09-10 NHL Playoff Predictions Eastern Conference

This is my favourite time of year! I love the NHL playoffs. It is a war of attrition, teams play grueling a best of 7 series and a hot goaltender can really carry a team and steal wins at this time of year.

I am going to give my predictions for round one in the East.

Wash vs Mon

This series is not getting much respect from many of the experts. Most are saying Wash will walk all over Montreal and they might be right. I will say Wash is going to win, but I think that they may face a small challenge from the underdogs and I will say Wash in 6.

NJ vs Phi

I have to go with my heart on this one. I love the Devils and in past years I have dreaded some of our opponents or have had a slight bad feeling about the matchup. I don't have that this year, and I think we will win. I will call this Devils in 6 based on some good offensive outbursts and better goaltending on Brodeur's part.

Buff vs Bos

I sort of think that Buffalo didn't want to win their last game and have to face Phi so they tossed the Devs that game and took Boston as a result. I don't know if that was wise, Boston is hungry, and Rask may steal a couple of games. Both of these teams are a little offensively challenged and I think it may go the distance. Buff in 7.

Pitt vs Ott

This series will come down to how well Elliot plays. Fleury have been pretty consistent all season and he saw some rest down the stretch so he will know what he needs to do. Pittsburgh has not been the juggernaut of 08-09 and may seem a little more vulnerable. As a result, if Brian Elliot plays well I could see Ottawa stealing this one from the Pens. If Elliot begins letting in soft ones, then they will be out pretty fast. I will say Pitt in 6 unless it goes 7 then Sens in 7.

Happy Trails Modano?

Last night Mike Modano may have had one of the most emotional games of his life. There is some doubt to whether or not Number 9 will have another season left in him. With last night being the last home game of the season and the Stars don't have a hope for the playoffs they stopped the game during the third period to pay tribute to his career. The score at the time was 1-1 and he had an assist on the Dallas goal. The Ducks then went ahead on a second Bobby Ryan goal to make it 2-1 and then in what seemed like a perfect script, Mike steps up for his time and tips in the game tying goal late in the game. If that wasn't enough, Mike then had a chance to win it in overtime but was stopped on a breakaway. So the game goes to a shoot out and Mike who is not known for any shootout abilities was given the chance to go out for his time and he scores the game winning goal in the shootout on what pretty much was Mike Modano Night.

What Mike has done for hockey cannot be measured. He is arguably one of the best American born players of all time and what he brought was more than just ability. He brought CLASS. I saw him in the same light as I saw Joe Sakic. Both were players who were team guys and stayed with their organizations for their entire career. They made players around them better and they lead by example and not by running their mouths. It is hard to say how many more players in the US started playing hockey because of Modano, but it is safe to say he put Dallas on the map in terms of hockey and many players like Bobby Ryan grew up idolizing Modano.

Mike never had a 100 point season, but he was the mark of consistency. Modano had 16 20+ goal seasons, and for a career he had 557 Goals, 802 Assists and 1359 Points in 1458 career regular season games plus a Stanley cup. His point production puts him at the top for American born players and there is no doubt in my mind he will be in the hall of fame when his time comes. With one game left to add to his totals the only question is will he be finished and possibly purchase the Stars with Hull and Gretzky or does he want to take one last crack at Lord Stanley's mug. If he does come back, it would be hard to see him do it with anyone other than Dallas.

Here is his OPC Premier RC, probably the most valuable of his RC's which came out during the 1990-91 season where all cards were produced like they were going out of style.

My favorite Modano RC is his 90-91 Upper Deck one. Not as valuable as his OPC Premier one, it does show case his solid rookie season and you have to love that old North Stars Jersey. I was lucky enough to see him in his second NHL season as a kid. He was playing against Fedorov that night and the two of them flying down the ice against each other I found absolutely impressive.

Brodeur's 600th Win

On Tuesday, Brodeur reached another milestone during the 3-0 win over the Thrashers. Brodeur now has 600 wins and 110 shutouts during his regular season career. Both of these totals are NHL all-time highs and at this current pace, Brodeur could easily reach 700 wins by the end of his career and that would have him at 149 wins more than the second place Roy.

