Sunday February 15, 2009
On January 22, 2009, In The Game, an innovator in the hockey trading card industry since it's inception in 1998 commenced its first collector survey. Collectors could vote for their choice of eight different significant years in hockey history. Based on the results of the survey, In The Game committed to produce a hockey card product.

"The amount of participation in the survey was overwhelming, close to 3,000 unique votes were cast with the help of Hobby Insider, Beckett Media and Sportsology spreading the word" reported In The Game President, Dr. Brian H. Price, "I never imagined the passion that was brought out by this survey and the hundreds of emails I received from collectors who voted but also felt that they had to let me know why they voted for a certain year. It's what collecting is all about, I am so glad we created the survey."

From the votes cast on the first day, the winning year took the lead in the voting and the 1-2-3 vote getters stayed the same every day of the voting. The winning year was 1972.

1972 was especially significant because the strangle hold the NHL had on professional hockey, its players and its fans was loosened by the upstart WHA and the Summit Series captured the attention of an entire nation.

That being said, the second place year was 1980, the year of the Miracle on Ice. It certainly can be said that while 1980 came in a close second, the most passionate collectors voted for 1980.

However, the results of our survey were based on unique votes so that if one person voted ten times, it only counted as one vote. 1980 voters displayed their passion for 1980 by voting many, many times. Over the last few days of the survey, the margin between 1972 and 1980 closed considerably.

The number three year was 1967, it marked NHL expansion when fans from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Minnesota, Oakland and Los Angeles got their own team to cheer for. To this day four of the second six franchises are still going strong.

As promised, on March 1st, ITG will announce a new product based on collectors' votes. "We will try and produce a product true to the year 1972" said ITG President, Dr. Brian H. Price, "I know we can bring to the table the same passion in making a product equal to the passion our collectors had in making it number one in the vote."