First draft

Now that I've taken an initial run through my 22-team hounding schedule for the 2007-08 NHL season, I'll offer the following prediction: I'll add at least 225 pucks to the collection, taking it to a cool 1,500 by season's end.

I also plan to increase the diversification of the collection by:

~ working a Florida Panthers team helmet. They're a young team, with kids like Gregory Campbell, Rostislav Olesz, Stephen Weiss and Noah Welch, but they also have a few stars in Jay Bouwmeester, Nathan Horton, Olli Jokinen and Richard Zednik. Don't forget, too, about new goalie Tomas Vokoun. Radek Dvorak, Ruslan Salei, Jozef Stumpel and Mike Van Ryn round out the must-haves for a team item.

~ cherry-picking on jerseys (Atlanta, Colorado and Team Canada, in particular, and, if I'm really lucky, the Q's Acadie-Bathurst.)

~ starting a goalie-only stick. Doesn't matter where they're from. If they're a goalie, I'll want them on it. Everyone except, say, Cujo.

~ Adding signatures, somewhat selectively, to the Team Canada goalie mask. There's ample room for Tampa's Marc Denis, Boston's Manny Fernandez, Detroit's Chris Osgood, Toronto's Andrew Raycroft, Edmonton's Dwayne Roloson, Buffalo's Jocelyn Thibault, Colorado's Jose Theodore, Dallas' Marty Turco and New Jersey's Kevin Weekes, among others. I won't say I'll get them all, just that there's room for them.

~ Filling up, for the lack of a better term, a Young Guns stick, which has autographs from only Boston's Patrice Bergeron and Carolina's Eric Staal. That wish-list includes:
~ Atlanta's Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk
~ Buffalo's Ales Kotalik, Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek
~ Florida's Jay Bouwmeester and Nathan Horton
~ New Jersey's Brian Gionta and Zach Parise
~ Philadelphia's Daniel Briere (though, he's not so young anymore. Still, why not?), Jeff Carter and Mike Richards
~ Tampa Bay's Paul Ranger.

Of course, Colin will add to his team sheet and autographed jersey collections.

Must've been in a hurry

Count me among the surprised today that none of Tampa Bay’s Big Three stopped to sign for a sizable group of fans, hounds and dealers. Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis drive right on by.
Really, it’s no surprise that Tim Taylor, the Lightning’s captain, almost never stops. Given the pressure he must be feeling, goalie Marc Denis offered only a wave. Even Doug Janik drove by.

It’s a rarity when not a single one of the trio will stop. Most often, it’s St. Louis. Vinny is hit-or-miss. Planets must be aligned whenever Richards stops. All three in one day? I haven’t been here that long, but that’s seldom happened.

All things considered, today’s outing, following the morning skate at the St. Pete Times Forum, was pretty fun. Colin scored 14 players, including Dan Boyle, Ryan Craig, Andre Roy and Bobby "The Chief" Taylor, on his team sheet.

Among the 13 autographs I added to the collection was the 1,250th puck.

Healthy attitude

One would think that playing on a last-place team that’s eliminated from the playoffs would turn the players into a grousing, disagreeable lot. In the case of the Florida Panthers, that would be the furthest from the truth.

Other than the quirky Eddie Belfour, there were no complaints along Channelside Drive today. Every player stopped to sign. Most, save for Jozef Stumpel, signed multiples. Some, like Stephen Weiss, even joked with fans.

Colin, on his second day of spring break, did pretty darn good. He got 17 players, including Jay Bouwmester, Nathan Horton, Olli Jokinen and Juraj Kolnik, to sign his team sheet.

Also, take a look at Mike Van Ryn’s letter-perfect autograph (middle, below spot where plam tree and stick cross). That, my friends, doesn’t happen too often.

I added another 28 autographs, including five pucks, to the collection.

Go figure

Wanna know just how strict Florida’s Ed Belfour enforces his one-card rule? Though he signed this card, he refused Colin’s request to sign a blank Florida Panthers team sheet.

A great Sabres day

For a day when even getting a single autograph was in question, I certainly have no complaints after the Sabres' trip to Tampa. Once Mother Nature decided to clear the skies and soak us in some late afternoon sun, all it took was a little patience to, once again, significantly add to the collection.

In addition to Colin's team sheet (shown at left), including autographs from Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell, Chris Drury, Jason Pominville and Ryan Miller among the 16 upon it, we also added pucks signed by Ty Conklin, Jochen Hecht, Dmitri Kalinin, Teppo Numminen, Andrew Peters, Derek Roy, Mike Ryan and Drew Stafford.

I was surprised, too, by the turnout. The crowd of somewhat-clueless Sabres fans (Way too many 'Who's that?' from people adorned in Sabres gear) seeking autographs easily outnumbered the usual suspects.

Even inside the St. Pete Times Forum, quite a few folks made the trip from western New York to take in the game. Several times during the Sabres' 3-2 win, Lightning fans were outchanted by Buffalo's faithful.

