Return to 'Tender

 Ever since going to the Rhinebeck car show early in May, I've been on a 60s music kick again. (as an aside, car shows play the best music) And of course, you can't listen to a 50s/60s channel without hearing Elvis. When they play his "Return to Sender" when you are looking at the following card:

it's very easy for the song to start playing in your head but instead of "Return to Sender" it becomes "Return to 'Tender" and then the idea popped into my head to write a post about goaltenders. Other than the post title, it didn't give me much to build off of. Hmm, perhaps a countdown of the top 10 Goaltenders in my collection, based on number of cards? 

10. Technically 9th and 10th are tied, both with 48 cards. But since I don't particularly like John Vanbiesbrouck, he gets last. His numbers are bumped up because he played for my team. Sergei Bobrovsky is 3 cards away from bumping him out of the top 10, and frankly I hope it happens. He actually had been ahead of him until I got the Rangers Centennial set for Glad I'm Not Dead Day.

9. Ed Belfour is in 9th, and of the Top 10 I know the least about him. He retired before I started watching the sport. One of his cards does mention he has a classic car so he can't be too bad! 48 cards of him reside in my collection.

8. I thought the 8th place goalie would be higher, but nope...he's only in 8th with 51 cards, Martin Brodeur.

7. There's a big drop between 6th and 7th, with Connor Hellebuyck holding down 7th most goalie cards, but he only has 52 in my collection, 14 less than the 6th place goalie. He is still active and that does give him a chance to add more cards than a retired player would though. 

6. Just barely out of the top 5 is one of the all-time greats, Patrick Roy. I didn't get to see him play live but I did get to see him coach. The Islanders shouldn't have fired him. I currently have 66 cards of him.

5. Holding the final spot in the top 5 is current superstar and guaranteed Hall of Famer Andrei Vasilevskiy, with 69 cards.

4. The highest ranked goalie who I didn't get to see play live isn't a surprise, as he's one of the all-time greats of my favorite team, and our last Stanley Cup winning goalie, Mike Richter. I currently have 73 cards of him, tied with Mario Lemieux.

3. Once we got below the top 2 I wasn't exactly sure how it play out so looking at my collection totals to make this post let me be surprised as well. Carey Price is in third, with 76 cards. 

2. Coming in second isn't really a surprise either, and that's Marc-Andre Fleury, with 94 cards. Marc-Andre is my mom's all-time favorite player and I'm also a fan. 

1. Of course, at number one, and the only number I knew who it would be before I started writing this post, is Henrik Lundqvist, my all-time favorite NHL player and one of the few who I actively buy single cards of. Not only does he have the most goalie cards in my collection, he has the most hockey cards overall of all players combined, with 165 at the time of this writing. 

Since I'll be curious if I remember to revisit this post/concept into the future, here are the contenders looking to move into the top 10:

1. 11. Sergei Bobrovsky 45
2. 12. Jonathan Quick 44
3. 13. Igor Shesterkin 42
4. 14. Roberto Luongo 41
5. 15. Dominik Hasek 40
6. 16. Curtis Joseph 40
7. 17. Tuukka Rask 40
8. 18. Sean Burke 38
9. 19. Semyon Varlamov 38
10. 20. John Gibson 36
11. 21. Daren Puppa 36
12. 22. Pekka Rinne 34
13. 23. Braden Holtby 33
14. 24. Kari Lehtonen 31
15. 25. Nikolai Khabibulin 30
16. 26. Matt Murry (1) 30
17. 27. Bill Ranford 30
18. 28. Carter Hart 29
19. 29. Cory Schneider 29
20. 30. Mike Vernon 29

Since I started the post with a card of Ukko-Pekka Luukonen, he has a long way to go. I currently have 11 cards of him.