deepbluejacket
Verified Trader,
I picked up a set of 1975-76 Topps earlier this year and spent some time looking at it last night. It's the first year with action shots of the lowly Washington Capitals. There are a surprising amount of photos of Capitals splayed out, desperately trying to get to the puck (or just collapsing exhausted.) This card caught my eye:

In the back, there's a blur to the left of Marson's head. What is that guy wearing? It looks like a football helmet!
Wait! There he is again!

And by sheer chance, I was flipping through Ken Reid's Hockey Card stories and who should show up!

*That's not Terry Crisp, as Ken Reid and Crisp explain in the book.
At least now we're getting somewhere. We've got a nine on his jersey, but that's not enough.

Ok, maybe #19?
The first place I check is the Washington Capitals checklist card. There is no #19 listed.
According to hockey reference, that gives us two candidates: Pete Laframboise and Jack Lynch. Both wore #19 during the season. Laframboise was traded to Pittsburgh after playing 45 games, while Lynch got the number when he arrived from Detroit and played 20 games.
I can't find photos of either man wearing all that headgear, and hockeyreference doesn't have box scores going back that far.
Here's Pete's 1975-76 card:

Only problem is, that's basically also his 1974-75 card:

So did he have the soup strainer mustache in '74? Even if he did, we can't really see though his Dark Helmet gear to get a good look at his face. The deciding factor is probably the Gagnon card. Our masked man shoots left-handed, as Laframboise did. Lynch was a righty.
Except...Bailey didn't arrive in Washington until February 10, 1975. Laframboise had been dealt away on January 21. And Dark Helmet is pictured on a card with Bailey! That points back to Lynch. There's a maze of sticks here, but that Koho in the middle could be our guy's, and that's a righty. The Gagnon card may have just given the illusion that our guy was a lefty. The Crisp card is a confusion. It's only when we get back to Marson that our blur in the background is revealed as a righty. So we're probably looking at Jack Lynch.

Jack Lynch is erroneously listed as wearing #9, not #19 on the Capitals checklist card. It also has Bailey wearing #15, where his card clearly has him in #9.
So until proven otherwise, Jack Lynch it is. Lynch is best known for racking up a staggering -54 rating in just 20 games that season. Possibly because he couldn't see anything!
Mike
PS. Further perusal of the 1975-76 OPC set online shows Bob Gryp in a posed photo wearing #19! But that photo is probably from the start of the 1975-76 season, as hockeyreference says he wore #12 and #18 in 1974-75.

In the back, there's a blur to the left of Marson's head. What is that guy wearing? It looks like a football helmet!
Wait! There he is again!

And by sheer chance, I was flipping through Ken Reid's Hockey Card stories and who should show up!

*That's not Terry Crisp, as Ken Reid and Crisp explain in the book.
At least now we're getting somewhere. We've got a nine on his jersey, but that's not enough.

Ok, maybe #19?
The first place I check is the Washington Capitals checklist card. There is no #19 listed.
According to hockey reference, that gives us two candidates: Pete Laframboise and Jack Lynch. Both wore #19 during the season. Laframboise was traded to Pittsburgh after playing 45 games, while Lynch got the number when he arrived from Detroit and played 20 games.
I can't find photos of either man wearing all that headgear, and hockeyreference doesn't have box scores going back that far.
Here's Pete's 1975-76 card:

Only problem is, that's basically also his 1974-75 card:

So did he have the soup strainer mustache in '74? Even if he did, we can't really see though his Dark Helmet gear to get a good look at his face. The deciding factor is probably the Gagnon card. Our masked man shoots left-handed, as Laframboise did. Lynch was a righty.
Except...Bailey didn't arrive in Washington until February 10, 1975. Laframboise had been dealt away on January 21. And Dark Helmet is pictured on a card with Bailey! That points back to Lynch. There's a maze of sticks here, but that Koho in the middle could be our guy's, and that's a righty. The Gagnon card may have just given the illusion that our guy was a lefty. The Crisp card is a confusion. It's only when we get back to Marson that our blur in the background is revealed as a righty. So we're probably looking at Jack Lynch.

Jack Lynch is erroneously listed as wearing #9, not #19 on the Capitals checklist card. It also has Bailey wearing #15, where his card clearly has him in #9.
So until proven otherwise, Jack Lynch it is. Lynch is best known for racking up a staggering -54 rating in just 20 games that season. Possibly because he couldn't see anything!
Mike
PS. Further perusal of the 1975-76 OPC set online shows Bob Gryp in a posed photo wearing #19! But that photo is probably from the start of the 1975-76 season, as hockeyreference says he wore #12 and #18 in 1974-75.