Between the Pipes 2010-11

Between the Pipes (BTP) by In the Game has always been a fun product because it highlights goalies. It showcases the art of their masks, delves into the history of goal tending, and spotlights up & coming and current stars. In the past, hobby boxes of BTP has offered a few great box and case breaks, but the hits have been somewhat lack luster in comparison to other products. The price tag has always been fair (at or below 100) and a box gives you 90 to 100% completion of the base set. The problem with the hits has been sticker autos, and hits of players few people have actually heard of. That and the hits were few, with most boxes offering basic hits per box (jersey & an auto); however the 2009-2010 did seem to be a generous year for this product in providing great hits (I'll talk about this in a future post).

The 2010-11 BTP is a great product and noticeably improved from previous years.

Base Cards: Design pretty much the same as previous years. You have the standard array of cards such as Future Stars, Stars of the Game, Immortals, and so on. Nonetheless, I still enjoy seeing who they include in the base set, even if it is getting tiresome. The standout for me is that they included female goalies this time, which oddly is what was not included in my box! I got almost the entire set minus the female goalies! Weird...

Non-Hit Subset: Here I'm referring to the cards without material or autographs. For BTP the highlight of the subsets are the Masked Men cards, which have foil fronts. This years cards look great, but watch out for the typo, the garden variety masked men have a green front and the backside calls them an emerald version 1/1. These are not 1/1, but rather a dime a dozen. Regardless I love the masked men design (see photo below)!

I picked up two other subsets in the box. One subset is called Guarding The Blue and White Net. I pulled one card from this subset, and ITG says there are a few different types of the 'Guarding' series, each with a name referring to the team's colors. I'm not a fan of this subset as the design is too dark and has little balance. The idea is OK, but nothing that spectacular. Plus, as per usual with BTP the cards are not serial numbered. The other subset is a much better concept, which is called Deep in the Crease. This series highlights all the goaltenders from one NHL team. The front depicts all the goalies, which is rarely shown in other sets. It's also just plain cool to see all the goalies lined up like that. The downside is that the design again is really dark and uninspired. Looking even to the text, the font is commonplace and doesn't stand out at all.

Maxime Clermont

Dwayne Roloson

Autographs: I pulled 2 autos from the box. The first is a Future Stars auto of Maxime Clermont. Not exactly a stellar name, but the card design is nice with a large photo of the player next to the auto. Both the autos I pulled are stickers, but with how the design is shaped around the auto you really don't notice the sticker. The font of the text is again boring, and the colors are muted. The second auto is a Stars of the Game Dwayne Roloson auto. This was a great hit as he is a staring goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightening. The design is almost identical except for a change in background colors, which is a pretty cheap move by BTP.

Jonas Hiller Jersey

Materials: I pulled 2 material cards from the box, and this is what made the box really worth it! The first was a Game-Used Jersey Black. Going by the production run of the 2009-10 BTP, the print run on the Jersey Blacks should be 130. I pulled a Jonas Hiller jersey, which is definitely an A list goalie! The card has a seam break at the top right corner, which makes the jersey really pop! The seam also breaks into the second color -white. The placement of seams on the jerseys is something I've found that ITG does fairly frequently, and I love it! It makes the jersey card really stand out from those produced by UD.

The second material card I pulled was a Game-Used Emblem Black of Sergei Bobrovsky, and again going by last year's print run there should've been 6 made. The card has 3 breaks, with the top two being patch breaks of black & white, and the bottom third is orange jersey. Personally I don't like it when there is jersey material on a patch card, but in this case it looks pretty good. This was also a great pull because while Bobrovsky didn't have a great season in 10-11, he is a break-out rookie goaltender and is a name that most hockey fans know well, much like Hiller!

Sergei Bobrovsky Between the Pipes 2010-11 Game-Used Emblem Black

Final Thought: This is a great product but I am curious if what I pulled would be repeated in future boxes. I pulled two memorabilia and two auto cards, three of which featured prominent names. The product design is definitely tired and needs to be redone, but the content is still fun if somewhat stale. The presence of three different non-hit subsets also adds a little bit more excitement to opening the packs as well.