Introductory Entry - Top 5 Pulls from 2008-2009 Hockey

Hello, and welcome to Ryan's Hockey Blog. I'm Ryan and I am a hockey card collector from Buffalo, New York. The primary purpose of my blog is to share my card collecting experiences. However, I'm sure I will be sharing my thoughts on other hockey-related topics like my beloved Buffalo Sabres and maybe even some stories from my ball hockey games.

I just got back into the hobby during the 2008-2009 season after a pretty long hiatus. All of my pulls and Sabres personal collection cards can be found in my photobucket at the following site: http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u234/southbuffalo39/. For anyone interested in meeting or dealing with other hockey card enthusiasts, I highly recommend the following site: http://www.cloutsnchara.com/. I am a frequent poster on the site and have been able to meet and deal with a number of other great collectors. The operators of the site Geoff and Brad do a great job of running the site and are constantly hosting group breaks and giving away free cards! The results of some of my recent group breaks will be shown here in an upcoming entry once received in the mail.

The 2009-2010 NHL season has kicked into high gear, which means a whole new line of Upper Deck and In the Game hockey card products will be available. A friend of mine and I have already busted a case of 09-10 O-Pee-Chee. I am highly anticipating the release of Artifacts, which I believe is set for October 27th. However, for my first blog entry, I thought I would share my top five pulls from the 2008-2009 hockey products.

5. Comes from the 2008-2009 Between the Pipes set. I was able to pull a Martin Brodeur, "Stars of the Game" autograph from just five loose packs.

4. Comes again from a loose pack break; however, this time from Black Diamond. I was lucky enough to pull an Alexander Ovechkin Onyx Quad Jersey #7/10.

3. Came from the Clouts'nChara 1st birthday bash, high-end group break. I was lucky enough to draw the Washington Capitals and was not disappointed as I received the hit of the break. From Trilogy, I received a redemption for a Clearcut Combos - Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom dual auto card #13/25.

2. Came from the only box of OPC Premier I busted. It was a Dual Induction Inks, Gold Parallel auto of Bobby Orr and Harry Howell #2/1o.

1. And for number one....I pulled this card from my very first SP Game Used box. It was the only card in the last pack of the box. Fives patches of Jonathan Toews, Carey Price, Patrick Kane, Nicklas Backstrom and Peter Mueller #2/4.