Hobby Shop Run Part 3 - 2009-10 Fleer Ultra Hockey

You didn't think I was going to make a trip to the hobby shop and come back without any hockey, did you? While I spent my first $10 on some vintage baseball and a pack of Goodwin Champions, I spent the next $10 on 3 packs of 2009-10 Fleer Ultra hockey. This is the second 09-10 product to be released, following on the heels of Victory. 8 cards per pack, although this one had only 6. I opened two of the packs and put the third away for a rainy day. The first one was a dud, the second gave a nice sampling of the set...

#178 - Saku Koivu - Montreal Canadiens - Good start with a horizontal card. The photography is the same boring stuff that seems to be featured in Ultra every year. It's a bit aggravating that Saku is pictured and listed as a Canadien, considering he signed with the Ducks on July 8th and I believe this set was released August 15th...

#36 - Patrick Sharp - Chicago Blackhawks - While I applaud Upper Deck for changing the design up a bit (it was virtually identical the last two years), I'm not sure I care for these cards very much. I think it would look nicer if they just left the large banner with the player's last name and did away with the grey fade...

#86 - Pekka Rinne - Nashville Predators - Rinne is coming off a solid season during which he went 29-15 with a 2.38 Goals Against Average and set a franchise record with 7 shutouts.

#164 - Steven Reinprecht - Phoenix Coyotes - Gold Medallion - Just like every other year, we have a Gold Medallion parallel. These are seeded one per pack and simply replace the silver border with a gold one. Is anyone else sick of these? They're essentially useless. Sure, you get an extra card if you're a player collector but for the average pack ripper they just make completing your set that much more difficult and annoying...

#30 - Rod Brind-Amour - Carolina Hurricanes - Ice Medallion (#35/100) - This parallel is new to the 2009-10 set. Same idea as the Gold Medallion cards except these are scarcer (not sure what the odds are) and are serial numbered to 100. You can't tell in the scan, but the serial number is on a sticker rather than on-card, which is kind of cheesy...

#UU-RD - Rick DiPietro - New York Islanders - Ultra Uniformity - In my opinion DiPietro was probably the single biggest bust in the NHL last year. He's had constant injury problems and after signing a monstrous 15-year 67.5 million dollar contract he played in just a handful of games for New York last year. Believe it or not, this is actually the second time I've pulled a DiPietro jersey card out of a pack!

Well, there you have it. Pretty boring cards if you ask me. I will probably seek out the Krejci singles but won't pursue the whole set. You never know though, I decided not to collect last year's set and ended up with it anyway. What do you think? Am I the only one snoozing after the first couple hockey releases of 2009-10?