My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 10 through 1

Time to wrap this up. Actually, the first 40 was pretty easy to put in order. This portion was really hard to put in order.

#10. 2012-13 Panini Rookie Anthology (or Elite) - #I-28 Daniel Alfredsson - Intensity

Alfie has been all over this top 50, and he's going to be all over this top 10 as well. Leading off if is this insert from Rookie Anthology/Elite last year. It can't be seen from the scan, but the majority of this card is clear/acetate. Any white spot that isn't on the uniform or Elite logo is clear. The back of the card has a write-up about Daniel's long serving captaincy. It's written behind the red bar.

#9. 2011-12 Pinnacle -#125 Chris Neil

For pure photography, Pinnacle might be my favourite set in hockey. This is the third card from this particular set to make it in my top 50. It's interesting that with there being 3 Senators logos visible on this card, that none is on the player.

#8. 2001-02 BAP Signature Series Gold - #101 Karel Rachunek

This is the most emotional cards on my top 50 list. Karel was one of the players killed in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash.

#7. 2005-06 Upper Deck Scrapbook - #HS5 Dominek Hasek

I've mentioned my love for cards that work the geography of the city into the design. Now, mostly those are done with a postcard-like background. Here, we have a photo that seems touristy: posing in from of the Peace Tower/Parliament buildings.

#6.  1995-96 Score - #246 Don Beaupre

Going into this I would probably have thought that my highest ranking masks card would be Patrick Lalime's Marvin the Martian mask. That mask didn't even make any place in top 50. And #1 is the simple patriotic entry from Don Beaupre. Bright red Maple Leaves in the background of Parliament. It's a mask that really summarizes Ottawa in its design.

#5. 2012-13 Upper Deck - #131 Chris Neil

A rare appearance on a hockey card of a fight. Well, the build to a fight at least. And it wasn't a bad one at all.

#4. 2010-11 Pinnacle City Lights Materials - #49 Cody Bass

By far my most obscure player on my top 50. Cody played in just over 30 games in Ottawa. But, this one makes my list for yet another way to work the cityscape of the Capital Region into its design. This time, we get a view from one of the bridges across the Ottawa River. The back of the card includes no information about the player, but instead a fact about the city. In this case, the Rideau Canal's annual time as a skating rink.

#3. 2005-06 Upper Deck Hometown Heroes - #HH15 Daniel Alfredsson

Now this is the most magnificent display of Ottawa's beauty on a card. A beautiful shot or Parliament Hill from along the Rideau Canal, with it being just a hint of early fall due to changing leaves alongside the paths.

#2. 2012-13 Upper Deck - #128 Daniel Alfredsson

A magnificent action shot for Daniel's final Sens base card from Upper Deck. When I first came across this, I looked up the game it was from, and Daniel popped a pair of goals in that game. When a picture makes you want to do that level of research, it's awesome. While I'm sure Daniel will make more appearances in legends checklists, this was quite a final card to go out on from flagship.

And #1...

2011-12 Panini Prime Duals - Daniel Alfedsson/Jason Spezza

Probably the two most memorable Ottawa Senators (at least for positive reasons) together on the same relic card. Die-cut with the team nickname, and no boring plain white swatches among them. The player choice is perfect and everything about this card can be used to show off about a decade plus of team's relatively short expansion history. If I were to pick a single card in my collection to define a franchise, this one would be it.

And that makes it an easy #1.

My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 20 through 11

And the climbing continues. Maybe I'll get this done before I crack a pack or two of flagship.

20. 1992-93 Upper Deck - #14 Peter Sidorkiewicz

My second card from the early days of the Senators. This is actually a team checklist card, and one with an interesting twist. Despite being featured on the front of the card, Peter isn't part of the checklist. The first part of the set only had a couple of posed photos for members of the expansion teams. Peter wouldn't get an official appearance in a Sens uniform until Series 2.

