Cujo Retires

One of my all-time favorite goalies to watch in the NHL retired on Tuesday. I guess I am late to the party because I just heard about it. Either way, it is a sad day when any of the players you admire hang up their equipment for the last time.


(I have no idea how that crease got in there. That sucks.)

CuJo played for 19 years as an undrafted free agent. Spending much of his career in St. Louis, he later played for Edmonton before moving on to his most memorable stint with the Maple Leafs. He also played for the Coyotes, Flames and Red Wings. His 454 wins is currently good enough for #4 on the career wins list behind Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, and "The Hawk" Eddie Belfour. Not bad company to be in, that's for sure. The only thing he doesn't have in common with the others is a Stanley Cup. He never played on a championship team and finished with a 63-66 record in the playoffs.

Here is one of my favorite moments of his career...of course it's a fight...A GOALIE FIGHT!!

CuJo vs. Tim Cheveldae

Box Break - - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hobby Box

For my first trick, I am going to pull a rabbit out of my hat. For my second trick, I'm actually going to bust some hobby boxes for once.

I picked up a couple boxes at a local show a few weeks ago for a pretty decent price. I finally had the time to break them so I wanted to share.

The first box is a hobby box of 09-10 OPC hockey. OPC is one of those sets that I try to chase down every year and inevitably spend triple of what it is worth in getting all the cards. This years set will probably be no different. I already had picked up a blaster when they were first issued and with this box together, I am well on my way to the 600 card beast of a set. Here is the breakdown...

2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hobby Box

36 Packs per box
6 Cards per pack
129 Base Cards / 500 Base Set
No doubles
Guarantees: Retro variation cards, 1 per pack; Canadian Heroes card; 18 Rookies or Legends; 9 Regular Set Gold parallels; 1-2 Retro Set parallels; 9 OPC Inserts (2 signature cards, 3 quad-materials cards per case)

Rookies: (9)

Scott Lehman, Jamie Sifers, Grant Lewis, Derek Peltier, Sean Collis, Riku Helenius, John Scott, Jesse Joensuu, and Brandon Segal

Legends: (9)

Denis Potvin, Bernie Federko, Darryl Sutter, Clark Gillies, Red Kelly, Gilbert Perreault, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming, Patrick Roy

SP Parallels: (12)

Gold Marquee Rookies: Kris Chucko; Canadian Heroes Foil: Mike Bossy; Gold Legends: Bobby Clarke; Retro Rainbow: Adrian Aucoin, Jere Lehtinen, Marek Zidlicky; Gold Regular: Adrian Aucoin, Daniel Sedin, Manny Legace, Maxim Lapierre, Niklas Kronwall, Matt Bradley, Keith Ballard.

Regular Retro Parallels: (36)

I'm not listing them all. That would take too long.

Inserts: (18)

Record Breaker: Zdeno Chara; In Action: Mikko Koivu, Trophy Winner: Evgeni Malkin; Stat Leader: Alexander Ovechkin; All Star: Evgeni Malkin; All Rookie Team: Patrik Berglund; Team Checklists: Nashville, Toronto, Carolina; Canadian Heroes: Haley Irwin, Martin St. Louis, Chris Phillips, Shannon Szabados, Colleen Sostorics, Becky Kellar, Kim St. Pierre, Drew Doughty, Derek Roy

Auto: (1)

Peter Budaj (yes it's a sticker auto)



If you haven't seen the regular issue cards yet, here is a sample...
I like the design (although some people might find it too busy). It features nice full color action shots of the players surrounded by a double line border like some of the early 80s issues. Upper Deck could have toned down the branding logo at the top to make way for the players name but it does make for a clean design.

So if you are keeping score on my box, I think I beat the odds for a box considering I got a case hit with the Budaj auto. It was nice to pull one out of a pack for a change instead of the redemption scratch off like last year. As for the other cards, I pulled exactly the box breakdown from UD's sell sheet. I was especially happy with the 2 Malkin inserts, at least from a PC standpoint. I also think the selection of rookies was pretty decent.

Overall, I would give this set an 8/10 and my particular box a 9/10 because of the PC insert pulls and of course the case hit on the auto.

Box Break - 2009-10 Upper Deck Victory (Blaster)

I couldn't resist this one. I had to get my hands on some fresh 09/10 Hockey. The first release out this year is Upper Deck Victory. Walmart's shelves were jammed with them.

