1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Jim Lorentz #75 Buffalo Sabres

Description

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Jim Lorentz #75 Buffalo Sabres Few cards capture the raw, unpolished charm of early-seventies Canadian hockey cardboard quite like this one, and the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee Jim Lorentz #75 Buffalo Sabres card puts that charm front and centre with a posed studio-lit crouch, a stick blade planted on painted concrete, and that unmistakable red O-Pee-Chee border framing the whole thing. This is the original Canadian release from the O-Pee-Chee plant in London, Ontario, printed on Canadian stock and distributed in wax packs across the country during the winter of 1973-74, and it remains the version Canadian collectors chase because the O-Pee-Chee set runs 264 cards deep versus the far smaller American Topps counterpart. Jim Lorentz was a Niagara Falls, Ontario product who came up through the Boston Bruins chain and won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 1970 before passing through St. Louis and New York and finding a long-term home in Buffalo. The reverse of this card, written in both English and French as all O-Pee-Chee cards of this era were, notes that he can play left wing if necessary and calls him one of the stronger skaters in the league, which was scouting shorthand for a smart, versatile two-way forward. His 1972-73 numbers are printed right on the back in the classic hockey-stick graphic layout: 78 games played, 27 goals, 35 assists, 62 points and only 30 penalty minutes. Lorentz would go on to be a key piece of the French Connection era Sabres teams that reached the 1975 Stanley Cup Final, and he owns one of the most retold pieces of hockey folklore in the sport, having famously swatted a bat out of the air with his stick during the fog-shrouded Game Three of that 1975 Final in Buffalo. After his playing days he became a familiar broadcast voice on Sabres telecasts, which keeps steady collector demand alive for his vintage cardboard in both Buffalo and Southern Ontario. This is a solid, honest mid-grade raw example. The card is the light tan paper stock variation rather than the darker grey stock, and the back is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with English and French biography text and the "PRINTED IN CANADA" notation at the lower right; this set does not use puzzle backs, so the reverse is a full stats-and-cartoon design. Corners show light rounding with a small amount of white fibre breaking through at the upper right and lower right, while the two left corners remain relatively tidy. Edges are clean overall with only faint chipping along the right border where the red ink meets the card edge, and the deckled O-Pee-Chee cut is intact all the way around. Centering on the front measures approximately 55/45 left to right and near 50/50 top to bottom, which is above average for a 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee card. There is a small surface fleck visible in the red border along the right side and a shallow print speck near the lower banner, but no creases, no wrinkles, no bends and no writing or tape residue on either side. The back is bright with strong colour separation and no gum staining. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6