October 5, 2007 was the day I officially launched PuckJunk.com.
That doesn’t seem too long ago. But I feel like I got a lot accomplished in 5 years, including a Masters Degree, a successful career change and maintaining this website (and that other hockey website I also do). So I guess 5 years was a while ago.
My first-ever article for this site was a review of 2007-08 Victory Hockey.
Five years! None of my previous “hobby websites” have lasted that long. My fansite about The Matrix movies lasted about 4 years, though I didn’t update it in the last year. My G.I. Joe fansite only lasted maybe around 2 years. My Transformers website never got off the ground. But my hockey card and collectibles site–FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING.
And counting! That’s the great part. I still enjoy collecting hockey cards and I still enjoy writing about them.
Why? Because of the rest of the blogosphere. My other fansites were islands unto themselves, while Puck Junk is part of a community that enjoys hockey cards. Thanks to everyone who has traded cards with me, and thanks to everyone who’s listened to me prattle on about old cards, new cards, good cards, bad cards, rookie cards and lost cards.
Here’s to the next half-decade.
FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY CONTEST
To celebrate Puck Junk’s 5th Anniversary, I am giving away a sealed deck of Hockey Hall of Fame playing cards, which uses photos of some of the greatest all-time players.
If you would like to be entered in the drawing, just post a reply saying so by Sunday afternoon.. I will do a random drawing on Sunday night.
What if Topp was not such a boring company when it came to hockey cards in the 1980s? While Topps made epic-sized, 792 card baseball sets that featured practically every player on a team, including bit players and first round draft picks before they even suited up for a game, their hockey sets were seriously lacking,
In that decade, Topps hockey sets were not much bigger than most non-sports sets, sometimes weighing in at a scant 165 cards. That is, if they even bothered to make a hockey set at all.
Those of us who started collecting hockey in the 1980s will remember when NHL players had to EARN a rookie card. While some exceptional players in the 1960s and 1970s got rookie cards during their rookie season–like Bobby Orr and Guy Lafleur–the 1980s were a different story. A player had to play a full season before they were granted cardboard. Even Mario Lemieux, who rewrote the record books in junior hockey and was drafted first overall, had to play in the NHL for a year before getting a card.
In 2003-04, Topps released an insert set called The Lost Rookies. Found 1 in every 12 packs of Topps Hockey, The Lost Rookies is a “what if” set that depicts 11 superstars on cards from their rookie year–such as Lemieux on a 1984-85 Topps card or Joe Sakic in the 1988-89 set. It is a very cool idea, and a great set for anyone who enjoyed hockey in the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s.
1994-95 Classic Milwaukee Admirals – The Fabulous Fritz
“Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It’s off to work we go!”
I recently purchased a team set of 1994-95 Milwaukee Admirals, made by Classic Games, when I unearthed this little unexpected gem: Fritz Usinger–a.k.a. “The Fabulous Fritz.” This was a card that totally caught me off guard when I first saw it. Who the heck is Fritz, and why is he so fabulous?
The front shows us a rosy-cheeked lawn gnome, wearing goalie equipment from the 1950s, strolling–not skating–by while catching a flying bratwurst with an open bun.
Suddenly, I’ve lost my appetite.
The Fabulous Fritz is a cartoon mascot used on the sign for Usinger’s Sausage Shop (picture here). Fritz Usinger is also the name of the business’s present owner. Usinger’s has been in business in Milwaukee since 1880. The sole purpose of this card was to make Milwaukee Admirals fans, circa 1994, aware of the sausage shop’s existence.
The back of the card tries to play up both Fritz’s love of making sausage and his supposed love for hockey. His height and weight are listed as “short” and “stocky” respectively, his favorite food as (surprise!) “Bratwurst,” while his Win-Loss total reads “It’s how you play the game that counts.”
If you visit Usinger’s Retail Store, tell ’em Puck Junk sent you. Then be prepared for an awkward pause and/or stare.
