No place for this

Even as a Sabres Fan, I can relate to the frustration of Islanders fans when Randy Robitaille was called for tripping in the waning moments of Buffalo's 3-2 victory over New York, but it's no excuse for fans to litter the ice with garbage. Even the Islanders ice girls, or whatever they're called, were out there cleaning up.

Editor's note: This is the 400th posting of the 2006-07 season.

Counting down to 1,250

Going into this morning’s hounding sessions, I was pretty confident that I’d get the 1,250th puck of the collection and, rewardingly, the goal for this season. Having Florida’s Martin Gelinas sign four pucks cut the countdown by half. Olli Jokinen signed a 2003 NHL All Star Game puck. The magic number was now three.

About an hour later, outside the St. Pete Times Forum, the Lightning has completed its morning skate. Coaches and players straggle out.

Dan Boyle narrowed the gap to two, signing a Florida Panthers puck.
"What am I signing this for," he said.

"It’s part of your career," I told him.

A few minutes later, Shane O’Brien, a defenseman acquired from Anaheim before the trade deadline, rolled his truck to a stop. Having watched him play in Portland, with the AHL’s Pirates, it’s easy to see how he’s seen as a good fit with the Lightning. Here’s something funny, too. Watch him skate. He looks like Popeye.

He noticed, and signed, the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks puck first, for No. 1249.

The Lightning puck? Yes, that is No. 1,250. I picked up a couple more later. It stands at 1,252.

With at least two more sessions (Washington and Carolina), it’s conceivable to add another 10 by the end of the regular season. Beyond that, that’s up to the Lightning.

This helped

Very seldom do I ask a player to sign more than two to three pucks. In some cases, like Florida’s Martin Gelinas, I’ll take a chance with more. As the end of the regular season nears, and with the Lightning’s grip on the playoffs a tenuous one at that, I’m trying to complete my player career collections.

In Gelinas’ case, I needed four pucks – Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and the Vancouver Canucks. As you can see, he signed all four.

I started the day needing eight pucks to hit 1,250. These cut that in half.

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.

Quietly, puck No. 1,200

It might not be the biggest milestone of the collection, but I still reached 1,200 autographed pucks when Florida’s Olli Jokinen signed this New York Islanders puck today before the Panthers' morning skate at the St. Pete Times Forum.

No fireworks went off. No church bells tolled. Tampa’s Mayor Pam Iorio didn’t drive down from city hall to present me with a key to the fair city. Nope, nothing like that at all.

It was just another "Thank you" on my part and a knowing smile that reaching my goal of 1,250 pucks by season’s end is obtainable.

Addendum: This is the 300th post of the season.

Hounding 2006: Year in Review

Considering all that has happened in the past year, 2006 turned out, from a hounding point of view, to be a pretty decent year. Despite making a move to the Tampa Bay area from New England, brought about by accepting a job at Florida’s best newspaper, my hockey-hounding hobby continued.

Looking back, here are some of the highlights:

~ For the calendar year, another 241 autographed pucks were added to the collection. As of today, the total stands at 1,143.

~ As of today, Puckhound's five blogs have received more than 7,800 page views since Aug. 15.

~ Ottawa’s Wade Redden signed the 1,072nd puck of the collection, equaling the total number of points scored (regular season and playoffs) by Wayne Gretzky in his professional (World Hockey Association and National Hockey League) career.

~ Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne signed four pucks in a day during one of the best hounding days of the year. Colin even scored his first puck.

~ Learning there are other things to do in Florida than add to a hockey autograph collection.

~ Colin, who developed an interest in collecting autographs, renewed acquaintances with his buddies, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Carolina’s Cam Ward.

~ Moving to Florida opened up better access to such Southeast Division teams as the Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals, and such stars as Rod Brind’Amour, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin. I suppose, too, I shouldn’t forget about our new hometown team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and its Big Three -– Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis.

~ Being the only three people to find the Dallas Stars before a preseason game and getting Mike Modano to sign a few items.

~ While making our way to Florida, we arrived in Hershey, Pa., in time to watch a very thrilling and exhausting Game 7 between the Portland Pirates and Hershey Bears.

~ Making it home for Colin’s birthday and finding time to take in an American Hockey League playoff game in one of our favorite cities -– Portland, Maine.

