2019-20 Upper Deck Series 1 "Mega" Canadian Blaster Box Break

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I didn't receive any of Upper Deck's flagship 2019-20 Series 1 cards for Christmas this year and felt they were overpriced compared to other products (namely Parkhurst and O-Pee-Chee, and Topps's Stickers set), so I was ready to wait until a good deal presented itself, and I felt that it did in the form of this "Mega" Blaster Box because of the Canadian Exclusive extra, which we'll get to later:

Here is what the base cards look like:

The Justin Schultz card on the left shows the diversity of jerseys one can find in these, and the Brent Seabrook card on the right shows that the back displays the player's complete career statistics as well as a short blurb, regardless whether said player is a rookie or a veteran - none of that "past five years" crap. It's a very glossy set as well, so great for the eyes, a headache to get signed; collector advice: even erasing multiple layers of gloss may leave signatures a bit smudgy.

As usual, the set features amazing photography:

I was able to land a couple of insert cards, including a couple of Young Guns, Danil Yurtaykin and Josh Brown:

I also fell upon a Canvas card of Josh Bailey:

There was also a Shooting Stars card of Brendan Gallagher:

I was under the impresion that these concerned mostly young guys, but veteran Gallagher is a bona fide star and likes to shoot the puck, so that works.

One insert I can definitely do without is UD Portraits, which are at best creepy and/or tacky, and for goalies wearing their masks, utterly useless, as can be attested from this Henrik Lundqvist card:

Which brings me to the bonus two-card pack of Team Triples, which for some reason shows only player (the Vancouver Canucks' Quinn Hughes):

I pulled two historically tough teams, the "Broad Street Bullies" Philadelphia Flyers (featuring Claude Giroux, Carter Hart and Nolan Patrick) and the "Big Bad" Boston Bruins (with Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask):

I'd have been more interested if they'd been signed or jersey cards, but as it stands, they're trade bait or Ebay-ready, hoping they find someone who'll show them more love than I can give them.

All told, I got 74 cards: 9 packs of 8 cards for the regular Series 1 set, and the two Team Triples, for $44 ($37 plus sales taxes) - two hours of work at a good-paying job and just under four hours of work at minimum wage (before income taxes, so roughly three hours at a good-paying job and five at minimum wage). Not as nuts as a concert or hockey game ticket, but a significant enough investment that it's likely not an impulse buy.

The cards look and feel great, and they're perfect if you're looking to build a set, and UD even made unannounced variants of two dozen cards where the players are depicted in another jersey and oftentimes in a differnet orientation (vertical vs horizontal), giving it more collectability.

However, between the retail packs, fat packs, retail boxes, hobby boxes, regular blaster boxes and special-edition blaster boxes, it really feels like the 2019-20 iteration is over-produced in the same way that Pro Set cards used to be; it sells at a higher price than it used to but isn't rarer. I don't feel that any of the cards I pulled are worth the 50 cents I paid for them, and wouldn't be surprised if once the mass-production numbers come out, this set's value falls off a cliff.

Despite all of this, I'm not exactly underwhelmed by it either; I'm just not super-excited.

It's slightly above "meh": I'm at 7/10.

Keith Primeau Jersey Card

Keith Primeau knows a thing or two about concussions, so obviously, when Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby suffered yet another one against the Washington Capitals the other night, Primeau was going to be asked about it. And his answer was brutally honest.

Alex Ovechkin was asked about the hit as well, seeing as Crosby had made contact with him prior to falling into Matt Niskanen's stick. And head trauma professionals (i.e. "doctors") also weighed in, most agreeing that three or four concussions - which is at least where Crosby's at right now counting the current one, the one that sidelined him for two weeks at the beginning of the season and the one that took him away from the game for nearly a year, notwithstanding the times people assumed "concussion" but which he claims were "neck realignment issues" - is when athletes should start considering pulling the plug on their careers, one going so far as to say: "If he were an amateur, we would probably be telling him to hang up his skates".

Of course, Crosby isn't just an amateur, he's one of the best players in the world, one who fills arenas league-wide, has the most secondary-merchandise sales and second-most jerseys sold in the NHL; he's the face of the league, the captain of his team - which happens to be the defending champions - and a media darling who may win one of this year's MVP awards (the Hart is chosen by hockey journalists, while the Ted Linsday winner is selected by the players themselves) after scoring a league-leading 44 goals (side note: yes, it's depressing unsettling that in a non-lockout season, the NHL's leading goal scorer will not have scored 50 goals).

And that's the biggest difference between Primeau and Crosby: Crosby is in his prime, while Primeau was four years removed from his last point-per-game season when he was forced out, but he was still the Philadelphia Flyers' heart and soul - and captain; he provided the inspiration, and players like Simon Gagné provided the goals, kind of like Evgeni Malkin does when Crosby's out.

Crosby seems intent on coming back in this series, so we'll see how it pans out. But if doctors want to keep him away, he'll keep his annual $8.7M salary for the next few years, so it's not like he's not set for life. Should he have to cross that bridge, hopefully he'll make the right call for his later days.

In the meantime, here's Primeau wearing the Flyers' terrible alternate jersey from a decade ago, on card #S-KP from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set and Shooting Stars sub-set:

God that's an ugly look, particularly the sleeves. The car features a black game-worn jersey swatch.

