We're going back to the 1989-90 NHL season, where young Gregory Ninepockets has been bitten by the hockey bug and is attempting to complete the current year's hockey sticker album. Previous entries in this series available here.
It's the middle of October. School has been back in session for more than a month now, and young Gregory has been acclimating well. Just this past Friday he scored a perfect 10 out of 10 on a science quiz. And even more exciting, the new hockey season is underway!
Now it's time to open more packs of O-Pee-Chee hockey stickers. Gregory goes for the top-left portion of the box, and takes out the remaining six packs.
Let's get right to it.
Pack 25
Sweet start!
But hang on a minute. Gregory feels like he's pulled these three stickers before—as well as the other three stickers in the pack. He flips through the pages in his album to check, and sure enough, they're all in there already.
But hey, two different Mario Lemieux duplicates and a Brett Hull duplicate? Nothing to complain about.
Pack 26
Ooh, that Al MacInnis sticker is new, for sure. The defenseman won the Conn Smythe trophy (playoff MVP) last year for a very good reason. In 22 games, he scored 7 goals and added a league-leading 24 assists to help his Flames win the Stanley Cup. As if that weren't impressive enough, 4 of those 7 goals were game winners. The Scott Young Future Star sticker back is a new one as well, and so is the David Volek rookie sticker.
Pack 27
More new additions here! That Maple Leafs player on the top left is Vincent Damphousse. Young Gregory recently learned that the correct surname pronunciation is not "damp house". It's actually pronounced dom-FOOSE.
Also in this pack was another new Future Star sticker back, plus a special award sticker featuring Montreal Canadiens player Guy Carbonneau. Last year he won the Selke trophy, which is awarded to the forward who "demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game".
Gregory stops to check all six stickers in this pack against his album, and . . . yes! He needs all of them.
Pack 28
Another pretty good pack here! There's star goalie Partick Roy on the left, featured in a nice action shot. In the middle, it's Joe Mullen. Last year Gregory learned that Joe and his brother Brian grew up playing roller hockey on the streets of New York City. Very cool! And on the right, it's a Brian Leetch Future Star sticker back. We're definitely chipping away at completing the sticker back subset!
Pack 29
Two pretty good additions to the album here, with Mark Messier on the left and Dave Gagner on the right. Mr. Gagner is one of Gregory's favorite players, wearing one of his favorite uniforms.
Pack 30
What a way to finish! Chris Chelios is another one of young Gregory's favorite players, so it'll be nice to put his base sticker in the album. Next to Mr. Chelios, there's another two sticker backs needed to complete the subset. As for the bottom row, it's a Patrick Roy All-Star sticker and a Vezina Trophy sticker. The Vezina is awarded to the goalie who's judged to have been the best in the league across the season. Guess who won it in 1988-89? Yep, Patrick Roy.
Gregory hasn't checked every single sticker from these six packs against his album, but he has a pretty good feeling that a lot of them are needs.
Favorite Page
Another completed page, and this time it's the New York Rangers!
Now here's the updated summary for the set build:
Main Set (182 total panels)
New panels: 31
New duplicates: 5
Total panels: 140
Total duplicates: 40
Panels needed: 42
Set completion: 77%
Future Star/All-Star Backs (34 total)
New backs: 6
New duplicates: 0
Total backs: 27
Total duplicates: 6
Backs needed: 7
Set completion: 79%
That's some good progress! Gregory has 18 packs to go, and he's pretty psyched that he's more than three-quarters of the way to completing both the sticker album and the sticker back subset.
Best Stickers
The Brian Leetch Future Star sticker back, the Al MacInnis All-Star sticker back, and the Patrick Roy all-star subset sticker.
Which were your favorites this time?
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