~ Knowing that Colin got a close-up look at NHL warmups when he served as a "bench assistant" during a Bruins game.

~ Getting Atlanta's Marian Hossa to sign the 1,000th puck of the collection.

~ The New York Islanders’ Brendan Witt, then playing for the Washington Capitals, signed our first puck in Florida.

~ Adding autographed pucks from Boston's Patrice Bergeron, Ray Bourque and Cam Neely to the collection all on the same day.

~ Having one of my hockey heroes, Patrick Roy, sign a goalie stick for Colin.

No. 500 for Bondra

Not only am I happy to see hound-friendly Petr Bondra back in the NHL, but I’m also wicked psyched that he scored the 500th goal of his career late last week. With the goal, which came in Chicago’s 3-2 victory over Toronto on Friday, he became the 37th player to reach 500 goals in his career.

For Bondra, in his 16th NHL season, it was his second goal in six games after he signed, as a free agent, with the Blackhawks on Dec. 10. Bondra played for Atlanta this past season, signing the puck shown above April 11th.

Bondra, then playing for Washington, was one of the first big-name stars to sign an autograph for more than 10 years ago.

With the Carolina Hurricanes playing their home games in Greensboro, visiting NHL teams, such as the Capitals, had very few choices for hotels (three, to be exact), so it was pretty easy to find them. And while I was happy to score autographs from Steve Konowalchuk, Andrei Nikolishin and Brendan Witt, it was Bondra’s nearly letter-perfect autograph on a card that made the day.

Christmas Eve homily

As you can see, I found another set of cards available in a collectible tin, this one featuring Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff. I just wonder, though, how long it’ll be before I can get it signed.

Now, if a proposal floated by the NHL gains support from teams, my wait might not be that long.

With Columbus and Atlanta trading conferences, divisions would be streamlined. The biggest benefit, from a hound’s standpoint, is the new schedule would bring a team to every NHL city at least once every two years.

Being in Tampa, I’d hope the northern teams, such as Calgary and Edmonton, would jump at the chance for an extended road trip through warmer climates every other January or February.

Aside from that, though, there’s really no other benefit to hounds. Tampa’s new division would contain teams that already frequent the St. Pete Times Forum – the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Flyers, Capitals, Hurricanes and Panthers.

In fact, losing Atlanta means we’d get to hound Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa and Kari Lehtonen far fewer than the four times a season we do now. I suppose, though, that having teams like Vancouver, Minnesota and Detroit would more than make up for that.

An odds-on favorite?

Now that even Mario Lemieux says that relocation of the Pittsburgh Penguins is on the table, I’ll raise again the opportunity that exists (first item) for the Seminole Tribe of Florida to make a play for the team. Wishful thinking on my part, I know, but can you blame me?

Given the Tribe’s sovereign (meaning tax-free) status and its established gambling licenses, snapping up the Penguins would give them another entertainment option and source of revenue. Putting the team near one of its hotel/casinos, even at the expense of building a state-of-the-art rink, would create a wintertime destination for northern snowbirds.

Besides, what hound wouldn’t want a regular opportunity to score autographs from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury. I know I would.

Want Scotty Bowman’s autograph?

If you do (and, really, what hound wouldn’t?), I hope I’ll see you next Saturday night as the Montreal Canadiens play the Tampa Bay Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Another milestone

This is the 200th posting of the season. For those who stop by regularly, I appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more insight, commentary and, as always, hounding adventures.

A shameless plug

It's not exactly cutting-edge journalism, but it is related to hockey. Here's my first bylined story for the St. Petersburg Times.

Hockey housekeeping

Forgive me if it sounds like I'm whining, but I need to improve my logistical skills. Because I ran out of puck squares to display and/or store autographed pucks, they started to pile up around the desk, display cases and any other flat surface within arm's reach.

With the arrival of cases, my big chore today was to catalogue and case 73 pucks obtained since Nov. 11. Highlights included pucks No. 1,072 (Ottawa's Wade Redden) and 1,100 (Buffalo's Andrew Peters), University of Vermont pucks signed by Tampa Bay's Eric Perrin and Marty St. Louis and four signed by Anaheim's Teemu Selanne.

