ROUND 2 PREDICTIONS

After almost going to the hospital because of a heart attack after watching game 7 of the Blackhawks and Canucks game, I look forward at what lies ahead. I won't go into great detail about the game or series but all I can say is that I am relieved more than I am confident. The calls of the game winning goals went like this:

Jim Hughson: "They have finally slayed the dragon"
John Shorthouse: "It's a great day for an exorcism"
My call goes more like this: "The Canucks win by the hair on their chinny chin chins"

I'm no play-by-play announcer but that is the more accurate description of what happened in this series up to game 6. It was the Canucks game in game 7 but the Canucks didn't finish the Hawks off when they were up 1-0 and left it to Toews to push the game to OT. If it wasn't for that huge save by Luongo on Sharp, Burrows would have never had the opportunity to drill a rolling puck behind Crawford.

As for my actual predictions, well I screwed up on my second round originals so I have to redo them. I forgot how the play-offs work and that the first seed always plays last etc. in all rounds not just the first. Silly me!

Fortunately, my round 1 predictions are in tact. So I'm doing a recap/predictions like Sal did over at Puck Junk. Let's see how I did:

Washington v New York Rangers

Prediction: Caps in 6

Real Life: Caps in 4

1 for 1

Philadelphia v Buffalo

Prediction: Philly in 7

Real Life: Philly in 7

2 for 2

Boston v Montreal

Prediction : Bruins in 6

Real Life: Bruins in 7

3 for 3

Tampa Bay v Pittsburgh

Prediction: Tampa in 7

Real Life: Tampa in 7

4 for 4

Vancouver v Chicago 

Prediction: Canucks in 6

Real Life: Canucks in 7

5 for 5

San Jose v Los Angeles

Prediction: Sharks in 5

Real Life: Sharks in 6

6 for 6

Detroit v Phoenix

Prediction: Detroit in 6

Real Life: Detroit in 4

7 for 7

Anaheim v Nashville

Prediction: Anaheim in 7

Real Life: Nashville in 6

7 for 8

HOLY SH*T! I almost went 8 for 8! Sweeet! I also got 2 out of the 8 dead on (that means including the correct number of games.) Don't believe me? Check the LINK. Too bad my second round predictions are all screwed up, so I'm doing it again. 

Vancouver v Nashville

Prediction: Nucks in 5

San Jose v Red Wings

Prediction: Wings in 7

Washington v Tampa Bay

Prediction: Caps in 6

Philly v Boston

Prediction: Philly in 7

GO NUCKS GO!

THE GOALIE PROJECT - Peter Skudra + Jason LaBarbera (Part 1)

A couple more of these small impact Canucks goalies to go through before we get to guys like McLean and Brodeur. For now, we got goalie Peter Skudra to start with and for once I don't have to do a whole hell of a lot of searching to complete all three requirements.

Here are the two Skudra cards in Canucks gear. The bottom card is a BTP card which I will talk about a little later.

Next is a Skudra card in another teams jersey, in this particular instance he is in his Bruins jersey. Looks like he sported the all white pads back then too.

Finally we have the cream of the crop...the cherished Rookie Card. Yet again Skudra has his white pads on, not my favorite but to each his own.

So that was easy. A simple, clean 3 of 3 to get off my chest.

All three cards fall under the second requirement of a goalie in another NHL teams jersey other than the Canucks. It might be hard to find a LaBarbera card in a Nucks jersey.

Here is Barbies rookie card in NY. I THOUGHT he also had one of my favorite NY Rangers masks of all time too. But it wasn't him it was Valiquette who sported the good old Spidey mask.

That might make a good "Rate My Mask" card (nudge nudge). 

So LaBarbera has yet to be completed, he still needs a card in a Nucks jersey. Here's where I stand after this post.

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman
Martin Brochu
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble
George Gardner
John Garrett
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe
Jason LaBarbera - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 37 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet
Félix Potvin
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Cory Schneider - 1/2 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Corey Schwab
Petr Skudra - 3/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Gary Smith
Garth Snow
Kevin Weekes
Steve Weeks
Kay Whitmore
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young

In other news, I just purchased a box of 2010-11 BTP online so that should get me busy next week or two. It's unfortunate that my LCS doesn't carry that product as it is easily my most anticipated this year. This will also be the highest end box I will break this season (and that's saying something about my Hockey Card budget). 

