Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

I Normally Don’t Collect These…

..but every now and then I’ll pick up the odd game used jersey, stick or relic card.

This pair here–from the 2001-02 Topps Archives Hockey set–cost me a whopping $3. That’s about all I really want to spend on game used or relic cards.The top card uses a piece of a seat from the old Pittsburgh Civic Arena, while the bottom card uses a piece of a jersey worn by former Minnesota North Stars player Bobby Smith.

Confession time: Back in 2002, I thought the jersey cards were a pretty neat idea. I had never seen them before, as I took a break from hockey card collecting from 1998 to 2002. So even though the idea had been around, it was new to me. It was the 2002 Winter Olympics that got me re-interested in collecting hockey cards, and I attempted to collect every jersey, stick and relic card from the Archives set.

But over the past 8 years, I’ve been slow in this collecting endeavor. I have only 5 of 28 Arena Seat Relics cards, 1 of 3 game used stick cards and 5 of 12 game used jersey cards.

So while I will still continue to hate on jersey cards, I’ll make a minor exception whenever I see one of these…especially when they’re only a dollar or two each.

Roberto Luongo Reading Poetry


Yesterday, my girlfriend and a friend of hers commandeered the living room to paint and make collages. Artsy stuff.

This displaced me from watching the Blackhawks-Canucks game on TV, so I watched TSN’s feed of the game online.

Boy, am I glad that I did! 

During intermission, TSN aired this hilarious segment featuring Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo reading poetry. His verses were about the Sedin Twins, Dustin Byfuglien, the shootout and other hockey-related subjects. Check out the video above–it is 2 minutes of pure genius.

Why can’t U.S. hockey coverage be this funny?

1957-58 Topps #38 – Al Arbour

My 13th card for the 1957-58 Topps Hockey set that I am building.

Unlike the Fern Flaman card I also got recently, this Al Arbour card is not in the greatest shape. It has some creases and wear–“character,” you could say. Much like Arbour himself.

This only cost $5, so I don’t feel too bad about getting such an imperfect card.

Set completion as of 12-2-2010:
13 out of 66 cards = 19.7%

Irvin Kershner 1923-2010

American film director Irvin Kershner passed away this Saturday. Many of you already know this by now, but I just learned the sad news today.

Kershner is probably best known as the director of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. That film holds a special place in my heart, and is my favorite film of all time.

The Empire Strikes Back was the first “non-cartoon” movie that I saw as a child. I was 5 at the time, and I remember my mom taking me to the old Devon Theater in Chicago to see it. The line wrapped all the way around the block! I’m not sure how long we waited, but after that film I would always and forever be a fan of the Star Wars movies.

Coincidentally, the first trading cards I ever had as a kid were movie cards based on Empire. My mom used to buy them for me, and I recall having stacks of these in a shoebox. Now, I only have a few dozen.

Below are some of my cards from the various sets based on The Empire Strikes Back.

The scene with the Imperial AT-AT Walkers was my favorite part of The Empire Strikes Back. If you have 7 minutes to spare, watch this clip and remember how awesome a film Empire is…and how awesome a job Irvin Kershner did when directing it.