Frank J. Selke Trophy

that’s y

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Motor-City Wonder: A birthday for Steve Yzerman, who’s 57 today: here’s a waggle of an upraised right-handed Victoriaville 9050 APT stick to him. Born in 1965 on a Sunday of this date in Cranbrook, B.C., Yzerman played 22 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, which yielded three Stanley Cup championships, as well as a Conn Smythe, a Selke, and a Masterton Trophy. He captained the Wings for 19 of those seasons and was a shoo-in when it came to the Hall of Fame, to which he was elevated in 2009. In 2016, Canada Post put Yzerman, who’s now the GM of the Red Wings, on a stamp, as part of a postal series featuring a distinguished cadre of other masterly modern-day goalscorers, including Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur, Darryl Sittler, Mark Messier, and Sidney Crosby.

flin flon’s flyer

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Dressed For Success: Born on a Saturday of this date in 1949 in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Bobby Clarke is 70 today. The Philadelphia Flyers he captained in the early 1970s raised two Stanley Cups, of course, and he won a Masterton and a Selke Trophy for himself, along with (three times) the Hart Memorial Trophy he’s brandishing here in his best duds. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987. Is this not the time or place to mention that he broke Valeri Kharlamov’s ankle with a craven slash in the sixth game of the 1972 Summit Series? Probably not.

carbo lauding

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Hallmarked: TSN’s Frank Seravalli tracked down Bob Gainey soon after word broke that his old Montreal Canadiens teammate Guy Carbonneau had been selected for induction into hockey’s Hall of Fame. “Told Gainey that people often referred to Carbonneau as a ‘lower-case Gainey,’” Seravalli reported on Twitter. “He stopped me. ‘That would be doing a disservice to Guy Carbonneau,’ Gainey said.” His career spanned 19 seasons, five of which he spent as Montreal’s captain; he also stopped in St. Louis and Dallas. Carbonneau won three Stanley Cups in his time, along with three Frank J. Selke trophies for his defensive prowess. Also going to the Hall: Hayley Wickenheiser, Vaclav Nedomansky, and Sergei Zubov, along with builders Jim Rutherford and Jerry York.