19. 1996-97 McDonald's Pinnacle - #9 Daniel Alfredsson

Pure Sportflicsish gimmickry. And I love it. Coming off his rookie season, despite winning the Calder, it is really nice to look and see him in the beloved McDonalds sets.

18. 2011-12 ITG Between the Pipes Masked Men 4 - Craig Anderson

The first of three mask cards to make the top 20. If I had one complaint about this, it is that this is his racing themed mask, and not his heritage mask. If it were, this would be an easy top 5 card.

17. 2011-12 Pinnacle - #239 Matt Carkner

A cardboard appearance of a rarely worn jersey style? Yes, please! Even better, it features a tough guy type who you're surprised to see get a base card in this set.

16. 2013-14 Upper Deck Canvas - Craig Anderson

Nick @ Dime Boxes loves bat barrel shot. I love stick blade shots.

15. 1997-98 Donruss - #103 Ron Tugnutt

Another one that made my list on the base of photo choice. It's an angle you rarely see on hockey cards, and a position you don't see enough as well - stacked pads.

14. 1994-95 Upper Deck - #295 Scott Levins

If there's a card in my Senators collection that better shows all of the little scraps and struggles along the ice, then I didn't see it when searching through my binders and boxes.

13. 2006-07 Upper Deck Hometown Heroes - HH37  Jason Spezza

I love when the cards work the cityscape into the design of the card. In fact, there are 3 more cards that feature the geography of the capital region in their design to come, all of which are in my top 10. Why isn't this one there - it's the winter scene. Seriously, once you lived through one Ottawa winter, you won't be too crazy about seeing it commemorated anywhere.

12. 1996-97 Pinnacle By The Numbers - #10 Daniel Alfredsson

I picked this one up in a trade w/ Fuji. It was a sweet addition, but it's even better for the contrast. The #11 jersey is prominently featured, both on the front and the back. Yet the photo choice shows him wearing #63. There's only a handful of those out there, and of my 124 Alfredsson, it's 1 of 3 where he's not in Senators #11.

11. 1994-95 Upper Deck SP - #53 Craig Billington

And to wrap this one up, another mask card. Two of my favourites were Alex Auld's and Billington's since they worked the helmet on the Senators logo into their masks. Billington had a better photo on his, so that's the one that gets this lofty position.

So, that's it for this with only 10 to go. Doing this has actually been pretty easy to date, but I'm not looking forward to my top 10. #1 is pretty much set, but 10 through 2 will probably switch places a lot of times before I finalize it.

My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 30 through 21

Keeping the climb going.

30. 2011 Panini All Goalies - #62 Curtis McElhinney

Another member of the "He played here?" club. With the bonus of a great mask that hearkens back to the standard "heavy metal album cover". 2010 was a busy year in net for the Sens, with luminaries such as Mike Brodeur also getting a shot prior to Craig Anderson's arrival.

29.  2002-03 Artistic Impressions - #63 Daniel Alfredsson

You just knew with me there would be a drawn card or two in the mix. In this case, this is the first of two.

28. 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee - #156 Ray Emery

I really wanted to get one of Ray Emery's boxing themed masks in the top 50, so mid-range seemed like a good place to have it end up. I just wish there was a good one of his time with the controversial Mike Tyson mask.

27. 2011-12 Upper Deck - #66 Jason Spezza
26. 2013-14 Score First Goal - #FG-6 Mika Zibanejad

Another combo theme. This time, here are a pair of players posing with their milestone puck. 500th point is pretty impressive, but the first goal puck is more important in any players career. I give that one the nod over Spezza. 3rd appearance from the 2011 UD base set as well. There were also three more cards (Erik Karlsson, Zenon Konopka and Craig Anderson) that came close to making it as well. That's a strong base set for any team.

25. 1996-97 Pinnacle Mint - #10 Daniel Alfredsson

Why, yes, this is a total gimmick.  Your point?

24. 2006-07 Hot Prospects - Kelly Guard

It's not the best mask photo in my collection, but it is still here for a reason. Kelly Guard, and it is based solely on the fact he was a goalie, might be my favourite name in the franchise's history.

