I suppose everyone deserves at least one card in their career.  There are lots of guys who don’t even get that chance.  But did Pro Set really have to include every single person to have been involved with the National Hockey League during the 1989-90 season?  I mean, referees?  And it’s not like there were one or two cards commemorating a few refs’ 1,000th games or something; that I could understand.  In Pro Set’s 1990-91 ensemble there are, I kid you not, 22 referees and linesmen!  I used to get more excited opening up a pack of cards and finding a checklist.

Once again, I have to ask the question, Who the hell gave the thumbs up to this picture of Ron Asselstine?  I mean, did Pro Set have to pick a shot where it looks like our poor ref here is cutting the cheese?  Look at the faces on the people in the crowd.  Notice them looking in all sorts of different directions wondering where the smell is coming from?

Luckily for everyone, Pro Set didn’t produce any referee cards in its subsequent sets, not that that deterred Pro Set from producing another bloated 615-card set, complete with four mid-season (yes, MID-SEASON) power-play goal leader cards and four mid-season plus-minus leader cards.  Was it really necessary to give Paul Ysebaert a second card in this set that they had to invent statistical categories?  But that is an induction for another day…