Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Victory

In case you couldn't tell by my total lack of posting, it's been a busy week. It will all be topped off by a visit to Fenway Park tonight to catch the rubber game between the Sox and the visiting New York Yankees. After each team administered a total clobbering of the other in games 1 and 2, it will be interesting to see how tonight goes with CC and Beckett on the mound. I've got killer seats, just hoping that the weather will hold out.

In the meantime, I finally broke down today and purchased some cards for the first time in over a month. The 2009-10 hockey card releases have officially begun to hit shelves, and the first release is Upper Deck's Victory hockey. This is the cheapest of all Upper Deck hockey releases, and as far as I know the first to hit the shelves each year. The design won't exactly leave you breathless, but at 6 cards for just 99 cents it's a nice little bargain set, sort of like hockey's Opening Day or First Edition. I picked up 8 packs and have only opened 4 so far. Here's the best of the 4:

#67 - Fabian Brunnstrom - Dallas Stars - As you can see, the design is very simple. Mostly white cards with the background mostly washed out of the photo and replaced by the word Victory in a color that matches the team's logo. Brunnstrom had a pretty solid rookie campaign last year with Dallas, scoring 29 points in 55 games. Did you know he became just the 3rd player in NHL history to score a hat trick in his debut game?

#19 - Marc Savard - Boston Bruins - I think the yellow actually makes this card look pretty decent. I'm looking forward to another steady offensive year from one of the Bruins' best playmakers.

#84 - Michael Frolik - Florida Panthers - Frolik is coming off of a pretty solid rookie season as well. He surpassed the 20 goal plateau and notched over 20 assists as well, including 11 on the power play.

#GB50 - Alexander Ovechkin - Washington Capitals - Game Breakers - Each pack contains either a rookie card, or a superstar insert. In the 4 packs I opened I got 2 rookies and two of these Game Breakers cards, which have been standard Victory inserts in the past. Any Ovechkin card that I didn't already have is a good pull in my mind.

#71 - Pavel Datsyuk - Detroit Red Wings

#106 - Robert Lang - Montreal Canadiens - Lang has always been a dependable scorer, but he has bounced around the league quite a bit and as far as I know is still unsigned as the season approaches.

Well, there you have it, 2009-10 Upper Deck Victory hockey. Not the world's flashiest set, but it's cheap enough to collect and if you just want a basic set without short prints, autos or game-used cards then you could do much worse. I don't think I'll be going for the set, but at $1 a pack I'm sure I'll end up ripping a couple more to hold me over until O-Pee-Chee and Upper Deck come out.