Nice souvenirs

For the most part, our son, Colin, has a souvenir from every hockey game he attends long before the puck is dropped. Tonight's game against the Boston Bruins was no different.

Despite dealing with the aftereffects of a cold, Colin scored 11 autographs on his team sheet (at left) from such players as Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard and Hannu Toivonen. He also added two cards each from his Bruins buddy, Patrice Bergeron, and Tim Thomas.

Once inside the St. Pete Times Forum, though, the gifts kept coming. As he stood along the glass during warm-ups, wearing his autographed Bergeron jersey, two Bruins made sure he went home with ice-cold souvenirs. Andrew Ference and Phil Kessel each skated up to the glass, tapped it, pointed to Colin and tossed a puck over the glass.

Pretty cool, if you ask me, and it certainly was the highlight, even beyond the Bruins' 6-2 drubbing of the Tampa Bay Lightning, of the evening. And you can bet we'll have them sign those pucks when Boston's back in town.

The only bummer of the night was learning that Patrice wasn't going to play. Not only did he tell us before the game that he was going to play, but we also saw him during the warmups. Was Colin disappointed? A little. But he understands that he'll have plenty of time to see Patrice play again.

Less-than-royal treatment

Western Conference teams usually draw a good crowd of hounds whenever they play Tampa Bay. Yesterday, though, I was surprised by the relatively light turnout. I’d say, at most, there were 15 collectors and dealers for the Los Angeles Kings.

Those who did show up, and put in a full day, shouldn’t be disappointed. Now, a few people were disappointed that Anze Kopitar, apparently everyone’s key player, didn’t sign a dozen 8 x 10s. I’m not complaining, though.

Another 13 pucks, including a pair from Kopitar and one from Rob Blake, were added to the collection. Even better, was that Colin was able to join me in the afternoon, having Dustin Brown, Alexander Frolov, Patrick O'Sullivan, Konstantin Pushkarev and Lubomir Visnovsky sign his team sheet (shown above) and Sean Burke and Mathieu Garon for his autographed goalie card collection.

It's hard to say no

In a day when we added 82 autographs to our collection, there certainly isn’t any shortage of stories to tell. I’d love to write about a dealer tearing up an 8x10 after getting stiffed by Daniel Alfredsson. I could even write about Martin Gerber’s refusal to sign pictures showing him holding the Stanley Cup.

The story that will stick with me, though, involves Ottawa sniper Jason Spezza.

It should be common knowledge among the handful of regular readers that I always set up our son, Colin, with a homemade, cheap-skate team sheet whenever we go hounding before a game. Earlier today, with the Senators in town, was no different. Colin had his sheet and his Sharpie.

As the players made their way from the team hotel, he’d run up and ask them to sign. He hasn’t heard a "no" yet. Sometimes, though, the scrum surrounding star players, such as the one that engulfed Spezza, can be a bit overwhelming.

Spezza signed for a few minutes and then made his way to the team bus. Colin, however, wasn’t deterred. He ran after Spezza, following him to the steps of the bus, and asked him, very loudly, to sign. Spezza stopped, turned around and looked down. As is often the response to that type of request, a wide smile washed across Spezza’s face.

Not only did Spezza oblige, but he pulled the sheet from under the clipboard’s holder and signed right at the top, becoming the 23rd player, coach or general manager to make a little boy’s day.

Goalie talk

For those of you lucky enough to have made my son’s acquaintance, you’ve quickly found out that, almost to a fault, he’s a precocious little guy. Simply put, he has no problem endearing himself to anyone, especially hockey players.

As I wrote recently, he’s been telling me lately, with increasing frequency, that he wants to be a goalie. On Saturday, before the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 5-3 victory over Southeast Division rival Atlanta, Colin made friends with Thrashers goalie Johan Hedberg.

Now, most hounds know that Hedberg is a pretty nice person. He’ll sign anything and everything. Colin’s team sheet (which also includes autographs from Ilya Kovalchuk and Kari Lehtonen), shown above, was no different. Hedberg signed, at the bottom, near the middle.
What made the autograph remarkable, in my opinion, was the exchange when he got it:

Colin: Do you play goalie?

Hedberg: Yes, I do

Colin: I want to be a goalie.

Hedberg: You do?

Colin: Yeah. I have all the equipment.

Hedberg: You do?

Colin: Yeah, it’s my daddy’s. It doesn’t fit me yet.

Hedberg (looking over and sizing me up): Well, buddy, you’ll have some catching up to do.

West Coast offense

Thanks to the collective intellectual capital that resides within the NHL’s scheduling department, Western Conference teams are about as common in Eastern Conference cities as a bikini in a blizzard.

The San Jose Sharks were the first of five Western Conference teams to visit Tampa this season. As expected, they drew a crowd. And while most of the team was pretty nice, it’s two biggest stars -– Joey Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo –- were pretty rough.

Cheechoo signed earlier in the day, I was told, but was strictly one per person and insisted on personalizing anything he signed. Though Thornton did some items inside the hotel, he signed just one item -– a card for a young girl as he made his way to a cab.

