THE GOALIE PROJECT - Martin Brochu (Part 1)

CONTEST OPEN UNTIL AUGUST 13TH ---------------->


First a little update on my contest. I have 6 people participating thus far. Only 2 of those 6 have put a plug on their own blog (Brad and Paul) so they are the only ones with the 5 extra Bonus points. Now for what everyone wants to hear - THE PRIZES. The prizes will consist of one auto or memorabilia card plus a package of cards from your personal favorite team or player set.

Now onto the project. This post needs some context first. I've taken care of my Canucks cards very well, each card has it's own slot in a 9 page folder in one of my 4 Canucks binders. But a problem arose once I started my Goalie Project. I wanted all my goalie cards (former or current) all to be in one place. So for a few days I got into the nitty gritty and sorted through my well organised yearly binders of hockey cards and picked out ALL my GP cards from my 3,000+ Canucks cards.

Now they are all in one big binder organised in alphabetical order by last name. Like Mr. Martin Brochu below:

As you can see the goaltender's name is on the top left hand corner. Then the cards are arranged from oldest to newest. In this case, the first two cards are considered RC's by Beckett, we also have Martin sporting Caps gear and finally a third card of him in some more Nucks gear. So there we have it, a perfect 3 for 3. Plus I think they look even better in the 9 slot pages instead of the stacks they use to be in.

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Martin Brochu - 3/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier - 3/3 COMPLETE! 30 TOTAL
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa - 3/3 COMPLETE! 14 TOTAL
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble - 2/2 COMPLETE! 21 TOTAL
George Gardner
John Garrett - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Jason LaBarbera - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 39 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Félix Potvin - 3/3 COMPLETE! 27 TOTAL
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 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 - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Kay Whitmore - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL

GO NUCKS GO!

PACK RIP - 2010-11 Pinnacle (GU HIT!)

CONTEST NOW OPEN UNTIL AUGUST 13th --------------->


I've promised a pack rip for a while now but simply haven't found the time to post up my cards. I originally promised a pack rip of this years Series 1, but after pulling all base I decided to spare you the anticipation and rip a fairly new pack of Pinnacle. I've only ripped one other pack and I pulled a GU hit of Ryan Suter. I'm not gonna lie though I did feel out the packs to nab the thickest one. I figure that I rather pull GU cards more than anything these days because I'm in need of building that part of my collection greatly. Plus at five bucks a pack I'd be pretty choked pulling only base.

Here are just a few base I pulled from the pack.

Great pictures as usual from this product, this is growing on me more and more.

Now for the good stuff, my GU card I pulled. I had picked up this pack from the bunch knowing pretty well that there was a GU card inside, and the car ride home was a long one in the anticipation of what the card might be. I might have gotten more excited than I should have because the card wasn't as great as I thought it would be, but nonetheless nice to have.

Damn smudge on the scanner is really stating to make me mad. Anyways, it's a TO City Lights card. Weird how the paragraph on the back isn't about the player but instead about the city. This card reminds me of an older set....hmmm...that's a possible topic for the future. In any which way, it's a small blue piece of Hanson's jersey so I'm happy!

GO NUCKS GO!

THE GOALIE PROJECT - Cleanin up the Mess

Okay so a very delayed and random Goalie Project for today. First I have a couple of cards I received about a week back from my friend Sal over at Puck Junk. I'm sure all have already visited his site but if not do it...now!

A while back I debated about a Bob Essensa RC. It was from 90-91 Score (which was his rookie year) but wasn't listed by Beckett as an official RC since it was part of the All Rookie Team subset. So to make it official Sal sent me a true Bob Essensa RC from 90-91 Score and a Wendell Young RC also! Thanks Sal!

Now here comes the difficult part, all the Goalie cards I cashed in on my box break of 01-02 Victory box break need to fit into my Goalie Project. Here we go...

JOHAN HEDBERG

That triple "Victory Prospects" card has Hedberg on the bottom and is considered a RC, which means I'm finished all my Johan cards.

MAXIME OUELLET

I have about 3 other of his RC's kicking around but this is the only one I have actually pulled.

