First Pack of Hockey Cards

I picked up NHL 16 for the playstation on clearance last week and managed to get a few games in. What fun that is. It flashed me back to playing on the original playstation. For NHL 97 my team of choice was the Flyers, scoring goals at will with Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, the 'Legion of Doom'. But I was only 11 years old then. I've never gotten into following hockey over the years for whatever reason, but that's changing.

So my first hockey pack ever ends up being 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey. It's been awhile since I've opened an Upper Deck pack at all, with Panini having the exclusive basketball license and Topps for baseball.

The first game I played on the PS4 was while waiting for the rest of the game to download. It was a matchup between the two league finalists from the year prior, the Blackhawks and Lightning. Guess what two of the first few cards in my first pack of hockey cards were?

Glad to pull two guys I know right off the bat. Filppula it appears has been traded to the Flyers for Mark Streit who is on an expiring contract. Stamkos has been on the Lightning his entire NHL career. My kind of player! 

A few goalies from the pack. I always enjoy seeing the designs on the masks these guys wear. Looking forward to finding some insert sets that feature these. Craig Anderson is 2nd in the NHL in save percentage. 

Speaking of inserts and goalies, the lone parallel/insert in this pack. Apparently the Young Guns are the chase cards in these packs and I didn't pull any of those, but I have a feeling I'll have more opportunities. Again, awesome mask with Jets for the Winnipeg goaltender.

Here's the allocation by team for my 32 card pack:

Boston Bruins (3) - 266 Torey Krug, 267 David Backes, 268 Dominic Moore

Calgary Flames (2) - 279 Sean Monahan, 283 Michael Ferland

Carolina Hurricanes (1) - 285 Victor Rask

Chicago Blackhawks (1) - 293 Richard Panik

Colorado Avalanche (1) - 296 Joe Colborne

Detroit Red Wings (1) - 315 Petr Mrazek

Florida Panthers (3) - 333 Nick Bjugstad, 334 James Reimer, 335 Keith Yandle

Montreal Canadians (1) - 349 Carey Price

New Jersey Devils (1) - 364 John Moore

New York Rangers (1) - 376 Oscar Lindberg

Ottawa Senators (2) - 385 Craig Anderson, 386 Zack Smith

Philadelphia Flyers (3) - 390 Michael Raffl, 391 Scott Laughton, 392 Matt Read

Pittsburgh Penguins (2) - 393 Chris Kunitz, 397 Olli Maatta

Phoenix Coyotes (3) - 259 Alex Goligoski, 260 Radim Vrbata, 263 Luke Schenn

San Jose Sharks (1) - 404 Joonas Donskoi

St. Louis Blues (2) - 410 Colton Parayko, 413 Neil Yakupov

Tampa Bay Lightning (2) - 416 Steven Stamkos, 418 Valtteri Filppula

Winnipeg Jets (1) - Canvas C209 Connor Hellebuyck

I left one card out. I've always been a team collector and player collector. I've picked a team to follow and a team to collect. I've taken a few trips here over the last couple years and enjoyed the city. There's reason #1. Reason #2 is I think the logo, team name, and where the logo comes from is just too cool. And lastly the color scheme closely resembles my favorite NBA team, the Indiana Pacers. 

I pulled one card for this team.

I'm collecting the Nashville Predators. They have a relatively short NHL history which I actually like. Their team logo is based on a saber-toothed cat that's been extinct for 10,000 years. The idea came from a partial skeleton found in downtown Nashville in 1971 during construction of a bank building, per Wikipedia.

I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself, but I'm looking forward to adding cards of the Preds to my wantlist and starting a hockey collection, following the NHL season and a Predator playoff run, and most of all interacting with hockey card bloggers and collectors. I watched the Predators beat the Edmonton Oilers the other night and had a blast. Hopefully more to come soon!