Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
After everything the NHL has been through since March, we’re a maximum of six games away from the Stanley Cup Finals. Both series are going into Game 5 with one team up 3-1. I’ll highlight each series as well as a few other notable storylines around the NHL.
P.S. I need the Stanley Cup Finals to start ASAP to take my mind off another soul-crushing Detroit Lions loss.
2020 finally showed us mercy and gave us three game sevens in one round of playoff hockey. We deserved it. In all seriousness, last week was an awesome week for the NHL, as three out of four playoff series went to a game seven. I’ll share my thoughts on each of those series as well as a few notable stories that impacted the hockey world.
Sports card collections are always a work in progress caught somewhere between chaos and order, but every card enthusiast has some method of organization that helps them enjoy their collection. Putting my cards into pages and albums, then storing them on bookcases, has helped me tame the chaos. This way, I can quickly find a specific card or set to look at and enjoy; or easily put away a new card when I add it to my collection. A fellow collector once remarked that my collection looked like “The Library of Congress for Hockey Cards,” which I took as a huge compliment. If you have a little floor space in your bedroom, rec room or “man cave,” you too can create your own impressive sports card library.
Here is what you will need: Read the rest of the story at the BCW Supplies Blog.
The sports world was rocked last week after the shooting of Jacob Blake at the hands of a police officer in Kenosha, WI. Blake was shot while heading to his car after breaking up a fight. His three children were in the back seat. After the shooting, the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA decided to forfeit their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. The Bucks were the catalyst for the many protests in sports that followed. The Bucks, as well as the other teams that protested, felt that it was no longer acceptable to allow themselves, as athletes, to be a distraction to what’s going on. Enough is enough.
For this edition of Blake’s Takes, all five of my takes will focus on how the shooting of Blake impacted the NHL. Sports can no longer serve as a distraction while more pressing issues like social justice and racial inequality exist in the world, especially in North America.
In the latest Puck Junk Hockey Podcast, Sal Barry and Tim Parish look back at the 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Card set. They also discuss the pause of the NHL playoffs due to players protesting systemic racism, the legacy of Dale Hawerchuk, Mike Milbury putting his shoe in his mouth one too many times, the problem with Topps NOW Hockey stickers, and much more. This episode is 2 hours 8 minutes, so kick back and enjoy!
Show Notes, Links and Images:
NHL Postpones Games Until Saturday (NHL.com)
Dale Hawerchuk’s page on the Hockey Hall of Fame Website (HHOF)
NBC Removes Mike Milbury Due to Comments (Yahoo Sports)
Review of “The Don Cherry Story, Part 1” (Puck Junk)
Review of “The Don Cherry Story, Part 2” (Puck Junk)
Marc-Andre Fleury Asks Agent to Delete Controversial Tweet (NBC PHT)
Topps Now NHL Sticker Archive with Print Runs (Topps)
2020-21 Upper Deck MVP Hockey Checklist (Cardboard Connection)
The 1981-82 Oilers card of Wayne Gretzky with a mullet…
…looking like Jack Blades from the band Night Ranger.
Images of the 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Card set:
1982-83 OPC #106 – Wayne Gretzky
1982-83 OPC #106 – Wayne Gretzky (back)
1982-83 OPC #380- Dale Hawerchuk rookie card
1982-83 OPC #105 – Grant Fuhr rookie card
1982-83 OPC #123 – Ron Francis rookie card
1982-83 OPC #307 – Joe Mullen rookie card
1982-83 OPC #342 – Marc Crawford rookie card.
More about this card here.
1982-83 OPC #327 – Bob McGill rookie card
1982-83 OPC #48 – Steve Konroyd rookie card
1982-83 OPC #165 – Dino Ciccarelli second card
1982-83 OPC #292 – Peter Stastny second card
1982-83 OPC #252 – Mark Howe
1982-83 OPC #64 – Tony Esposito
1982-83 OPC #265 – Randy Carlyle.
Note the “UFO” in the lower-left corner
1982-83 OPC #107 – Wayne Gretzky “In Action”
1982-83 OPC #40 – Mel Bridgeman “In Action”…or is it “Inaction“…?
1982-83 OPC #238 Paul Baxter Penalty Minutes Leaders
1982-83 OPC #4 – Mikko Leinonen Record Breakers.
Tim thinks that he looks like Peter Dinklage.
1982-83 OPC Hockey Wrapper
Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast music by Jim “Not the Goalie” Howard.
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This is my third and final box of 2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers. With each box containing 250 stickers, my hope was that I would get pretty close to having a complete 630-sticker set. The first box gave me over 39% of the set, while the second box put me at 62%. While I know that I am not going to get every sticker that I need, my hope is that I am at a respectable enough number that I could finish the set off in a few trades.
Continue reading “2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #3”
If you want to build a set of 2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers, you’re going to need to buy many packs. Considering that you get five stickers per pack and there are 630 stickers in the set, you would need to purchase at least 126 packs, or about 2-1/2 boxes. I purchased three boxes — each has 50 packs — and posted the results of the first box last week.
Opening packs of stickers is not for the “hit chasers,” as there are no hits to speak of. Really, a good box is one that has few doubles in its collation; a great box is one that has very few doubles from the previous box. Hopefully, this box is a “hit” by not giving me most of the stickers that I got in my previous box. So, without further ado, here are the results of my second box break of 2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers:
Continue reading “2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #2”
We’ve made it to the second round of the playoffs. That has created drama on and off the ice. In the past week, coaches have been fired and agents have posted controversial tweets, among other things. Keep reading to learn about the entertaining week that was in the NHL.
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Fleury Stabbed in the Back”
I bought three boxes of 2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers way back in January, but a lot of stuff happened in my life that kept me from opening and sorting through them. When the NHL restarted its season in late July, I finally had the time and the motivation to open my sticker boxes to try and build a set.
The 2019-20 season is the first time in a long time that Topps made any sort of tangible hockey collectible; the company last made hockey cards for the 2003-04 season. Topps also made sticker albums way back during the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons. Over the past three decades, Panini was the preeminent manufacturer of hockey stickers until Topps got the license for the 2019-20 season.
2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers cost about $1 per pack and contain five stickers: four regular stickers and one shiny “foil” sticker. Boxes contain $50 packs and can be bought from the Topps Online Shop. However, you can find boxes in the $30-$40 range on Ebay and from various online card retailers.
Interestingly, the stickers come in foil wrappers that are “crimped” at the top and bottom, just like how sports trading cards are packaged today.
There are 630 stickers in the 2019-20 Topps Hockey Sticker collection, so you would need three boxes to hope to make a complete set. Here is what I got in my first box.
Continue reading “2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #1”
The headlines were plentiful around the NHL last week. So plentiful, in fact, that I had to change the title of my column three times because major things kept happening. We had a number one goalie opt-out of the playoffs mid-series, the draft lottery winner was revealed, and we saw a game go into five overtimes. Keep reading to catch up on all the news around the NHL.
Continue reading “Blake’s Takes: Rask Opts Out, Rangers Win the Lottery”