As you know, the final buzzer sounded on the Puck Daddy Create-a-Card contest last week after hundreds of hilarious entries. Myself, Leahy and a handle of Grey Goose will hopefully hunker down to determine winners by Friday, and we'll have all the (usable) submissions in a Flickr gallery posthaste.
What made this contest a little different from "Gary Bettman: Portraits in Heroism" was the level of depravity hockey fan knowledge on display in so many of the submissions. Frequently, getting the joke meant understanding the context of the punchline. It's one level of hilarity to see Bettman and Crosby on a Hannah Montana card; but it's funnier when you know the "12-year-old daughter" meme from the Avery suspension. Dear lord, we even had a Washington Capitals limo scandal card; that's a preposterous level of puckhead intelligence, if there is such a concept.
Take the photo above: Daniel Alfredsson in a pink tutu? Funny. Within the context of his pretty, pretty princess getup that made Facebook last week? Priceless. Thanks to Puck Buddy Adam Veri for the effort.
Coming up, our final gallery of submissions before the championship round, which is fabulous if the following references mean anything to you: Steve Smith, John Grahame in the KHL, Milbury vs. Connolly and the Palin Curse.
In case you missed them, here are Gallery One and Gallery Two and Gallery Three and Gallery Four.
This combo is from Ned Beebe, and they're two rather clever submissions. The John Grahame card is near perfect, but the Steve Smith one is especially fantastic -- if you get the reference.
We love a good Mike Milbury takedown, and Puck Buddy Ross manages to cram his calling Tim Connolly a "dink" in with the infamous "Crapitals" crack and the litany of awful trades as GM. Fantastic.
Now, in fairness, Theo Fleury claims he merely "nudged" San Jose Sharks mascot S.J. Sharkie rather than slugging him. Doesn't make this Arian Durst card any less ingenious, though.
Um, there's really nothing more we can say about this than what's on the card. This is from Richard Miller, who is obviously a street musician of some sort. More cowbell?
We refuse to believe there weren't actually cards from "The Mighty Ducks" ... but just in case, Puck Buddy Charlie Corr has created the most memorable appearance by Joshua Jackson in cinematic history. Well, other than the card-playing scene in "Ocean's 11."
"Stanley's Whisker Warriors" is a meticulously created set of cards by Chris Marron that celebrated the championship-tournament follicle foibles of NHL players. Demerit for what would appear to be a lack of Jagr.
Really, the only way Serif's Chico Resch card could be better is if we had Doc Emrick 'Shopped as Morticia standing next to him. "They're creepy and they're kooky/Mysterious and BIG DRIVE!"
These are two cards from a set created by Cornelius Hardenbergh to commemorate the regrettable marriage between the NHL and presidential election politics last year. For the record, we still don't believe in the Sarah Palin Curse. We just believe that Manny Legace was a sieve this season.
Finally, from Puck Buddy Trevor Ezaki, comes the best-selling hockey card in the city of Edmonton over the last two years ...