Secondly, after only two responses to my contest teaser I'm still up in the air about it. If I hear more from you guys I'll give it a shot. I want at least 8 entries to make this a little interesting. 

Lastly, Canucks play game 6 against Chicago tonight. Hey, maybe we will only lose by 4 tonight. One can only hope! Just kidding, most know that I'm a die hard Canucks fan and through thick or thin I'm always with the boys so...

GO NUCKS GO!

THAT WAS EMBARASSING

I had blueline seats to see the Canucks waste away their second chance to send the Hawks to the golf course. Honestly, I'm shocked, disappointed, embarassed, and ashamed from what my Canucks decided to do tonight. Were we uninspired? Were we tired? Were we psychologically defeated? I dunno at this point. I thought a 7-2 ass whipping Tuesday night might be enough to inspire a hefty game 5, but I guess not!

Only thing I can say is that I hope my original prediction of Canucks in 6 pulls through. Maybe I got too excited for a sweep, maybe we all did. Luongo needs to come out on fire game 6, something that Luongo has not been able to do games 3,4,5.

There are only 2 good things I got from this game. First, Hodgson played his best game in NHL. Second, I got two more towels for my Canucks towel collection. I love Vince Vaughn, but I want to see him cry on Sunday.

KEEP BELIEVING
GO NUCKS GO!

SWEEEEEEP + CONTEST TEASER!!

Who would have thunk it? The Vancouver Canucks have now won all 3 games of the series and are one away from sweeping the defending Stanley Cup champs. The Canucks have outscored the Hawks 9-5 and Luongo has a GAA of 1.67. I believe Crawford is too weak of a goaltender to give the Hawks that extra push they need. I really thought Scott would make a difference in game 3, but instead he was stuck in the box watching the Canucks score at his expense. Hopefully the Canucks can pull through tonight and get there third play-off sweep of all time!

On another note, my 100th post is only 27 away! That's very exciting for me, and hopefully for my readers too. To say thank you for all the support my followers and others have been giving me, I'm doing a contest! I've thought about this contest for a long time and I've finally narrowed it down to what I think is a very unique contest. It includes designing your own goalie mask! I haven't seen anybody do this around the hockey card community and I think everybody would have tons of fun with it! I'll throw out all the details when my 100th post rolls around, but for now consider this a teaser. 

I wanna know what you think. Is the contest too time consuming? How long would I give you to create your mask design? Should I incorporate old style mask templates also? How should I judge the masks? Would you participate in this contest?

My goal is to have at least my 16 followers get in on this and hopefully with your support even more! Like I said, drop me a comment and tell me some ideas to make this contest as best for you as I can!

GO NUCKS GO!

THE GOALIE PROJECT - Mika Noronen + Dany Sabourin (Part 1)

It's been a while since I've posted any actual hockey cards. It's been all play-offs for me in the past few days. I watched too many hockey games to remember over the past 3 days. So far my Canuckers are doing just fine, up on Chicago 2-0 in the series. As long as we split the away games we will be in great condition. One of the only frightening sights for the Canucks were the couple of soft goals Luongo gave up. I really hope that doesn't get in his head.

Anyhoo, like the title shows we got some Goalie Project cards to cross off the list. Starting with Mika Noronen:

This is a triple of this particular card. Mika's time in Vancouver did not last very long, in fact he only lasted 4 games. After Noronen's stint in Vancouver in 2005-06 he jumped to the KHL, the SEL, and then the SM-liiga. 

Noronen's Rookie Card is from 2000-01 when he was in Buffalo. 

Above is one of my favorite Canuck back-ups of all time. When Luongo had a "technical difficulty" in the 2007 play-offs against the Ducks in what was the Canucks final game of the play-offs. Sabourin had to go in as an emergency back-up for the first 5 minutes of the second overtime. He survived what was an insurmountable attack by the eventual cup winners. Later it was implied that Luongo's difficultly was...well...he had to go number 2 (if you're picking up what I'm laying down). Anyways, I couldn't find the video on YouTube but it was one of the greatest moments by any Canucks back-up. Also one of the most embarassing moments for any Canucks goalie (nudge, nudge Luongo).

Now this is a fantastic card! I got this card in a package that Brett sent over my way, and I love the design and layout of the cards. Sabourin's rookie card is numbered out of /1750. I'm not sure if you can see or not because of the scan, but it's on the bottom right corner of Sabourin's picture.

