News & Views

The Ballad of Shawn Hunwick

Shawn_Hunwick_TV
[Credit: NBC / YouTube]

Hello Sports Fans and welcome to another installment of, “Why God, Why Would You Give Me THIS Pack of Cards?” A few months ago I celebrated my birthday by buying too many hobby boxes of hockey cards because…

A) it’s fun, and

B) it’s my birthday and my wife can’t say anything. (Love you, honey!)

Plus that gives me plenty of fodder to write blog posts about!

One of the boxes I got was Panini’s 2012-13 Rookie Anthology, and when I buy hobby boxes, I play the numbers: what’s the price versus how many (and how good) are the hits!

It’s simple math but I’ll spell it out in different terms. You could throw down $20 for that CD of Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits! And you know it’s packed with awesome tunes like Mandy, and Copacabana, and that song about writing songs…it’s pretty much gold! But $20, that’s a lot of clams for 15 songs (Hey, he’s gotta save something for Greatest Hits 4, right?) So you look in the dust bin and find a cassette of Wang Chung’s Greatest Hits for 99 cents! Wang Chung had TWO good songs — that’s less than 50 cents per awesome song! Your mom’s Cavalier still has its tape deck after all; it’s hipster-relevant! So, that’s why I buy those Wang Chung Hobby Boxes.

Where were we…Oh right, Panini’s Rookie Anthology ’12-13. According to the box, you get “One Rookie Treasure Autograph Jersey Per Box.” And my draw from this box was THIS card of a hot up and comer named (drum roll, please)… Continue reading “The Ballad of Shawn Hunwick”

Card ‘Toons: At the California Golf Course

shark_golfingNew water hazard signs popping up in California golf courses!

Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can view his earlier blog posts here. Follow Steve on Twitter @galvaost. ■

Thank You, Elmer Lach

lach_autoElmer Lach, a former Montreal Canadien and an honored member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, died on Saturday at the age of 97. He was the oldest living former member of the Les Habitants at the time of his passing. Lach played in the NHL from 1940 to 1954, and was the center of the “Punch Line” with Maurice Richard and Toe Blake on his wings. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966, and had his jersey number, 16, retired by the Habs in 2009. Despite all these accolades, Lach remained humble and fan-friendly, and always signed autographs for anyone who wrote to him. Continue reading “Thank You, Elmer Lach”

Top Ten Hockey Player Pick-Up Lines

Where were you today in 1998?

Me? I was parked in front of my television, excitedly anticipating the start of the hockey games in the 1998 Winter Olympics. This was the first time that the NHL would allow its best players to compete in the Olympic Games, which were held in Nagano, Japan that year. Many Americans, including myself, had high expectations for Team USA, especially considering that they won the World Cup of Hockey tournament in 1996.

But, the Men’s Ice Hockey Team performance — and off-ice conduct — was nothing short of a disaster in those games. (Fortunately, the Women’s Team redeemed the U.S. and won the Gold.) A few hours before their first game, against Sweden on February 13, 1998, David Letterman featured a hockey-themed Top-Ten List.  Below is the transcript, Continue reading “Top Ten Hockey Player Pick-Up Lines”

Ilya Bryzgalov “Mad” Music Video


This is currently my favorite video on YouTube. It combines Ilya Bryzgalov’s famous “Why you have to be mad?” quote with MAGIC!’s  hit singe “Rude.” The visuals are funny, in a bad Photoshop sort of way, and the lyrics make sense if you have followed Bryzgalov’s career the past decade. Continue reading “Ilya Bryzgalov “Mad” Music Video”

The Hextalls article on The Hockey News

Hextalls LogoIn case you missed it, I recently had an article published on The Hockey News website about a Canadian pop punk band named The Hextalls. They are releasing their newest album on February 14, and have been around since the late 1990s. If you like rock music, see my article at the THN website. Should you decide that you want to give these guys a listen, you can stream their last few albums over at Grooveshark. I recommend  “Pacman,” “I Don’t Wanna be a New York Ranger,” and “I Bred this Beard for Slaughter” to get a good idea of what their music is like. ■