Winter Pack Breaks: 3 packs of 2011-12 Upper Deck.....Hockey?

Has there ever been a time when you need to rip apart some foil wrappers and all there is sets you don't want to see anymore.   Enter Upper Deck hockey.....hockey card enthusiasts swear by it because of the Young Gun cards and there were quite a few Flyers in the checklist.  I am a huge hockey fan, and would collect hockey cards, if I weren't so wrapped up in the baseball world...it's hard enough to keep up as it is.  This set looked a lot like 2008 Upper Deck, which was a pretty classic design, so I folded like a paper airplane.   Here are the 3 packs I ended up with.....the search for Young Guns is on.

Pack 1
2-Patrice Cormier-Jets
51-Matt Cooke-Penguins
151-RJ Umberger-Blue Jackets
13-Henrik Sedin-Canucks-The 2010 MVP in a moment of celebration.

199-Checklist with Canucks
28-Martin St. Louis-Lightning: The 2004 MVP and reigning Lady Byng award winner still surprisingly going strong.   I had no idea he'd been averaging over a point per game these past five seasons.

178-Mark Giordano-Flames
53-Shane Doan-Coyotes-The last remaining original Winnipeg Jet recently scored his 300th goal with the franchise.


Pack 2
110-Guillaume Latendresse-Wild
177-Anton Babchuk-Flames:  He looks angry.  The card design really expresses emotions of the player's face well.

89-Travis Zajac-Devils
141-Kari Lehtonen-Stars
31-Steve Downie-Lightning:  See what I mean?  He looks pretty stoked...doing the classic fist pump after scoring, though not as classic as leaping into the boards...

76-Ryan Callahan-Rangers
200-Checklist with Bruins
174-Miikka Kiprusoff-Flames:  Check out the outside venue...this wasn't the Winter Classic...any idea what else this could be?


Pack 3
93-Patric Hornqvist-Predators
15-Roberto Luongo-Canucks
29-Dwayne Roloson-Lightning
186-Jason Pominville-Sabres: Flyer sighting in the background!  Still an awesome card though the result is not what I had in mind

32-Jaroslav Halak-Blues-Goalie cards are the best....this guy led one of the 8 over 1 upsets in the playoffs recently as the Canadiens goalie.

136-Niklas Kronwall-Red Wings
94-Ryan Suter-Predators
C120-Young Guns Checklist Canvas Parallel: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins/Sean Coutourier/Brett Connolly:  Young Gun! Three on one card even....These canvas parallels are like the recent Masterpiece sets in texture.  The parallel of a Young Gun as a canvas falls 1:48 packs.  For those not in the know,  Nugent-Hopkins was the first pick in the draft.  Also, Coutourier is playing well for the Flyers.  This card is a winner.



Doesn't it seem like there's more action on hockey cards when done right?  I'm still not converted, but it sure was a fun winter diversion.