23. 2012-13 Rookie Anthology Towering Defenders - TD-JC Jared Cowen

I loved the concept for this subset. A subset based solely on height. The castle gimmick would have worked even better if this had ended up in Crown Royale as opposed to Anthology. It's a nice bright red swatch as well.

22. 2011-12 Crown Royale - Jason Spezza

I love the current Sens Heritage/throwback/alternate jerseys. It looks great with a design that calls back to not only the original Ottawa Senators, but the continued history of the stripe with the OHL's 67's. It's a spectacular old school look, without some of the blinding quality that Montreal used with some of theirs.

21. 2012-13 Score - #338 Chris Neil

And this one wraps up with the 3rd celebration shot in my top 50. Why does this one move above the others? It's Chris Neil, team enforcer, in all his toothless glory, celebrating a goal. It's the kind of card to make you say "That's hockey. Summed up in a single, solitary photo."

60 percent of the way there!

My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 40 through 31

Working my way up the top 50 with my second posting. There's themes in this post. Several of them in fact. It's a case of "I placed two of these cards in my top 50. They should probably be placed together".

40. 2010-11 Upper Deck #391 - Sergei Gonchar
39. 2011-12 Upper Deck #72 - Peter Regin

Making the entrance with children holding the team flags. It  doesn't matter the team, it makes for an incredible image for a card. The only way a pre-game ceremony photo would have been better if the player was standing for the anthem framed perfectly with Lyndon Slewidge in the background. I give the Regin card the slight nod over the Gonchar since the lower angle allows the lights around the arena not to be visible in the background. It creates a darker, old school feel for Regin's entrance.

38.  2012-13 Score Team Score #TS4  - Erik Karlsson

Erik Karlsson has only had a short career, relatively speaking. Still, it is disappointing that he has such a bland cardboard résumé to his name. Lots of skating. Lots of shooting and passing. But this spectacular card is the exception. I've only got a couple posed photos on here, and this one had to be one of them. A great black and white subset with every pose being the same style. It's also the second appearance of a card without a Sens jersey, but the logo is still there.

37. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #176 - Wade Redden

This top 50 needs a couple casual cards, so here's one of them. Collector's Choice didn't just have quirky baseball cards. They also had quirky hockey cards.

36. 2011-12 Upper Deck #71 - Bobby Butler
35. 2012-13 Score First Goal #FG23 - Jared Cowen

A second theme I liked was that of goal celebrations. These comprise 2/3 of the cards to make my top 50 list. And they're both cards from the same base set, or overall set of a card I posted earlier. I love the photo on the Butler one more, with the perfect view of the congratulatory post-goal line. However, since there seems to be a date associated with the second one, so I give it the nod in this battle. It was a road game, and the Senators were wearing their road whites, so it's likely legit.

34. 2011-12 Panini Dominion Mammoth Jerseys - #32 Colin Greening

My first relic card in this list. There's more to come. It's not here for the design, but the fact that this is a nice, large, two-colour swatch, with a significant seam.

33. 1999-00 Wayne Gretzky Hockey - #118 Joe Juneau
32. 2003-04 Topps Bash Masters - #287  Rob Ray

One of my favourite things about attempting to acquire at least one card of each player that suited up for the Senators was the "Oh yeah. He was a Senator for a bit" moments. Pavol Demitra. Mike Comrie. Mike Commodore. Matt Cullen. At least those guys I remembered. I'd completely blanked on Juneau and Ray's time in Ottawa. It's especially nice to add a card of a player for whom there weren't a lot of cards from their time here. Mike Commodore only has hits. Cullen's only card had him pictured with Ottawa, but listed as with the Wild. I give the nod to Ray, since there were fewer cards of his in Sens colours.

31. 2012-13 Upper Deck Canvas - #C58 Daniel Alfredsson

It's Alfie playing ping-pong before a game. What more do you need?

That's 20 of them. Less themes next time. More Alfie!

