Some of you may remember our previous venture into the world of Upper Deck Collector’s Choice National Heroes, the fantastically awful Brad Isbister card. There was so much tomfoolery and asinine horse play in that one that it took me about half a page just to describe it. This week’s subject, one Daniel Cleary, seems to be trying to one-up his teammate, so let’s do him a favour and dive in!

First off, props to Danny for rockin’ the loud early nineties shades, albeit about five to seven years too late. Why he’s trying to open up a neck artery with a skate blade is anybody’s guess. If that is his guess, removing the turtle neck would be a good start. Then again, maybe suicide isn’t his goal; maybe he’s planning on using the blade to scrape the plaque out of that gap in his teeth. Seems like a regular old piece of dental floss probably wouldn’t be able to handle that monumental task.

Whatever that pesky object is between his teeth, when Dan finally it got, he got down to business and put together a pretty respectable 938-game career that saw him score 165 goals and 222 assists, and win a Stanley Cup with the 2007-08 Red Wings, but it was pretty humble beginnings for the 1997 13th overall pick from what I can see here. I really do have to find more of these “National Heroes” cards because I do love the fact these guys are being bestowed this title while acting like complete asses in front of the camera. I truly don’t understand what Upper Deck was going for with these cards, but God bless them for trying and for giving me material for my site some twenty years after the fact.