Pack Rip - 1978-79 Topps Hockey

Let's take a break from all the Whalers for a bit and look at another pack of 1978-79 Topps hockey from the lot of 17 that I picked up a few months ago:

12 cards plus 1 sticker, here we go...

#183 - Chris Oddleifson

I'm ashamed to admit that I had never heard of Chris. He played his last NHL game before I was even born, so I guess I can't be too hard on myself. Oddleifson broke into the league with the Bruins, but spent the majority of his career with the Canucks. In fact, he was even Vancouver's captain for a single season (1976-77).

#100 - Phil Esposito

Now there's a name I do recognize! Any time you pull a Hall-of-Famer from a pack of 1970s hockey cards you're doing alright. 1978-79 was arguably Esposito's finest season of his 6 in a Rangers sweater. He appeared in all 80 games, scored 42 goals (his 8th and final time reaching the 40-goal plateau), and added an impressive 20 points in 18 playoff games.

#207 - Vancouver Canucks

Good start to the pack if you're a Canucks fan. Pretty much every collector I've talked to misses team cards, maybe someone will smarten up and start including them in their sets again.

#247 - Jim Watson

Watson played 221 career NHL games, and another 231 in the WHA. If you can believe Wikipedia, he scored the first goal in Buffalo Sabres history.

#261 - Grant Mulvey

The very last player card in the set. The final 3 cards, 262-264 are Stanley Cup semi-final and final cards. Grant had an impressive 5 goals and 2 assists in a single game against the St. Louis Blues during the 1981-82 season.

#225 - Dave Schultz

Goon! Dave still holds the record for most penalty minutes in an NHL season, with 472 in 1974-75 with the Philadelphia Flyers.

St. Louis Blues Sticker

#140 - Gerry Cheevers

For me, this is the card of the pack. I've mentioned this before, but I've always felt an affinity towards Cheevers, as he did color commentary for the Hartford Whalers TV broadcasts I used to watch back in the day.

#17 - Kent-Erik Andersson

Another player I'm not really familiar with. A quick check shows that he played 7 seasons in the NHL, 5 of them with the North Stars.

#246 - Greg Polis

Yawn...

#32 - Andre St. Laurent

Alright, this pack is headed downhill fast!

#232 - Ed Westfall

That's a bit better. 18 seasons, 1,000+ games played, and a member of the Bruins championship teams of the early 70s. The final, wax-stained card of the pack is:

#167 - Dave Forbes

Unfortunately, Forbes is perhaps best remembered for a pretty rough stick foul that effectively ended the career of Henry Boucha.

Not the world's most exciting pack, but I needed most of these for my set so it was still a success in my book. I've got a few more of these left if I can ever get around to posting them...