Montreal Canadiens Centennial Set - Hockey Card Review

Every once in a while a hockey card set is produced and you just have to have it! The Montreal Canadiens Centennial Set from Upper Deck is one of those sets. I am not surprised by the quality of the photographs and the cards themselves. After all, Upper Deck has made its place atop the sports collectible industry because of its high quality and attention to detail and this set is just another example of this.

First of all, you can purchase cards from this set in many formats, but my favorite is the one that I found in our local Walmart.

Ten packages, each containing 8 hockey cards, are packaged in a collector tin. The tin is a great collectible by itself with a wonderful picture of perhaps the greatest Montreal Canadien of all time, Jean Beliveau.



Along with the great tin and hockey cards, each container has a miniature banner (similar to the ones you can find hanging from the rafters of your local arena or baseball stadium celebrating past championship teams). The banner in my tin celebrated the Canadiens' 1943-44 Stanley Cup championship.



The 300 card set features stars from every era of the Montreal Canadiens 100 years in professional hockey. The first card features legendary player Toe Blake, who after retiring, became the coach of the Canadiens during their glory days of the 1950s.



The last hockey card #300 features the dramatic and emotional return of current captain Saku Koivu from his bout with cancer.

In between there are hockey cards featuring great players and great moments from the Canadiens storied past. One of my favorites is that of Georges Vezina, the great goaltender whose name is forever etched in NHL history on the trophy that is given to the best NHL goaltender each season.



In upcoming blogs I will feature other hockey cards from this great hockey card set. As a hockey card collector and hockey historian, I strongly recommend this set to anyone who enjoys the great game of hockey.

Postscript: The packages are also a nice collectible featuring a great picture of Montreal Canadiens superstar Guy Lafleur.