Hockey Card of the Day #33, 34

(Left) #20 - Rick Nash
07-08 Upper Deck Series 1

(Right) #275 - Rick Nash
07-08 Upper Deck Series 2

Rick Nash walking on, and off, the ice! If you would like to see more photos of the Columbus Blue Jackets not playing hockey, you may also want to check out card numbers 271, 274, and 276. Just because no one cheers for Columbus doesn't mean you can be lazy, Upper Deck.

Spotlight: Mike Liut

#306 - Mike Liut 82-83
O-Pee-Chee
(back)

Very few players have looked as consistently badass on their hockey cards as Mike Liut. Even after he got rid of the molded 'ghoul' mask, Liut still managed to look tough. I never had the chance to actually to see Liut play any games, but the lack of Liut video on youtube leads me to believe he never lost his shit like Ron Hextall on Chris Chelios in the '89 playoffs. It's too bad because with a mask like that you'd think he'd have swung his stick like he was Grim Reaper taking down a victim with his sickle at least once.

Five more of my favourite Liut cards:
#187 - 84-85 O-Pee-Chee
#127 - 88-89 O-Pee-Chee
#267 - 88-89 O-Pee-Chee Stickers
#??? - 90-91 Panini
#68 - 90-91 Score

Wish List #2

#GG-DC - Don Cherry Game Gear
00-01 Topps Stars

While this card is on my wish list, there's no denying that it is tackier than most of Cherry's suits. Every trading card company is dropping the ball when it comes to Don Cherry memorabilia cards. I hate to give away my great ideas but here's a freebie: make the suit in the photo an actual patch from one of his Hockey Night in Canada suits. Imagine getting this card with a small piece of authentic Don Cherry plaid. That'd be the hottest card since Gretzky-2000.

And while I'm giving away great ideas, I'd like a Ron MacLean memorabilia card with a patch from one of those old blue Hockey Night in Canada jackets like he's wearing in the video below, please.

Representatives from Upper Deck or In the Game can send job offers to bszine@hotmail.com. Anyone with this card or the Linden card from the last wish list post can send trade offers to the same address.

Free box of Upper Deck!

It's hard to believe that people would pay $72 for a box of these cards considering that the base set is worth nothing and most of the inserts aren't worth much more than that. I guess the point is to pull some exclusive hd-high gloss-parallel-autographed-game worn-rookie card and sell it on eBay for a pile of money. But if you don't get one of the few boxes that have those cards, then you're pretty much stuck with a pile of worthless cards. 07-08 is the new 91-92.

This box was free, so the price was right, and even though I already had the base set it was fun to open a box of hockey cards without the guilt of having spent a lot of money on it. One of the best things about this box was that out of the 192 cards in the box (24 eight-card packs) there wasn't a single double. Upper Deck was always the worst for that back in the 90's. The box of 93-94 Jumbo Packs that I opened recently was almost one-third duplicates, including quadruples of every Swede's favorite Belarusian, Alexander Andrijevski.

Out of my 192 cards, I got almost exactly what the box said I would: 172 base cards, including all the superstars like Sidney Crosby and Dan Cloutier; six Superstar insert cards, including Andrew Raycroft and Dwayne Roloson,'Hometown Heroes', Ryan Miller and Jarome Iginla, 'NHL's Best', Phil Kessel 'Award Winners' (the Masteron trophy is tied with the Lady Byng for lamest award in my books), and Scott Niedermayer's 'Lord Stanley's Heroes' card where it looks like he had to clip the bird shit out of his disgusting homeless-man beard; six Young Guns rookie cards-- I got some pretty marginal 'guns' in this batch-- Matt Niskanen, Ryan Callahan, David Krejci, Jared Boll, Daniel Winnik and Curtis McElhinney; Mark Stuart and David Legwand Game Jersey cards, and probably the only card actually worth more than a buck-- the 'Signature Sensations' Martin St.Louis autograph.

By my estimation, these cards are worth, at most, $35 if sold individually, which means I would have lost about $40 if I had purchased the box and was looking for a profit. I wish that Upper Deck would at least put enough cards in the box so you have the chance of getting the full base set when you buy a box. For $72 it's the least they could do, especially since it would only take one more card per pack.

All of these cards are up for trade. Make me offers of Pro-Set t-shirts, as well as weird and terrible hockey cards.

Wish List #1

#188 - Trevor Linden (A Day in the Life)
97-98 Leaf

As much as I love Trevor Linden and cordless telephones, $8 after shipping was just a little more than I could justify spending on this gem. But instead of letting it pass me by altogether, I've decided it time to start the Get High on Hockey wish list! Friends, family, and fans can all take note that all cards added to my wish list make great presents for all occasions! Hell, even a decent scan of the back of this card would be a pretty nice surprise. I'm dying to find out what they could possibly write on a card like this.

Two other cards from Linden's "A Day in the Life" series also caught my attention: #196, "Window's '94 Linden" is another beauty whose bidding was a little to rich for my low-income ass. Oddly, #195, "Beach Bum Linden" was not looked on as favourably by the discerning collectors, selling for just sixty cents. I guess I should've snapped that one up.

But seriously, I may be playing GM Place again next year with the Flying Vees, and I'd be surprised if Linden isn't involved with the Canucks somehow. "Cordless Linden" is just the kind of card I'd love to have autographed, so let me know if you have it and we'll make a deal.

Back!

It's been over a month, but I'm back to updating so you'll have another way to waste two minutes while you should be working.

During my time away from the blog I was indulging in some of my other hockey fantasies. First off, I went to Toronto to play in the Exclaim! Cup, the annual hockey tournament of the arts featuring all your favorite Canadian semi-celebrities, like Chris Murphy of Sloan, Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics (and author of one of my favorite hockey books, Tropic of Hockey), and George Strombopolous of The Hour. My team, the Vancouver Flying Vees, went an unspectacular one win, two losses in the tournament, but we ruled the musical part of tournament (each team forms a band and performs one night of the tournament) with a short set split between Velvet Underground covers and hockey rock n' roll.

I picked up a few random cards from the 2003 Exclaim! Cup tournament, including these of the two teams that beat the Vees, and this one random Wheatfield Souldier. I have to say that these guys had the best jerseys in the tournament, featuring the Winnipeg Jets' honorary captain, Burton Cummings.

Back in Vancouver, I got to fulfill a hockey fantasy that I never thought would happen: playing to 19,000 people during a Canucks game. Despite the fact the Canucks blew the game and their season, it was pretty sweet playing from the front row of the balcony and exploring GM Place with my media pass.

More posts soon!