Best of the Worst: 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey

Greetings, my fellow hockey fans who aren’t watching hockey! While we are trying to socially distance and wash our hands like NBC Sports washed it’s hands of several problematic co-hosts, Upper Deck dropped a lump of coal in our turkey before yelling, “Happy St. Paddy’s Day!” and throwing beaded necklaces at us. And who can blame them since we don’t know what day it is, let alone what holiday. But that’s no lump of coal: it’s a box of Upper Deck’s Series 1!  If it was coal, it would have said “Panini.”

Before jumping to the goods, I was worried that I wouldn’t find enough cards to make fun of in a post, and this has been the case for the past few boxes of Upper Deck’s flagship hockey set. Honestly, the first half of the packs that I exhumed not only lacked of comical merriment fuel, but frankly, they lacked anything awesome or inspiring. The cards were boring. Dull. Safe. But thankfully, the later half of the box got things back on track! 

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The Best Twitter Clapbacks at Brad Marchand’s Shootout Whiff

On Monday, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins 6-5 in a game that came down to literally the last shot. Travis Konecky, shooting second-to-last, scored in the fifth round of the shootout. Then it was Brad Marchand’s turn for his shot. Only, he forgot to take the puck with him.

Marchand overskated the puck, and the Flyers won the game. This was after the Bruins blew a 5-2 lead, making Marchand’s mistake even more epic. He is the first player since the shootout was instituted in 2005 to overskate the puck on a shootout attempt.

“I was just trying to get going and just missed it,” Marchand told NHL.com. “I know the rule, you touch it on a penalty shot, it’s your shot. Unfortunate. It’s a tough way to lose on a play like that.”

But on Tuesday, Marchand — instead of showing a little bit of humility, or even taking a joke like he is sometimes willing to do — decided to tweet a photo of himself hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Of course, the peanut gallery that is Hockey Twitter had to get involved and razz the Rat.

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Best of the Worst: 2019-20 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey

Hello again, my friends. I hope we’re all thankful and fat from Thanksgiving leftovers (or not, if you’re from outside the United States), but let’s dive into Upper Deck’s latest givings and see where their photographers dropped the ball before New Years!

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I Used FaceApp on Some Hockey Cards

Like 12.7 million other people this month, I downloaded FaceApp because it looked like a fun little phone app to play around with. For those who don’t know, FaceApp is a program for mobile phones that lets you take a picture and, using artificial intelligence, alters it by adding a smile, facial hair or glasses, among other things. You can also age a person to look older or younger than they actually are, with convincing results. 

It’s a very cool app, but unfortunately, like the 12.7 million other users, I didn’t realize that it had a questionable privacy policy. So, I ended up deleting FaceApp from my phone a few hours later, but not before having fun with some hockey cards. 

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Best of the Worst: 2018-19 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey

While we all loosen our belts and pass on the leftover green bean casserole, like every NHL team that passed on Jaromir Jagr’s contract last season, let’s take a deep dive into the Upper Deck’s latest offering of fresh, hot hockey photography from the 2018-19 Series One flagship set.

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Hockey-Inspired Costumes for 2018

Going to a Halloween party? Need a last-minute costume? You could use one of these sweet ideas to impress your friends that know hockey, and confuse your friends that don’t. All you need is a jersey and a few things that are probably lying around your house or easy to find in the Halloween section of your nearest drug store.

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7 Reasons Why Hockey is Better Than Soccer

Note: This article was originally published in 2010. It has been revised and updated with two more reasons why hockey is still better than soccer. 

As much as I admire soccer for being the world’s most popular sport, I just can’t get into it. Watching it bores me. Getting out of bed at some early hour to watch the World Cup does not entice me.

Plain and simple, soccer is not as good as hockey. Don’t believe me? I’ll give you five — no, make that seven — reasons why hockey is better than soccer.  Continue reading “7 Reasons Why Hockey is Better Than Soccer”

8 Offbeat Washington Capitals Cards

Since the Washington Capitals entered the NHL in 1974, the team has been in the Stanley Cup Finals just twice: back in 1998 and now in 2018. And during the team’s 43-year history, there have been only a handful of offbeat Capitals hockey cards. Here are eight such cards of Capitals players that are so fun, strange or ridiculous that they just have to be shared. 

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Best of the Worst: 2017-18 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

As the NHL season slowly slips away from us (because some of our teams couldn’t find the postseason if it was water and they fell off a boat), it’s nice to have Upper Deck around to remind us of the good times and the crazy moments like a high school yearbook. And much like a high school yearbook, even good photographers can take bad pictures. Let’s look at some now!

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Best of the Worst: 2017-18 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey

You can smell the turkey cooking, you’re already gearing up for the assault of family members you haven’t seen in a year and still don’t want to, the air is getting crisp even in Carolina, and there’s a collective groan out of the Windy City as the Blackhawks are announced as participants in yet another outdoor game. Must be time to make fun of Upper Deck’s latest flagship set of hockey cards!

UD made it tough for me this year; almost every pack I opened had one card I could laugh at. I doubt they read these posts for the sake of tossing me a softball, but I piled up 36 cards out of one hobby box to poke fun at and I’ve pared it down to a baker’s dozen.

We’ll start with three really candid shots:

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