Card Stacks Blog: Hockey

Showing posts with label Hockey. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Fire on Ice

My son and I are enjoying hockey in many forms these days. Between opening a few hockey blaster boxes, watching hockey games on ESPN+, and going to a minor league hockey game for the first time since the pandemic started, we've got hockey activity around our house just about on a daily basis.

He's all about the Sharks, but he'll watch just about any game on TV. He doesn't know it's coming, but he's going to lose his mind over the NHL All-Star festivities this weekend, coinciding with the start of the Winter Olympics. Even though NHL players aren't in the Olympics, we'll be watching hockey I'm sure.

Meanwhile I'm soaking up hockey card content and adding cards to my Predators want list. While I've tried to hold off on making too many purchases, I did make an initial purchase after seeing a parallel version of this set on twitter.

The parallel version I saw was shinier and serial numbered, but I'm happy with this rookie year card of the top scorer on the Predators, Filip Forsberg. It wouldn't scan well, so I took photos in my light box. A rookie year Forsberg in a set like this, I couldn't pass up when I saw they were a very reasonable price.

One thing I noticed, and I am not up to speed on Panini's history with a hockey card license, is the Dual Class wording on the Rookie Card logo. Does this indicate multiple rookie classes in a single year's set? I googled and couldn't find information on it. Was this an attempt by Panini to introduce a rookie card logo in hockey? Info on this would be appreciated.

Same image used on the front and back of the card, but you get to see a faint background. Forsberg's been my favorite Predator to watch since I started following the team. He hit the 200 goal mark just recently, and is on a tear right now. On fire, you might say. He's in the final year of his contract and while he's sure to get a big contract, surely he'll be back in Nashville.

In modern card collecting, I am drawn to sets that are a throwback to a prior set. The 'Fire on Ice' name was used for Leaf insert sets in the mid-90s, the 1997-98 version being my favorite.

So there you have it, my first purchase for the Predators collection. Many more to come, I'm sure.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Hockey Revisited: Opening a Blaster of 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP

Back in 2017 I wrote a series of posts when I started following hockey and picked up my first packs of hockey cards, and some bloggers were generous enough to send me a 'starter pack' of Predators cards to get my collection going. Well, towards the end of 2017 I really stepped back from cards entirely. But what I've learned about this hobby is that long-term, it has staying power for me, and it always comes back around. The cards will always be there, the people in the hobby will always be there, and in 2022 now more than ever, sports card content is everywhere.

And so my first foray into hockey cards in five years is a blaster box of 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP. The blaster has 15 packs, a great product if your idea of fun is busting a lot of packs. The base cards have a mint color as part of the design, with the image looking like ice is shooting up form the players skating. It's a cool effect. Each card from the base set has an 'Ice Battles' parallel, and the short prints, including rookies, are blue.

My chosen team was the Predators, and I've stuck with that, although I've followed them more loosely than I would like. With young kids, it's been hard to find time to watch a full game, to be honest. Now that my oldest is five and he's showing interest in several sports, including hockey, it's become much easier to at least catch portions of a game.

These three are familiar names for me, Fiala being a former Predator.

Here's an example of one of the rookie cards from the set. Denisenko's only appeared in one Panthers game, but is getting plenty of time with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The Zac Jones is a rookie short print Ice Battles parallel.

Zac Jones I included because he's originally from Richmond, VA, which is where I grew up. I figured that was rare for an NHL player to be from Virginia, and even less likely to be from Richmond, and sure enough, with his NHL debut in April last year, Jones is the first player from Richmond to play in the NHL. So there you go, maybe a reason to start a side player collection.

Meier recently scored 5 goals in one game, a feat I've definitely never seen before in my brief time as a hockey fan. And this happened in a game I happened to be watching on replay with my son. He's a fan of the Sharks logo and the jerseys, as you can imagine. The Sharks are probably his top hockey team right now. That could change any day, but we've enjoyed watching the Sharks, and that 5 goal performance was quite a treat.

I've always been an insert guy, going back to collecting basketball cards in the 90s in my childhood. What I wasn't expecting out of this MVP blaster were inserts that make me want to look at the checklist and see who else I can grab. The cracked ice effect, especially coming out of cheap packs like this, are something that would have hooked me as a child, and I guess I'm not much different today.

