Puck Junk

Canada’s Captain

1997-98 Collector’s Choice card #279 – Hayley Wickenheiser

Hayley Wickenheiser is similar in many ways to former women’s hockey mainstay Cammi Granato. For numerous years, Granato was the dominant player for – and considered the face of – women’s hockey in the United States. The same is true in Canada for Wickenheiser, who is the team captain of the 2010 Canadian Women’s hockey team. Coincidentally, both women have NHL ties. Cammi’s brother Tony played in the NHL, as did Haley’s cousin Doug. Continue reading “Canada’s Captain”

Bye-bye Barker

Would you trade Cam Barker for Kim Johnsson and Nick Leddy?

Well, the Chicago Blackhawks did just that in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and I’m left scratching my head. Continue reading “Bye-bye Barker”

Free hockey cards at Detroit & Colorado games this weekend

This weekend, two NHL teams will be giving out an exclusive trading card set of Upper Deck trading cards.

Detroit, February 11, 2010 – Set includes Chris Osgood, Johan Franzen, Brain Rafalski, Pavel Datsyuk, Cleary and Zetterberg
Colorado, February 12, 2010 – not sure who will be included

The cards more or less resemble the 2009-10 Upper Deck hockey cards, but with subtle differences, and will be given to the first 10,000 fans who attend the game.

If anyone picks up an extra set of either that they would not mind trading, please drop me a line.

Thanks to DFG for sharing info about this.

2009-10 Fleer Ultra blaster break

After buying a single pack, and later a rack pack, of this year’s Fleer Ultra, I have to admit that the set has grown on me. That said, I bought a blaster box at Target last week. Yes, we all know that blasters suck harder than 36-count “retail” boxes…but I had a 10% of coupon, and figured that, you know, maybe this blaster would be special.

Yeah right. (Well, it did happen to me once.)

I don’t wanna scan all the cards I got. I’m not even going to scan the best card from each of the 12 packs, but rather just the best “type” of each card.

Here is what I got:

43 base cards. You can practically see the Gatorade dripping off of Sidney Crosby’s face in this pic.

11 Gold Cards: All these do is take the place of a “real” card, which makes completing a set 20% harder. So, I might just mix and match gold and regular cards in my set build, just to piss off Upper Deck. By the way, another great horizontal shot–notice the puck in the upper right corner.

2 Ultra Rookies. I’ve heard of Yannick Weber. The other one I got was of some kid on the Tampa Bay Lightning named Brandon Segal.

1 Gold Ultra Rookie: I guess in a way, I “beat” the odds by getting THREE (and not TWO) Ultra Rookies. Though when I pulled this one from a pack, the first thing I muttered was “this better not count as one of the two rookies I get.” Why do I hate parallels so much?

2 Scoring Kings: These look like a lame insert set that could be in ANY low-to-mid end Upper Deck set. Just slap a Victory or Collector’s Choice or UD logo in the corner

1 Crowning Achievements: Why? Oh right–because they CAN. Anyone else tired of Martin Brodeur yet? No, I am not bitter that he set his all-time-wins record in a game against the Blackhawks. That actually makes his record cooler to me.

Dare I say it, but I might actually try to buy a hobby box of these cards. I’ve got about 90 or so towards the 200-card base set, plus another 4 short-prints. The pictures in this set are pretty good, and there’s room for up to 20 years of stats (more on that here).

That was MY card dealer on the Super Bowl

Photo by Sal J. Barry
Did anyone who watched the Super Bowl yesterday remember the Miller High Life commercial, where they featured four small business owners?

Well, that baseball card shop owner is my “dealer”! I have been a customer of Tim’s Baseball Card Shop since he opened his store in my neighborhood in Chicago. Tim Herron is a friendly guy, he prices his stuff very fair and he’s very patient with kids.

Tim’s Baseball Card Shop, along with 3 other small businesses, were picked by Miller High Life to be featured in a Super Bowl commercial that touts the “little guys” for a change.

Needless to say, all of his customers were very happy for Tim. He’s a nice guy, and my number one source of hockey cards. Hell, I watched some football game just so I could see him on TV.

In addition to the commercial, Tim was featured on several news programs, including Fox News. It isn’t every day that a baseball card store owner gets to be on TV, let alone the Super Bowl.