Patrick Marleau, another of the Sharks’ stars, signed a few items, including Colin’s team sheet, but left more people empty-handed than happy. I was fortunate enough to get a puck signed by goalie Evgeni Nabokov.

It’s not that the day was a total loss, though. I added another nine pucks to the collection, taking me up to 1,064, as well as 18 cards, including four each from Marcel Goc and Milan Michalek. Other willing signers included Steve Bernier, Curtis Brown, Christian Ehrhoff, Mike Grier, Kyle McLaren, Ville Nieminen and Vesa Toskala.

Nothing could be finer

When the Hartford Whalers headed south and became the Carolina Hurricanes, they played their first two seasons in the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum. There weren't too many fans back then, so the team reached out to the community. They played music by The Zambonis. They lowered ticket prices. They even brought in NASCAR's Richard Petty.

One of the easiest ways to connect, we quickly found out, was making the team readily accessible after every home game to get autographs. Fans, collectors and, yes, dealers, could gather inside the players' entrance. Nearly every player, save for Ron Francis or Glen Wesley, stopped and signed. In fact, that's how I got started as a serious collector. It was too easy.

Ten years later, the Hurricanes have changed. The team now plays before sold-out crowds in Raleigh. The fans, rednecks or not, are knowledgeable. And, then there's that little thing called winning the Stanley Cup.

Thankfully, the one thing that hasn't changed is the accessibility of the players. At day's end, and taking part in hounding before the morning skate (with Colin) and game time (Lisa joined us), we added another 63 autographs to our collection, including 10 pucks, an 8x10 from Cam Ward, an Eric Staal T-shirt and, as always, Colin's team sheet.

Granted, some players didn't sign (Tim Gleason, Andrew Ladd and Glen Wesley come to mind), but the stars, including Rod Brind'Amour, Staal and Ward, more than made up for that.

Doesn't get much better than this

At the end of a long day, when I can barely keep my eyes open to finish these postings, it’s nice to know we’ve added a nice assortment of autographs to our collection.

Besides getting his Patrice Bergeron jersey signed, Colin scored a bunch of players on his game-dated team sheet (shown at left), including Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk, Glen Murray and Hannu Toivonen.

We also added with 31 cards, seven pucks, a vintage Riddell Bruins goalie mini mask (bearing signatures from Tim Thomas and Toivonen), a cheat-sheet card and a game-used Bauer Vapor XX stick signed by Andrew Alberts.

Alberts also agreed to do a favor for us. I'm not at liberty to tell you what it is right now, but it won't take long to deliver.

And, in between the trips to Tampa, we also found the time to visit an open house at our neighborhood Fire Station #4, even getting a personal tour from St. Petersburg's Fire Chief James Large.

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.

A good hockey day

With Sunday being the only day of the week that work and school schedules allow us a full day together, we try to plan some type of event for the three of us. Today, like most other Sundays, was no different. Instead of heading to the beach, visiting an aquarium or taking in a Rays game, we headed over to the Tampa Bay Lightning's training camp in Brandon.

The team, which opened camp last Thursday, started having scrimmages on Saturday. As a result, the weekend crowds were considerably larger than weekdays. Still, that didn't keep us from going. Besides, Colin needed some new elbow pads and Lisa wanted a game-used Nolan Pratt stick.

Though we didn't get to see too much of the scrimmages, we watched as coach John Tortorella put the Lightning through more torturous skating endurance drills. At one point, with the team gathered near the boards for a quick on-ice chalk talk, associate coach Craig Ramsay, a former Buffalo Sabres, roofed an errant puck into a yawning net.

"Nice shot, Rammer," I yelled from my perch above the rink.

"Still got it, don't I," he replied, looking up at us, as a smile broadened across his face.

"Yeah, you do," I said. "Maybe you oughta suit up and the show the boys a thing or two."

"I don't know about that," he said.

It's exchanges like that, which happen on the spur of a moment, that makes being a hockey fan so much fun.

Getting autographs, too, goes a long way to solidifying a team's fan base. Take Ruslan Fedotenko, for example. While I figured that Tampa Bay's Big Three -- Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis -- wouldn't stop after practice because of the big crowd (about 40 people, I'd say), I was hoping that Fedotenko would. Like the Big Three, Fedotenko didn't disappoint.

While other players were kind enough to stop and sign, Fedotenko not only stopped, but he parked his loaner ultraviolet Jaguar XK, got out and made sure that everyone got an autograph. He's a good player and a nice guy.

When all was said and done, Colin did pretty good in his first trip of the year. Besides Fedotenko (who's quickly becoming our favorite player), Colin's efforts (see above) produced signatures from Sean Burke (he's the one who wrote upside down), Ryan Craig, Andreas Karlsson, Paul Ranger and Cory Sarich on one of my original cheap-skate team cards.

Most of all, though, it was a good day. A good hockey day. And those, my friends, are priceless.