For the record, the collection has grown by 113 autographed pucks since the start of the regular season.

Granted, archiving pucks isn't the most physical work I've done (washing dishes, doing laundry and taking out the trash today alone topped that), but after stringing up more than 1,500 Christmas lights yesterday, my upper body creaks at the slightest amount of effort today.

Please, no pity parties. Besides, the only remaining task on today's to-do list is to watch the Penguins-Capitals game tonight. That, other than staying awake, will require little effort.

As for hockey housekeeping, all that's left to put away are the 400 autographed cards we've collected since training camp opened. Maybe, just maybe, I'll do that tomorrow.

It's better in the morning

If there's one thing I'll take away from today's hounding of the Anaheim Ducks, it's the last bit of evidence I need to know that it's always better to hound a team at the morning skate than at any other time of the day.

Crowds are usually smaller. The players are less focused. And, for the most part, I'm more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

But, before you go off believing that I'm disappointed in today's effort, please know there's nothing further from the truth. Hounding the Ducks, at both the morning skate and at gametime, was, in a word, excellent.

Not only did another 26 pucks make their ways into the collection, including four from Teemu Selanne, but I also added Jean-Sebastien Giguere to my Team Canada goalie mask. And even better than Colin getting his first puck signed, I believe, was the second of his team sheets.

After filling the first sheet with autographs from 13 players, including Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, his second sheet is definitely a keeper. The only two signatures on the game-dated sheet (shown above) are Chris Pronger and Selanne. Not bad for a 5-year-old, if you ask me.

Burke was first

Going into this weekend's hounding, Colin has been asking if he could start getting some pucks signed. I figured that he's been out enough, building his collection of team sheets, that he's ready to try something different.

And while he was more interested in snagging a goalie for the milestone, it was Brian Burke, Anaheim's general manager, who filled the role. To be honest, it didn't matter to Colin. What did matter, though, was that it made Colin's day. And, really, isn't that what's it all about?

Less than a hundred to go

Buffalo’s Andrew Peters may be known more for his tough-guy fists than a scorer's soft hands, but that didn’t stop me from getting him to sign a puck. It turns out, too, that it was the 1,100 puck of the collection.

Now that I’ve eclipsed my original goal of 1,072 pucks, aiming now for 1,200 in the collection, the puck represents a milestone.

And the 11 that I added after having Peters signed leaves me needing only 89 to reach the latest goal. Maybe I'll have to set the bar higher.

Puck No. 1,072

After getting Ottawa’s Dany Heatley to sign a puck last night, I went in to today’s game-time hounding just three shy of my goal of 1,072 autographed pucks. And, having hounded the Senators in Boston a few times, I knew they were a pretty decent signing team.

That’s why I knew I’d reach, and likely surpass, my magic number, making it the biggest milestone, to date, of my hockey hounding hobby. Thankfully, it didn’t take long.

After letting Chris Neil, Peter Schaefer and Denis Hamel walk by, second-year defenseman Andrej Meszaros walked out. Being the only person who recognized him, I walked up with two pucks, which he happily signed. I was now sitting at 1,071 pucks.

Next out were Daniel Alfredsson and Wade Redden. Immediately, a crowd surrounded the embattled Ottawa captain. And, instead of joining that scrum, I walked over to Redden and asked if he’d sign a couple pucks. He signed one, a Team Canada puck, for autographed puck No. 1,072.

It was as simple as that. No fanfare. No chit-chat, other than my prerequisite please and thank-you. No photos. Just the puck. Though it's more than a number, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Serving a purpose

Not only does the lack of prep work make 2005/06 Parkhurst Hockey one of my favorite sets, but the Season Highlights subset is quickly becoming one of my favorite to get autographed. Most of the cards feature star players at some career milestone.

The one above, however, is a little different. It commemorates the NHL’s first-ever shootout goal on Oct. 5, 2005, when Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson made history in beating Toronto, 3-2.

And while I do pay particular attention to pucks, I also try to have a good reason for getting a specific card signed. This one, I believe, is the perfect example.

Loaded for bear for No. 1,072

The star-studded Ottawa Senators are in town this weekend, and seeing that I haven't hounded them in more than a year, I'll be carrying a heavy bag -- 17 pucks and more than 70 cards. Granted, I doubt I'll get everything signed, but I can't be accused of being ill-prepared.