My Top 50 Ottawa Senators cards - 50 through 41

I've been planning this since at least the late summer. Maybe now it is finally time to get down to doing this. The only qualifications to make this list are:

1) The card is currently in my possession.
2) The featured player(s) on the card are in an Ottawa uniform or listed as an Ottawa Senator
3) Cut-off set is this year's Upper Deck flagship release

That's it. As can be expected with some of my other personal collections, Daniel Alfredsson and mask card will be all over this list.

And away we go.

50. 1992-93 Score Canadian #512 - Ottawa Senators

The Sens made a couple early appearances on cardboard that predated their on-ice re-debut. O-Pee-Chee featured a mock-up of the Senators jersey in their 1991 release. There were some "now with" cards in 1992, as well as posed shots of the expansion drafted players. Nice, but I'm only going to have too manye staged shots in my top 50. This one is a simple logo, but on the back:

A list of their expansion draft picks. It's a rogue's gallery, for sure. John Van Kessel? Kent Paynter? Ouch. There's a reason they won one road game that season.

49. 2011-12 Pinnacle #347 -  Mark Borowiecki

I love shiny cards. There are going to be a few of them in this portion of my top 50. This one is a lot more legible in person that in this scan. In fact, the name is even legible from any angle in hand. He's still in the system, always a bonus. In fact, this one might have been higher if it scanned better.

48. 1998-99 OPC Chrome #B15 - Board Members Wade Redden

It's another shiny card, this one from a subset that saluted some of the better defensemen in the league at the time. The background of someone being rocked along the boards is spectacular. If only Ottawa had elected to shell out the big bucks to keep Zdeno Chara as opposed to Wade.

47. 2007-08 Upper Deck #141 - Dany Heatley

This is among my favourite photographs in my Senators collection. There's probably about 15 or so that will be in this list solely for the picture chosen. This one should be higher, but considering the circumstances that lead to Dany's trade from here, it's going to be lower than it should be.

46. 2010-11 Score Rookies & Traded #631 - Robin Lehner

The first one to make it into my top 50 based solely on the mask. You can see the one-time alternate Sens jersey patch on the side of the mask. The back also gives the factoid that Robin was the youngest ever starting netminder for the Senators.

45. 2012-13 Rookie Anthology Prizm #89 - Mark Stone

I promise. This is the last one in my top 50 solely for shininess reasons.

44. 2007-08 Upper Deck Ovation #207 - Jason Spezza

This is one of my odder choices for the list, but it is the uniqueness of it that made me add it. It is here because it is the only one where the player isn't pictured wearing an Ottawa Senators jersey. He's wearing an all-star jersey here, but the Senators logo still makes an appearance on the shoulder patch. All-Star jerseys have been making appearances in base cards for UD's Artifacts set over the past few years. Still retaining the Senators colours for the background is another bonus.

43. 2010-11 Upper Deck #67 - Brian Elliott

A classic photo of a save, combined with of Brian's many Casey Jones appearances. What's not to like?

42. 2002-03 Stadium Club #82 - Daniel Alfredsson

It took all the way to #42 for Alfie to make an appearance? There's lots more of Daniel to come as I work my way up to the top. This one's here for the choice of the photo, which features a look at the huge ice surface behind him as he's almost up along the end boards for this shot, but is still focusing on the puck despite the cramped quarters, and an Islander zoning in on him. Full bleed on the bottom 90 percent of the card couldn't have worked out better. This card is also thick, and is part of a decoy card subset. Hey, it's a better idea than just a plain cardboard dummy.

41. 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Parallel #63 - Daniel Alfredsson

And to wrap up the lower 20 percent of the to 50, here's a retro-ish card. I really like that "what if" ness of this. Since the Senators weren't around for the original release of this set, this gives me the chance to see what a base card would look like. This might actually have been higher, if not for the paper thin card stock used on the card.

10 down. 40 to go. It was pretty easy working out which card would be in my top 50. TRying to place them in order is a lot tougher.