Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Outdoor games will be played this season. It won’t be the Winter Classic or Stadium Series, but the NHL will travel to Lake Tahoe to provide us with some outdoor entertainment. That was the biggest news of the week but not the only news. A new captain was named and a few legends of the game switched teams. I’ll fire off takes about all of those topics and more.
Happy 2021 everyone!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: NHL to Play Outdoor Games in 2021”
NHL news has been plentiful over the past week. Right after I submitted my column for last week, the NHL announced firm plans for this season’s divisional alignment and playoff structure. I’ll comment on that news as well as a few additional major announcements around the league.
I hope everyone who celebrates had a Merry Christmas and celebrates New Year’s Eve safely.
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: One Step Closer to Next Season”
Many puck collectors I know are the “all-in” type who purchase almost every unique puck they find and then put it on display with the hundreds of other pucks in their collection, usually in some custom-built display that costs a lot of money and takes up an entire wall.
Me? I don’t have the space or the budget for that. I’m more of a casual puck collector. Card collecting is my favorite hobby, but it is hard for me to resist buying a hockey puck every now and then, be it from a special game or commemorative event, or with the logo of some long-gone team. And I love getting pucks signed by my favorite players; pucks look great when signed in silver Sharpie or silver paint pen, and it is a shame to not display those. The problem is that over time, all these pucks start to pile up, can take a lot of display space and be tricky to store without damaging them.
If you don’t want to dedicate an entire room, wall, or bookcase to display your hockey pucks, but still want to show off some of your favorites…Read the rest of the story at the BCW Supplies Blog.
Last week was an important one in the NHL. We’re inching closer to officially starting the 2020-21 season with a start date and number of games announced. I’ll give my two cents about a new type of advertisement that is rumored to happen this season. Also, I’ll look into some tough news for a few fan-favorites and one of the weirder announcements of the week. Happy Monday!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: NHL Season to Start January 13th”
Another week of 2020 is in the books. There weren’t many notable headlines last week, though I dug deep and ended up finding some of my favorite stories from the past year — all of which are random and offbeat. I think you’ll like them. This week, I write about what you all care deeply about: hockey cards. I also get into a bit of social justice and investigate another photo of Connor McDavid looking awkward.
And I almost forgot, Happy Hannukkah!
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Gretzky Breaks Another Record”
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!
Continue reading “Best of the Worst: 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey”
I’m back after a two-week hiatus. I hope everyone ate themselves sick during Thanksgiving or just another Thursday for our Canadian readers. Most of all, I hope everyone stayed safe.
It’s been an odd last two weeks. The biggest news was Tampa Bay inking Mikhail Sergachev to an extension. The rest of my takes this week will cast a wide net from interesting to flat out weird. If I accomplish anything this week, I hope you learn something.
And if you don’t learn anything, at least listen to this song. But, if you don’t like my column, you probably won’t like the song either.
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Evander Kane’s Twitter Brawl”
Last week and Monday were exciting days off the ice. The hyped reverse retro jerseys were finally released and they shook Twitter. In this week’s column, I’ll share my takes on my favorite and least favorite Reverse Retro jerseys!
I’ll also touch on a few smaller storylines across in the NHL and even one in college hockey.
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: The Reverse Retro Jerseys Have Arrived”
Last week was a pretty calm one in the NHL. Most free agents are signed and trades have been made. There was one rather large signing I want to talk about.
Other than that, like the last few weeks, I’ll revisit some transactions I didn’t have a chance to touch one at the beginning of free agency.
The NHL gives out 17 individual awards at the end of the season. To some, that might seem excessive. Do we really need a Mark Messier Award for Leadership when the league already has two awards for MVPs?
However, I would argue that the NHL needs more awards, so in 2018 I created some new ones. We all know who the highest scorer, top coach and best goalie are. Now, let’s give props to the toughest player, greatest surprise and biggest jerk, among others. Plus, there is a new Puck Junk Award for 2020.
Here are your winners of the third-annual Puck Junk Awards.