Remember those early South Park episodes where the boys’ favourite TV stars Terrence and Philip used to jump high up in the air and fart in each other’s face?
Well, long before Trey Parker and Matt Stone ever conceived of that idea, the Hartford Whalers’ Chris Govedaris was apparently doing this in NHL rinks across the continent. Don’t believe me?
Here is poor L.A. Kings goaltender Kelly Hrudey falling victim to the old Terrence and Philip routine. Why Pro Set decided to go with this shot for Kelly’s hockey card, I haven’t the foggiest idea, but you would think the photographer sitting at rinkside that night must have had a couple other Hrudey shots he could have submitted for inclusion in this set. You know, like a save or something. Surely to God, Kelly made twenty or thirty of those that night, even if he did get pulled early due to poor play. Then again, what if the photographer didn’t have anything better than this? What if the photographer was on his way home after the game, and trudging through the Hartford winter looking for his car, he dropped his camera in the snow, and the only photograph that miraculously survived was this one. What if the only other shots he had of Kelly Hrudey were actually worse than this? It boggles the mind to think about what could have been. Was there a shot of Kelly throwing up on Gretzky? Did the photographer catch Kelly blowing his nose with his famous blue chiffon headband? It’s fun to think about these kinds of things when the power goes out and your cellphone battery dies.