What is actually more impressive is the 110 shutouts. Each season the NHL seems to try harder and harder to increase scoring in the NHL and every season Brodeur consistently racks up the shutouts. He has averaged about 7 shutouts per full season and if he plays another 3 seasons that would run his total over 130 shutout and the next nearest goalie is Roberto Luongo who at 31 years of age his only 51 shutouts. Marty's shutout record could be as unreachable as Gretzky's 2857 career regular season points.


Below I have three of my favourite Brodeur cards from my collection

This first card is from the 06-07 UD McDonalds Set. These were tough pulls and I just bought two packs and found this in one of them. Odds of pulling a Clear Cut winner that year were 1:100 and of course I was really happy to see it was a Brodeur. I think this is the most valuable Brodeur card in my collection.



This card was a relatively recent pull. It is the only Brodeur relic card I own and it is from the 09-10 UD series 1.

This card is a classic, I must own about 6 of them. This is of course the only legitimate Brodeur rookie card. That year Score pretty much covered the entire first round of the 90 draft. As a result, this is the only card that year to feature Martin Brodeur in an NHL set. Upper Deck that season focused on the top 10 picks so you can find Drake Berehowsky or Scott Scissons in their set which I am sure are still in high demand.....somewhere... but of course no Marty.

As you can see, in 1990 the Dirt 'stach was pretty popular!

09-10 Collector's Choice Review

Before I do this review, I must make a small confession. I used to be addicted to Collector's Choice. I still feel dirty saying it, but at one time it was true. During the mid-90's there used to be a game where inserted in Collector's choice packs were "You Crash The Game" cards where if the player scored on the day mentioned you could send away for a special set of cards. Anyway, I won a few of those sets and when they turned out to be worth very little, I was able to kick that habit pretty quick. Fact of the matter, the old Collector's choice were pretty cheap to buy, pretty cheaply made and they were mostly a novelty, at least for me. They didn't live very long and were eventually replaced with Victory for a low-end card.

Flash forward 10 years and Collector's Choice is back, and much like before the cards are sporting their strange font and lack of quality in design. Not much has changed except the price, they packs are now $1.49 instead of $0.99 so I afforded myself one pack. Let's take a look.

The front design is pretty simple, the cards have a gloss to them and the photography isn't horrible.





On the back side, they stick to the basics with simple information and complete career stats. There is no write up on base cards but the rookies do have a small blurb on the backs. The design on the back is different than the old product, I am glad to see they dropped Chippy like 4th period French.

Look Mom, no hologram! Again a sign that this is indeed a low-end product.

As for as my $1.49 goes, I was pretty lucky in getting a rookie, I got San Jose Goon Frazer McLaren




Each pack includes one insert card and mine was the 3 star selection of the Calgary Flames.


Well, as for as the low end cards, I believe this is the lowest. The design isn't quite where MVP is and in fact I believe that Victory is a better product. This set really is designed and intended for KIDS. I don't know if true collectors would make this their choice, but the set does one thing well and that is delivers NHL licensed hockey cards for cheap!

Card Quality 3/10 (Cheap look, without the nostolgia that OPC offers)
Photography 3/10 (Very basic, almost childlike design)
Inserts 1/10 (Would have been a zero if it wasn't for the sp rookies)
Value 2/10 (This will be my only and last pack of CC for this year)

This is really a set for little kids. Think of it as Fisher-Price hockey cards, it teaches them how to collect so that one day they can rip open tins of The Cup and boxes of UD.

Upper Deck McDonald's 09-10

I would like to have an order of McNuggets, fries and a coke. I would also like to have 3 packs of card with that too please. I can't count the number of times I have gone to my local McDonalds and ordered lunch and hockey cards.

It all began back in 1991-92 when Upper Deck and McDonalds collaborated to make a small set which had 25 base cards composed of NHL's who played in the All-star game and 6 hologram cards. The cards were of pretty decent quality for the time and they even had a hologram on the back in the shape of the McDonalds M. The next season they did the exact same thing and over the 14 years McDonalds did change companies who would make their cards but the ability to get hockey cards at McDonalds was always there. Then comes 2005 and a new rookie is in the NHL and Upper Deck and McDonalds release one of the most wanted base cards in McDonalds history and that is a Crosby rookie card. There was much debate if it would even be considered a RC but when the dust settles it is considered to be a true rookie and is one of the more affordable ones on the market. Here is one on ebay


It would turn out to likely be the last Crosby McDonalds card because of the deal Crosby has with Pepsi and since McDonalds is a Coke distributing restaurant those two topics will not mix. Now it is 2010 and once again a McDonald's set is available. I have stopped trying to collect a whole set, not just for my health but rather it seems to be a little bit of a gimmick these days. There are some good inserts that are very hard to come by, but the base cards are pretty worthless.

