Out of Place – Guy Lafleur

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee - Guy Lafleur

Guy Lafleur made his return to the NHL in 1988-89 with the New York Rangers, after leaving the NHL during the 1984-85 season.  I had been too young to know him as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, so this card should have seemed normal to me, but even still, he looks out of place here – the name, the uniform, the logo… just some kind of unholy trinity.  He knew he was meant to be somewhere else.  He even looks disinterested – look at his facial expression… “Yeah, I’ll take the warmup, but I’m not going to try… and I’m not going to like it.”

This is probably sacrilege to Montreal fans – but I thought his year with the Rangers looked even weirder than the two years with the hated cross-provincial rivals, the Quebec Nordiques.

I await your letters.

Fantastic Fashions – The Jofa

1995-96 Topps - Pat Verbeek

There is nothing to call this other than The Jofa.  Everyone will know what you mean.

It’s not cool like The Gretzky Jofa, or even cult-cool like The Arturs Irbe.  This is just a spectacular monstrosity of an ugly helmet that should never have seen the light of day.  Mario Lemieux should be ashamed.