I think we are all pretty used to advertisements on team-issued card sets, usually in the form of a sponsor logo somewhere on the card.
So, which do you prefer–a sponsor card like this one–potentially displacing a more relevant card–or a sponsor logo on every card in the set?
For me, a card like this is amusing for about 5 seconds. I’d rather have a card of the team’s mascot, secretary or PR guy.
Former NHL superstar Jeremy Roenick (right) made a guest appearance on the TV show “Go On” earlier this week. (NBC/Universal)
Jeremy Roenick, one of my favorite former Blackhawks’ players, had a small guest role on the new TV show “Go On” this past Tuesday. The sitcom is about a smug sports radio show host named Ryan King, played by Matthew Perry. However, King lost his wife and is attending group therapy sessions to cope. (Yes, this is a comedy.)
In this week’s episode, King is invited to play in Jeremy Roenick’s weekly pickup hockey game. I won’t tell you anything else about the episode because you might want to watch it online. However, I will spoil the best line:
“Yo, Roenick! Get back on ‘D,’ princess!”
As a longtime hockey fan, it is awesome to see a hockey player–one of my heroes, no less–appear on a TV show. Whenever an athlete guest stars on a show in the U.S., it is always a baseball, football or basketball player. Nice that hockey is finally starting to get its due here south of the border.
My good buddy Phil has supported Puck Junk since I launched the site in 2007. He’s not really a hockey fan per se, but he was always willing to proofread my articles, and he’s always good for a game of NHL ’94 on the SNES. Phil has lived in Cologne, Germany for the past two years, and brought me some German Hockey Cards last time he visited Chicago.
These “playercards,” as they are called on the wrapper, are from the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), which is the top-tier professional league in Germany. Each pack has 6 cards. You probably haven’t heard of most of these guys–but that’s OK, because I haven’t either.
#24 – Constantin Braun – Berlin Polar Bears
Braun is a defenseman and was a 6th round draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2006.
#117 – Thomas Holzmann – Iserlohn Roosters
Holzmann seems to be a fringe player. A look at his stats on HockeyDB shows that he bounces between the DEL and the second-tier league in Germany.
#10 – Greg Moore – Augsburger Panther
Hey! A name I can pronounce! Greg Moore is an American who was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2003. He played 10 games in the NHL–6 for the New York Rangers and 4 for the Columbus Blue Jackets–and spent most of his pro career in the American Hockey League. Last year was his first in the DEL, where he finished 4th in team scoring.
#146 – Danijel Kovacic – Krefeld Penguins
Danijel does not play a lot of games for the Krefeld Penguins–a team that uses an insane cartoon bird on their logo. The photo on the front shows some great action of Danijel about to trap the puck.
#115 – Jassen Cullimore- Iserlohn Roosters
I know this guy! I think we all remember Jassen Cullimore during his 15-plus seasons in the NHL. He played in 51 out of 52 games for the Iserlohn Roosters in the 2011-12 season, which was his first year in Europe.
#67 – Thomas Oppenheimer – Hamburg Freezers
Oppenheimer is currently in his 7th season in the DEL. You know…if they got rid of the advertisements, that Hamburg Freezers jersey would be totally awesome (and not just mostly awesome).
What I like about these cards
The design on the front is very clean, with the player name, number, position, team logo and league logo all nicely arranged at the bottom of the card. Since the players’ uniforms are so cluttered with ads, it was a wise move to design a card that is decidedly un-cluttered.
I also like the backs of the cards. You get a helmet-less photograph of the player, vitals and 5 lines of statistics. Such a nice, simple, effective use of space.
If Upper Deck Victory was designed as good as this set, I’d be a fan of Victory.
What I don’t like about these cards
The card number is very small and not very noticeable–it is buried in the lower right corner on the card back, if anyone is looking for it. Should I ever put a set of these together, it is gonna be murder sorting them out.
In 2005, Topps released a set of trading cards called The Topps Chronicles. Each week during the 2005 calendar year, you could buy an exclusive card directly from the Topps’ website for $4.75. The cards were printed on plastic and had a shiny chromium finish.