Work schedule permitting, and conditions are extremely favorable, I'll probably go out for a couple hours tonight. If not, though, there's always game time on Sunday.

Either way. I hoping to score my 1,072 autographed puck this weekend. If you don't know the significance of that number, visit a hockey history Web site, look up Wayne Gretzky and, if you're able, do some math.

With any luck, and a little cherry-picking, I'm hoping the milestone puck will come from Jason Spezza. He signed the 500th puck (the Belleville Bulls puck, on far right) of the collection. Given the subpar start to the Senators' season, I'm hoping he'll be in a generous mood. I'll have two of the three pucks (Grand Rapid Griffins and Brampton Battalion; I'm waiting on a Mississauga Ice Dogs puck) I need to complete my Spezza collection.

In all honesty, with pucks for such Senators stars as Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, Andrej Meszaros and Wade Redden, I'll be happy with whomever I get. Just as long as it isn't Cup-winner Martin Gerber or tough guy Brian McGrattan.

At first I was going to stop at 1,072, but with nearly three-quarters of the season remaining, and a ton of West Coast teams (Anaheim, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Dallas) coming to Tampa before early April, I'm setting my sights on 1,200 autographed pucks by season's end.

Now, if for some reason I fall short with the Senators (hey, it could happen), I'll be hounding the Lightning (I picked up some University of Vermont pucks for Martin St. Louis and Eric Perrin) and the Washington Capitals on Monday.

Either way, it's going to happen soon. I just don't know who and I don't know when. But, it will happen. And that, my friends, is a promise.

Do the math

What's the difference between Anaheim's Teemu Selanne and San Jose's Marc-Edouard Vlasic?

That one is a seasoned veteran and the other is a rookie would be correct, but it's not the answer I'm looking for. Nor would the correct answer be that Selanne plays right wing and Vlasic, shown at left, is a defenseman. And don't even bother saying that Selanne is Finnish and Vlasic is French-Canadian.

No, what I'm looking for is the difference in career goals. That answer -- the correct one -- is 499. On a night when Selanne logged his 500th regular-season goal, Vlasic notched the first of his young career. Two milestones in one night. Pretty neat, eh?

Anyways, Selanne, who scored 76 goals in his rookie season (1992-93) with the Winnipeg Jets, became the 36th player to reach the milestone, tipping a shot past Colorado's Jose Theodore. Too bad, though, that the Ducks lost to Colorado, 3-2, in a shootout.

Vlasic, who spent last season playing for Patrick Roy and the Memorial Cup champion Quebec Remparts, was only in kindergarten during Selanne's rookie campaign. And while the significance of his goal, coming against the Kings' Dan Cloutier, might get lost in the aftermath of the Sharks' 6-3 victory over Los Angeles, I'm sure it's pretty special to him.

No surprise, I suppose, for Jagr

When it comes to milestone goals, New York's Jaromir Jagr must love playing the Tampa Bay Lightning.

One night after his first NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, denied him the 600th goal of his career, Jagr's pouncing on a rebound just 1:43 into the game made the Rangers star just the 16th player in NHL history to achieve that feat.

Jagr's wrist shot past Tampa Bay's Johan Holmqvist, his ninth goal of the season, was his third career milestone goal against the Lightning. Jagr, then playing for the Washington Capitals, logged his 500th goal by completing a hat trick against the Lightning's John Grahame on Feb. 4, 2003. He scored his 300th career goal, playing for the Penguins, against the Lightning's Mark Fitzpatrick on April 15, 1998.

Onnentoivotus, Teppo!

Not only did Buffalo's Teppo Numminen become an NHL record holder for the most games played (1,252) by a European-trained player, but the defenseman also logged two assists, including the 600th point of his 18-year career, in the Sabres' 7-4 win over Carolina.

Numminen, a native of Tampere, Finland, broke the record held by countryman Jari Kurri. Besides Buffalo, Numminen has played for Dallas, Phoenix and its predecessor, the Winnipeg Jets.

The victory was historic for the Sabres, too. The team set a franchise record with its 10th consecutive road win.

By the way, onnentoivotus is Finnish for congratulations. And, no, I don't know how to pronounce it.