MIKA NORONEN

I've finally completed all Noronen's for my project and so this card definitely fits in well.

SEAN BURKE

KEVIN WEEKES

Kevin's doing great as a colour commentator for CBC these days I have a bunch of his cards to fire out also.

ARTUS IRBE

FELIX POTVIN

These cards are just kind of extras for the Potvin cards I already have.

ROBERTO LUONGO

I'll take Lui any time of the day, nice card to grab. 

DAN CLOUTIER

Good old Clouts!

So after cleaning up the mess here is where I stand:

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Martin Brochu
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier - 3/3 COMPLETE! 30 TOTAL
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa - 3/3 COMPLETE! 14 TOTAL
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble - 2/2 COMPLETE! 21 TOTAL
George Gardner
John Garrett - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Jason LaBarbera - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 39 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Félix Potvin - 3/3 COMPLETE! 27 TOTAL
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 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 - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Kay Whitmore - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL

Now that the contest sign up time is complete and I see that only 5 have committed to submitting a design I'm just going to keep the contest open to anyone that wants to join. But remember you must submit your design before August 13th! I'll update with some prizes later!

GO NUCKS GO!

QUICKY + Contest Update

So I've been absent from the blogging world over the past 5 days and it looks like for at least 3 more. My summer job (which I love) involves the occasion traveling (when my parents permit) and this time it takes me to a smaller island off of Vancouver island. I'll be working all day in the bright sun, on the sunshine coast for the next few days. Therefore, no blogging will be done.

I promise though that I will get back into the run of things once I get back. Like I've mentioned before I have a whole mess of Goalie Project cards from that Victory box break. Plus, Sal over at Puck Junk sent me a few nice RC's to add to the GP also which I will showcase shortly. Thanks Sal!

As for other incoming hockey card lovin' I still have a pack of this years Series 1 to share AND I just won a very nice box on eBay. I was inspired to search after this box after seeing Dave's (Wax Stain Rookie's) very successful box break of 2006-07 Be A Player! So look for that coming in over the next couple weeks or so.

As for the contest, I've only had 5 entries out of a possible 20 come in. My more realistic goal was to have 10 sign up, so make sure you click the link on the top right hand corner and sign up before July 22nd!

More to come very soon...

GO NUCKS GO!

CONTEST - 100th POST!

Yup, it's that time finally! You've likely already heard this idea a few times before, but here it is again. I'm giving you two different goalie mask templates - one modern mask, one old-timers mask. It's your job to make this mask your own. Use any team or design you want. Make this your ideal mask, one that you would use if you were an NHL/AHL etc. goalie! Here are the rules:

1. You MUST be following my blog to enter the contest (a little self-promoting if you will).

2. You may use any of the templates below, or make you own template and submit it.

Of course you don't have to use this template at this size, you can expand them.

3. You can fill out the template anyway you want. By hand (drawing, coloring etc.), through the computer (Photoshop etc.).

4. You can enter your mask in two ways: First, you can send me a link to a scan of your mask, or you can email me the scan at johnny (underscore) canuck57 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

5. You can put your own twist on your mask and have fun with it but keep in mind the criteria:

Creativity - /10

Originality - /10

Colors - /10

Personal Story Telling/Personality Shown - /10

Professionally done - /5

BONUS - /5

TOTAL - /50

6. Bonus points are if you put a plug on your blog about the contest. Doing that alone get's you five big ones. Leave a comment in the comment box below with a link to your plug for proof.

7. DEADLINE IS AUGUST 13th, 2011

Yes that's a month from now. I realize that many of you guys won't be able to chalk up one right away so I'm giving you quite a bit of time to get this done.

8. There are 20 spots to fill in this contest, if I don't get 20 by July 22nd, I'll cut the number to however many I have at that time. So first, leave me a comment saying your doing the contest before they all get taken up!!

Contestants:

1 - Paul (Card Boarded) 

2 - Brad (TTM Hockey) 

3 - Kazi (Hockey Kazi) 

4 - Sal (Puck Junk) 

5 - Marko (Markos Hockey Autos) 

6 - Dave (Wax Stained Rookie)  

7 - 

8 - 

9 - 

10 - 

11 - 

12 - 

13 - 

14 - 

15 - 

16 - 

17 - 

18 - 

19 - 

20 - 

That's it! Have fun with it and let me know if you're interested so I can plug you in! Remember to follow and add a plug to your website!

