Goalies: Card Show Pickups

If there's one thing this latest card show did, its confirm my love of cards from the 90's. There were just so many cards back then and the focus was more on inserts and parallels than autographs and memorabilia like today.

Up first is one of the crazier die-cut sets from back then. This John Vanbiesbrouck is from 1997-98 Revolution and part of the Return to Sender insert set. It is die-cut in the shape of a stamp and probably has the most corners you'll ever see on a hockey card. The only thing bad about these is tyring to load them into a sleeve.

The second was Andy Moog pictured with the Montreal Canadiens.

The third was Grant Fuhr pictured with the St. Louis Blues.

Then there was this Curtis Joseph from 2001-02 MVP Masked Men. There is just something cool about the obnoxious green background pattern on this one, I just had to have it for my goalie collection. I just wish they were more of a closeup of the masks.

Going back to the 90's this Ice Breakers card of Martin Brodeur is from 1994-95 Pinnacle. I like how they make these guys look like giants with the cropped picture of an ice rink at the bottom. It took me a while to even notice that.

Here's another Brodeur from one of my favorite goalie themed sets of the 90's. This is a Black Ice version of his Stoppers card from 1995-96 Score. One day I'm hoping to build this version and the regular version of the Stoppers set.

This one isn't specifically a goalie set, but I really like the look of this Olaf Kolzig from 2005-06 Upper Deck Hometown Heroes. These cards are cool. They have an image of the player's home city and this one with the Capitol building is perfect since that was the Capitals primary logo at the time.

This UD Canvas card of Pekka Rinne stood out because of the great action shot of him making a great pad save. If only he was wearing Nashville's home yellow jersey. That would've stood out against the white ice a bit better.

This next one is a Braden Holtby Net Cam card from 2012-13 Score. I really like these sets and they are ones I would like to complete someday. This one is coll because you get an interesting look at the inside of the famous Madison Square Garden.

This one I bought just because of the mask. I always thought Vanbiesbrouck's Rangers mask with the bees and the city skyline was cool. I just wish this was more of a closeup shot of the mask. Click here for a better look at it.

This Ray Emery is from 2007-08 Upper Deck The Men Behind the Mask. As far as goalie themed inserts go, this is not of the best, but still fits in my collection of goalie cards so I grabbed it. They should have done something on the front showing him without the mask since that is the name of the set, right?

This Curtis Joseph comes from another one of my favorite goalie sets: In the Cage Net-Fusions from 2000-01 Pacific. I remember pulling one of these as a kid and thinking it was the coolest thing. I have a couple of them now so maybe I can start working on the set.

Here's another goalie themed set I'm a fan of. This Patrick Lalime is from 2002-03 Vanguard Stonewallers. Similar to the Score Stoppers set, this utilizes a brick wall design and is just a nice looking card overall. Gotta love Lalime's masks that always had Marvin the Martian.

Back to the 90's again with this Roaring Twenties insert from 1995-96 Pinnacle. This card is printed on a shiny, textured gold foil and looks awesome in person. It just happened to feature Jim Carey so I grabbed it for my goalie collection.

Last but not least we have this Felix Potvin Last Line of Defense insert from 2001-02 Upper Deck. I love the look of the black and purple on this one. Potvin also had some great looking gear, especially his custom pads that formed a cat when put together.

So that's all of the goalie randomness that I picked up at the show. There are definitely a lot of cool goalie themed sets out there. Maybe I'll pick a few of my favorites and work on completing those in addition to my other projects.

Goalies: 03-04 BAP Between the Pipes

I forgot just how much fun this whole blogging about cards thing can be. The past two weeks I find myself just sitting and sorting through stacks of cards whenever I get a few extra minutes at my desk. There are just so many cool cards out there and I've found myself wanting even more of them now. This post is about my first impulse purchase of cards in a long time. I was searching eBay the other day and came across an auction for a partial set of 03-04 BAP Between the Pipes cards. It was only at $0.99 so I threw up a bid and just waited to see what would happen. 

Well, I ended up winning the auction and now I've got 67 new cards for my goalie collection. A couple are dupes of cards I've gotten randomly over the years, but most of them I am seeing for the very first time. This set is nice for me because it comes from the time I was most into hockey as a kid (end of middle school and on into high school) and it brings back good memories seeing some of the names included in the set. 

I'd like to share some of the cards from the set on here starting with some of the names I am most familiar with from that time period. The first featuring Curtis Joseph is one of the cooler looking pictures in the set with him firing the puck around the boards.

Up next is a goalie that I will always associate with the Red Wings even though he wasn't in Detroit at this time and that is Chris Osgood. It's always weird seeing him with the Blues or Islanders. At least he got a chance to come back and win a second Cup in Detroit.

The next guy is the great Patrick Roy and I will always remember him from the rivalry between the Red Wings and Avalanche. The first thing that comes to mind when I see Roy is game 7 from 2002 when he was pulled after six goals in the loss to Detroit. The second thing would be his statue of liberty play from the game before that.

Up next is Nikolai Khabibulin, who had one of the cooler mask / nickname combinations from that time period. While he is shown here with Tampa, I remember him more from the 1998 playoff series between the Wings and Coyotes. 

Marty Turco is another guy who had some really cool masks back then. One thing I will always remember him from is the crazy goal that Pavel Datsyuk scored against him on a breakaway in Dallas, one of those 'Datsyukian' dekes that are likely done in the NHL now. 

Up next is a guy who I remember most from a playoff series against the Red Wings. That would be Jean-Sebastian Giguere, who pretty much beat the Wings all by himself in the Ducks sweep of Detroit back in the first round of the 2003 playoffs. 

If there is one guy who had as good of a mask / nickname combinatio as The Bulin Wall, it would be Olaf Kolzig of the Capitals. His 'Godzilla' masks were awesome back then. I will always remember him from the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals when the Wings won in a sweep. 

Okay, maybe there is another guy with an even better combination. Ed Belfour and his eagle masks are something I definitely associate with this time period. I remember him most from playing against Detroit in the 1998 western conference finals.

Last but not least we have one of the best goaltenders ever, Martin Brodeur. He was a player I really liked in the late 90's and early 00's, so this is a nice card to add to my collection. One thing that always comes to mind with Brodeur is the first goal he scored against Montreal back in the day.

Now that I've gotten this far with these, I'd like to get a few more scanned and ready to show off. Who knows maybe I'll end up scanning and posting every single card from the set. That's how into this stuff I am at the moment, plus it's always fun to get a good look and entire set of goalie cards, right?