11-12 Panini Rookie Anthology Cam Talbot Auto Rookie /499

As much as I love buying single cards with a purpose or strategy sometimes it is nice to just break a box and see what lady luck has in store for you. A couple years ago, I bought two boxes of Rookie Anthology and did pretty well. One card I hit wasn't terribly exciting at the time but I always liked the look of the card.


11-12 Panini Rookie Anthology Cam Talbot Auto Rookie /499

Perhaps it's all the blue on this card that I was drawn to or just the nice design, either way I could never bring myself to want to trade it to a Rangers fan (had chances to do so). After I pulled this card and thought to myself, 'hey this is a decent looking card', I went onto Hockeydb to see who he even was and if there was potential for awesomeness in him. What I saw was pretty lackluster. Still I learned that we shared the same birthday so I figured what the heck let's put this in the collection.

Less than 2 years later Cam was proving himself a very capable backup for the Rangers going 12-6-1 with a 1.64 g.a.a and an amazing 0.941 save percentage. He would follow it up with another great season winning 21 games and that success had the Oilers believing in him and they made a trade with the Rangers to acquire him. Fast forward to this year and the Oilers are thankful for that deal because the 29 year old goaltender from Caledonia, ON is off to a 8-3-1 start with the Oilers and they could find themselves in the playoffs before this season is over.

I love how collecting can sometimes have you rooting for the oddest players for the oddest reasons and for me it was all because I liked the look of this card and we happened to share the same birthday! Have any of you had sometime similar happen? Thanks for stopping by!