Random Pack Break: 2009-10 Upper Deck Series One Hockey Fat Pack

It's not very often that I buy packs of hockey cards that don't promise me some O-Pee-Chee nostalgia. Whilst at the Wal-mart checkout a couple of weeks ago I bypassed a jumbo pack of nostalgia for a shot, albeit a long one, at a John Tavares Young Guns rookie card by opting instead for a 2009-10 Upper Deck Series One Hockey Fat Pack. Thirty-two cards for $6 - I couldn't see how I'd go wrong.

Top Half:
173. Rene Bourque - Awesome start! Bourque is from just down the road where I live and is considered a "local boy." Not a bad photo on the card, either.

77. Kari Lehtonen
197. Shawn Horcoff - The most useless piece of trivia you'll read all day comes from the back of this card, "Horcoff set a new Oilers single-season record in 2008-09 for most faceoffs taken (1,756) and most won (947). Bring on Jeopardy!
64. Wade Redden
8. Tim Connolly
126. Nicklas Lidstrom
82. Eric Staal
Hockey Heroes HH16. Martin Brodeur - I wasn't a big fan of this design back in 1991-92 when they started it with Brett Hull. I'm definitely not wanting to see it now.

Netminders NET12. Evgeni Nabokov - At first I thought this was a mid-90s Fleer throwback. Not a fan of this design at all.

145. Teemu Selanne
95. Semyon Varlamov - Great photo!

13. Daniel Paille
140. Stephane Robidas
84. Chad LaRose
116. Jakub Voracek - Is it just me or is Voracek priming to play a little Guitar Hero with that pose?

102. Jeff Woywitka

Bottom Half:
17. Andrei Kostitsyn and his magic hockey stick.

79. Tobias Enstrom
47. Marc-Andre Fleury - this card belongs in "Add the Caption" contest

177. Daymond Langkow
200. Sidney Crosby "Checklist"
122. Johan Franzen
130. Shea Weber
Ambassadors of the Game AG18. Alex Kovalev - At first glance I cursed this card because I though Upper Deck had carried its ridiculous 20th Anniversary set  over from baseball. The design is too similar, and that's no compliment.

69. Nathan Horton
99. Eric Fehr
29. Mikhail Grabovski
181. Peter Budaj - Another great shot with the ice coming forward.. Upper Deck sure loves its goalies.

152. Joe Thornton
136. Dustin Brown
4. Zdeno Chara
188. Owen Nolan - So maybe he wasn't the all-time great that comes with the expectation of going first overall in the draft, but Own Nolan has sure managed to stick around and put together a solid, sometimes great, career.

No Young Guns (they're 1:7 packs) but that's fine. As usual, the base set is beautiful, filled with beautiful and dramatic photography. I got a good mix of names, including lots of upcoming Hall of Famers.The inserts - didn't like them at all. If anyone needs any of them, drop me an email.