Thursday, March 4, 2010

Martin Hanzal Jersey Card

I chose to talk about this card today because the Phoenix Coyotes were the most active team at yesterday's trade deadline - why be afraid to spend when the league is the one footing the bill?

Also, I think this card series in general (Upper Deck's Ice) might be the modern-day best-looking cards out there, maybe on par with some Artifacts editions.

This particular card (#FT-MH of the 2007-08 Ice set), featuring a pretty aerodynamic picture of Martin Hanzal, has two different pieces of the Coyotes' dark jersey embedded in it - you can clearly see two different textures, one seemingly stretchier while the other one looks breathier.

Hanzal isn't the best player on the Coyotes, but in his rookie year, he ranked sixth in team scoring and ninth among NHL rookies with 35 points, which got him invited to represent the Czech Republic at the 2008 World Championships (gathering three assists in six games as the team finished fifth), after doing so at both the 2006 and 2007 World Juniors. It mustn't have been very conclusive, because he was not among the players named to the 2010 Olympic team who finished seventh.

But the Coyotes are doing fine this year under new head coach Dave Tippett, and they'll surely be happy he's taken the two weeks off to rest, as they're hoping to go on a long playoff run; with Ilya Bryzgalov in nets, anything is possible. I say their chances are as good as the Chicago Blackhawks'.

Oh, and the jersey was worn during a photo shoot. The fine folks at Upper Deck call it an ''event-worn'' jersey... it still goes for over $20 on many sites, so what do I care?

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