Panini America Behind the Scenes: Packout Begins for 2010-11 Dominion Hockey

After three days in Toronto for the highly successful 2011 NHLPA Rookie Showcase, I feared I was on the verge of hockey overload when I woke up this morning. But then I made the voyage across town to the Panini America production facility — wearing my snazzy new Rookie Showcase T-shirt — and had my budding passion for the NHL intensely renewed.

Turns out quality time with 2010-11 Dominion Hockey on the first day of the hand-packout process can work wonders for a guy’s mental outlook. Simply, the gems I saw today — hands-down some of the greatest-looking trading cards I’ve ever seen — gave me butterflies.

In the gallery that follows, you’ll see just a glimpse of what I peeked this morning. Here’s betting you’ll leave The Knight’s Lance with butterflies, too.

Although I’ve had a front-row seat for many of Dominion’s on-card autograph arrivals in the last several weeks, much of what I saw today was completely new to me. Talk about love at first sight.

I was smitten, completely blown away by everything I witnessed, including some of the most ridiculously improbable patches I’ve ever seen to the landmark Kindest Cuts 1/1 cut autographs insert. But the cards that really struck me were the truly revolutionary Engravatures inserts embedded with real silver plates etched with the depicted Stanley Cup winner’s name.

Unbelievable.

But since my attempt at poetic prose can’t come close to doing these cards justice — and since it’s also keeping you from the eye candy — I’ll let the images speak for themselves.

Besides, I captured so much content today — pictures and video — that I’ll be sharing the results with you for at least the next several days. Oh, and as the hand-packout process continues for the next several days, I probably make another trip to the production facility to grab even more must-see scenes.

For now, simply relish the beauty that follows.