Unless you lived under a rock or on another planet, you know that on the 4th December 2009, the Montreal Canadiens celebrated their 100 years by playing their centennial game against their most hated rivals: the Boston Bruins. Plenty of events were held to celebrate those 100 years, special jerseys were released and numbers were retired. The Canadiens won that centennial match by a 5-1 score and I think we call all look fondly on that game:
And it was...until August 17, 2017 when Chris Carlin, the Senior Marketing and Social Media Manager for Upper Deck wrote me an email. I met Chris at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland Ohio in August 2009 when I interviewed him for my then online magazine, the defunct Collector's Corner on Sportscardforum (SCF). I dare say I made a good impression and we have kept in touch since then, he's accepted to sponsor a lot of contest on SCF and always answered any questions I might have had about the UD products. Generally, I was the one who initiated contact however and I was intrigued by the title of his email: "L'Anti Expo Set". If you live in Montreal, you know that l'Anti Expo is the biggest card show in town and in August 2017, Upper Deck was getting ready to attend the show for the first time and wanted to offer collectors a special pack redemption program much like they do in Toronto or at the Nationals in the USA. Chris told me that he wanted to make a special "Memorable Moments" which would complete the one that was part of the Habs Centennial product with moments that had happened since the 2008-2009 season onward and asked me (and Richard McAdam another collector and SCF moderator) if we had some idea of what could be included in this nine card set. He even told me in his email that I could draft the back of the cards if I felt so inclined.
I think it took about 2 minutes before Richard and I got in touch on Facebook and realized that we had both been asked to participate in this project. He might live in BC but he's one of the biggest Habs fan I know and he does know his stuff! So we decided to each make a list of the 9 moments we considered worthy of being included in the set and compare notes afterwards. I think we don't realize everything that happens in a single season when you religiously follow a team...this trip down recent memory lane was heck of a lot of fun to do. Some came to mind immediately; be it for their importance or because they had just happened while others took a bit more thinking.
Unsurprisingly, both of our list were quite similar and we decided to each reply to Chris with our suggestions. As I was on holiday at the time, I even drafted the back of the cards there and then and I even pushed my luck with photo suggestions.
Being a Patrick Roy fan, my first suggestion was the night of November 22, 2008 when the Canadiens retired his number 33 and as I remembered his speech so well, I couldn't help but suggest the following name for the card: Roy comes home. As for the picture, this one had to be Roy and Price standing side by side by the banner about to be lifted to the rafters. To me, that picture represents the past and the present of the Canadiens so well.
— Karine Hains (@Pheebs888) December 17, 2018
My second idea was to commemorate the 2009-2010 playoffs run and Jaroslav Halak's incredible performance. At the time, I lived in London, England and I was watching all of the playoffs games live from midnight to about 3 AM onwards...it wasn't easy but it was such an amazing Spring! I'm pretty sure I've woken up the downstairs neighbours quite a few times when the Habs slayed the Capitals and the Penguins. I suggested the title: Halak leads Habs to two huge upsets. I suggested that the front of the card be Jaroslav Halak shaking Sidney Crosby's hand after eliminating the Pens but that could not be. Turns out UD has to ask permission to use pictures and Crosby and his people did not agree...Kind of petty since he's won 3 cups since then but oh well...
— Karine Hains (@Pheebs888) December 17, 2018
Also in the set were "Cammalleri nets Habs' 10 000th goal", "Subban wins the Norris Trophy", May 14 2014 - "Canadiens eliminate Bruins in intense game 7" - you know, the one in Boston were the Habs completely dominated and sucked the air out of the building as PK had said they would?
The other 4 cards were some of my favourites as well: "Gallagher, Habs win NHL Winter Classic", I was at that game and seeing Gallagher make his comeback after his first broken hand injury and play such a huge role in the win is one of my best hockey memory. Of course, I suggested his photo celebrating the goal he had just scored and they used it.
Since 2015 was the Carey Price year, it had to be "Price wins big" and to make the card a little more special, I requested that the pic in which he was messing around be used and it was.
— Karine Hains (@Pheebs888) December 17, 2018
As for 2016 well, again, it was easy to pick the "Blockbuster deal shakes up summer"... I cried on June 29th, 2016 when my phone exploded with notifications and messages about the Subban-Weber trade. I loved Subban with passion, his electrifying style, his booming shot, his charisma off the ice....to me he was the full package. That being said, I can still appreciated the great player that is Shea Weber.
Finally, in 2017 I chose to go with "Drouin's childhood dream comes true", it was quite early in the summer when Bergevin sent Sergachev to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Jonathan Drouin who it was then hoped would be the long awaited first line centre. As for the pic, I had one request, it just HAD to be a card of Drouin wearing the Habs uni, not one of those wrong uniform pic or press conference pic. I said if The Hockey News can have such a pic on the cover or their magazine, surely UD can have it right? And I wasn't disappointed. Of course, Drouin didn't pan out as the 1st line centre but I don't see anyone complain about the duo he forms with Max Domi now!
When September 30, 2017 came around, I drove 2.5 hours up to Montreal to attend the Anti Expo and see our set. When I got there, I met Dianne who was the UD rep on site and she gave me a bag full of the set so that I could split them with Richard as well as a blow up version of the Roy card. I was over the moon with that and very pleased to see that my texts had all been used for the back of the cards. I can't quite explain it, but it felt incredible to have designed a set like this and to be holding it in my hands. This wasn't the last of the surprised I had in store though. A few months later, I received an Upper Deck Random Act of Kindness, in in there were the original photo proofs or our set as well as rare sepia parallels of each cards. 100 of each cards were produced, in the box, I had half the print run. I shipped half of them to Richard as well as a set of the print proofs and I had mine laminated. Since then, those laminated are part of the Canadiens museum that is my living room and I think they add quite the personal touch.
Why did I chose to tell you this story today? Well, because this week Richard sent me back a sepia version of the Gallagher card autographed by the man himself! We'd made a trade earlier in the month, he needed a Schlemko autograph for his current Habs project and I sent him an autographed puck of his and told him to send me whatever he wanted in return and that showed up along with a Price GU card and a Kotkaniemi rookie preview, you have to love making friends through hockey and the hobby!
A sepia parallel of Brendan Gallagher from a set I helped designed for @UpperDeckHockey , my friend @RealRGM81 got it signed in person for me, received it this week, love it! #signaturesunday pic.twitter.com/vOguaG82eG
— Karine Hains (@Pheebs888) December 16, 2018