That's a (Hockey) Winner!

Probably the one and only time I post hockey cards. 

The St. Louis Blues just finished off the Minnesota (...ugh...) Wild in an overtime Game 1 playoff win, which gives me the best excuse I could think of to finally post some of the hockey cards Sportscards From The Dollar Store has been sending me. I remain a thoroughly casual and ignorant hockey fan at best, but I like the sport and when given the chance it's fun to watch a playoff hockey game. I've only had a hard time getting into the sport because of time (I spend entirely too much time watching sports as it is) and finding a team to root for. After years of following various media members, friends and internet acquaintances who write about the Cardinals and live in the area, their enthusiasm for the St. Louis hockey team finally started to rub off on me a little. Just a little.

Well all know about Brett Hull and his cool guy hockey hair. This Bowman design is similar to the 1990 baseball design, and I like that they used some weird old spy hat for the "Hat Tricks" logo. (Serious question, do people wear really cheap/unwanted hats to hockey games just on the off chance that they might be able to toss them on the ice?)

Classic Blues! This is from the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee set.

This had to be scanned. I mean, his name is Jablonski. I think I may have actually opened one of these Score packs back when I was a teen, and was disappointed to find out that not every card was Wayne Gretzky.

The hilariously named Shattenkirk was traded away late in the season, which leads to at least 20% less giggling during broadcasts.

Pietrangelo became the Blues captain this season, and took on an increasingly important role after Shattenkirk's (heh) trade.

I'm only scanning guys I've heard of, and one of them is goalie Ryan Miller. He was very briefly with the Blues. Their current goalie, Jake Allen, was phenomenal tonight.

Same set, different guy. Steen is in his 9th season with the Blues. I completely fail to understand the name of this Rookie Anthology set, as these guys were both longtime vets.

Here's the man, Tarasenko. At this point a year ago he's the only player I could have named on the team with any confidence. Anyway, he's really good, and he gets name-dropped a lot during Cards broadcasts.

More Tarasenko.

Ha ha, Tony Twist! There's a great sports name.

Finally, David Backes was probably still with the Blues when this card was sent to me, which should tell you how long I've been holding back some of this stuff.

I really enjoyed the cards, but I want to tell everyone - if you send me Blues stuff, it will probably go into a box to enjoy on a rainy day. I am probably not going to start a serious Blues collection, These are fun to look at, though, and hockey is fun to watch. I just wish Portland would get an NHL team someday.