So after these 4 cards I still need one more card to complete these two keepers. I have:

1) a rookie card

2) a card in a Canucks jersey

I need:

3) a card in another teams jersey (excluding the rookie cards)

Here's where I'm at:
Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman
Martin Brochu
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble
George Gardner
John Garrett
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe
Jason LaBarbera
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 37 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet
Félix Potvin
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Cory Schneider - 1/2 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL!
Corey Schwab
Petr Skudra
Gary Smith
Garth Snow
Kevin Weekes
Steve Weeks
Kay Whitmore
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young

GO NUCKS GO!

HERE WE GO AGAIN

The Canucks v Blackhawks series has been beaten to death by TSN and Sportsnet. All I can say is, it's time to nut up or shut up. I want revenge more than anything else out of this series. So with all due respect (kinda) I wanna embarrass the Hawks. I'm sick of them, and they need to be disposed of. The Hawks were the biggest competition for the Canucks in the first round, and I'm glad we can expose our demon. I cannot wait!


Here are my predictions for the entire playoffs. We'll see how my prediction fair after round 1.


ROUND 1
Washington in 6
Philly in 7
Boston in 6
Tampa Bay in 7
Vancouver in 6
San Jose in 5
Detroit in 6
Anaheim in 7

ROUND 2
Washington in 7
Tampa Bay in 7
Vancouver in 7
Detroit in 6

Round 3
Washington in 7
Vancouver in 7

ROUND 4
Vancouver in 6

Well I guess anybody that reads my blog regularly will know that I'm a completely biased Canucks fan when it comes to predictions.

GO NUCKS GO!

TEAM SIGNED CANUCKS JERSEY - BEST OBJECT IN MY ENTIRE COLLECTION!!!!

All I can say is WOW! One word, over and over again - WOW! I'm not going to beat around the bush, if you read the title of this post than you know why I'm in so much shock. This jersey comes with an even greater story, believe me! But first let's take a look at this piece of art...

I encourage you to click and enlarge that photo because this jersey is an absolute beauty. I'm pretty sure I have all the signatures pegged to the players but I'm unsure on a few here's how I see it:

Henrick Sedin, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler, Chris Higgins
Raffi Torres, Christian Erhoff, Kevin Bieksa
Daniel Sedin, Roberto Luongo, Sami Salo, Phil Oreskovich, Keith Ballard
Mason Raymond, Jeff Tamballini, Mikael Samuelson, Tanner Glass, Chris Tanev
Aaron Rome, Dan Hamhuis
Ryan Kesler, Andrew Alberts, Jannik Hansen

Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these signatures as I want to make a "map" of the signatures for my own record down the road.

Now to the story. It starts by saying that my dad is doing something called the Ride to Conquer Cancer with 4 other of his co-workers. In order to do this bike ride that includes over 260 km from Vancouver to Seattle you have to raise $2,500 a person. My father and his co-workers did a huge dinner and dance that included a silent auction, 50/50, and a raffle for a Canucks signed jersey. The funny thing is that my dad was the man who got the jersey signed by the entire team through our Canucks connection. When my dad brought the jersey home I wanted it SOOOO badly. We only got this jersey from our connection because it was a good cause for charity, but that didn't mean I couldn't try and win the raffle myself! So when I got there I laid down 100 bucks and got my precious 10 raffle tickets. When 10:30 rolled around it was time for the draw and my sister was the one pulling the ticket. The number was read, and I won! I was in shock! What a beautiful jersey, I bowed to the crowd and they went wild! I had at least 40 people I didn't even know come and congratulate me after because they saw the shear happiness on my face. You could not wipe the smile off my face if you tried. My dad got the jersey, my sister drew the ticket, and I won! What a night!

All in all, the jersey alone raised $3,000 and the entire night raised over $10,000! Definitely a night I won't forget soon! I can truly say I have a team signed jersey of the 2010-11 President Trophy winners - Vancouver Canucks! What can only make this better is if we win the Stanley Cup, one can only hope.

GO NUCKS GO!

