Big names deliver

In my opinion, it's always a good day whenever we add to our collection of pucks signed by San Jose's Joe Thornton. Starting with our time in New England, when Jumbo Joe was the heart and soul of the Boston Bruins, we've built a fairly nice collection of the talented player.

That's why we were pretty darn pumped when he signed a Sharks puck before Saturday's 3-0 whitewash of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Still, though, it wasn't the highlight of a day when we added another 38 autographs, including 15 pucks, to the collection.

Earlier this season, I named getting San Jose's Dan Boyle, a former Lightning, on a Sharks puck as one of Hound Central 4.0's 10 Big Sigs for the 2008-09 season. Though he was a willing signer in his time with Tampa Bay, I figured that he'd want to dodge much of the hoopla surrounding his return.

Boy, am I glad I was wrong. Not only did he sign for everyone who asked, but he also posed for pictures and joked with fans, reinforcing his popularity here in Humidity Bay, no matter what jersey he's wearing.

These items, too, only made the day that much better:

~ Four pucks and a reinforcement of manners from Jeremy Roenick;
~ Specialty pucks from Jonathan Cheechoo and Torrey Mitchell;
~ Colin's first puck of the season; and
~ another jam-packed hand-drawn team sheet.

Among the players signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Brian Boucher, Dan Boyle and Mike Grier
Bottom row: Torrey Mitchell, Evgeni Nabokov and Joe Thornton

Among those signing cards were:

Top row: Christian Ehrhoff, Evgeni Nabokov and Joe Pavelski
Bottom row: Devin Setoguchi, Torey Mitchell and Ryan Clowe