Tag: 2019-20

Blake’s Takes: Justice for Jacob Blake

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.

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Puck Junk Podcast: 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards

Episode #68: August 28, 2020

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”

Mel Bridgman 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.

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group and subscribe to Puck Junk on YouTube. 

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #3

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.

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2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #2

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:

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Blake’s Takes: Fleury Stabbed in the Back

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.

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2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #1

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. 

About 2019-20 Topps Hockey Stickers

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. 

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Blake’s Takes: Rask Opts Out, Rangers Win the Lottery

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.

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No Stanley For Old Men: 2020 Edition

Which Grey Beard in the “Playoff Bubble” Do You Want to See Win the Stanley Cup? 

It took what felt like forever, but Round One of the 2020 NHL Playoffs is finally underway. (And yes, this blog post is two days late; I’m working on “Quarantine Time” here, so bear with me.) After a four-and-a-half month pause, followed by Round Robin and Qualifying Round games, we have our 16 playoff teams, ready to put it all on the line to be winners of the 2020 Stanley Cup Championship. 

But with the playoffs, the inevitable questions are always raised:

What player hasn’t yet won the Stanley Cup yet during their career?

What grizzled old vet will retire at season’s end without ever hoisting the Stanley Cup? 

What all-time will never get to sip champagne from Lord Stanley’s Cup?

And considering the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t think any NHL player is going to want to drink from the Stanley Cup this October. Regardless, there are players who play for nearly two decades who will never have the opportunity to drink from the Cup then think better of it. 

Every year, playoff teams are chock-full of young, eager players who have seemingly all the time in the world to win the toughest championship trophy to win in all of sports. But every team also has some more experienced players who know that they don’t have all the time in the world, or even a wily old veteran that has stuck around to give it one more go before hanging ’em up. 

Here is a look at the oldest player on each 2020 Stanley Cup playoff team and why we’re hoping for each one of them to win, even if we don’t like the team they play on. 

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Puck Junk Podcast: August 11, 2020

1989-90 OHL & 1990 Memorial Cup Hockey Sets

In this week’s episode of the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast, Sal Barry and Tim Parish talk about Phase 2 of the NHL Draft Lottery — including the New York Rangers somewhat controversial win of the first-overall pick. They also talk about the Stanley Cup Qualifying and Round Robin games, the upcoming first round of the playoffs, and Dale Tallon leaving the Florida Panthers. Then, the guys look back at the 1989-90 OHL and 1990 Memorial Cup hockey card sets made by short-lived company 7th Inning Sketch. The cards were charming in a no-frills sort of way and included “pre-rookie” cards of many future NHL players, like future superstars Eric Lindros and Scott Niedermayer. 

Show Notes, Links and Images:
2020 NHL Draft Lottery Phase 2 Results (NHL.com)
2020 NHL Round One Playoff Schedule (NHL.com)
Dale Tallon and Florida Panthers Part Ways (NHL.com)
Topps Now Hockey Stickers order page (Topps.com)
Upper Deck Game Dated Moments for Week 44 (Upper Deck Blog)
1989-90 7th Inning Sketch OHL checklist & images (Trading Card DB)
1989-90 7th Inning Sketch OHL packaging (Trading Card DB)
The creepy Casey Jones card from the 1989-90 OHL set (Puck Junk)
1990 7th Inning Sketch Memorial Cup checklist & images (Trading Card DB)

1989-90 OHL #1 – Eric Lindros

1989-90 7th Inning Sketch OHL card # 174 - Casey Jones

1989-90 OHL #174 – Casey Jones – more about this card here

1989-90 OHL #195 – Where In 91? (Eric Lindros)

1989-90  Memorial Cup #18 – Scott Niedermayer 

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast music by Jim “Not the Goalie” Howard.

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group and subscribe to Puck Junk on YouTube. 

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

Blake’s Takes: The Playoffs Are Set

Sunday night marked the end of the Qualifying round and the beginning of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The most important takeaway of that sentence is that the NHL has succeeded in building a bubble to protect players and staff from COVID-19. Because of that, the odds that a Stanley Cup champion will be crowned in 2020 look higher than ever.

The Qualifying Round was exciting and upsets were plentiful. In this week’s column, I’ll revisit some of the most notable matchups of the Qualifying Round and a few other interesting tidbits from the last week.

Keep staying safe everyone.

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