1991-1992 NHL

Welcome back to the garbage wax rundown! After dropping some hot cards in the last post, I've found some other gems. This time, it's from the Coolest game on Earth...or, when the NHL mattered.

I like a lot of people played the hell out of the NHL series from 1994-1997. Nothing else to me mattered. I could run through a season in under a week. The addiction was high. My dad was a big hockey fan, which lead me to follow the sport. I really have no idea why he was so big into it, we didn't have an NHL team. Our IHL team (Lumberjacks) were real good though.

So all that love like everything else sports related translated into sports cards. A lot of them. All of them mishandled by my small feeble peanut butter filled hands.



This guy was awesome. One of the best last names in any sport, ever. And a good goalie. He was real sick in NHL 1994. As I said before, the NHL isn't the same. Quebec not having a team is a reason why.



I don't think any early 90's hockey blog post is worthwhile without Gretzky. Wasn't much of a fan of him, I loved Super Mario. Fact: After this photo was taken, Wayner purchased the T206 Wagner.



I don't know why, but I've always liked Nolan. So much so that I would always include him in my second line from 1994-1997. My teams were stacked and I cheated in a lot of trades to have the best team...who could blame me, I was 7 years old. I also own a McFarlane of Nolan.



I LOVED THIS GUY TOO. First line, legendary defender. On a side note, I hate those striped sweaters that the 'Hawks are wearing in this photo. I also really really really want this sweatshirt.



The Minnesota Wild are okay, but they are no North Stars. One of the coolest names in any sport. Great sweater. I miss this team so much. Eventually I will own the chase Mike Modano North Star figurine.



My favorite player of all time. Lil Theo. He could do all the coke he wants, he's a legend. And really, he's the only reason I even had an interest in Calgary. Dude was 5'2, didn't care about his body, and was quick as hell. When I played roller hockey, I thought I was Theo...except I wasn't fast, and couldn't really roller skate all that well.

What happened to the "Coolest Game On Earth?"

The NHL All-Star Game was played last night, did you watch it? Did you even know it was on TV? Do you even have any idea the NHL still exists?

The All-Star Game was on at 6 pm last night, and I searched every station to watch it. No luck. In fact, I just found out the score and the MVP (12-11 East in a Shootout; MVP was Alexi Kovalev). I've been hockey-less since October, when Time Warner Cable got rid of Versus. I can catch a Blue Jacket's game here and there, but other than that, I don't see any NHL action at all.

Nearly 10 years ago, the NHL was coming down from it's peak. The Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry helped put hockey into the upper echelon of American Sports. ESPN2 would carry plenty of hockey games. ESPN and Barry Melrose would talk hockey and show highlights all the time. Now the NHL is lucky to get 1 clip on ESPN a day.

Ever since the lockout that wiped out a whole season, the NHL has become virtually invisible to Americans. I'd even guess that the MLS draws more viewers.

The new 2008-2009 SP Hockey (Upper Deck) comes out soon also. Since dinosaur teeth are already taken in another hockey set, this set's gimmick will be fight straps. Fight straps are the little straps on the lower back of the jersey to keep the player's shirt on him while in a fight (common sense, no?). I think this sounds pretty neat. Unfortunately, most of the fight straps are white, so the card's patch/strap won't be very appealing to many. Although this prevents any chance of having different colored relics on the card, making it nearly impossible to counterfeit. Unless of course Upper Deck adds some "blood" to some of the relics, but that's usually the kind of gimmicky crap Topps does.

Check out some of the cards here:



Legend.



This card would have been much cooler about a week ago. Both these guys recently stopped their hatred for each other at this weekend's All-Star Game Festivities. While both are superstars in the NHL, the lack of rivalry doesn't make the card as interesting anymore.



This is what I'm talking about. Detriot versus Colorado. Legendary stuff right there. These teams hated each other and even the goalies would fight each other. Patrick Roy is on this card and so is Mike Ver....wait, Dominick Hasek. What? Upper Deck couldn't get a fight strap of Mike Vernon? Or Chris Osgood? Are you serious? Both goalies on this card are amazing and will be in the HOF eventually. But for a 1/1, this card NEEDS TO HAVE Vernon or Osgood. Way to drop the ball UD.

Hopefully Hockey can regain it's Coolest Game On Earth status someday, but until that day comes, I'll be searching for channels on TV to watch the NHL.

When does it all become too much?

It all started harmlessly in the early-90's with parallels. Then there were serial numbered cards. "What?! Companies made only a certain number of cards?", many collector's thought. Forget parallels, I want these! After the serial number cards became customary, companies thought, let's put pieces of a player's uniform on the cards! Collector's started pulling these and charged top dollar on the secondary market. Then, autographed cards. No longer did a collector have to stand in lines at a ballpark, a hotel, or mail a 3x5 index card to players, they could just bust packs. Two birds with one stone really. And over the years, all three of these inserts have been combined, and that is where we are at currently in this hobby.

But that all changed with Allen and Ginter last season. Topps turned the clocks way back, before the times of man. Now you had the chance to pay a couple of bucks for a pack of Allen and Ginter and pull a relic card, of dinosaurs or Wooly Mammoths. Not that Allen and Ginter needed any help in selling packs, but dinosaur bones? Not to mention, this set also included DNA Relics of former Presidents.

But when does this become too much? At what point, not as collector's, but as humans do we say "This needs to stop?" Putting pieces of cloth on cards isn't too much to do. Hell, even most companies now don't even say the pieces of cloth are game used, rather, event used. Even some of the higher mid end product like last year's UD Sweet Spot Classic had "event used" cloth. Just ask Dave of Fielder's Choice.

But dinosaur bones? There's only so many of them to be cut up. The part that worries me is that collector's want to pull these cards. They are "white whales". And since the demand is super high, I could see more companies try to put prehistoric fossils in their cards.

It makes plenty of sense logically for Upper Deck to try and get a piece of the prehistoric card craze from Topps. And that is exactly what they will do come mid-March. But not in any sort of Americana card set. Nope, they are putting prehistoric bones and teeth in a hockey set. Are hockey cards really not selling that well that UD needs to put scare relics that don't even have anything to do with the sport into these packs? I was pretty sure UD Black Diamond is one hell of a product when it comes to the NHL.



2008-2009 NHL Champ's by Upper Deck is exactly where you can pull this card pictured above. You don't want a T-Rex bone, well how about a piece of it's tooth? No? Alright then, take your pick from a Spinosaurus, T-Rex, and Pterosaur. What's that, you don't like dinosaurs? That's totally fine, how about a bone relic of a Wooly Mammoth or Wooly Rhinoceros.

Sooner or later we'll have collector's trying to piece the whole animal together with relics they've pulled from cards. A miniature Jurassic Park in their basements.



Now, I know I realize it's only a few bones and hair clips from these animals. But it really makes me question if this is the beginning of something bigger and that extinct animals will have more of a prominence in this hobby. Maybe I just don't understand why dinosaur cards are going to be featured in a Hockey Set. I always thought it was the Ice Age that did the dinosaurs in? Wooly Mammoth's and Wooly Rhinoceroses I can sort of understand being in a hockey product, if only that they lived through the Ice Age.

But in the end, it still is a hockey product and I don't think hockey cards need dinosaur relics, but apparently Upper Deck thinks so.