2012-13 Score Hockey pack break review...

Since Upper Deck woke up early and got OPC out the door in time to catch the bus for school, you had to know the Panini would drive their little one out early as well.

 

2012-13 Score hockey hit the shelves a few days ago. Panini's low end hockey offering. After two previous years of complete and utter failure, let's see if they improved as much as OPC did this year.

 

I shouldn't be comparing the two lines so much.... U.D. charges waaaaay too much for OPC. Kinda like buying a Sony tv instead of an LG. You pay a lot extra for that Sony logo. No difference here. OPC should be $1-$1.50 a pack at most..... give Score credit. .99 cents is a nice price.

 

36 packs per box, 7 cards per pack, usually $29 a box.

 

Considering their past "efforts" though, I played it safe and bought two packs. That's me... Livin' on the edge!

 

The wrapper.

 

 Pavel Datsyuk on the cover... the best player in the game, so why not? I know I probably upset some Ovechkin fans by saying that, but remember, I live on the edge.

Ha! PK Subban right off the bat. Sweet. There are guys at the local card shows that always put Carey Price and Subban base cards for $1 out in hopes I need/buy them. This will allow me to laugh in their face as I have both OPC and Score now. $1 for base cards............. for the love.

 Where was I ? Oh yeah, the review.... the fronts are better this year. At least they fixed that horrible and huge white space at the top that their football cards have this year.

 I was impressed by most of the photography in the few cards I've seen... a good mix and some great action shots.

Although the bottom of the cards suffer. No one cares what conference anybody is on. You could've put the team name, or how about the player's position???? Also, the logo in the corner would be better with a rounded corner instead of the squared corner it is.... or maybe put a little effort and put the logo inside of an angled puck? This looks like something I could do at home on photoshop.

Here's Al Montoya wearing the worst sweater in the history of hockey. Although points for Score for the 'Signed by Winnipeg on 7/4/12' transaction line at the bottom.

Score did really improve on the backs. They are full with no wasted space, regardless of being a veteran or young player. If you have no stats, they fill up the card with other stuff. Good job.

You knew there had to be short print rookies, didn't you? Not just rookies mind you, but

 

 HOT Rookies. Can we just go back to the time when rookie cards had no designation as such? Please?

A super huge wet kiss to Score for doing away with the useless and hated Glossy one per pack parallel.

A super huge wet raspberry to Score for adding the useless and hated Gold one per pack parallel.

 wow. I'm all shivery. And short of a base card because of it.

There are of course a couple of insert sets.... one being Season Highlights. I didn't scan any of the three I got because they were that spectacular.

One I did get and like, is The Franchise. There's two versions I think. One for modern and one for retired players? Maybe it's all one set, I don't know. Regardless.... I've seen four of the retired cards and they look pretty good.

All in all, I'd give Score a 2.5 / 5. Which is pretty good since last years got a 1/5. It's obvious that Panini fired all of their hockey staff 2/3 of the way through last season and now the new people's influence is slowly taking hold.