Ah, grasshopper . . .

I don’t know whether to be proud or upset, but today marked a turning point in my hounding career. It was the first time that Colin, armed with a cheap-skate team sheet (at left), got more autographs than his daddy did.

For the record, Colin scored 13 autographs, including ones from Mike Modano and Marty Turco. I, on the other hand, got only 10, but did manage to score a couple nice items (see related posting below) that immediately went into one of our two hockey-hounding trophy cases.

Besides Dallas' top stars, Colin also got autographs from Matt Barnaby, Trevor Daley, Dan Ellis, Jon Klemm, Mark Lamb, Junior Lessard, Antti Miettinen, Steve Ott, Stephane Robidas, Patrik Stefan and Dave Tippett.

"That’s what I am," Colin said. "A better autograph-getter than you, Daddy."

The team, which arrived at their Tampa hotel (no, I’m not going to say which one as we were the only three getting autographs) about 3:45 p.m. today, paraded to the bus at game time. I’d say he did pretty good, much better than I did, standing at the bus’ entrance as the players lined up.

On a side note, Lisa got to meet Modano again, having him sign a mini Stanley Cup featuring upon it the best American-born hockey player. Needless to say, Lisa, all googly-eyed, was more than thrilled to meet him, though she did say he looked a little scruffy.

"He’s so much better-looking when he’s clean-shaven," she said.