You gotta be kidding me

It’s a given, at least with most teams, that the third- and fourth-line players are pretty decent signers. They understand their role within the team and, for the most part, with the fans.

Atlanta’s Brad Larsen, however, must have thrown away that memo.

Larsen, a fourth–line center for the otherwise cordial Thrashers, signed just one item each for about a dozen hounds outside the team’s Tampa hotel on Saturday ‘s drop-dead gorgeous afternoon before the game.

I nearly laughed out loud in his face when he invoked his "one-per" rule.

Granted, I’m happy to get anything autographed, but after 10 years of hounding, I’d thought I’d seen just about everything. Larsen, who has scored a grand total of 36 points in 179 NHL contests, provided a new lesson.