2003-04 Upper Deck NHL Hockey

(#285 Steve Sullivan)

400 base cards
(Series I & II: 200 cards each)
70 Young Guns cards
(Plus Insert Sets)

Taking a look at one of my favorite NHL card sets, from a better time in hockey... The Ducks were still Mighty, and the Penguins had restored their "Skating Penguin" logo. (Whoever decided to change their logo immediately after they won the cup in '92 should be chained to the net and have pucks fired at them)

Simplicity, brilliant photographs and neat stats... A good balance of action shots, hits, slapshots and saves makes it a really fun set to flip through.

Anaheim & Colorado

(2003-04 Upper Deck: Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Colorado Avalanche...)

Sergei Federov, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne had all signed with new teams, and are grouped with their updated teammates. The blue All-Star jerseys seem to cleverly blend in with the Ducks/Avalanche motif.

"Ducked Out"

(#49 Paul Kariya - card back)

After leading the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to a heartbreaking loss in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Paul Kariya departed for the Colorado Avalanche during the off-season. On the back of Kariya's card, you can see a partial Mighty Ducks logos on his jersey and helmet.

"Scarface"

(Steve Shields #20 & #229)

Series II features a couple players from Series I who have since changed teams...
Steve Shields has a card with Boston and one with Florida. Gotta love that mask!
Steve Konowalchuk also gets 2 cards, one with Washington (#197) and one with Colorado (#290).

Blazin' Speed

(#128 Tom Poti)

Love the motion-blur effect on this card.
There appear to be coaches wearing gloves & skates in the background...
Yet Tom Poti seems to be dressed in full game gear.

Stone Cold

(#370 Garth Snow, #190 Olaf Kolzig)

Another reason I like this set is because it has great cards of lesser known goalies like Olaf Kolzig, Corey Schwab and Garth Snow. I remember seeing all these guys when they played in the minors. My favorite seats were right behind the net, so the goaltender was always in view.

Comic Book Cover Foreshortening

(#374 Brian Leetch)

Love the angle, plus the determination and co-ordination displayed by Brian Leetch on this card.

(#362 Corey Schwab)

I think this snapshot of Corey Schwab is one of the coolest in the entire set... He seems to be flying out of the void towards the camera... He's really just stretching during the pre-game warmup.

Horizontal Hockey
Not usually a fan of horizontal cards, but this set has quite a few... And they're awesome. The wide-angle shot can capture plenty of action.

(#6 Rob Niedermayer, #166 Keith Tkachuk)

Siblings Rob and Scott Neidermeyer battle it out in the Stanley Cup Finals. Keith Tkachuk gets knocked down while still protecting the puck... I actually have this same poster of Tkachuk on my wall... (The "American Airlines" advertisement on the board has been airbrushed out on the card photo.)

Goaltending Clinic

(#144 Robert Esche, #422 Nikolai Khabibulin)

A lot of goaltender cards are horizontal, but they're particularly effective when they're making a wicked save.
Robert Esche of the Philidelphia Flyers with an acrobatic save, while Nikolai Khabibulin displays the form that would help win the Tampa Bay Lightning the Stanley Cup.
(Useless Fact: Out of 62 goalie cards in the set, 35 are vertical, 27 are horizontal.)


Absent from this set: Miikka Kiprusoff. Only notable because Kiprusoff led the Calgary Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. The set already features three Flames goaltenders - Kiprusoff was still with the Sharks when Series I was released, and had a card in the 2003-04 Upper Deck MVP set.


Young Guns (1:4)
45 Young Guns in Series I (Cards #201-245)
25 Young Guns in Series II (Cards #446-471)


Only managed to collect 29 of 70...

(#234 Marc-Andre Fleury)

Luckily, one of them was Marc-Andre Fleury. Also busted Nikolai Zherdev out of a pack.

(#451 Nikolai Zherdev)

Still on my 2003-04 Upper Deck Wish List:
Young Guns: #206 Eric Staal, #236 Ryan Malone, #245 Young Guns Checklist (Staal/Fleury/Horton)