Card of the Week: Herb Brooks

1991 Impel U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame card #72 – Herb Brooks

Herb Brooks will forever be remembered best as the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that accomplished the “Miracle on Ice” and won a gold medal. He almost won a gold medal as a player, too, with the 1960 Olympic squad. However, it was not meant to be, as explained by this 1991 trading card… Continue reading “Card of the Week: Herb Brooks”

Career in Cards: Mike Bossy

Today we take a look back at the career–in cards–of Hall of Fame right wing Mike Bossy. In 10 seasons, Bossy scored 50 or more goals in all but his last one, which was cut short by injuries. A bad back forced him to retire at age 30.But he accomplished more in 10 seasons that what most players do in 20. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mike Bossy”

2009-10 Black Diamond three-pack blister

A few days back, I purchased some hockey cards at Target. Like DFG, I too have been trying to swear off the retail packs this year. And I remember Card on Ice, saying the product wasn’t all that. But I had a 10% coupon on Target, and I was deeply intrigued by this 3-pack blister pack of 2009-10 Black Diamond Hockey cards.

Three-pack blister? That’s a pack of packs! Just the sheer novelty of that would be hard for me to pass up.

Including sales tax–but minus my discount at Target–it came out to $10–a cool $3.33 per pack. Worth it? Probably not. But then again, Jonathan Toews of my Chicago Blackhawks is on the card wrapper. Would “Tazer” steer me wrong?

These shiny, foil-y cards never look good when scanned, so I only scanned what I deemed the “best” card from each pack:

Pack 1

#1 – Jonas Hiller, Ducks
#2 – Sean Avery, Rangers
#49 – Jussi Jokinen, Hurricanes
#52 – Pekka Rinne, Predators
#81 – David Krejci, Bruins

Krejci gets “best card status” from this pack because I know some guy who blogs about him.

Pack 2

#13 – Evgeni Nabokov, Sharks
#26 – Nik Antropov, Rangers
#35 – Patrik Elias, Devils
#42 – Jack Johnson, Kings
#136 – Dale Hawerchuk, Jets

A Triple Diamond card seeded 1 in every 4 packs, I beat the odds by getting one in the 3 packs I purchased. Plus, it is always great to get a card of a retired great like “Ducky.”

Pack 3

#3 – Peter Mueller, Coyotes
#8 – Justin Abdelkader, Red Wings
#14 – Joe Pavelski, Sharks
#37 – Scott Hartnell, Flyers
#72 – Erik Cole, Hurricanes

Hmmmm….none of these guys really stand out to me, so I’ll arbitrarily pick Abdelkader as the best card in the pack because it is colorful.

The backs of each card are actually pretty well laid-out. I guess I’m a sucker for symmetry.

What I like is that the team logo is on one side of the player’s head shot, while the vitals (position, height, weight, shoots and DOB) are on the right.

The back accommodates up to 5 lines of stats. As much as I prefer complete statistics, I almost expect these kinds of sets to only show a few years.

I don’t know if this is a set that I will collect. Retail packs suck, and a hobby box goes for $90 to $100–but their only upside seems to be jersey cards or parallels, neither of which I am particularly fond of.

Review: 1979-80 Topps Hockey

An iconic set from an amazing year

1979-80 was an epic year for hockey for so many reasons. It was a changing of the guard, with Wayne Gretzky playing his first NHL season, and Gordie Howe playing in his last. It was also the first season after the NHL absorbed four WHA (World Hockey Association) teams. And it was a year that a team of Americans would pull off one of the biggest miracles on ice. But that’s another story.

Like the year it represents, the 1979-80 Topps set was a landmark release, and still remains popular among collectors today. Continue reading “Review: 1979-80 Topps Hockey”

Maria Rooth

2002 Sports Illustrated for Kids card #127 – Maria Rooth

While sifting through a stack of cards from Sports Illustrated for Kids recently, I found this odd little piece of cardboard. It is unusual I n that it is a card of a collegiate hockey player. No wait – a collegiate woman hockey player. Hold the phone – a Swedish woman collegiate hockey player who is also an Olympic hero: Maria Rooth. Continue reading “Maria Rooth”