Saskawhere?

The 1982-83 Blue Note edition is the first team I really, really remember-Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Blake Dunlop, Rob Ramage, Perry Turnbull, Joe Mullen, Wayne Babych, Alain Lemieux, Guy Lapointe, and Mike Liut.  However, it isn’t the season that I remember, because it wasn’t memorable. Going 25-40-15 and having a total of 65 points put them 4th in the Norris Division. But hockey being hockey they made the post-season and actually made it the Norris Division Semi-finals during which Chicago would beat them in four games.

No it wasn’t this I remembered but it was the attempt by the Ralston Purina Company to sell the team to the owner of the Edmonton Oilers who had plans to move them to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Yep, Saskatoon.  SO, the NHL actually made a good decision and vetoed the deal. The Blues would be sold prior to following season to Harry Ornest and they would remain in the STL.

The 1982-83 season would see the absence of Topps from the Hockey card market. Topps would not return with an issue until the 1984-85 season.

That left OPC the only major card issue for the season. They really knocked the puck out of the arena with this set.  The front of the set has a white border then for the Blues a yellow border then the team player name at the top along with the player’s position in English and French. This would be only the second time since the Blues began to have OPC cards that the position would be bilingual. The other issue was the 1981-82 set.

The bottom of the yellow border is rounded and has the Blue note on the bottom right corner. The reverse is a wonderful eye full of hot pink and tanish color. For the record hot ink and purple are my two favorite colors.  While the fronts are vertical the reverse is horizontal. The reverse has the player and team’s name and position in a hot pink box at the top with bio info below along with career stats. The top left has the card number and the top right the OPC logo. There is a factoid on the right.

As a result of no Topps being issued this year no need to worry about the different checklists. The following Blues had OPC cards. 16 of 16 OPC cards in collection.

Brian Sutter Team Leader
Wayne Babych
Jack Brownschidle
Blake Dunlop
Bernie Federko
Bernie Federko In Action
Pat Hickey
Guy Lapointe
Mike Liut
Joe Mullen RC
Larry Patey
Jorgen Pettersson
Rob Ramage
Brian Sutter
Perry Turnbull
Mike Zuke