This 20th Anniversary set reminds me of an insert that would have come out of MVP products in the late 90s/early 2000s. Can't argue with a MacKinnon card, either, a former number one overall pick. I'd like to pick up the Josi from this set. I'd expect the gold parallel of a Pred would look nice!

P.K. Subban was a favorite of mine, and I'm sure many others, from his time on the Predators. The Predators traded him to the Devils in 2019, and even though he's not at an All-Star level anymore, he's still popular enough to be included in insert sets like these. The before picture shows him wearing a red tie to the CMT Music Awards in 2018, before his time with the Devils. Glad I pulled a player I appreciate from this set.

What would an MVP product be without Silver Scripts and Gold Scripts. While big hits are pretty rare out of a box like MVP, it's nice to know that it's possible to chase the Super Scripts. My box had several Silver and Gold Script cards.

The mascot set is a hit with younger collectors, I'm sure. It was a favorite for my son. I'll have to pick up the Shark card for him, and probably some others, and learn the mascots in the process. Well done Upper Deck on this one.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in this blaster, find some of the young stars in the game, and pull some inserts with a cracked ice effect, unexpected from an MVP blaster.

I'm going to be putting an updated hockey card wantlist on TCDB (cardstacks), where I plan to be more active in making some trades, although I've mainly got basketball and baseball for trade.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

2015-16 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey Blaster

I've had my eye out recently for discounted blasters at my local target. It's hard for me to justify paying full price for a blaster unless it's a product I'm really interested in (2017 Archives baseball, for instance). Recently I had some luck with some discounted hockey blasters showing up. I snatched them up to make them my first hockey blasters. The first was Upper Deck Series 2 from 2015-16. I saw a few familiar names as I continue my journey into following the NHL.

First some names that a familiar to me. Jagr is trying to find a team for the upcoming season after playing the last three with the Florida Panthers. Tarasenko has put together three straight 70+ point seasons and is only 25 years old. Kopitar has played his whole career thus far with the Kings and I respect any player that plays for the same team as long as he has. He's a two-time Champion and a three-time All-Star.

I like the design for the base set but I prefer 2016-17 a bit more.

These three I wanted to show because of the awesome photos. Johansson is pumped after scoring on the second-longest tenured goalie in the game today. The second shot shows the puck up against the glass- just a unique shot. And I am enjoying the angles in some of these cards that show the arena in the background. The Stralman even gets some of the banners hanging off in the distance.

Had to choose at least one goalie base card and Talbot is a strong player to include as he makes his entry onto the ice.

Here's the lone Young Guns card from the blaster. Forbort played in all 82 games for the Kings this past season and from what I read quickly he seemed to provide solid defensive play.

One of my favorite photos from the blaster. Neil's just been hired as the CFO of the Senators after 15 years as a player. Staying with the same team for a long-time must be more common in the NHL than other sports, which I appreciate greatly.

Awesome shot from the goal looking out onto the rest of the ice and arena. Again, the angles on the photos in this set are great.

One more shot of the arena in the background.

While I didn't pull any Predators, I did pull recently signed Predator Nick Bonino. He's expected to be the second line center after Mike Fisher's recent retirement. Glad to take away from the Penguins while also helping the Preds.

Moving on to the inserts, I opened up one UD Canvas parallel. These would be awesome for in-person or through-the-mail autographs. Another Senator in this one.

Two O-Pee-Chee Update cards and a UD Portraits card wrap up the inserts. Not going to lie, I was hoping to pull a Connor McDavid card out of this blaster, but no such luck. I'm a big fan of the O-Pee-Chee brand, and in particular the Martin Jones has an awesome background. The odds seem to be much worse for pulling Veterans in the Update set, but I somehow managed to pull two of them. The Portraits insert set I could do without, honestly. The design doesn't do anything for me.

I'd buy a discounted blaster of this product every time. Enjoyed breaking this many hockey packs at once. Hoping to find some hockey trade partners to add more Nashville cards to my hockey binder.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Nashville Predators Starter Pack from Sports Cards from the Dollar Store

For the first time ever I had a rooting interest in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Nashville Predators went to the Cup Finals for the first time in team history. I'm not going to say much more at this point other than I had a blast following this team and I can't wait to follow a full season starting in the Fall.

