Pack Crackin': 2008-2009 Upper Deck

Dipping back into the good ol' value box, we have here a pack of 2008-2009 Upper Deck. Disappointment set in once more as I quickly discovered that there would be zero additions to my collections from this pack. Not only that, but the insert cards don't seem to be in very much demand despite their BV:

Although Michael Frolik had respectable rookie and sophomore seasons, the centerman's production dipped in the 2010-11 campaign and was nearly non-existent last season. Frolik has two more years remaining in his contract with the Blackhawks, but unless he can ratchet up his production it's doubtful that he'll crack the third line.

This Eric Staal Super Skills insert is pretty nice looking and shows a modest BV, but again the demand just doesn't seem to be there for this particular card of the Hurricanes' captain.

The rest of the pack came out like this:
7: Matthias Ohlund - Vancouver Canucks
26: Jeff Halpern - Tampa Bay Lightning
34: David Perron - St. Louis Blues
72 - Brandon Dubinsky - New York Rangers
117: Rostislav Olesz - Florida Panthers
180: Phil Kessel - Boston Bruins

Pack Crackin': 2010-11 Upper Deck Victory

A few days ago, whilst posting about the two 2003-04 Victory packs acquired via the Meijer value box purchase, I offered my opinion regarding the sheer ugliness of that particular set's card design. Apparently not ones to learn lessons, the Victory designers put together another questionable set in their 2010-11 product - a pack of which found its way into my recent bulk purchase.

Each pack is advertised as containing either a rookie or "Superstar" insert. My pack, of course, contained just this rookie:

Defenseman Adam McQuaid had a short, quiet start to his NHL career. He notched just one point in 19 games on the Boston blue line. His sophomore season was not much louder, but culminated in a Stanley Cup ring. Entrenched on Boston's third pairing, he's not one to shy from a fight or a big hit.

As for additions to my personal collections, this pack contained only one - #47 Steve Mason (CBJ). For some reason my scanner just couldn't handle the color contrast properly, so no scan. It's not like you're missing anything. At least the card isn't a dupe.

The remaining cards break down like this:
5: Lubomir Visnovsky - Anaheim Ducks
11: Patrice Bergeron - Boston Bruins
60: Kari Lehtonen - Dallas Stars
101: Jaroslav Halak - Washington Capitals

Pack Crackin': 2009-10 Upper Deck Series I

Now that the Stanley Cup hangover has subsided a bit, it's time to get back to crackin' open the packs from the $20 value pack I picked up at Meijer. Today we have Upper Deck's 2009-10 Series I, and what a disappointing pack of cards this is. First, the insert:

Yep, not much to get excited about. The card design is kind of groovy, in a '70s Studio 54 sort of way, but there's not a lot of demand for this particular card and it does nothing to plug the holes in my collections.

In fact, nothing contained in this pack helped me out on the Red Wings / Blue Jackets front. Ah well, such is life in the world of hockey card collecting. Here's the breakdown of the rest of the contents:

1: Phil Kessel - Boston Bruins
9: Ryan Miller - Buffalo Sabres
95: Semyon Varlamov - Washington Capitals
144: Loui Eriksson - Dallas Stars
145: Teemu Selanne - Anaheim Ducks
162: Matthew Lombardi - Phoenix Coyotes
192: Sam Gagner - Edmonton Oilers

Congratulations to the L.A. Kings, 2012 Stanley Cup Champions

I don't consider myself to be an L.A. Kings fan, but I've never liked the Devils. Besides, the Kings brought a nice backstory into this year's Finals. Barely making the playoffs as the 8th seed in the West, then knocking off (in short order, mind you) the 1st seeded Canucks, the 2nd seeded Blues, and the 3rd seeded Coyotes makes for quite a Cinderella story. Add to that the fact that the franchise has never raised the championship banner in their 44-year history, and some might say the Kings were destined to win the Cup. Destiny or not, I enjoyed watching L.A. climb atop the NHL.

Equally enjoyable was watching two Michigan natives share in the spoils. Matt Greene (Grand Ledge) is no stranger to the Finals, falling to the Hurricanes in 2006 while with Edmonton (also seeded 8th, coincidentally). Scoreless in that series, Greene's two goals this year were of the significant variety. His first, a shortie against St. Louis in Game 1 of the Conference Semifinals, was also the game winner. His second goal was against the Devils in Game 6 and was the final goal scored of the game and the 2012 season. Pretty impressive.

In just his third NHL season, Rochester Hills' Alec Martinez has seen the Playoffs twice - both times with the Kings. Although he also had a relatively quiet post-season, from a scoring perspective, his lone goal was the game-winner in Game 3 against the Devils. This particular goal didn't sit well with Devils' netminder Martin Brodeur, the puck having gone in after repeated whacks from Martinez while it appeared to be pinned underneath Brodeur's pads.

NOTE: Believe it or not, I don't have any cards of either Greene or Martinez to include in this post. I'm also not about to lift scans from someone else, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Now, a bit of an op-ed on an ugly incident from Game 6. You know, of course, that I'm referring to the check-from-behind laid on Rob Scuderi by Steve Bernier. After all of the negative attention being paid to disproportionate hits this year, what the hell was Bernier thinking as he vectored in on Scuderi? He wasn't thinking and was most likely overtaken by emotion and adrenaline, what with the Devils' hopes for a championship on the line in the opposing team's barn. Even so, that's no excuse to relinquish his awareness and, in my opinion, his actions ended up sealing the Devils' fate.