They are of decent quality, in fact I find they are every bit as good as UD Ice's product, but rather there is a noticeable lack of rookies. The last rookie to grace a McDonalds card was Rob Schremp. I for the most part I am a rookie collector and I can't justify buying more cheeseburgers than Randy from the Trailer Park Boys and ripping dollar packs like they are going out of style because in the end there will only be a bunch of base cards which aren't any different than the other middle road base sets. I still feel a patriotic duty to buy a few packs here and there even if only for nostalgic sakes. Here is a look at the product.



As you can see, there is a texture to the card much like UD Ice and Ovation, and there is a hologram on the back which again suggests that this is at least a middle range quality card. Each pack has 3-4 cards and there are some inserts including acetate cards, and other redeemables. Writing on the back is in both official Canadian languages.

I was able to get a checklist from the pack I am showcasing. These are inserted 1 per 4 packs which isn't especially rare and there were 6 checklists in total. Though I didn't show it here, in one of my other packs I bought this year I did have one real "hit". I pulled a Joe Thornton Pride of Canada card which is an acetate card. They are available at a rate of 1:40 cards which isn't too bad for only buying 8 packs this year from McDonalds.

Gordie and Me

Upper Deck via Facebook has asked people to share some of their greatest hockey moments and that reminded me the day I met Gordie Howe. First of all, it really isn't going to be anything that someone will make a story about in fact it might be considered by some to be rather insignificant. But almost 20 years later I still remember it.

He came to town to skate in the warm up of the Thunder Bay Senators. They were a pro team that was two steps below the NHL but had some pretty decent talent in their line up.

For example:

So after the warm up was over, I ran down to the lobby so that I could get an autograph. Unfortunately it seemed like the entire town was that already in line. So I went to the end of the line and waited. I swear it seemed like it was an eternity that I was in that line up, but by the midpoint of the second period I had in my possession an autographed hockey card.

My interaction with Mr. Hockey was someone limited likely due to the fact I was scared shitless. I said Hello and Thank you and his response was only a couple of smiles and a Hello. But it was that tiny exchange that I still remember to this day, it may have lasted a couple of seconds but I was given something that really had a lasting impression. Since then I have met other professional athletes many of them hockey players, but without a doubt, that was my favourite.



The card I brought with me was from the 91-92 Parkhurst Set. This card really isn't terribly valuable on its own, but I loved the set at the time and to this day still feel it was the nicest set produced that year.

09-10 Upper Deck MVP

Upper Deck MVP is a product that has been on the market for a number of years. It is a lower end product that UD has consistantly produced and in my opinion is one of the better low end cards available. The cost per pack is about $2.50 in Canada for a retail pack and you have a 1 in 2 chance of pulling a rookie. The design of the card this year is a little fresher than past years and I think they have done a great job with it. The photography isn't on the same level as the base Upper Deck set, but when you compare MVP with OPC and Victory there is an obvious quality difference and MVP is the winner. In addition, there are 2 on 2 jersey inserts and autographs randomly inserted in packs but the autos are really difficult to pull.

Here is a rookie I pulled from my sample pack.


From a collectors stand point, pulling a rookie is always nice, but Davis' greatest accomplishments to date may be his completion of college rather than his pro career. He has 1 goal and 8 points in 40 games with the Kings. I am thinking this card may be one of his last.


The nicest card I pulled was the checklist of Crosby.



In all it is a decent card for what you pay for. I think that next to the UD base set it is one of the better values on the market. It is a pretty large set to try and complete if you include all 94 sp rookie cards, but if you want an affordable set with all the main rookies from 09-10 this is your set.

Here is what I think about 09-10 MVP

Card Quality 6/10 (no hologram on card, an UD sign of low end product)
Photography 5/10 (better than past years)
Value 7.5/10 (good price point, nice jersey card potential and all the rookies you want)

Canada vs USA

Today looks to be one of the most exciting hockey games in the last 30 years. The Americans I feel have really added to the drama first off by winning the round robin game and thus making themselves the favourites to win and secondly by Patrick Kane calling out Luongo in his little way.

