2010-11 Score Hockey Set Review

2010-11 Score Hockey hit the shelves at my local store this weekend and since I was intrigued by the prospect of pulling a 1990-91 buyback auto, I purchased a box for the bargain basement price of $29.95.  Score is obviously a low-end product, but I have to say I’m rather impressed thus far.  I might actually try to build this set (list to go up soon).

Base Cards

2010-11 Score Hockey is great for set builders as it has a 550 card base set (if you count the 50 short printed rookies which fall at a rate of 1:2 packs).  The base cards are actually printed on some very nice stock which is relatively thick, non-glossy and surprisingly, very sturdy.  The stock actually reminds me a little bit of 1990 Leaf baseball, which was at the time, a premium product, so if you consider that this set is a value brand, we’re already off to a good start.

The base set design is, in my books, also a winner, and is obviously very reminiscent of Score’s inaugural 1990-91 release.  I like these better though, because they don’t have the weird little cut off stripe along the sides, which gives the cards a cleaner look.  Overall, very minimalist and solidly designed.  The borders don’t get in the way of the photos, which is always a plus.

The photography is crisp and generally consists of close-up player shots without much context from the action going on outside of the frame.  These are generally the type of shots I like, since players can often get lost on their own card if there’s too much going on.

2010-11 Score Hockey #241 - Drew Doughty (Yes, that's a crease on the bottom right side - I'll be hitting up Panini for a replacement and will update on how the process goes)

Rookies

This set includes 50 short printed rookies, all of whom, I believe, debuted late last season.  The headliners are of course, Nazem Kadri of the Toronto Maple Leafs and P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens.  At 1:2 packs, rookies aren’t hard to find, and I was able to pull both a Kadri and a Subban.  I would have preferred the rookies printed with the regular design – the flame burst background is cheesy, but these aren’t the worst looking cards I’ve seen.  It is interesting to note that the Subban card uses a different photo than the one in the previews, which I guess was a pre-production mock-up.

2010-11 Score Hockey #501 - Nazem Kadri

Inserts

I think the biggest bone I have to pick with this set is the number of inserts.  Panini has loaded this set with a bunch of inserts, many of which make better subsets.  I tend not to care too much about inserts, and one or two per set makes sense, but when you’re on the north side of five insert sets, that’s just too much and frankly, I’d rather have another base card for my set than a crappy insert.  That said, the Net Cam inserts feature some stunning photography.  The Playoff Heroes, Sudden Death and the Die Cut Snow Globes I could’ve done without.  I didn’t break any of the horribly ugly The Franchise or Canada Greats though.   Another nit-picky detail is that the inserts don’t have any sort of prefix or __ of __ designation to their numbering so it’s easy to confuse them for base set subset cards.  Rookie Redemption cards of t his year’s freshmen fall at a rate of one-per-box, and I managed to pull an signature redemption card of Rangers forward Derek Stepan.  No luck with Hall, Seguin or Eberle, maybe next time.

2010-11 Score Hockey Snow Globes #10 - Antti Niemi

2010-11 Score Hockey Net Cam #19 - Henrik Lundqvist

2010-11 Score Hockey Playoff Heroes #8 - Joe Thornton (*snicker)

2010-11 Score Hockey Sudden Death #11 - Alexander Ovechkin

Parallels

The dreaded P-word.  I generally hate parallels, and score has too many of ’em.  Glossy, French Back and Anniversary.

Summary

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up pulling one of those sweet on-card buyback autographs, but I do believe that 2010-11 Score Hockey is a solid product at a great price.  The Pluses:

+ Solid and clean base set design
+ Sturdy and thick card stock
+ Crisp close-up photograhpy
+ Fantastic price point
+ Great for set builders
+ Lots of rookies (if you’re into that)
+ OG Buyback Autos with a solid checklist!

The Minuses:

– Too many useless inserts
– No differentiated numbering on insert sets
– No guarantee of big hits (if you’re into that)
– Too many parallels
– Lazy photo selection (many of the players are depicted in old uniforms but listed under the updated team)

Overall rating: 8/10

Box Breakdown:

203 Base Set (Including rookies) = 37% (0 duplicates!)
36 Glossy Parallel
1 Rookie Signature Redemption
3 Net Cam
6 Playoff Heroes
2 Sudden Death
1 Snow Globes
_____________
252 Total Cards

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