1977-78 O-Pee-Chee 35 Garry Unger Hockey Card (Front)
1977-78 O-Pee-Chee 35 Garry Unger Hockey Card (Back)
1977-78 O-Pee-Chee NHL Checklist
Card Notes
Enters 1977-78 with streak of 723 consecutive games played.
Details
Garry Unger’s ironman streak would continue for a few more years. Prior to the start of the 1979-80 season, Garry was traded from the St. Louis Blues to the Atlanta Flames. In late December, he was benched and his streak ended. However, Unger did play 79 of Atlanta’s 80 games that season.
He would finish with 914 consecutive games played, starting on February 24, 1968 and ending on December 21, 1979. The streak was fragile in the beginning, surviving a trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Detroit Red Wings on March 3, 1968, just after his streak began.
As a bonus, Garry played in 79 games in 1970-71, a season when teams played 78 games. A February 5, 1971 trade sent him from the Red Wings to the Blues along with Wayne Connelly for Red Berenson and Tim Ecclestone. Because the two teams had schedules that weren’t quite aligned, Unger got the extra game out of it.
Today, that mark stands as the fourth longest in National Hockey League history. Ahead of Unger are Doug Jarvis, Keith Yandle and Phil Kessel. Kessel’s streak is still active as of the date this article was published.
Garry Unger played 1,105 regular season games in the NHL between 1967-68 and 1982-83 with the Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Blues, Flames, Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers. He had nine seasons where he scored 30 or more goals. In two campaigns, he topped the 40 goal plateau with his best season coming in 1969-70 when he potted 42 for the Red Wings. That put him just one goal behind Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins for the NHL lead.
Garry Unger 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee 35 [YouTube Shorts]
