1977-78 O-Pee-Chee Glossy Inserts

As I started weeding through my collection yesterday I stumbled upon this great insert set that I had almost completely forgotten about. In 1977 you got one "glossy" insert in each pack of O-Pee-Chee/Topps hockey cards. There are 22 cards in the glossy set, and it's chock full of Hall-of-Famers. It's amazing that I sat on this for over a year, yet Captain Canuck literally beat me to the punch in displaying these cards by just a day. Oh well, I had already scanned in all 22 and got them uploaded to blogger by the time I saw Canuck's post, so here are all 22 cards in their full-color, borderless glory for your viewing pleasure:

#1 - Wayne Cashman - Boston Bruins - As you can see, the design here is very basic. In fact, there's really no design at all. They are the size of a standard trading card, but are just a color photo with a facsimile signature. Wayne's "W" is quite unique.

#2 - Gerry Cheevers - Boston Bruins - Very happy to have another Cheevers card in my collection. As usual, the goalies are my favorites in this set.

#3 - Bobby Clarke - Philadelphia Flyers - One of few cards that shows an in-game action shot. No surprise that the photo was taken during a Washington Capitals game.

#4 - Marcel Dionne - Los Angeles Kings - I'm glad the Kings did away with those awful Purple and Yellow jerseys. Just because you are from LA doesn't mean you need to mimic the Lakers. This shot may have been taken after a scrap, which would explain the lack of gloves on Dionne and the sticks laying all over the ice in the background.

#5 - Ken Dryden - Montreal Canadiens - That mask is awesome. The signature is perfectly placed as well. This is definitely one of my favorites from the set.

#6 - Clark Gillies - New York Islanders - Sporting what appears to be a black eye, like a true hockey player.

#7 - Guy Lafleur - Montreal Canadiens - The old-school Canadiens jersey is great.

#8 - Reggie Leach - Philadelphia Flyers - I believe that is Fred Shero on the Flyers bench in the background.

#9 - Rick MacLeish - Philadelphia Flyers - Great shot on this one, at least by 70's standards. The puck is in the shot and I like the blurred out goal/goalie in the background.

#10 - Dave Maloney - New York Rangers

#11 - Richard Martin - Buffalo Sabres

#12 - Don Murdoch - New York Rangers - I have to confess that this was the one guy in the set I didn't know much about at all. I think he was included because he had a fantastic rookie season the previous year, scoring 56 points in 59 games. He was caught with cocaine in the off-season though, and admitted to having drinking and drug problems. Maybe this is part of the reason he never matched his rookie numbers and played only 320 career games at the NHL level.

#13 - Brad Park - Boston Bruins - Looks like some potential air-brushing going on with the jersey here, but I'm not 100% sure.

#14 - Gilbert Perreault - Buffalo Sabres

#15 - Denis Potvin - New York Islanders

#16 - Jean Ratelle - Boston Bruins - Topps had the same 22-card insert set in 1977, however their cards were slightly smaller in size and had rounded corners. I pulled the Ratelle in a pack I opened for A Pack a Day a long while back if you'd like to see the difference.

#17 - Glenn Resch - New York Islanders

#18 - Larry Robinson - Montreal Canadiens

#19 - Steve Shutt - Montreal Canadiens - Another one of my favorites, Steve has a great signature as well.

#20 - Darryl Sittler - Toronto Maple Leafs

#21 - Rogatien Vachon - Los Angeles Kings - This is my favorite card in the set easily. It's the only horizontal card, it's a great goalie shot and the signature is both interesting and perfectly placed. This actually might be one of my favorite hockey cards from my collection period.

#22 - Tim Young - Minnesota North Stars - Tim Young rounds it out, the only North Star in the set.

Well, there you have it, the 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee Glossy insert set!