for the first time in Olympic history, Canada has finished atop the medal standings with 14 gold medals. Germany next with 10, followed by Norway and the USA with 9 apiece.
We may not own all of the podium. Just the top step.
Canada has set a record for most golds won at an Winter Olympics. Breaking the record (13) held by Norway and the Soviet Union. (remember them?)
Canada also broke the record of golds by a host nation.
That sound you may have heard was 28 million people puffing out their chests with pride.
it's game time baby! I'm sure you southern boys will get to watch the game sometime later tonight after NBC tape delays and manipulates the game film to tell the story they want, meanwhile I'll be watching it LIVE! time to step up and put on the big boy pants Roberto....
No. Not this one. This will actually be an Olympic free post. I think.
The actual reason for my rejoicing is I found another card shop within 2 hours driving distance. Most of you remember my anxiety a few weeks back when I found out my favourite cardshop closed it's doors and went to Vancouver. Not to mention the other shop in town refusing to sell packs. Remember that?
Anyways. I found out about another shop in the north end of the city. So I packed a lunch, gassed up the family truckster, and off I went. After my snack, I found myself at Maple Leaf Sports. I walked in the door to a small, but very clean and well laid out shop. Even though they had just opened five minutes before, there was already a customer at the counter making a purchase. Inside, the whole right side wall was devoted to McFarlane figures. The left wall, nothing but wax. A long L shaped group of glass cases filled with various singles.
I picked out a couple of boxes for review here later on, and joy of joys, actually got to pick up some new baseball packs. 2010 Topps Heritage. Right off of the counter. Just sitting there. In Calgary! 3 packs for $10. I have no idea if that's good or not, I just grabbed them. All you Yanks have seen them already, so I'll just hit a couple of highlights.
First card out of the pack. ROY Chris Coghlan. Hmmm... not too exciting... Hey! My first brave of 2010!!! Not topps, not Upper Deck, but a Heritage Martin Prado. Smile Martin. Ian Desmond. Is it really necessary to have both RC logos? I long for the day where we had to figure it out for ourselves. My first SP! A scary picture of Jason Giambi Juice. I also had to pick up two packs of series 2 UD hockey. After my box break a couple of days ago leaving me without any doubles... this was a must. another Moose.
I added three cards to my set. Now I have a few doubles for people.
A big thanks to Darren of Maple Leaf Sports for the conversation. I couldn't stay long because I had an appointment to go to, but he's a friendly, knowledgable guy. (despite being a Rams fan) I can't wait to go back and see what else he has. He might even have commons boxes! (dare to dream)
If you're near Calgary, check him out. He also does mail order. I'll get that info and pass it along.
Yeah, I'm almost a day late with this... give me a break, I've been busy. Onwards and upwards!
The team shot The world's best womens goaltender.
The Gold Medal winning goalie from 2006, a backup this year, played in 1 game.
The Gold Medal winning goalie from 2002, also a backup this year, played in 2 games.
The world's best female player 9 goals 6 assists in 5 games
the Gold Medal game heroine 18 y/o 5 goals 2 assists
The all time women's scoring leader 2 goals 9 assists in 5 games
The beast... 6' 1" - 3 goals 4 assists
2 goals 1 assist
4 goals 1 assist
5 goals 7 assists
2 assists
1 goal 5 assists
3 goals 5 assists
2 goals 9 assists
not pictured / included in set
Cherie Piper 5 goals 5 assists
the defence.
4 assists and a +14
2 goals 3 assists and a +13
2 goals 2 assists and a +15
2 goals 2 assists and a +12
Meaghan was the only player without points, +11
Gillian was the final cut in training camp, and did not make the team.
GO CANADA!
btw girls, if they are still giving you a hard time about drinking beer and smoking cigars in GM Place after the game, there's plenty of room at my house.
No messing around with glitzy titles or false promises. Steak and potatoes. That's me. Well, actually it's the Olympic Gold medal winning women's bobsleigh team from Canada. Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphreys are from Calgary and Prince Edward Island. Get it? Steak and potatoes? Alberta and P.E.I??? Ah... forget it. Canadian humour.
Anyways. I busted a box of Upper Deck Series 2 hockey yesterday. 24 packs, 8 cards per... yadda, yadda, yadda. Price? $60 shipped from Montreal.
The base cards are the same as series 1, as well as their baseball and football counterparts. the backs...
8 cards per pack is a bit misleading... one card in each pack is the series 2 cards for their Victory set. Kinda like the whole updates/highlights/heritage debacle.
in each box they say you'll get two relic cards. (on average) The first one I pulled was from my favourite team!!!
but it's of the one guy I don't like on my favourite team. This one may be destined for ShoeBoxLegends. He'll appreciate it I'm sure. They brought back the Heroes insert set. this time it's Mark Messier. Yawn. I got two in the box.
The problem with UD is their insistance on inserting 30 million insert sets. In each series. This one is called Playoff Performers. I got this Patrick kane and Marc-Andre Fleury.
a carry over insert set is draft day gems. A waste of cards... I got Lidstrom and Tim Thomas.
A new to series 2 insert is this horrible early '90's Score looking Rookie Debut card.
Bringing back a set from last year, Captain's Calling returns.
A set that I was really excited about was The Champions. I was hoping it was UD's version of the Canadian Heroes set in OPC. My first card was of the U.S. women's hockey team competing in Vancouver. I love it. I'm going to complete this set. Or I was anyways....
until this..... WTF? A card of a figure skating silver medalist??? Maybe if it was an event used relic bat card.... ( poor taste, I know, it's my blog, deal with it)
my second relic card was of potential rookie of the year, John Tavares.
But what really drives the price, are the Young Guns. These are what the kids chase after, before they discover girls, and then again after they marry one....
You get six per hobby box.
even I haven't heard of that guy. Oskars?
cool. A local dude.
my favourite team again...
Young Phil is doing well...
ooh... Tyler is a first round pick. He's played one game. He has one goal. He's on pace for an 80 goal season!!!!!!
And finally, young Jonas Gustavsson. Jonas is still having nightmares of rubber bullets coming at his head. Toronto needs to improve the "D". Acquiring Phaneuf helped.
Still with me?? I ended up with 145/200 base cards. And this is either a pro, or a con, no duplicates. Great collation, but now I have no dupes to trade.... Now I have to find somewhere that sells packs.
Rest easy my friend. No pressure. It's only an Olympic quarter-final game against the best team in the world. You can do it. You'd better do it... after you, we'll have to go to Szabados.
for the first time in Olympic history, Canada has finished atop the medal standings with 14 gold medals. Germany next with 10, followed by Norway and the USA with 9 apiece.
First card out of the pack. ROY Chris Coghlan. Hmmm... not too exciting...
