Best Ever Hockey Card

#25 - Titan the VooDoo Warrior
1994-95 Slapshot Vancouver Voodoo Team Set

This is clearly, without a doubt, the best hockey card ever made. From the back of the card:

"From the dense rainforests of northern British Columbia comes Titan the VooDoo Warrior. Titan leads the VooDoo tribe into battle as they claim another victim and celebrate each VooDoo goal in a ritual known as the VooDoo Bongo Beat."

Instead of using one of the many native groups that actually live in northern British Columbia, the Vancouver Voodoo organization adopted this Polynesian-styled character as their mascot. It kind of works: Titan is a gaudy perversion of native culture in the same way that the RHI was a gaudy perversion of the NHL.

The VooDoo tribe may not exist in BC anymore, but it lives on ... as a bar... in Malaysia?

From some random person's travel blog comes this amazing neon sign from the Voodoo Pub & Bistro in Penang:

Amazing!

Worst Ever Hockey Cards #23

#67 - Mike Grier
97-98 Upper Deck
(back)

Get High on Hockey is back from the dead. . . for today. . . just because this card features three of my favourite things: an unflattering photo, pizza, and an ugly couch.

It's been a while since I've seen a suitably awful card, although I have been interested in old cigarette cards that are certainly awful and offensive. You really have to read the back of this 'Puppy Stew' card to understand what I mean.

Hockey Card of the Day #45

NNO - Sergei Federov
90-91 - ?
(back)

Does anyone know what set this off-brand card comes from? There is no company name or copyright date anywhere on the card. I'm hoping this was from some illegal, unlicensed set. The thing is, it's much higher quality than some of the crap that came out in 90-91 (I'm looking your way Bowman).

If it's any help, this foil Eric Lindros card seems to be from the same set as well.

Hockey Card of the Day #44

NNO - Stan Mikita
72-73 O-Pee-Chee Team Canada
(back)

These decapitated heads were inserted in packs of 72-73 O-Pee-Chee. I like them much better than the regular 72-73 OPC cards, though I think I would like this card even more if Mikita was wearing his trademark bulbous helmet.

Actually, this card probably ranks in my top ten favourite hockey cards, coincidentally with a couple of other cards that also feature people who have had their heads removed-- though in these cases they were reattached on someone else's body: 71-72 Rogie Vachon and Mike Corrigan.

Also notable in the category of cards featuring head transplants is the '74 Nabisco Sugar Daddy set that placed pro-athletes heads on cartoon bodies. Derek Sanderson's card is my favourite of that bunch.

Worst Ever Hockey Cards #22

#236 - Oleg Tverdovsky
95-96 Skybox Impact
(back)

It's embarrassing when the NHL tries to be cool. Like the NHL's Faceoff Rocks debacle that kicked off the 08-09 season and featured two artists, Def Leppard and Alanis Morrisette, who were arguably never cool, and have quite obviously not been cool for at least a decade.

All of the NHL's efforts to prove that they are cool through shitty events and celebrity endorsements (with the exception of this one) just remind me that I have nothing in common with 99% of hockey fans and make me wonder why I even like the sport.

This card gets inducted into the hockey card hall of shame for the hokey "Hockey's Hip" logo and the paragraph on the back that makes me want to punch the writer in the face.

Hockey Card of the Day #43

#10 - Mike Dunham
95-96 Edge Ice - The Wall
(back)

Whatever that thing on Dunham's mask is supposed to be (a grotesque red-faced gorilla?), it gets my vote as the creepiest goalie mask ever.

This card was part of a insert set of minor-league goalie masks that featured such minor-league staples as Rick Knickle, Troy Gamble, Wendell Young and Pokey Reddick. These cards were inserted in packs of 95-96 Edge Ice, which was an ambitious 200 card set of AHL/IHL players. Like most companies that only released minor league sets, Edge Ice did not return for a second year. If anyone has one of these sets they want to get rid of, I want one.

Top 10 Hits

I'm trying to find the ten best hits ever shown on hockey cards. I know the NHL and NHLPA don't allow fighting on hockey cards, but as far as I know there is no issue with bodychecks. Still, it's really hard to find many cards with good photos of players running each other over. So far I have just four worthy candidates.

#67 - 1980 U.S. Hockey Team Aggressive blocking - 1991 Impel U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame - Apparently running a guy over is also called "Aggressive blocking."

#79 - Steve Bernier - 07-08 Upper Deck

#149 - Dany Heatley - 07-08 Upper Deck

#520 - Rick Tabaracci - 90-91 Upper Deck - I think this one is my favourite right now.

Can anyone help me flesh out this list?

Worst Ever Hockey Cards #21

#157 - Mike Corrigan
71-72 O-Pee-Chee

My new favourite card of all-time.

Hockey Card of the Day #42

#69 - Randy Ladoceur
94-95 Stadium Club
(back)

Anytime I see someone wearing these jerseys in public I assume they are slightly retarded.