As a hockey fan, I would love for this to be a great game that is decided by the players and not by the officials so I am hoping for great hockey and no controversy. But as a Canadian, I am hoping we wipe the floor with the Americans and show some dominance in the sport once again.

But whatever happens today, I am sure it will be talked about for some time. I think the key for the Canadians to be successful will likely fall on the shoulders of Jonathon Toews. This young centre has had an amazing tournament thus far and really has played excellent as a second line centre. If he ends up having a big game I think that will be all Canada needs because it will really relieve the stress from the first and third lines and allow them more room to operate which in turn will lead to more production.

For the Americans to be successful, I think they need their best players to be the best players on the ice. That roll will fall on to Zach Parise. Zach is a noted Canadian killer. He won the World Juniors on his own back in 2004. He, Langenbrunner and former Devil Brian Rafalski were the key reasons the Americans won the round robin game. If Zach steps up his game, I think that will make it tough for the Canadians to over come and with an unproven Luongo in net it may be too much.

No matter the outcome, I think it will be an excellent opportunity to showcase North America's finest players and I personally am looking forward to it.

My prediction for what it is worth is Canada 4 USA 2.
Toews will have 2 points and Parise will have a goal.

Hot Packs Part 3

The final set of hot packs I bought was from the 07-08 UD Ice set. I really like the Ice product and am glad they brought it back. The base cards are simple in design and are of a higher quality than most of the Upper Deck base cards and the Ice Rookies are acetate cards which pretty much have every rookie that has ever walked into an NHL building from that season. The cards are numbered and for the most part hold their value well. Unfortunately, like jersey cards, the weight of an acetate card is different than the base cards and are detectable which is base news for the average pack purchaser. The good news, there are plenty of these hot packs for sale on ebay.

Scenario 3

07-08 UD Ice

4 packs (all to have rookie hits)

Total cost with shipping $19.50

For a cost of less than 5 dollars a pack, at first glance, this is a really good deal. My local hobby shop was selling these packs for over 5 bucks so I am already getting them at a discount and they will all have rookies in them. The goal is to hopefully pull a Kane, Toews, Price (maybe not so much now) or a Backstrom. I am aware this will be very unlikely due to the numbers being very skewed towards scrub NHL'ers and players who only sckated in one NHL warm up and spent the rest of the game watching it from the bench.

Scrub Rookie # 1 oops I mean Ice Rookie # 1

Joe Piskula

When I saw Joe, I saw disappointment. I had never heard of him, and I didn't spent much time finding out who he was. He is likely Alec Martinez's partner down in Manchester (AHL) which bodes well for me if anyone is looking to get the rookies of this dynamic duo, but with the rest of the prospects in LA it is likely Joe will be a lifer in the AHL. Value (1/10)

Ice Rookie # 2

Jamie Hunt

I have heard of Jamie, but it was only because I pulled him out of other packs. This happens to be my first numbered Jamie Hunt rookie, is that a good thing? Jamie was a superstar during his time in the NCAA, but really isn't even a full-time player in the AHL. More disappointment. Value (1/10)

Ice Rookie #3

Joel Ward

Ok Joel Ward, he is a bonified regular NHL player and I saw him play as a member of the University of PEI! He gets himself third line minutes for the Nashville Predators which isn't the best gig in the NHL, but it is a living. I have no concerns for Joel's employment future, but as for me and my pack pulls this makes me 0 for 3. In all fairness, Joel is having a career year with 12-16-28 points in 58 games. He is 7 points and 5 goals away from matching career highs. At his age, this former CIS hockey star is likely going to have a few more seasons potting around 15 goals a year but nothing to cheer about here. Value (3/10)

Ice Rookie #4

Marc Methot

Marc Methot is a 24 year old who has yet to play a full NHL season. He is not an offensive dynamo and his hockey style is more like Mike Commodore than Mike Green. This will not be an investment egg of a card that is for sure. The only plus about this card is it is number /999 which makes it much more rare than the Joel Ward card, but still being a fringe NHL player this card will never leave the commons bin. (Value 3/10)

Ok so this was definitely a bust. The potential was there and even though I was guaranteed to have 4 rookies, in many cases a base Sidney Crosby might have been better than any of these rookies as a pull. However, I didn't even get that, my best base pull was likely the Malkin. In closing the final verdict on this one was a BUST. Value (2/10)

So from these three cases I didn't really have what I would say was an amazing pull. In fact, if I really wanted I could have used the 19.50 from the 07-08 ICE hot packs and used it towards this: and I will still have received the Joel Ward!

