On 16 February 2005, the National Hockey League cancelled its entire season. No North American major league had ever done that before.
The lost season
The owners and the players' union had failed to agree a new collective bargaining agreement, and the owners locked the players out in September 2004. Months of talks went nowhere. When the season was finally called off, 1,230 regular-season games had been lost, and the Stanley Cup was not awarded — for the first time since 1919, when the final was abandoned during the influenza epidemic.
The dispute ended that summer with the league's first salary cap. Hockey came back in October 2005 with new rules on the ice as well: the shootout to settle tied games, and the two-line pass allowed for the first time, both meant to open the game up.
Two first picks at once
The lost year had another consequence. Alexander Ovechkin had been drafted first overall in 2004 and spent the cancelled season playing in Moscow. Sidney Crosby was drafted first overall in 2005. So when the NHL returned, two first overall picks arrived in the same rookie class.
Ovechkin scored 52 goals and 106 points for Washington. Crosby, at eighteen, scored 102 points for Pittsburgh. Ovechkin won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, and the rivalry between the two ran for the next two decades.
The cards
Upper Deck's 2005/06 Series 1 and Series 2 are the sets that carry that rookie class. Ovechkin's Young Guns rookie card is in Series 2; Crosby's is in Series 1. They are among the most sought-after hockey cards of the century.
Our sealed box is the 2005/06 Upper Deck Series 2 retail box of 30 packs. On average it holds seven Young Guns rookie cards and two game-used memorabilia cards. Beyond Ovechkin, the Series 2 Young Guns include Ryan Getzlaf, Thomas Vanek, Mikko Koivu and Ryan Suter. Crosby appears in Series 2 only on the Victory Update insert cards.
No specific player is guaranteed in any single box.
Leave a comment