Sports Cards from the Dollar Store saw my initial posts on hockey cards and sent a large package of Predators my way. He seemed excited to have a landing spot for his Predators cards. Well let me tell you all I am happy to be that landing spot.

Glad to have a reason to pick up the O-Pee-Chee brand. Wish this existed for current baseball sets. Pekka Rinne 'shut the door' repeatedly on playoff competition and the defense picked up from the regular season as well. Roman Josi is a big part of that. Weber was traded last June for my personal favorite P.K. Subban after serving as the Nashville captain for many years.

With O-Pee-Chee comes the Platinum brand as a separate release. And unlike other Chrome brands these scan pretty well, I think. It was nice watching you the last few months, James Neal. Good luck in Vegas!

Even though the consensus was that Rinne had a sub-par regular season based on his past performance, he stepped it up in the playoffs, helping get the Predators farther in the playoffs than they've ever been. Excited to be collecting new cards from the Fleer Showcase brand once again. It's been awhile.

The first card from 2015-16 Tim Hortons Collector's Series is a beauty. The Panini Select card on the right is a sharp looking card, too.

Three cards of the current captain. Particularly like the Contenders card referencing Bridgestone Arena.

Forsberg is probably my other favorite player at this point along with P.K. Subban. Was shocked when I learned he is only 22 years old and is as good as he is. Colin Wilson seems to step up his game in the playoffs. Glad to add a rookie card of his to my collection. Would Johansen have turned the finals in favor of the Preds? He sure would have helped.

Now we're getting to the gems of the starter park. This Forsberg is a silver parallel /25 from 2015-16 Champs. Nice, clean set design here.

I didn't fully appreciate this card until I saw Rinne dominate for stretches of games in the playoffs. What a card this one is! So glad for it to be the first hockey autograph to go into my collection.

This was just a small part of an amazing starter pack. Focused on current players in this post because those are the guys I'm familiar with based on the last few months or so of watching. Already can't wait for next season to start!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Second Pack of Hockey Cards

Well, I'm in on hockey. On watching games, on collecting Nashville Predators, I'm in.

I went into another trip to Target over the weekend with the intent of purchasing a few packs of new Topps Heritage baseball. When that wasn't there I gladly chose another 32 card pack of Upper Deck Series 2 instead. I think the hobby is trying to hook me on hockey based on the contents.

A few of the notable base cards based on name recognition for me, being a new hockey fan. Weber stands out as the former Predators Captain who was traded for current defenseman P.K. Subban.

Speaking of...

What a great card to pull. I've gotta say I really like the Nashville guitar pick logo on the jersey sleeve. Subban has quickly become one of my favorite Predators but I'm sure if I had followed the team over the years Weber would have been a favorite too.

My first Young Guns pull. I was so excited to see the words Young Guns, it didn't even matter that I didn't pull one of the 'chase' rookies. I feel like a real hockey collector now.

The other notable base card. I've been seeing this guy's name a lot. The Wild look to be a tough out and are leading the Central Division and the Western Conference.

Three more Predators to add to the Subban checklist above, and just like that I only need two more cards for the Series 2 team set of base cards.

Here's a full breakdown:

Arizona Coyotes (2) - 257 Tobias Rieder, 258 Max Domi
Boston Bruins (1) - 265 Tuuka Rask
Buffalo Sabres (2) - 271 Zamgus Girgensons, 272 Brian Gionta
Chicago Blackhawks (1) - 295 Ryan Hartman
Colorado Avalanche (1) - 301 Semyon Varlamov
Detroit Red Wings (1) - 316 Riley Sheahan
Minnesota Wild (2) - 343 Charlie Coyle, 344 Mikael Granlund
Montreal Canadians (2) - 351 Shea Weber, 352 Alexei Emelin
Nashville Predators (4) - 355 P.K. Subban, 357 Roman Josi, 358 Colin Wilson, 450 P.K. Subban/Shea Weber Checklist
New Jersey Devils (4) - 360 Taylor Hall, 362 Travis Zajac, 363 Devante Smith-Pelly, 456 Yohann Auvitu Young Guns
New York Islanders (1) - 369 Johnny Boychuk
New York Rangers (1) - 375 Henrik Lundqvist
Philadelphia Flyers (1) - 388 Jakub Voracek
Pittsburgh Penguins (1) - 398 Nick Bonino
San Jose Sharks (2) - 403 Joe Thornton, 407 Matt Nieto
St. Louis Blues (3) - 409 Jaden Schwartz, 411 Jay Bouwmeester, 412 Kevin Shattenkirk
Tampa Bay Lightning (1) - 420 Jonathan Drouin
Winnipeg Jets (2) - 444 Blake Wheeler, 448 Connor Hellebuyck

First off, I want to say that received no duplicates from the first 32 card pack I opened. Gold star! And with four Predators I can say I don't think I've ever pulled that many cards of a team I collect out of a single pack before. Certainly off to a good start!

