Just like that

I turn on the TV in the office, punch in 7-0 for Vs. on the remote and Dallas takes a 1-0 lead on a Mike Modano goal. Really. The Stars need to win. If not, Dallas is done.

Sidney's broken foot

It seems that Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby played the past month with a broken bone in his foot. Despite that, the Penguins showed they'll soon become a giant pain in the butt. Unless you live in Pittsburgh, that is.

It's their second season, too
Here's a quick shout-out to the Rochester Americans, looking to knot their AHL Calder Cup series against Hamilton tonight. I wonder whether any Sabres fans made the trip?

That didn't take long

It's nice to see that Dallas' Mike Modano wasted little time in becoming the top American-born goal scorer in the NHL history.

Just one game after tying Joe Mullen at 501 goals, Modano, a native of Livonia, Mich., potted a pair last night in the Stars' 3-2 loss to Nashville, giving him 503.

Modano's 500th career goal, the game-winner against Philadelphia last Tuesday, made him the 39th NHL player to reach that plateau.

Way to go, Mikey-Mo!

By stuffing a rebound past Philadelphia's Antero Niittymaki, Dallas' Mike Modano scored the 500th goal of his career on Tuesday.

The goal, the eventual game-winner in the Stars' 3-2 win over the Flyers, made Modano, a native of Livonia, Mich., only the second U.S.-born player (Joe Mullen was the first) and the 39th ever to reach that plateau.

Modano, who scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game with the Minnesota North Stars on Oct. 5, 1989, against the New York Islanders, now trails Mullen by only two goals for the most ever scored by an American.

Imagine that

One of my colleagues at the paper tells me that Brett Hull, my favorite blowhard, really is a nice guy.

Following the Dallas Stars-Tampa Bay Lightning game last week, my colleague, a former NHL beat writer, was part of a group of media types, including Hull, that retired to a nearby sports bar for some frosty beverages and a huge plate of chicken wings.

Hull, who does radio work for the Stars besides working for NHL on NBC, was instantly recognized.

"He could barely get through a wing without someone coming up for a picture or an autograph," my colleague said. "He was very nice about it."

Is Upper Deck worth the wait?

I may have passed on hounding the Dallas Stars earlier this week, but it didn't stop me from receiving an autograph from one of its players. Too bad, though, it didn't happen in person.

Upper Deck finally sent a Jussi Jokinen Auto Draft redemption (139/192) (shown above) from the 2005-06 SP Game Used edition.

It's hard to imagine any other industry than sports cards that takes so long to fulfill obligations to its customers. Sure, I know that Upper Deck will blame the athletes. It always has and always will.

I'd like to believe, though, that Upper Deck could work harder to minimize these waits or, at the least, reward our patience. What do you think?

Ah, grasshopper . . .

I don’t know whether to be proud or upset, but today marked a turning point in my hounding career. It was the first time that Colin, armed with a cheap-skate team sheet (at left), got more autographs than his daddy did.

For the record, Colin scored 13 autographs, including ones from Mike Modano and Marty Turco. I, on the other hand, got only 10, but did manage to score a couple nice items (see related posting below) that immediately went into one of our two hockey-hounding trophy cases.

Besides Dallas' top stars, Colin also got autographs from Matt Barnaby, Trevor Daley, Dan Ellis, Jon Klemm, Mark Lamb, Junior Lessard, Antti Miettinen, Steve Ott, Stephane Robidas, Patrik Stefan and Dave Tippett.

"That’s what I am," Colin said. "A better autograph-getter than you, Daddy."

The team, which arrived at their Tampa hotel (no, I’m not going to say which one as we were the only three getting autographs) about 3:45 p.m. today, paraded to the bus at game time. I’d say he did pretty good, much better than I did, standing at the bus’ entrance as the players lined up.

On a side note, Lisa got to meet Modano again, having him sign a mini Stanley Cup featuring upon it the best American-born hockey player. Needless to say, Lisa, all googly-eyed, was more than thrilled to meet him, though she did say he looked a little scruffy.

"He’s so much better-looking when he’s clean-shaven," she said.

Making the right call

As I said yesterday, I was having some difficulty deciding what to bring when the Dallas Stars came to town today. Should I maintain my focus on pucks or should I start working on my centerpiece project, a 1999 NHL All-Star Game helmet?

Late last night, after putting together my book of cards and creating a team sheet for Colin, I opted for the pucks. After all, my hounding handle is Puckhound. And after this afternoon’s visit to an undisclosed Tampa hotel, I realized it was the right call.

If you read the post above, you know that Colin scored more autographs than I did. I can live with that. He’s respectful to the players, saying "please" and "thank you," and he doesn’t care whether they’re future Hall of Famers or fourth-liners. To him, an autograph is just that -- an autograph. And that's the way it should be.

Yet, as I get closer toward my goal (the significance of which should be obvious to any hockey fan with half a brain cell) of 1,072 autographed pucks, I’m getting pickier about who I get on a puck. For the record, I'm at 1,023.

Though I had a dozen pucks in my bag today, the two I got signed (see photo above) were pretty damn good. That’s right, Mike Modano signed not one, but two pucks –- a Prince Albert Raiders, from his junior days, and a Minnesota North Stars, the team that drafted him first overall in 1988.

Sure, I wanted to add a couple each from Marty Turco and Eric Lindros, but it didn’t happen. I flat-out missed Turco, as I was moving my pucks closer to the team bus. As for Lindros, he didn't make the trip. Nor did Stu Barnes, Jeff Halpern, Brenden Morrow, Darryl Sydor or Sergei Zubov.

But a pair of pucks from Modano? Who wouldn’t be happy with that? Geez, I’m downright ecstatic. Besides, the Stars are staying overnight and I can always head back to Tampa tomorrow morning. Jere Lehtinen made the trip and he's certainly worthy of a puck or two.

Addendum: Though it would have been nice to add to the collection, I chose to stay home, take a nice, long nap and get ready for Colin's first T-ball game. Again, it was another good call. Besides, the Stars will be back in February.