1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ken Hodge #169 In Action Boston Bruins

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ken Hodge #169 In Action Boston Bruins The right wing flank of the most devastating forward line of its generation belongs to Ken Hodge, and this 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ken Hodge #169 In Action Boston Bruins card shows the big English-born winger driving the Toronto Maple Leafs crease in the black and gold. Anyone who collected Boston in the seventies knew the names by heart: Phil Esposito up the middle, Wayne Cashman on the left and Hodge finishing on the right, the unit that powered the Big Bad Bruins to Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972. Hodge was born in Birmingham, England, a rare birthplace for an NHL star of any era, and he peaked in 1970-71 alongside Esposito's record season with a personal best of 43 goals and 105 points. The card back candidly discusses his cruel 1971-72 follow-up, when his goal production dropped from 43 to 16 after he missed 18 games to injury, the kind of honest detail these O-Pee-Chee bios always delivered. His greatest single night came on April 30, 1972, when he scored three times in the 6-5 Game 1 win over the Rangers that opened the Stanley Cup Final, and he closed the decade on Broadway after following Esposito to the New York Rangers in a 1976 trade that famously brought a young Rick Middleton back to Boston. The reverse is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back with the complete bio printed in both English and French, not a puzzle back, and it remains one of the most readable period pieces in the set. the lower right corner is the most worn point of the card with visible whitening at the tip, the upper corners carry light tip wear and the top edge shows minor surface chipping in two small areas, the left and bottom edges stay comparatively clean, and centering leans toward the right margin at approximately 60/40 left to right with even top to bottom borders. No creases, wrinkles or bends interrupt either surface and only small original print specks are present. Because the lower right tip whitening and top edge chipping are clear in the photos, we conservatively call this raw card EX 5 even though much of it presents much better. A very attractive Bruin from the golden age of Boston hockey. Grade Estimate: EX 5