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

First Pack of Hockey Cards

I picked up NHL 16 for the playstation on clearance last week and managed to get a few games in. What fun that is. It flashed me back to playing on the original playstation. For NHL 97 my team of choice was the Flyers, scoring goals at will with Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, the 'Legion of Doom'. But I was only 11 years old then. I've never gotten into following hockey over the years for whatever reason, but that's changing.

So my first hockey pack ever ends up being 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey. It's been awhile since I've opened an Upper Deck pack at all, with Panini having the exclusive basketball license and Topps for baseball.

The first game I played on the PS4 was while waiting for the rest of the game to download. It was a matchup between the two league finalists from the year prior, the Blackhawks and Lightning. Guess what two of the first few cards in my first pack of hockey cards were?

Glad to pull two guys I know right off the bat. Filppula it appears has been traded to the Flyers for Mark Streit who is on an expiring contract. Stamkos has been on the Lightning his entire NHL career. My kind of player!

A few goalies from the pack. I always enjoy seeing the designs on the masks these guys wear. Looking forward to finding some insert sets that feature these. Craig Anderson is 2nd in the NHL in save percentage.

Speaking of inserts and goalies, the lone parallel/insert in this pack. Apparently the Young Guns are the chase cards in these packs and I didn't pull any of those, but I have a feeling I'll have more opportunities. Again, awesome mask with Jets for the Winnipeg goaltender.

Here's the allocation by team for my 32 card pack:

Boston Bruins (3) - 266 Torey Krug, 267 David Backes, 268 Dominic Moore

Calgary Flames (2) - 279 Sean Monahan, 283 Michael Ferland

Carolina Hurricanes (1) - 285 Victor Rask

Chicago Blackhawks (1) - 293 Richard Panik

Colorado Avalanche (1) - 296 Joe Colborne

Detroit Red Wings (1) - 315 Petr Mrazek

Florida Panthers (3) - 333 Nick Bjugstad, 334 James Reimer, 335 Keith Yandle

Montreal Canadians (1) - 349 Carey Price

New Jersey Devils (1) - 364 John Moore

New York Rangers (1) - 376 Oscar Lindberg

Ottawa Senators (2) - 385 Craig Anderson, 386 Zack Smith

Philadelphia Flyers (3) - 390 Michael Raffl, 391 Scott Laughton, 392 Matt Read

Pittsburgh Penguins (2) - 393 Chris Kunitz, 397 Olli Maatta

Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 259 Alex Goligoski, 260 Radim Vrbata, 263 Luke Schenn

San Jose Sharks (1) - 404 Joonas Donskoi

St. Louis Blues (2) - 410 Colton Parayko, 413 Neil Yakupov

Tampa Bay Lightning (2) - 416 Steven Stamkos, 418 Valtteri Filppula

Winnipeg Jets (1) - Canvas C209 Connor Hellebuyck

I left one card out. I've always been a team collector and player collector. I've picked a team to follow and a team to collect. I've taken a few trips here over the last couple years and enjoyed the city. There's reason #1. Reason #2 is I think the logo, team name, and where the logo comes from is just too cool. And lastly the color scheme closely resembles my favorite NBA team, the Indiana Pacers.

I pulled one card for this team.

I'm collecting the Nashville Predators. They have a relatively short NHL history which I actually like. Their team logo is based on a saber-toothed cat that's been extinct for 10,000 years. The idea came from a partial skeleton found in downtown Nashville in 1971 during construction of a bank building, per Wikipedia.

I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself, but I'm looking forward to adding cards of the Preds to my wantlist and starting a hockey collection, following the NHL season and a Predator playoff run, and most of all interacting with hockey card bloggers and collectors. I watched the Predators beat the Edmonton Oilers the other night and had a blast. Hopefully more to come soon!

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