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.

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2006-2007 Victory Hockey Review

Cards in the Set: 230

Hobby Favorite: #157 Sidney Crosby

My Favorite: #169 Curtis Sanford




Insert Sets

Upper Deck Victory Game Breakers (50 cards) - odds: 1:4.

Upper Deck Victory Next in Line (50 cards) - odds: 1:4 packs

Parallel Set: Upper Deck Victory Black 230 cards – odds: 1:720

The 2006-2007 Victory Hockey card set from Upper Deck is a fun set for the casual sports card collector or for youngsters that you would like to introduce to the wonderful world of hockey card collecting.

This set comes out early in the new hockey card season. Because of its early release date players who have either retired or changed teams are pictured in the uniform of their former team. For instance, Toronto Maple Leaf collectors will have to be satisfied with a card of their new goalie, Andrew Raycroft, wearing the uniform of his former club the Boston Bruins. (Now, in 2008, they can happily check him out in an Avalanche uniform.)

The cards are collated in alphabetical order starting with the players of the Anaheim Ducks and ending with the players of the Washington Capitals. Therefore it is easy to know when you have found all the players from your favorite team.

The cards are aesthetically pleasing with crisp bright colors and white borders. The pictures are excellent. But, then we have come to expect nothing less from Upper Deck.

I like this set as a good introduction for youngsters to the hobby for many reasons, but one of the most important attractions, is a special packaging format offered by Upper Deck.

Most every hockey season, Victory Hockey cards are available in a special edition collector’s tin. To find out more about this special packaging offer, I purchased a tin and this is what I discovered:

The tin featured a great picture of Ottawa Senators superstar Dany Heatley.

Inside, I found an over-sized hockey card of Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins, encased in a plastic holder.

16 packs of cards with 6 cards in each package.

CARD DISTRIBUTION

The distribution of cards in the packages was great. The breakdown of the 96 cards was as follows:

87 cards towards the set

4 “Next in Line” insert cards

4 “Game Breakers” insert cards

1 “Upper Deck Victory Black”

You will note that I did not get any duplicates! What a great start towards completing a set!

The 2006-2007 Victory Hockey cards or Victory Hockey cards from any hockey season, are never going to be confused with the premium hockey card sets that are available on the market. But, it is a great set to get youngsters enthusiastic about the hobby of sports card collecting.

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