The Topps Chronicles wasn’t so much a sports/non-sports hybrid set as it was a set about current events. Each card would focus on an event deemed by Topps to be the biggest news of the previous week. Some cards featured entertainment or political news, while other cards were about sports. This card, entitled “On Ice,” discusses the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season.
The front of the card has a photo illustration of a chain and a lock–emblazoned with the NHL logo–obstructing our view of the ice at Madison Square Garden. Not the most subtle point, but perhaps better than a picture of Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman picketing in front of Maple Leaf Gardens.
The back shows a Chicago Blackhawks’ ticket sign and gives more information about what went down that fateful day in February 2005:
The 2004-05 NHL season became the first in any major American sport to go completely unplayed when Commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled it on February 16. Despite s aeries of last-ditch meetings and concessions on both sides, the NHL and its Players Association could not agree on a new collective bargaining agreement that would provide the “cost certainty” the owners believed to be necessary to proceed.
Did you hear that? The NHL was the first major American sport to cancel an entire season. Suck it, Major League Baseball!
I also like the fact that Topps told it like it was, calling those final meetings “last ditch” and not some wussy euphemism like “11th hour.” Trying to salvage the season in February, when it is all but over, is truly a last ditch effort.
Topps’ license to make hockey cards expired in 2004. Technically, this is the last hockey card they ever made, though it is from a non-hockey set of cards.
Even though I love everything about the new O-Pee-Chee set, I have yet to take the plunge and buy a whole box. Part of me really wants to buy a whole case, but in order to do that I need to accumulate a bit of disposable income (well, more than a bit actually). The summer months were rough for me financially, but now that I am teaching again (yay Fall semester!) I should have some funds to buy at least a few boxes next month.
In the meantime, I purchased a hobby pack to tide me over. It was not the pack to end all packs, but it was still a darn good pack. No, I did not get a Gretzky autograph or some 1-in-6400 deckle edge insert card.
Still, I think I got my money’s worth.
5 Base Cards
Let’s see…one Red Wing, one Flame, one Predator and two Sharks. Nice–none of those silly Eastern Conference teams!
1 Retro Parallel
One big reason that I am NOT buying retail packs is because you get a Retro Parallel in every other retail pack.. In hobby packs, the Retros are one per pack. Getting a Retro here is no big deal–because you are supposed to get one–but I enjoy the card nonetheless.
1 Rainbow Parallel
I can do without the Rainbow Parallels. These fall 1 in every 4 packs.
1 Sticker
Am I the only one who wishes that the sticker design was instead the base card design? I think the stickers look fabulous–a combination of old OPC hockey and old Topps baseball. Stickers happen at a rate of 1 in every 3 packs, so I think I did pretty good getting a 1-in-4 card and a 1-in-3 card in the same pack.
Contest Update
Twelve hockey card collectors have participated in the One-Card Challenge so far. As of this writing, Captain Canuck is narrowly in the lead with 5 points. Kazi is in 2nd place with 4 points, and Dave H is in 3rd with 3 points.
But it is still anyone’s game! There are 13 days left until the end of the contest. Give a card–or receive a card–to complete a set and get a point in the standings. Give me a card (hint, hint) and get TWO points in the standings.
Rules for the contest and a list of what “last cards” are needed can be seen here.
(And Jimmy, I have emailed you about that Arturs Irbe card you have for me–twice in fact.)
Nice design, two future stars, make for a worthwhile set
Not everyone who laces ’em up in the minors will make it to the NHL, but it is always cool to see the players who do at a point in their career before they become famous. For me, a minor league team set is worth picking up if it has just one player in it who goes on to NHL stardom.
