Team Canada women win gold

Congratulations to Team Canada's women on winning the 2010 Olympics gold medal.

Top row: Tessa Bonhomme, Jayna Hefford, Sarah Vaillancourt and Caroline Ouellette; and
Bottom row: Colleen Sostorics, Gina Kingsbury, Carla MacLeod and Charline Labonte.

Top row: Charline Labonte and Kim St-Pierre; and
Bottom row: Hayley Wickenheiser (unsigned, yes, but who knows?) and Jennifer Botterill.

Cards are from In The Game's 2007-08 O Canada set

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Czech Republic

Team Czech Last won gold in 1998 and finished third (bronze medal) at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. In Vancouver, the Czechs were eliminated from medal contention.

Cards signed by some of Team Czech's players:

Top row: Boston's David Krejci, Montreal's Tomas Plekanec, Minnesota's Marek Zidlicky and Lokomotiv's Josef Vasicek; and
Bottom row: Nashville's Martin Erat, New Jersey's Patrik Elias, Avangard's Jaromir Jagr and Phoenix's Zbynek Michalek.

Minnesota's Martin Havlat

Atlanta's Ondrej Pavelec

Washington's Tomas Fleischmann on a Hershey Bears wallpaper.

Atlanta's Pavel Kubina

Above Photo: Tomas Kaberle with Mikayla during a Toronto Maple Leafs visit to Tampa.

Right Photo: Tomas Vokoun with Mikayla during a Florida Panthers visit

Ottawa's Filip Kuba signed last year when the Senators came to town.

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Slovakia

Team Slovakia has never won a gold medal and finished fifth at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. In Vancouver, Slovakia just knocked Team Sweden out of competition.

Cards signed by some of Team Slovakia's players:

Top row: Spartak's Branko Radivojevic, Boston's Miroslav Satan, Barys Astana's Josef Stumpel and Los Angeles' Lubomir Visnovsky; and
Bottom row: Locomotiv's Richard Zednik, New York Rangers' Marian Gaborik, Los Angeles' Michal Handzus and Chicago's Marian Hossa.

More cards signed by Team Slovakia players:

Top row: Spartak's Martin Cibak and Colorado's Peter Budaj; and
Bottom row: Tampa Bay's Andrej Meszaros, Chicago's Tomas Kopecky, Boston's Zdeno Chara and HK 36's Ziggy Palffy.

Montreal's Jaroslav Halak

Buffalo's Andrej Sekara

Tampa Bay's Andrej Meszaros on a Ottawa Senators wallpaper.

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Russia

Team Russia Last won gold in 1992, but finished fourth at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 13 players from the partially NHL-filled squad.

Cards signed by some of Team Russia's players:

Top row: Montreal's Andrei Markov and San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov; and
Bottom row: Pittsburgh's Sergei Gonchar, Washington's Alex Semin, and Ottawa's Anton Volchenkov

More cards signed by Team Russia's players:

Top row: Russian Federation President Vladimir Tretiak, Columbus' Fedor Tyutin, Phoenix's Ilya Bryzgalov and Salavat's Victor Kozlov; and
Bottom row: Washington's Semyon Varlamov, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, Edmonton's Denis Grebeshkov and Salavat's Dmitri Kalinin.

Atlanta's Max Afinogenov.

New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay, Atlanta or South Florida.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Finland

Team Finland has never won gold but finished second for silver at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 18 players from the NHL-rich squad.

I am not completely sure why, but I have been watching this group a bit more than I thought I would. Maybe because many of the players have been fan-friendly over the past few years. That always stands out for me.

Cards signed by some of Team Finland's players:

Top row: Calgary's Niklas Hagman, New York's Olli Jokinen, Annaheim's Saku Koivu and Avangard's Lasse Kukkonen; and
Bottom row: Phoenix's Sami Lepisto, Bufalo's Toni Lydman, Dallas' Jere Lehtinen and Minnesota's Niklas Backstrom.

More cards signed by Team Finland's players:

Top row: Tampa's Antero Nittymaki, Anaheim's Teemu Selanne, Vancouver's Sami Salo and Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen; and
Bottom row: Carolina's Joni Pitkanen and Tuomo Ruutu, Ottawa's Jarkko Ruutu and Detroit's Valtteri Filppula.

