Surprise, surprise, surprise

One of the realities of hounding in Tampa is that very few hounds/dealers know anyone beyond the obvious. Oh, sure, they’ll recognize Peter Forsberg, Ilya Kovalchuk and Eric Staal. After that, though, the precipice is pretty darn steep.

Today’s trip to Tampa was no different. Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Evgeni Nabokov were easily recognized. I was stunned, though, when quite a few people quickly identified Matt Carle.

Carle, who won the Hobey Baker award last year as college’s hockey’s best player, is a rookie defenseman for the Sharks. He’s acquitted himself well, too, since turning pro following his junior year at the University of Denver.

He was bombarded with photographs, pucks, index cards and even a Denver Pioneers T-shirt. Given the crowd and attention, I was quite happy to walk away with two signed pucks.