Two-Box Break of 2013-14 Panini Playbook Hockey

With the release of Panini's Playbook Hockey last week, I just HAD to get my hands on some. Playbook is one of the few Panini products that have crossed over to another sport, which is something that used to be quite common, but has tapered off in recent years. The product line started off in football, which gave collectors the opportunity at guaranteed booklet cards. For close to $200, a four-pack box contained two booklets, along with two autograph or jersey cards. For hockey, Panini took the same concept, but cut the pack-out (and price) in half, guaranteeing one booklet and one jersey or autographed card. Hockey also gives one base card, which is something added from the base-card-less football line.

I ended up purchasing two boxes of the product at my LCS last week. Here's the video of both boxes, with scans to follow:

Box 1
Martin Brodeur Base 231/249
The base cards of Playbook are very similar to those from 2012-13 Prime, especially with the look of the player name and team name on the bottom. The big difference, though, is the big and bold team logo in the background. These are some VERY good looking base cards.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson Holo Silver Parallel 7/10
Like most parallels, Panini just used a different foil color to distinguish its rarity. All of the parallels are pretty rare, too, with gold /25, holo silver /10, and purple 1/1. Any parallel is rare, but to pull one numbered to just 10 was pretty cool.

Morgan Rielly Breakout Patch 8/10
A great pull here. For one, Rielly is one of the more sought-after rookies this year, but also, despite a small space for the swatch, there is still a great-looking patch piece, giving two colors and incorporating a giant seam right down the middle. This is also my SECOND card numbered to 10 out of the four cards in this box.

Morgan Rielly Rookies Booklet 59/199
Hey, there's this guy again! I don't always love pulling two hits of the same player, but in this case, I don't really mind. Each booklet contains a shadowbox effect with the two images on the left side, right next to a piece of the player's jersey. On the left side, you get another jersey piece, right beneath the player's signature on a clear surface. These are some really nice looking booklets, and they are sure not to waste ANY space.

Box 2
Patrick Kane Base 233/249
Kane makes it 2-for-2 on pulling a superstar player as my one base card from the two boxes. With only a 100-card checklist, both of current and retired players, most are going to be really good, but these two are pretty great.

Eric Lindros Limited Edition Jersey 60/99
Panini really cranked up the rarity of a lot of these inserts, as simple single-colored jersey cards are numbered just to 99. While having a different background, these cards are basically the current/retired player version of the Breakout jersey cards, which I pulled the Rielly patch of.

Dmitrij Jaskin Rookie Booklet 100/199
While Jaskin is nowhere near as good of a pull as the Rielly I got out of Box 1, I do like how I got colored swatches on both cards. Plenty of them do contain white, but both of these look MUCH better with the bright bold blue of the two teams.

Dual Rookie Classbook Seth Jones/Dougie Hamilton
The Dual Rookie Classbook cards feature a player on each side, along with four jersey swatches. Spotlighting the "Double Rookie Class," this set takes a player from 2013 and a player from 2014 who have some sort of link together, whether it be team, draft position, or player position. In this case, we get Hamilton and Jones, who are linked together as the top defensemen from their respective rookie classes.

After opening up two boxes of this product, I must say, I was very happy with what I found. Now, I may be wrong, but the guarantees from this promise one base, one booklet, and one auto or jersey card, but I think that each box actually contains four cards, with the final one being from either of those categories. I may be wrong on that, but based on these two, along with the breaks I have seen on line, that appears to be the case.

Either way, I love me some Playbook, and I'm sure I'll have plenty more coming my way in the future.