Cherry-picking delight

Perhaps I should be a little more upset with myself. Then again, maybe I did the right thing.

But, by doing a little night-before hounding at Ottawa's hotel, I engaged in some pretty nasty cherry-picking, letting nearly a dozen players and coaches walk past, while I waited for the Senators' bigger name stars.

As I work my way toward my 1,072nd autographed puck, I'll admit to wanting to have a top-shelf player have the honor. Sure, it'd be wicked sweet if none other than Wayne Gretzky would be the one, but I'm not waiting until February for that unlikely event to happen.

One by one, such Senators players as Mike Fisher, Denis Hamel, Chris Kelly, Tom Preissing and Brian McGrattan, as well as coaches Bryan Murray and Ron Low made their ways out for dinner. It would have been easy to ask them to sign the pucks, reach that magic number and go home.

To me, though, that would've been bush league. Then again, I didn't want to get shut out and go home emptyhanded. Facing my own dinner deadline (stuffed tilapia, pasta and spinach), I asked Ottawa's Patrick Eaves to sign the cards shown above. And just as I was getting ready to head home, I spotted Dany Heatley. The puck he signed (see related posting below) left me three away from the goal.

Seeing that I'm heading back tomorrow, maybe even for the morning skate, I'll have at least one other opportunity. Let's see what happens.