Back in 2025, I completed . . . (this is going to be a mouthful)
I'd
been given a wax box for free, and although all the packs had already been
opened, I decided to hand-collate the cards to see how close I'd come to
a complete set.
Turns
out I wasn't far off at all, so I managed to pick up the cards I needed
through a few trades on TCDB, and that was that. A junk wax–era hockey
set was in the books.
I
immediately thought about trying to complete Series 2, specifically the old-fashioned way: Purchasing a wax box, opening all 36 packs, and hand-collating the set.
On
the negative side, I really didn't need more junk wax cards in my
collection. And as for the prospect of finding an insert, the only chance was to pull one of four special Bobby
Orr cards.
On
the positive side, Series 2 wax boxes were quite affordable (under $30,
shipped), and it had been years since I'd tried to put a set together
by opening packs.
Well,
thanks in part to some encouraging comments from fellow collectors and
bloggers, I finally decided to go for it. And that brings us to this
post.
A few months ago I opened the box, and came impressively close to a complete set. And with a couple of quick trades, I've got the whole thing now!
Let's get right into the cards, because Series 2 is . . . interesting. It all starts with the color.
Card borders in Series 1 were bright red, which was almost too much to handle after 1991 Donruss Baseball's red borders. Then, as you can see by the color of the wax box above, Series 2 switched to bright blue. Quite a difference!
I'm wondering if Score went with those two colors to give a little nod to the red line/blue line hockey rink design from their inaugural release.
Regardless, I think we all know that Score wasn't exactly bashful about using color back then.
Let's talk about what else they weren't bashful about:
Starting off Series 2 with plenty of subset cards.
Right off the bat, we get a few cards from the Franchise subset. Some of the Franchise cards appeared in Series 1, as well. I like the strong wink to the 1955 and 1956 Topps baseball sets here.
Right after that, we get a few cards from the NHL Brothers subset. I wonder where and when the Score photographers were able to stage these photos. Some of those brothers played halfway across the
country from each other, or in different conferences. Maybe they did it in the off-season? Or the afternoon before a game between the two teams? Regardless, I think it's a fun idea for a subset.
Next we jump right into the Top Prospect subset—20 of them in a row, in fact! Can't blame Score for that. Rookies and prospects had swarmed all corners of the hobby by 1991-92.
After the prospects, guess what we have?
More Franchise cards! I think all the dynamic movement you get from the sport of ice hockey lends itself well to the card design.
But guess what? the subsets don't stop there.
Next, we get the Dream Team subset. Score provided us with painterly renditions of the players who they thought were the best of the best: one goalie (Partick Roy), two defensemen (Brian Leetch, Ray Bourque), and three forwards (Luc Robitaille, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull).
After that, Score gave us their All-Rookie Team. Same thing. A goalie (Ed Belfour), two defensemen (Rob Blake, Eric Weinrich), and three forwards (Jaromir Jagr, Sergei Fedorov, Ken Hodge). Just look at them as they zoom into action!
So now it's time for some quick math. The final card in that All-Rookie Team subset is #383. The first card of Series 2 is #331. That means Score started off Series 2 with 53 STRAIGHT SUBSET CARDS!
I wonder if that's a record.
In any case, there's some good news: That would be the last of the subsets for the rest of Series 2.
So what do we get when the base cards finally start?
Similar to Series 1, we find plenty of nicely cropped and framed images. There's not much empty space, but at the same time, the players don't look cramped inside those card borders. Nice job by Score there. Also similar to Series 1, these types of photos do get a bit repetitive. After a while, you're kind of hoping for a simple headshot, or a player standing around during pre-game warmups.
You'll also find some good action scattered throughout. And it's hockey-specific action, which I like. A slap shot, a referee caught in the middle of two players mucking it up, and a player hopping over the boards. Nice work again by Score here.
You'll also find some guys skating hard, with the faces to show it.
Goalies got nice cards, too. I've said it before, but I appreciate that the Score photographers seemed to be aware that goaltending was such a dynamic position, and that the guys deserved better than just a "skating around in warmups" photo.
Another odd similarity to Series 1 is the horizontal base card design. Only two cards got the treatment in Series 1, and the card you see above is the only horizontal card in Series 2. I find it a bit peculiar that Score would go through the trouble of creating a horizontal design just to use it once or twice like that. I mean, the action shown on the card is great. Why not use it a little more?
Anyhow, here's an example of a card back.
The write-ups are excellent, which was par for the course for Score during this time period. And because this is the Canadian Bilingual version, you get those write-ups in English and French.
I like the overall design, too. The player name appears in a big color bar across the top, with his position listed directly below. This is important, because player positions are not included on the card fronts. We're also treated to a full-color headshot on the right, which is nice. Just check out Bernie Nicholls up there. He gives us just one of many opportunities throughout the set to appreciate some good hockey hair. Look here:
Scott Stevens went from the Blues (Series 1) to the Devils (Series 2).
Todd Krygier went from the Whalers (Series 1) to the Capitals (Series 2).
And here's a different one. Mark Messier's card with his former team, the Oilers, doesn't appear until Series 2 (#505). So when he was traded to the Rangers, Score added another card for him (#635).
In all these cases, I guess you can say that Series 2 acted like an "update" set. Upper Deck did a similar thing with their high number releases at the time.
Speaking of updates, Score got ahead of the game by creating a special card that featured logos of the two expansion teams that would join the NHL the
following season. I remember many of us thinking that an NHL team located as far south as Florida
was absolutely wild. Now there are two teams there—and both have won Stanley Cups!
Finally, here's one of the four Bobby Orr insert cards that collectors could pull from packs. Unfortunately, I didn't find any in my wax box.
So
that's 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual Series 2, finished. It was
definitely fun to put this set together the old-fashioned way, and although
it's rather junky in its junk-waxiness, Score did a pretty good job
overall. The numerous subsets meant the chance to pull plenty of cards of the big NHL stars, and plenty of cards in general (660 total). And with the bright red or blue borders, you could spot them from a mile away. I'm happy to have Series 1 and Series 2 both completed now.
What are your thoughts on this set?
Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!