11 Packs/Blaster
6 Cards/Pack
Box Guarantees: 1 Oversize Card, 1:2 Victory Rookies or Star Inserts (basically 1 per pack)
200 card base set (250 Total)

I pulled 54 base (no doubles) which is 22% of the set

Rookies (6):

Mike Santorelli #205
Byron Bitz #212
Luca Caputi #225
Jesse Joensuu #232
Andrew McDonald #240
Mike McKenna #243

Parallels (1): Brandon Sutter Gold #38 (avg. 1:36 packs)

Inserts (5): Game Breakers - Brad Boyes, Evgeni Malkin, Eric Staal; Stars Of The Game - Marian Hossa, Marty Turco

Oversize Card (1):


Luke Schenn

Summary:

The first cards of the year are always exciting, even if they are from the UD Victory product. Victory has, over the past few years, had a standard "run of the mill" type design that has not varied much from year to year. The same goes for 09/10. This year features a lot more white space, if that was even possible. The borders are even more expansive than last year, with the images centered on the card and a more rounded feel to the edge. The insert sets feature the standard Victory Game Breakers and Stars of the Game, which showcase the top players on each team. The Victory Rookies feature many of the guys that played at the end of 08/09 and the design of the card is an improvement over last year, in my opinion.

I would give the set itself a 6/10. The box...maybe a 5 1/2/10, possibly a 6 because I like these cards but definitely better than a 5.

An interesting take on "goonery"

Yeah, I made that word up but it is fitting for this topic. I was perusing some other blogs this morning and found one over at "Here Come The Bruins" that was very interesting. With the inductions into the hall of fame this year, they have taken it a step further by creating their own hall...the Hockey Hall of Hell.

Check out the article

This is a place reserved for the goons of the league and it got me thinking about all the players that I loved to hate when I was growing up. That list includes pretty much everyone who played on the teams in the old Patrick division against my beloved Pens.

Many people feel that the enforcer position is a thing of the past and that with the rule changes, there is no need to "goon it up" on the ice. I disagree because with the open ice play, there is more opportunity for star players to be destroyed in open ice. Protection and "message sending" is some of the most entertaining hockey, in my opinion. Now I am not defending random fighting for no reason. However, as part of a very physically and mentally draining game, I think it is part of what makes hockey great.

Any thoughts?...

Box Break - - 2001-02 Upper Deck Victory Hockey

Why you ask? Well, it was on the shelf, it was staring at me, and it was under 10 bucks. Plus, I don't think I have any 01-02 Victory in my collection. So, without further adieu, here is my latest junk wax break.

36 Packs/Box
10 Cards/Pack
Box Guarantees: Mr. Hockey's Greats subset cards average 1/pack
Includes Victory Gold Inserts, Mr. Hockey's Greats subset
440 Card Base Set (13 Update Rookies not included)

I pulled 344/440 (78%) cards in the base set with no doubles (2 extra cards)

Rookies (23):
Gregg Naumenko, B.Tapper/J.Vigier/D.Snyder, M. Murray/R. Fata/R. Petrovicky, Y.Babenko/R.Shearer, Steve Gainey, J.Williams/M.Kuznetsov, J.Shelley/M.Spanhel/R.Klesla, A.Podkonicky/R.Thompson, T.Scott/A.Lilja, Pascal Dupuis, M. Matteucci/D.Gustafson, Francis Belanger, P.Dagenais/M.Jefferson, Juraj Kolnik, P.Smrek/J.Ulmer/V.Yeremeyev, Joel Kwiatkowski, Maxime Ouellet, David Cullen, Tibb/Croz/Hedberg, M.Kiprusoff/M.Samuelsson, J.Obsut RC/M.Van Ryn, T.Ziegler RC/D.Afanasenkov, A.Ponikarovsky/J.Farkas, K.Beech/M.Pettinger

Gold Parallels (18):
Steve Rucchin, Ron Francis, Brain Boucher, Keith Tkachuk, Ron Tugnutt, Doug Weight, Alexei Zhitnik, Manny Legace, Joe Sakic, Randy McKay, Chris Osgood, Mike Dunham, John LeClair, Mariusz Czerkawski, Jeremy Roenick, Andrei Zyuzin, Robyn Regehr, Patrick Roy

Summary:
First off, there is a glossy finish on both sides of the cards that makes them stick together. It also makes it very difficult to sort through them like "normal". It is almost like a wax coating. The cards have a clean design on the front and have the typical stat lists and small write ups, much like Topps/OPC releases. It was nice to get no doubles out of an Upper Deck product. I like these cards from an aesthetics standpoint. The gold cards look just like the 99-00 Topps/OPC release and are only gold because of the border print...no foil, stamped or otherwise. Unfortunately, there is really nothing to gain here monetarily without the Update Rookies. Overall, I give the box a 5/10 and the set a 6/10. Fun to break.