Sunday morning homily II

Between buying a frame, coaxing my voice back from hockey-induced hoarseness, developing a hunger to indulge later today at St. Petersburg's Ribfest and preparing for the first of two talks with journalism students at the University of South Florida, I'm quite proud of my wife, Lisa.

Not only does she have to tolerate me (quite a feat in and of itself), but she's developing a hockey awareness:

Deep into the 2001-02 season, on a bitter cold morning, she accompanied me into Boston to get some autographs from the Atlanta Thrashers. Nelson Emerson, one of her favorite players, was still in the league and she wanted to get another autograph.

What caught her eye that morning, though, was a very young Ilya Kovalchuk.

"There he was, a young kid, all pimply-faced and wide-eyed, taking in everything," she told me this morning. "He looked like a little boy."

Fast forward, nearly five years later, to a picture-perfect Florida afternoon. Lisa's become part of the regular Saturday game-time hounding crowd and Atlanta's in town.

"Now, when I look at Kovalchuk, he's looks so different. He knows what he's doing. He's acting so cool. It's like he knows he's The Man," she said. "It's fun watching him grow up."

~ Speaking of the Thrashers, Kari Lehtonen might be a pretty good goalie, but he's got some growing up to do. After the Lightning took a 4-0 lead during the second period last night, Lehtonen, in a show of frustration, shot one of his water bottles down the ice toward a referee.

Unfortunately, the on-ice officials (a truly bumbling group, consisting of referees Dan Marouelli and Chris Rooney and linesmen Pierre Racicot and Vaughan Rody) missed the childish indiscretion. The crowd didn't, though, screaming for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and, possibly, a game misconduct.

The officials, however, must have received a call from Toronto during the intermission. The start of the third period was delayed as Marouelli gave Lehtonen a good, old-fashioned finger-wagging tongue-lashing.

~ Daniel Briere is not just a co-captain of the Buffalo Sabres, he's becoming the team's savior. Trailing 4-3 to the hapless Philadelphia Flyers, Briere scored with less than three minutes remaining in the game to force overtime. His goal 21 seconds into overtime sent the Flyers to their fifth straight loss. It was the Sabres' third-straight win in overtime, too.

~ Patrice Bergeron, a favorite here at Hound Central 2.0, helped his Bruins escape another embarrassing loss last night. After blowing a two-goal lead -- yet again -- and allowing the disappointing Ottawa Senators back into the game, Bergeron's tip-in late in the third period proved to be the game-winner.

With all of the trade talk swirling around 100 Legends Way these days, especially since goalie Hannu Toivonen sustained a mild sprain of his left ankle last night in Worcester, Mass., let's hope that Colin's best buddy remains untouchable.

~ Finally, fans of Patrick Roy (myself included) shall allow themselves a St. Patrick-like smirk as the game's greatest goalie -- ever -- will be inducted in hockey's hallowed hall tomorrow. Joining Roy will be Dick Duff, the late Herb Brooks, Harley Hotchkiss and media wingers Peter Maher and Scott Morrison.

Logging a hat trick

Any time a team comes to town, any hound worth his or her salt will have two to three players at the top of their wish list.

For Atlanta, it should be a no-brainer – top scorers Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk and promising goalie Kari Lehtonen.

The pucks shown above? All I have are two words: Mission accomplished.

As a whole, though, the Thrashers are a decent signing team. Nearly everyone, save for Andy Sutton and Niclas Havelid, stopped to sign. Sutton and Havelid said they’d sign once they put their stuff on the bus, but never came back out.

Players who signed four cards each were Garnet Exelby, Johan Hedberg, Lehtonen (whose last name rhymes with, as I shouted during the game, "Lets Them In") and Steve Rucchin. Also signing multiples were Eric Boulton, Niko Kapanen, Jon Sim, Jim Slater and Vitali Vishnevsky.

Bobby Holik, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov and Scott Mellanby were strictly one-per signers. Believe it or not, so was Brad Larsen.

This is going in a frame

A couple years ago, before the NHL lockout put Pacific hockey cards out of business, the company produced a line called Pacific Exhibit.

One of the premiums of the set, released during the 2003-04 season, was a chase parallel of oversized cards. Nothing real fancy, just enlarged versions of the base set -- stars and commons included.

Over the past few years, I’ve kept them in my working stock. My recent fascination with pucks, though, allowed them to gather some dust. But now, as I become more selective with my pucks, I recognize an opportunity to get these bigger cards signed.

Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk, I’m wicked proud to say, signed my first card. And after a trip to Target later today, that card will end up in a frame on top of Colin’s dresser.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Worth the wait

One of the last trips I made to Tampa this past season was to hound the Atlanta Thrashers. It proved to be a memorable trip, too, as Marian Hossa signed the 1,000th puck of the collection.

My elation, though, was a bit tempered by the fact that Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t stop to sign. Not for me nor anyone else that spring afternoon. Not even children. In fact, he was kinda rude about it.

I did take solace in knowing that I’d have plenty more chances, though, because the Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta play within the Eastern Conference’s Southeast Division.

That patience was rewarded this morning, as both Hossa and Kovalchuk signed pucks (above, left to right) for me. Also signing pucks were goalie Johan Hedberg (Thrashers), center Bobby Holik (Hartford Whalers) and defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski, who signed a pair (Thrashers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim).

I didn’t even grumble when I learned that I missed Kari Lehtonen. Then again, getting him to sign three pucks in one day during the 2005 AHL All-Star Classic has left me needing nothing but cards. I mean, it's not like I'm selling them or anything.

All told, I got 20 autographs, including four cards from Niko Kapanen.