Still collecting hockey even though there's no hockey

As I perused the card aisle at Wal-Mart on Saturday, one box of cards kept following me as my eyes perused all the choices.  It was as if the box was saying "buy me, buy me".  It was a blaster box of '12-'13 Score hockey.  I picked it up and saw that there was 11 packs with 7 cards in each.  I wasn't too sure about picking it up since I thought that Score was supposed to be a lower end brand, and I thought that 20 bucks was a little too steep.

I decided to take the box over to the price scanner and check, just in case.  It scanned at $9.99.  I grabbed 2 of them. 

I enjoyed ripping both of them open.  For just under 20 bucks, I ripped open 22 packs, and had great fun looking at the cards.  The price point definitely doesn't hurt the budget, and the cards are decent as far as photography and card stock.  (Not great....decent....)

Base set cards are fun, and as mentioned the photography is all right.  Love the whip on the stick of Nick Johnson on the left.  Miikka Kiprusoff looks as if he's going to use his head to stop one of the millions of shots he faces each season.  The Jonathan Quick card on the right features the Stanley Cup logo, which blends in well with the black and white uniform he's sporting.

The inserts harken back to the 90's for score as well, with names such as the franchise and Check-it being used.  The Eddie Giacomin is a "retro" franchise card, and I was 'lucky' enough to pull one in each blaster I bought.    I do, however, like the First Goal insert set, that's something different. 

For those hopelessly addicted to collecting parallels (not me, I would never do anything like that....nope...), Score has included a one per pack gold bordered parallel, along with a much more rarer black parallel.

I can't say for sure, but I believe that the Sven Baertschi is one of the black parallels (maybe someone out there can enlighten me).  The Hot Rookies will at least be reasonable to pick up, as I pulled 6 of them in each of the blasters.  This is in comparison to this years OPC set, in which I've pulled 2 of the high numbered cards in 6 rack packs. 

Score even found time to focus a little on the lighter side of hockey in one of the photos they used.  This card of Patrick Kane so far is my favorite.

I really enjoyed watching Kane done the Clark Kent cape and glasses at the skills competition last year, and got a good chuckle when I pulled this out of one of the packs. 

Nothing earth shattering is going to come out of these packs, but at about 90 cents a pack, I don't expect anything great.  You get a decent product that will not break your bankroll, and yet the packs provide enough entertainment so that you're not left wanting at the end.

Thanks for reading, Robert