GO NUCKS GO!

BOX BREAK: 2001-02 Victory

ALL cards I pick up and are new to my collection you see them as well, so today I have a box break and next I will have pack break. First things first though, passing  through my local Wal-Mart I noticed a box of cards saying 55% off on it. When I picked it up and saw that it was Victory I was a little disappointed but for 15 bucks I got some neat Gold Parallels and a couple cool RC. There are no GU cards or AUTO's in this set. The set is made up off all base, the box includes 36 packs with 10 cards per pack.

440 Cards Set
(1-360) Team CL's and Normal Base
(361-390) Victory Prospect(s)
(391-440) Mr. Hockey's Greats

There is also a 13 card update set that ranges from cards 441-453. That update includes RC's like Pavel Datsyuk, Kovalchuck, and Hossa.

These are what the base cards look like. Nothing special, in fact I think using the same pic on the right side of the card is nothing to draw the eye to. Here's how they look as the Gold Parallel (inserted 1:2).

Here's how the cookie crumbles for this part of the base:

CARDS: 1-360

TOTAL: 300 (12 doubles)

COMPLETED: 289/360

PERCENTAGE: 80.27%

The cards above are cards going into my Canucks folders. Probably the best thing about this set was getting cards you just wouldn't usually try to grab, like Salo in a Sens uni etc. I also was able to coincidentally pick up a Marco Sturm card.

The Victory Prospect cards come in different variations such as triple...

Double...

And single...

These cards were fun to pull, especially when I pulled some half decent players like Chris Mason and Kippy.

CARDS: 361-390

TOTAL: 25 (1 double)

COMPLETED: 24/30

PERCENTAGE: 80%

Finally there are the Mr. Hockey's Greats cards. Most selections were dynamite but there were some duds in the mix. These cards showed the best 50 players from the 2000-01 season through the eyes of Gordie Howe.

Nazzy was the lone "great" sporting a Nucks jersey. Super Mario, Hasek, Roy, Jagr and company are always welcome in my collection so I'll take 'em.

CARDS: 391-440

TOTAL: 37

COMPLETED: 37/50

PERCENTAGE: 74%

So what does 15 bucks buy me? Well including the 2 cards I had already from this set and if my math is correct, this is what it works out to...

CARDS: 1-440

TOTAL: 362 (13 doubles)

COMPLETED: 349/440

PERCENTAGE: 79.3%

This box doesn't end here though. I pulled tons of random goalies to go along with my Goalie Project. That might be a little bit of a random post, but look for that in the near future. As well as a pack break of 2010-11 UD Series 1 like I've already mentioned. But even more exciting than that is a little contest I've been drawing up for a while. My next post will be my 100th and so to celebrate this achievement I'll be throwing out a neat little contest your way.

GO NUCKS GO!

Free Agency - Canucks Style

It seems like the Canucks have lost a whole lot more than they have gained. Let's take a look at who they lost and gained and how this will affect them:

LOST:

1) Christian Ehrhoff

This guy is a huge loss to the Canucks organization. But in the end Gillis made the right move. Mike knew that our future didn't involve Ehrhoff and knowing this Gillis traded his rights to the Islanders for a 4th rounder. Funny enough I guess the Island couldn't persuade Christian's attention and his rights got moved again for a 4th round pick but this time to Buffalo. Finally, Ehrhoff signed some papers. I was shocked to see how long this contract was (to say the least). A lot of these long term contracts are gonna come back and bite every single GM in the ass. 10 years is a massive deal to throw on a guy like Ehrhoff, and although I don't want to underestimate his value, he's just not a d-man that you lock up for that long. If I'm Buffalo I cut that deal in half and see what happens. 