TRADE #2 - GU improvement

This post includes my second online trade of all time and my second trade with Dave from waxstainedrookie.blogspot.com. If you are a consistent reader of mine than you know that one of my recent goals is to increase my measly 2 card GU collection. Although I didn't improve that number quantity wise, I do think I improved the quality. Here is how the trade looked like:

TO DAVE:

2001-02 MVP Teemu Selanne GU (All-Star Jersey) - $15.00
2006-07 Victory Zach Parise (GOLD) - $1.50

TO ME:

2007-08 Fleer Ultra Daniel Sedin GU (Ultra Uniformity) - $6.00

As you can see I didn't prosper in the numbers part of the trade. I let 2 cards go and got 1 in return. He got $16.50 back in cards I got $6.00 back in cards. But I have absolutely no regrets. I have to mention though that Dave rightly deserved the extra card because the Selanne card I shipped off was not in great condition. Here's what the Daniel Sedin card looks like:

This is a fantastic card for any Canucks fan (especially in person)! I'm glad the jersey is not white but instead a nice dark blue. I love everything about getting an authentic Daniel Sedin worn jersey!

All I can say is I loved making the trade and I'm looking forward to many more. Thanks goes out to Dave for always being fair and a great trading partner!

GO NUCKS GO!

THE GOALIE PROJECT - Luongo/Schneider/Auld (Updates)

Like I mentioned yesterday I had yet another very kind gift from one of my favorite blogs to read. He has followed me for quite awhile and I'm happy he could help me with some key players. I was able to build my ever growing Goalie Project and Vancouver Canucks team collection.

I'm going to touch on the players I've already posted in my GP. Let's start by our current #1 goalie...he needs no introduction...

Great photography in both pictures (especially this years Series 2). Very happy to add these new cards into my Luongo folder.

I also received an Auld card and a couple of Schneids. These cards grow my Canucks collection ever stronger.

Perhaps the thing that excites me the most about the package was the variety of McLean cards I received! I have a boatload of Captain Kirk's cards and I can't wait to show them off in the very near future. It's starting to make me think of starting an official player collection of McLean along with Richard Brodeur.

Thanks Tim!

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman
Martin Brochu
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble
George Gardner
John Garrett
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe
Jason LaBarbera
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 37 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen
Maxime Ouellet
Félix Potvin
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Cory Schneider - 1/2 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL!
Corey Schwab
Petr Skudra
Gary Smith
Garth Snow
Kevin Weekes
Steve Weeks
Kay Whitmore
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young

GO NUCKS GO!

DOUBLE TIN BREAK - Ovation Hockey

I finally have about an hour or so before I have to continue what is an extremely busy spring break. My school district is one of the very few that has a two week spring break (woot!) The only bad thing about the break was the minor scare we had for an earthquake in the greater Vancouver area. Local roomers were swirling about there being a high chance of an earthquake before March 26th. It was a little nerve wracking even though it didn't happen, although, all of Vancouver should heed the warnings signs of this scare and prepare for the "big" one that is suppose to happen eventually. It's only a matter of time I guess.

On a lighter note, I've been away from my home the past week with aunts, uncles, and cousins. I've done everything from play Laser Tag to going to the Aquarium. Although that is all very exciting, it was hard to be away from my hobby for so long. That's why I picked up two tins of UD Ovation yesterday. I knew virtually nothing about this product but it was 60% off so...why not?

Heres's how the 2007-08 product looked like:

I quickly realized that these cards were extremely McDonalds-esque. It even has the whole players photo pop out thing going on. Fairly simple and effective. 

This was my only Canuck in both tins (that kinda sucks). 

I'm always a fan of the jumbo cards! We got good old Burnaby Joe!

As for the 2009-10 release, it looks a bit nicer IMO.

I apologize for the poor scan quality but if you saw these in person I think most would enjoy the Ovation from 2009-10 over the 2007-08 product. 

Not a bad insert, and according to Beckett it's worth $5.00. I'll take it...I guess.

RUNDOWN:

BASE: 100 (1 Canuck)

INSERTS: 2 (1 Jumbo)

TOTAL: 102

All in all, an extremely average product from an extremely average couple of tins. Only upside I can think of is that I got two tins for $20 instead of $50 as they were originally priced.

A couple quick notes:

1. Tomorrow I will receive a small stack of hockey cards for my Goalie Project that was kindly given to me by a fellow blogger. That will inspire a Goalie Project post for tomorrow. 

2. Congrats to my Canucks for clinching their first Presidents trophy! Hopefully we can finish the season strong and continue our run into the play-offs.

GO NUCKS GO!