Hot Packs Part 2

Upper Deck's base sets are always a great value for the average collector. Their pack/box prices are always reasonable compared to some of the other products and at about 4 bucks per pack you get some nice quality cards, good photography and the young guns cards tend to hold their value especially for the stars.

Scenario 2

09-10 Upper Deck Series 1

6 packs

Total cost with shipping $22.00




First off at a cost of less than 4 dollars and each pack having a young gun I would take this deal just about any day. Of COURSE the hope with buying 09-10 Series 1 is that you get a John Tavares RC but there are some other decent prospects in the set and getting 6 for $22 could be a decent deal.


Young Gun #1 Alec Martinez




I would first of all have to say WHO? I follow hockey pretty closely, and this was not a name I was familiar with. In a system where the team is stocked with really good young talent, especially at the defense position, Alex tends to be near the bottom on the depth charts. I see Alec going between the AHL and NHL for a majority of this career. Value 2/10


Young Gun #2 Mike Santorelli



I have heard of Mike, but not much about him. Doing some research has shown me that both Mike and Mark (brothers) are in the Nashville system and Mike has had some success offensively, but difficult to tell right now what his future and his brothers has in store. I can see him making the NHL on a consistent basis, but I don't see him on the same level as Patric Hornqvist but he could find himself some third line minutes down the road again. 2 goals in 32 games doesn't usually land you on the first line. Value 3/10

Young Gun # 3 Jhonas Enroth

I remember Enroth from the World Junior Championships from a few years back. He is a pretty good goaltender stuck in a system with Ryan Miller. Millertime means little time for Enroth, but with "5-hole" Lalime as a back up, Buffalo make look to move Jhonas up sometime in the next season or so. He has starter potential and is playing well in the AHL right now. I hope he is able to find some permanent role at the NHL level because he could be star much like his fellow Swede Henrik Lundqvist. Value 5/10


Young Gun # 4 Michal Neuvirth

Well is Michal was not in Washington I would have been much more excited about pulling him. In my opinion Varlamov is the man of the future, and Neuvirth is likely a future back-up or a former Capital. Personally, I think there are a few teams that could use a young goalie like him and he does have much potential, but in Washington there seems to be a small log-jam of goalies there and his currently injury has him down at Hershey now. He does have a great deal of potential and I rate his value at 6/10.


Young Gun # 5 T.J Galiardi

Well Galiardi is making the most of his current situation. He is a young player, on a very young and rebuilding team so as he gets nearly 20 minutes a night he himself 8 goals, 16 assists in 45 games. He has a lot of the tools to be a good second line player and if he can learn to shoot more he may make a pretty decent career out of it. Hard to tell right now where he will be in 5 years, but he is only 21 and has found himself playing full time on a team that will be really good in the coming years. Value 6/10



Young Gun # 6 Tyler Myers

I saved him for last for obvious reasons. Tyler Myers is a monster player with what seems to be never-ending potential. He is a 20 year old who plays like he is 30 and really in my opinion defensively reminds me of Marc Staal, but offers the offensive potential of a Chris Pronger. He is huge, intelligent and seems to be a real team player. Right now he is the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy but it is a very tight race and offense usually trumps defense. I think he is the best All-Round defensemen to debut in the NHL since Dion Phaneuf. I think as time goes by and he bulks up a little bit he could fashion himself a spectacular career. Value 8/10

So in all for $22 I got one really good rookie. If I had pulled a Tavares, that would have been a huge success and made this unquestionably a 10/10 but, no Tavares, Duchene, Kane, Hedman or van Riemsdyk. Myers was a quality pull and some of the other rookies do offer some potential. I wouldn't call this a bust, with plenty of sub-par rookies in the set I could have easily pulled 6 Jay Rosehills so I think in all I did ok and would definitely try this deal again.

Overall Value 5/10