Don't believe all you hear

For all the horror stories I’ve heard about Vinny Lecavalier, I’m surprised at the success I’ve had having him sign pucks. Yesterday, he signed the World Cup of Hockey and 2003 NHL All Star Game pucks shown above.

Granted, he may not stop all the time (The size of the crowd, I believe, is a big factor), but all it took was showing him the pucks and waving my paint pen for him to bring his jet-black Hummer to a halt. And, with only four others collecting autographs, gave most of us pretty nice signatures.

One hound, though, got shot down, point-blank, by Lecavalier. "No, I've signed enough for you in the past," he said before raising his driver's side window and driving away.

As a team, the Lightning are pretty decent signers. It’s rare for all of the Big Three (Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis) to stop, but most every other player, save for Dmitry Afanasenkov, has stopped on the handful of hounding trips I’ve made to the St. Pete Times Forum. (For the record, Richards didn’t stop yesterday).

I can’t complain, too, when I add another 18 autographs, including eight pucks, to the collection in less than an hour. I could have added more, but I simply didn’t have items for them.