When I went out to get provisions today, I found myself in Wal-Mart. This is a Canadian Wal-Mart, of course, so there was no baseball to be found. Luckily, I like hockey. I grabbed a retail blaster of 08/09 Series 2 Hockey. A little history primer – I have terrible luck with base Upper Deck hockey. However, I often keep going back for more. This was one of those cases.
I’m not going to scan any base cards, but suffice to say – the photography is excellent. Hockey really lends itself well to photography. I think it is a combination of the weird positions players often find themselves in, and the ice providing a white background that the players really pop out against. Upper Deck Series 2 is the usual mix of inserts, Victory Update cards and the main hits – Young Guns. Good Young Guns make or break any base UD bust.
This blaster was 12 retail packs. I should end up with 6 Victory Update cards, 2 Young Guns, and some random number of inserts, which I can never really figure out. Memorabilia cards are about 1:240 packs. Suffice to say – I’m not that lucky. Here’s the damage:
Tales of the Cup Insert: Those damn Montreal Canadiens abandoned the Stanley Cup at the side of the road in 1924 afer changing a tire. This is Howie Morenz pictured on the card. Unfortunately, there is no known photograph of the Stanley Cup abandoned by the side of the road.
Victory Update Rookies: Luke Schenn, Jonas Frogren, Jared Ross. Two Maple Leafs!! Including the team’s saviour du jour – Luke Schenn. Frogren is nice, but Schenn is one of very few bright spots for a very bad Leafs team. Being that he is so important to my favorite team – I of course traded for a copy of this card last week. And of course, this had to be balanced out by a Flyer. Sigh….
Young Guns: Simeon Varlamov & Justin Pogge. The hits keep on coming for this Leafs fan. I love Justin Pogge. He is another ray of light for the Leafs, but he has struggled in his introduction to the NHL this season. He was Canada’s hero at the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championships. Varlamov is the heir apparent to the Washington Capitals goal crease, whenever he proves his readiness. Bar none – these are the best Young Guns I have ever pulled. Goalies always are a bit more popular than skaters, and Pogge was the one YG I wanted out of the product.
There you have my little hockey interlude. I am heading out to a card show tomorrow – with the possibility of Topps Heritage packs to break. I’ll have a few posts with my pickups tomorrow, hopefully.
The Hamiltonian 
the wallyworld here in Calgary has these for $25… how many cards did you get? It didn’t say how many per pack.
Although I dislike the Leafs, that Pogge card is nice! I’m almost done Series 1, time to start on Series 2…
I paid $25 as well. There were 12 packs – 5 cards per pack. They feel really flimsy when compared to a Hobby UD pack, but I hit the odds right on, so I won’t complain.