AHH! What the hell is wrong with Norm Beaudin’s eyes? I’m waiting for lasers to blast out of those things.
Or maybe he’s just getting ready to scream his lungs out in front of a crowd of angry teenagers. In a way, Norm’s card reminds me a bit (OK, a LOT) of Marilyn Manson. Remember when you were in high school in the mid-1990s, and you would pick up the latest issue of Metal Edge, and this is what you would see:
Oh yeah, that’s some good old fashioned nightmare fuel right there! Good times…
Poor Norm. That thing above is his rookie card, and one of only three hockey cards he would ever have. He wasn’t the first, and he certainly wasn’t the last NHL player to suffer from the distinction of having an abominable-looking rookie card.
You really don’t get the full effect of Beaudin’s laser eyes though until you blow the picture up.
Check this out!
I’m sensing a bit of a “blue” motif in this card, but maybe that’s just me. The reason Norm’s uniform is blue is because his only NHL experience to that point was a 13-game stint he played as a member of the St. Louis Blues in 1967-68. His numbers in the American League the next three years were stellar, however: 71 points in 1969, 81 points in 1970, and 75 points in 59 games in 1971. Those numbers must have impressed the Minnesota brass because they went out and bought his contract from Montreal in June 1970. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get much of an opportunity to prove himself as he got into just 12 games with the Stars. Two years later, he in Winnipeg of the WHA, where he would light it up for the Jets. He scored 103 points that magical first WHA season, but he never came close to the numbers again, settling into a decent, but not spectacular 45-55 point range his final three WHA seasons.