member of a forward line
(Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, Dave Taylor)

#392: Points (Wayne Gretzky, 164)

#393: Points by a rookie defenseman (Larry Murphy, 76)

#394: Assists by a goalie (Mike Palmateer, 8)

#395: Points by a rookie (Peter Stastny, 109)

There was so much offense, even the goalies were putting up points! And if no player on your hometown team was setting league scoring records, you probably still watched a couple of your guys set personal scoring records. It's a trend that would continue throughout the decade. What a time to be a hockey fan.

But there's a peculiar side-note to all of this: Those record breaker cards go from #390 to #395, despite the fact that there are 396 cards in the set. So what's the final card? A checklist? A team card of the Stanley Cup champions?

No.

#396, the final card in the set, is . . .

Bob Manno.

Well that's odd. After a great run of record breaker cards, why not end the set with one more? Or push Manno back to card #390 and move all the other record breaker cards up one spot, so the set ended with the Stastny card? 

I started to wonder whether O-Pee-Chee, at some point in production, thought about creating another record breaker card but then scratched it for some reason.

After some digging in the stat books, I found two possibilities:

(1) Mike Bossy put up a whopping 28 power-play goals during the 1980-81 season. Up to that point in NHL history, it was the highest total ever (he broke the former record of 27, which had been reached most recently just two seasons earlier by . . . Mike Bossy).

(2) Charlie Simmer had a record-setting shooting percentage during the 1980-81 season, and the number is so high it will knock you right out of your chair. Get ready:

32.7%

Yes. That's correct. Charlie Simmer scored on more than 3 out of every 10 shots on goal he took that season. Practically 1 out of every 3. And he scored a total of 56 goals. It was the highest NHL single-season shooting percentage ever.

But Bossy (#390, hat tricks) and Simmer (#391, Triple Crown Line) already had record breaker cards in the set. Perhaps O-Pee-Chee began working up #396 for either Bossy or Simmer, but then thought that one record breaker card for each of them was enough.

And so Bob Manno got the spot. Airbrushed into an Maple Leafs jersey. Oy.

One more theory? Another record was tied that year, and it was a big one: Mike Bossy scored 50 goals in his team's first 50 games. Maurice Richard was the first to do it, 36 years earlier, and no one had done it since.

I suppose it's possible that O-Pee-Chee had thought about reserving spot #396 for a "highlight" card of some sort to celebrate the record-tying feat, but changed their minds. Or maybe, if production schedules called for the set's design to be completed before the end of the hockey season, they were hoping Bossy would score 50 goals in fewer than 50 games, flat-out beating the record and allowing for a final record-breaker card. Or, as mentioned earlier, it could have simply been a case of too much Bossy. He already had seven cards in the set:

#198 (Base Card)
#208 (Super Action)
#219 (Team Leader)
#382 (League Leader, Goals)
#386 (League Leader, Power-Play Goals)
#388 (League Leader, Game-Winning Goals)
#390 (Record Breaker, Hat Tricks)

Regardless, think about the onslaught of goals and assists and points and rookies . . . and goalies with eight assists of their own. What an exciting season 1980-81 must have been. And we can thank O-Pee-Chee for documenting much of that excitement on cardboard.

Stay tuned for part II, coming next week.

The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game (Episode 9)

Welcome back to The 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Dating Game, where we'll randomly select three eligible bachelors from the set and you, the reader, will choose which one wins that date with a special lady. How do we know they're bachelors? Why, it says so right on the back of their hockey cards, that's how!

Previous episodes are available here.

Episode 8 ended in a tie between Keith Brown and Brad Palmer. You can still go back and vote to help break the tie!

Now let's start the 9th round and introduce the bachelors chosen by the randomizer! [APPLAUSE]

And folks, we've got a pretty special episode tonight. There's electricity in the air, and young ladies have been swarming the studio since early this morning. Let's introduce the bachelors and find out why.

Bachelor number 1: Left wing from the New Jersey Devils, Paul Gagne

Bachelor number 2: Center from the Edmonton Oilers, Wayne Gretzky

 

OWWWWW! WAYNE! OVER HERE! WOOOOOOO! WE LOVE YOU! YOWWWW!

Okay, thank you. Thank you ladies, thank you. Okay. We've still got one more bachelor to introduce, now. Thank you.


Bachelor number 3: Left Wing from the Chicago Black Hawks, Al Secord

Now let's find out more about these bachelors from the back of their cards.

You see, ladies? You made such a scene that Wayne got a little bashful and just couldn't think of anything interesting to share with us. But we've got to start voting. Who will the winner be this week?

Bachelor number 1: Former Spitfire Paul Gagne, who set a record as the youngest player in the NHL just a couple of years ago.

Bachelor number 2: Wayne Gretz...

WAYNE! OVER HERE! OWWW! YOWWWW!

Bachelor number 3: Boxing man Al Secord.