The worst part of this loss is losing an offensive d-man. Christian is so good at skating the puck into the offensive zone (especially on the PP). We're gonna really miss that. I guess this just means that youngster Chris Tanev might get his shot at his first complete season in Canucks gear. I don't mind that considering "he's so calm he could play with a cigarette in his mouth" - Kevin Bieksa. If this is true, this is what our starting six will look like.

Bieksa - Hamhuis

Salo - Edler

Ballard - Tanev 

(Reserves - Alberts - Rome)

2) Raffi Torres

This ALMOST hurts as much as Ehrhoff. I loved #13 and he played his heart out this post-season. There were two main things I disliked about Torres though. First, was that he's a very streaky scorer. Second, his attitude. The latter is the one that really bothers me. For example, during (I believe) the first round of the play-offs against Chicago in the warm up, he shot a rolling puck and it hit Luongo awkwardly in the neck. Instead of going up to his keeper and helping him out, he casually skates away like nothing was wrong. Stuff like that erks me. All in all though, Pheonix made a nice move picking Torres up.

3) Rick Rypien

This guy has been in the Canucks organization for a long time, and I was very surprised to see him go. Rypien missed most of the season because of "family issues", basically the word on the street is he's a recovering alcoholic. Kinda suites his style of play, I think Rypien has a nice chance at making Winnipeg's 4th line though so best of luck.

4) Tanner Glass

Never liked how he played hockey although I did appreciate him being the team player he is. He's great with the fans and has an awesome personality. Keep the mullet rocking in Winterpeg Glass!

5) Sergei Shirokov

I dreaded this day, but the young Russian signed in the KHL for a lot more money than he'd receive here. I really liked Shirokov's style of play and it's too bad he decided to go back to the mother land. 

RE-SIGNED

1) Kevin Bieksa

Very happy! That's pretty much all I can say. He's proved his value in the play-offs. Gritty, good skater, great shot, very happy to lock him up for 5 years.

2) Chris Higgins

Higgy came in at the trade deadline as a guy that could move up and down the line-up, and he proved to be a stud for the Canucks. He tied a franchise record for most GWG in the play-offs.

3) Maxime Lapierre

Yet another play-off performer. Wears his emotions on his sleeve, hmmmmm...am I seeing a trend?

4) Sami Salo

Signed an almost identical 1 year contract as last year. One thing I hope will change from last year is his injury frequency. Good old faithful.

5) Andrew Alberts

Have no clue why we signed Alberts. I rather stash away the $1.2 million he's making for a future trade which I believe is in the making. I guess we just wanted to make Don Cherry happy since he likes him so much. 

NEW SIGNINGS

1) Marco Sturm

Well I don't know a crazy deal about Sturm but he split the last season between the Kings and Caps. Sturms a guy that can move up and down the line up, much like Higgins. Possible playmaker for Kesler on the second line? Or maybe a winger on the 3rd? No clue yet, I'm going through the process of looking at some of his footage from last season and his times in Boston.

2) Steven Pinizzotto, Nolan Baumgartner, Mark Mancari

Pretty much a bunch of AHL players. Nolan's closing his career up, Steven and Mark are new to the organization and much like Sturm I don't know much about him. 

Here's a couple of cards from future Goalie Project hopefuls:

Lack is goalie number 3 on the Canucks depth chart. As for Honzik he was just picked up in this years draft in round number 3.

Lastly I have a very crooked scan of a Hedberg card I had laying around, forgot to add this one to the Goalie Project when I did my Hedberg cards.

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 26 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Martin Brochu
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Dan Cloutier - 3/3 COMPLETE! 29 TOTAL
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa - 3/3 COMPLETE! 13 TOTAL
Mike Fountain
Troy Gamble - 2/2 COMPLETE! 21 TOTAL
George Gardner
John Garrett - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Glen Hanlon
Johan Hedberg - 2/3 COMPLETE! 5 TOTAL
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch
Charlie Hodge
Arturs Irbe
Jason LaBarbera - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 38 TOTAL
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Bob Mason
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud
Tyler Moss
Mika Noronen - 2/3 COMPLETE! 5 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet
Félix Potvin - 3/3 COMPLETE! 25 TOTAL
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Curt Ridley
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 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 - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Wendell Young

GO NUCKS GO!