A career day

Though the Washington Capitals have a few big games stars, as in Alexander Ovechkin, Alex Semin and Olaf Kolzig, my key for today's hounding trip was defenseman Mike Green.

And though I'd like to have some kind of story that would explain the reasoning, it was nothing more than I was able, in less than 30 seconds, complete my player collection for him.

When I first started collecting autographed pucks, I set a goal to have players sign a puck representing every step, and stop, in their career. Green, Washington's No. 1 (29th overall) in the 2004 NHL entry draft, provides a very good example. I was able to have him sign pucks from the Capitals, the Hershey Bears and the Saskatoon Blades.

It really was that simple and, as a bonus, he even put the different numbers he wore with each team.

Most of all, though, it was a decent day that ended a streak of disappointing hounding adventures, All told, hounding the Capitals and Lightning added another 45 autographs, including eight pucks, to the collection.

In fact, the only disappointment of the day was I wanted to get a better start my campaign against the bully dealers. Because only two of the dipsticks showed up, I can only surmise that they got the message during Tuesday's session.

Save for a few instances, I have no problems with folks trying to earn a living by selling autographed sports memorabilia. It's just some of the methods, including rushing and crushing of players and collectors, that will continually draw my scorn and unwanted attention to them.

We'll see what happens next Tuesday, when the Maple Leafs are in town.