The New York Rangers' Olli Jokinen with Mikayla taken on a trip to Tampa.

Minnesota's Mikko Koivu

Dynamo's Ville Peltonen.

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

We still have photos of players like Lydman, Timonen, Nittymaki, and Pitkanen that were taken with Mikayla that we hope to finish (Finnish) off this season. She is also hoping to take care of a game stick from Nitty in the near future.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Sweden

Team Sweden won its last gold medal in 2006 at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 16 players from the NHL-rich squad.

Cards signed by some of Team Sweden's players:

Top row: Atlanta's Tobias Enstrom, New York's Henrik Lundquist, Columbus' Fred Modin, Tampa's Mattias Ohlund; and
Bottom row: Vancouver's Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Bufalo's Henrik Tallinder and Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg.

More cards signed by Team Sweden players:

Top row: Detroit's Johan Franzen, Dallas' Loui Eriksson; and
Bottom row: Nashville's Patric Hornqvist, Detroit's Niklas Kronwall, and Washington's Nicklas Backstrom.

San Jose's Doug Murray

Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson stadium poster

Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson.

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team U.S.A.

Team USA won its last gold medal in 1980 (Miracle On Ice), but failed to medal in the last Olympiad, earning only a eighth-place finish. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get only 16 players from the NHL-rich squad.

Cards signed by some of Team U.S.A.'s players:

Top row: St. Louis' David Backes, Carolina's Tim Gleason, Los Angeles's Jack Johnson, Tampa's Ryan Malone; and
Bottom row: Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick, San Jose's Joe Pavelski, Boston's Tim Thomas and Colorado's Paul Stastny.

More cards signed by Team USA players:

Top row: Toronto's Phil Kessel, Nashville's Ryan Suter, New York's Ryan Callahan and Anaheim's Bobby Ryan; and
Bottom row: New Jersey's Zach Parise, Anaheim's Ryan Whitney, LA's Dustin Brown and Buffalo's Ryan Miller

Most of these cards have been signed in the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida. Puckhound helped with the acquisition of the Stastny card.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Canada

Team Canada won its last gold medal in 2002, but failed to medal in the last Olympiad, earning only a seventh-place finish. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 21 players from the NHL-rich squad, only missing out on Philadelphia's Mike Richards (kinda) and Dallas' Brenden Morrow

Cards signed by some of Team Canada's forwards:

Top row: Anaheim's Corey Perry, Columbus' Rick Nash, San Jose's Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley; and
Bottom row: Calgary's Jarome Iginla, Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

More cards signed by Team Canada players:

Top row: Philadelphia's Chris Pronger, Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer, Chicago's Duncan Keith and Los Angeles' Drew Doughty; and
Bottom row: San Jose's Dan Boyle, Chicago's Jonathan Toews, San Jose's Joe Thornton and Carolina's Eric Staal

Even more cards signed by Team Canada players:

Top row: Vancouver's Roberto Luongo; and
Bottom row: Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury, New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, Nashville's Shea Weber and Chicago's Brent Seabrook.

Most of these cards have been signed in the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Concerning Richards, I do have an autograph from him. Unfortunately, though, it's on a wrong card.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Switzerland

I wanted to take advantage of the Olympic break to show off the diversity of my collection with a small picture gallery for a few of the teams.

Team Switzerland is my first team. The Swiss, or Suisse, have never won a gold and only finished sixth in the last Olympics played in Torino, Italy.


Shown are cards I've received in the past from various Suisse forwards through fan packs:

Top row: Martin Pluss, Sandy Jeannin and Ivo Ruthemann; and
Bottom row: Hnat Domenichelli and Romano Lemm

I have also been fortunate enough to land a few defensemen, including, from left, Rafael Diaz, Philippe Furrer and the New York Islanders' Mark Streit.

Rounding out the Suisse's three-man goaltending squad are the Anaheim Ducks' Jonas Hiller, Dallas Stars prospect Tobias Stephan and Ronnie Rueger.