Pack Crackin': 2003-04 Upper Deck Victory

Two of the sixteen packs contained in the "value box" that I picked up from Meijer a few weeks ago were 2003-2004 Upper Deck Victory. For the sake of brevity, I've combined the crackin' of these two packs into one post. First off, I have to say that the 2003-2004 UD Victory base set design is one of the worst in the history of hockey cards. Superimposing the player photo on the card graphic gives the cards a bit of a cheap look to them. I prefer the old-school look, with the focus being the players and not flashy use of "artistic expression". I must not be alone in that sentiment, since Victory sets subsequent to this one have ditched the extreme design elements.

Anyway, on to the 12 cards contained in the two packs. First up are my team collection pulls:

Both are Red Wings, obviously, and neither are dupes. That's not saying a whole lot, though, since I had zero cards from this set prior to this Datsyuk anad Legace pull. Despite my general dislike for the design, I will pursue completing the team sets for this issue since Victory is one of the sets I regularly include in my Red Wings and Blue Jackets collections.

Each pack contained an insert, but both were of the Freshman Flashback subset:

The scans don't do justice to the use of foil, and the cards do look better than the photos (and the base set, for that matter). I'm still not pleased with the excessive use of color on the left side of the cards, or the cheesy glow to the edge of the player, but the effect isn't as horrific as that of the base cards.

Igor Radulov played two seasons for the Blackhawks before heading to Russia during the 2004-2005 season, where he's been playing ever since. Niko Dimitrakos stuck with the NHL a little longer, being traded to the Flyers in March of 2006 for a 3rd round draft pick - ouch. After a couple of more seasons in the AHL, Niko headed East to play in Europe. In 2011 he was back in North America looking to make a return with Vancouver, but was released during training camp. A short stint with the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins followed before Niko returned to Germany.

The remainder of the two packs worked out like this:
10: Simon Gamache - Atlanta Thrashers
77: Sammy Salo - Edmonton Oilers
118: Janne Niinimaa - New York Islanders
132: Todd White - Ottawa Senators
136: Ray Emery - Ottawa Senators
145: Shane Doan - Phoenix Coyotes
151: Rico Fata - Pittsburgh Penguins
197: Michael Nylander - Washington Capitals

Anyone else think that the 2003-2004 UD Victory set was one of the ugliest in hockey card history?

Pack Crackin' - June 8th, 2012

I'm normally not one for breaking open boxes of multi-brand packs, the likes of which lurk on the shelves of major retailers such as Meijer and Target. Lately, however, I've been intrigued by a few posts in the card collecting blogosphere touting some decent finds to be had in these types of products. So on my next trip to Meijer I snagged this hefty specimen for the grand sum of $20.

Boasting sixteen packs and two memorabilia cards - guaranteed - it seemed like a decent deal. I figured the "randomly selected" memorabilia inserts would be lame (more on that a little later), but the chances to pull some other inserts from the unopened packs was enticing. As far as the packs go, here's what the box contained:

The quality represented here isn't too shabby, though the duplicate Victory packs and the Power Play pack were somewhat disappointing. At least the variety is relatively contemporary - and there was no Pro Set to stink up the place.

First up from the guaranteed memorabilia cards is this 2006-2007 Joe Nieuwendyk SP Game Used Jersey, number AF-JN. The two-color swatch is actually kind of nice, but there's no place in my collections for this card so off to the trade list it will go.

The other memorabilia grab is this 2005-2006 Sergei Samsonov UD Game Jersey insert, number J2-SV. Less impressive than the Nieuwendyk card, but still avoiding the "plain white" pitfall, this card also does not fit with any of my collections. There appears to be little demand for it on eBay, so in the trade list it will sit.

Alright, on to the packs. To avoid an excessively long post (and to give me fodder to keep the blog active for several days), I'm going to dedicate one post to each pack. Working from left to right starting in the bottom row, first up is the 2006-2007 Upper Deck MVP pack. Of the eight cards in the pack, the only one earning a spot in my personal collection is this #88 Sergei Fedorov:

The card design of this set is quite nice and rather classy, though I never did like the silver signatures emblazoned across the front. Ruins a good TTM opportunity. Anyway, no matter what you may think of Federov, he's one of the very few players that appears in both my Red Wings and Blue Jackets team collections.

The insert card of the pack is this Markus Naslund Gotta Have Heart (HH24) pull. A nice looking card, but once again no place in my collections and practically no eBay value.

The remainder of the pack broke down like this:
116: Jarret Still - Edmonton Oilers
117: Jason Smith - Edmonton Oilers
171: Martin Brodeur - New Jersey Devils
225: Curtis Joseph - Phoenix Coyotes
240: Joe Thornton - San Jose Sharks
292: Alexander Ovechkin - Washington Capitals

So there you have it.  I'll have much more in the coming days, but now it's time to get ready for the short trip to Cincy to watch the Reds take on succumb to my Tigers.