"If he were an amateur, we would probably tell him to hang up his skates." - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/primeau-doctors-question-whether-crosby-should-return-after-fourth-concussion-1.18138096#sthash.AglrDVdo.dpuf

Brad Richards Jersey Card

Let's not kid ourselves: Brad Richards is no longer the point-per-game player he was five times in his career and will likely not win another Conn Smythe Trophy like he did in 1994 nor be invited to another Team Canada - so his odds of capturing another World Cup title (2004) or bronze medal (2000 World Junior Championships) are slim to non-existent - but winning the Stanley Cup for the second time last year as an add-on to an already strong Chicago Blackhawks team means his clutch experience (he had also won it in 2003-04 with the Tampa Bay Lightning) is something teams value nowadays.

That is why the Detroit Red Wings signed him to a bonus-heavy contract last summer. Sure, he may not be used in the role that was meant for him when he signed, but he's picked up his points output a bit and currently stands at 23 points (9 goals) in 58 games on the low-scoring Wings. He's eighth on the team in points despite having missed 15 games, and among those players, is one of only four with a positive +/- with Dylan Larkin, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Tatar. Yes, even captain Henrik Zetterberg, the team's leading scorer with 44 points in 72 games, stands at -6.

The NHL has pretty much reached parity and all playoff-bound teams will be competitive; it won't be an easy road to either Conference Final, but the usual ingredients for success remain: good goaltending (half-check, as both Wings goalies can be very good but do not have the pedigree of a Ben Bishop or a Henrik Lundqvist), going in healthy (check, what with Niklas Kronwall returning), good coaching (check), good leadership (check), and luck (we'll see).

And Richards is a part of that leadership group, with Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Kronwall. The Wings are one team I never wish ill to though I do not straight-up root for them; they're an Original Six franchise who seems respectful of its players, its fans and its opponents - they seem like a classy organization. I respect them, but I will root for the Montréal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, Hawks, Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers before them.

Here's Richards wearing the Bolts' black (then-away) uniform from the pre-lockout era, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set and Shooting Stars sub-set featuring a white game-worn jersey swatch:

It's card #S-BR in the series.

Mike Ribeiro Jersey Card

Every six months, I write a post about Mike Ribeiro, because he's a tremendously gifted hockey player, and because I have a lot of stuff of him... but also because his making the news gives me a reason to feature him. This summer is no exception, as he was bought out by the Phoenix Arizona Coyotes with three years remaining on the 4-year contract he signed just last summer.

It started rather politely, too:

But when questions were asked, answers were given.

Worse still, a parting shot at ''the guy who is seeking help'':

Ouch.

But perhaps his ''antics'' (mostly late-night drinking nowadays, other matters were involved earlier in his career) had finally caught up to him on the ice. I mean, sure, the Coyotes didn't have wingers to put his nifty passes in the net, but his 47 points in 80 games were even down from the 49... from the previous, locked-out 48-game short season with the Washington Capitals (and before you think of it, he was almost never paired with Alex Ovechkin on his wing).

It's harder to practice or play after a night of partying when you're 34 than it was at 21. Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call. This was, after all, his first season that wasn't close to the point-per-game range or as his team's leading scorer since 2004-05. I still see him as one of the best play-making centers in the NHL, and I could see him proving naysayers wrong with a mid-sized one-year contract, in the $3-4M range.

And so I end this with another blast from the past, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set (card #S-MRi of the Shooting Stars sub-set), showing him with the Montréal Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform and a matching good-sized swatch to go with it:

Michael Peca Jersey Card

When he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres, I didn't think too highly of Michael Peca, despite his captaincy and two Selke trophies. I disliked most of the Dominik Hasek-era Sabres, actually.

And when the captain walked out on his team, Alexei Yashin-style, when he couldn't come to a contract agreement with the team and sat out an entire season, my feelings for him went even more south...

I found it fitting he would be traded (Yashin-style...) to the New York Islanders, who would make him wear orange-coloured atrocities such as the one depicted on the card above, #S-MP of Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series One set (the Shooting Stars sub-set, featuring a swatch of dark blue from the yellow shirt pictured). I like how UD specifies it's from an Islanders jersey, which is helpful considering Peca was about to become a journeyman.

You'll notice the card lists him as a member of the Edmonton Oilers. That's because in the span between the 2003-04 season, the 2004-05 lock-out and the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Isles traded him to Edmonton for Mike York. Peca's Oilers reached the Stanley Cup finals (the second time he'd reach the coveted final, but no Cup to show for it) while the Islanders... well, unless you were born before 1980, they're where they've pretty much always been to you: at the bottom of the standings, near the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets, the last two teams Peca played for.

Still, I like this card. He's listed with the Cinderella 2005-06 Oilers team, he's wearing a rare jersey no longer in use, and he's become a commentator I like. And it serves as a reminder that an extended lock-out can ruin the end of careers, turning 40-points-per-season veterans into 20-point underachievers who slowly fade away on dwindling teams. Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick and Claude Lemieux are also fine examples of that.

Martin Havlat White Jersey Card

Yet again we're left to wonder if this is the year Martin Havlat goes back to his point-per-game production, dips, gets injured, or becomes a true superstar.

He has all the talent in the world, but the luck of... well, if it wouldn't be for bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. Hopefully, this year, playing alongside Mikko Koivu he can garner a ton of goals, and with Guillaume Latendresse on the powerplay he can amass a ton of assists.

At least the Minnesota Wild are proving they like him, having named him assistant captain (Koivu wears the 'C' now).

This beautiful jersey card (# S-MHa) has a big white patch of jersey certified by Upper Deck as having been used in an official game (ah, those were the days!) and is part of the 2005-06 Upper Deck set, the Shooting Stars sub-set of ''Game-Used Memorabilia''. It used to sell around $25 but can now easily be found below $10.