The 1997-98 Springfield Falcons team set features cards of not one, but two players who would go onto NHL stardom–Shane Doan and Daniel Briere. And the design isn’t the usual over-designed nonsense of the late 1990s. Continue reading “Review: 1997-98 Springfield Falcons”
O-Pee-Chee always tried to make their hockey cards as up-to-date as possible back in the 1970s and 1980s.. When a player was traded, the card company would communicate this fact on the front of the card. Sometimes they would have the photograph altered, and sometimes they’d add a line of text explaining the player’s whereabouts. On the 1978-79 O-Pee-Chee card of Tom Edur, it gave two contradictory explanations of the former Penguin’s current status.
Near the bottom-right corner of the card, it states “Now with Blues.” This is reinforced by the fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins logo and team name have been replaced by that of the St. Louis Blues.
But in the lower-left corner, the card simultaneously states “Retired from active playing.”
The special hockey card treatment Stanley Cup-winning teams have gotten in recent years makes this Blackhawks’ fan jealous.The ‘Hawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, but no commemorative sets or arena giveaways marked the occasion. A year later, the Boston Bruins got their own 30-card commemorative set, while Los Angeles Kings fans received this 6-card giveaway during the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals.
Wow…Kings’ fans got to go to a Stanley Cup Finals game AND got a special set of hockey cards. The only thing that would make that scenario better is free nachos at the concession stand.
The cards are printed on thinner stock than normal Upper Deck hockey cards. They are devoid of gloss or foil. For a freebie, though, that really does not matter.
The set came sealed in a cellophane wrapper.
Player Selection
Six cards of the Kings’ best players during the first two rounds of the playoffs are in this set. The players included are Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards, Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and a second card of Dustin Brown. So, while this isn’t a comprehensive team set, each card has relevance.
Front Design – 3 out of 5
The design of these cards is a bit confusing. The cards have a Stanley Cup Final logo on the front, but the photos used are either from Round 1 or Round 2 of the playoffs, and not the finals.
Also confusing is that the last card in the set–the second card of team captain Dustin Brown–lacks the Stanley Cup Final logo and the little black diamonds, and instead says “Stanley Cup Memorable Moments.”
Card #6 does not have the Stanley Cup Finals logo on it.
Why the last card looks different is anyone’s guess. My theory is that all the cards were originally supposed to say “Stanley Cup Memorable Moments,” but a decision was made to use the Finals logo instead.Given the fact that this set was produced rather hastily, I think the last card somehow got overlooked during production.
Back Design / Stats & Info – 3 out of 5
The design of the back of cards 1 to 5 looks very sharp. The white text against the black background is very easy to read, and explains a particular feat the pictured player accomplished in the playoffs. Below that are the player’s stats for the 2011-12 regular season and their career totals. Season stats seem unnecessary here, as the focus of this set is the playoffs.
The last card is a mess, though–black text superimposed over a gray background with the Stanley Cup ghosted behind it. It is an unnecessarily complicated design that is hard to read.
The set is a unique collectable for Kings fans who like hockey cards. Putting the Stanley Cup Final logo on cards that were given out at the Finals–but actually have nothing to do with the Finals–is a bit of a misguided design choice.
BONUS
Here are images of the entire set.
SC-1 – Anze Kopitar – Kopitar is included because he scored 2 goals in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals. (back)
SC-2 – Mike Richards – He had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semis, scoring the game-winning goal. (back)
SC-3 – Jonathan Quick – The Kings ace netminder had a shutout against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 of the first round. (back)
SC-4 – Dustin Brown – Scored the game-winning–and series-clinching–goal against the St. Louis Blues in Game 4 of the second round. (back)
SC-5 – Drew Doughty – Doughty had 1 goal and 2 assists in the third game of the Western Conference Semifinals. (back)
SC-6 – Dustin Brown – Brown scored 2 shorthanded goals against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 2 of the first round. (back)
October 5, 2007 was the day I officially launched PuckJunk.com.
To celebrate Puck Junk’s 5th Anniversary, I am giving away a sealed deck of Hockey Hall of Fame playing cards, which uses photos of some of the greatest all-time players.
If you would like to be entered in the drawing, just post a reply saying so by Sunday afternoon.. I will do a random drawing on Sunday night.
