Sunday morning homily XII

Ever since the puck first dropped on the 2008-09 NHL season, we've had Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, circled on our calendar. That's when the Boston Bruins and Colin's favorite NHL buddy, Patrice Bergeron, come to town.

We missed seeing Bergeron twice last year, as he recovered from a cheap early season hit from Philly's Randy Jones. Needless to say, the littlest hound in the house, though appreciating the need for Patrice to recover, was a little disappointed.

Now that Bergeron is back in the game, and the Bruins are enjoying a nice run, Colin's pretty pumped that he'll get to see his hockey hero again. Hopefully, too, an early arrival by the Bruins will provide a few minutes for the renewing of acquaintances.

And, yes, we have tickets to the game. We wouldn't miss it for the world.

Upon further review

Earlier this season, I predicted that we'd add another 432 autographs to the collection by next April. Man, was I ever wrong.

When Tampa Bay's Olaf Kolzig signed a 2008 Prague Premier puck last week, it represented the 500th autograph of the season. Granted, it's a family effort here at Hound Central 4.0, but that season milestone came rather quickly.

As a result, and because of how early we are in the season, I've raised the bar to 1,100 autographs before we close the books on the campaign.

Catching a ride

For the second time in as many trips, the Rangers' Markus Naslund and Scott Gomez got a free ride back to the team's hotel following Wednesday's morning skate, thanks to Lightning security staff. Also hopping aboard the all-terrain vehicle was Daniel Girardi.

I guess the half-mile walk on a gorgeous Florida day, as well as a handful of hounds, was a little too much for them.

5 Big Sigs

It'll be a big week here in Hockey Bay if work and practice schedules allow for trips to hound the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres:

~ Boston's Patrice Bergeron on a Bruins helmet;
~ Boston's Milan Lucic on Bruins and Vancouver Giants pucks;
~ those mentioned above, as well as their teammates, on a Bruins jersey;
~ Buffalo's Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller on a Sabres mini helmet; and
~ Buffalo's Patrick Lalime on Sabres, Blackhawks and Senators pucks.

Review: NHL Upper Deck Series I

When it comes right down to it, what hasn't been said or written about the NHL Upper Deck Series I product? It contains the season's first must-have rookie cards -- Young Guns. The photography shows top-shelf images. The design is, most often, crisp and clear. And you seldom get cheated on memorabilia cards, like these colorful swatches from Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk and Philadelphia's Mike Richards.

That's why I usually buy a couple boxes each season. Not only can I easily put together the base set, but I also get a pretty nice clutch of cards to use as hounding stock. Yes, they may take some prep work, but there nearly an automatic inclusion to any team's hounding book.

My only complaint, and it's a constant one as well, is that Upper Deck continues to release products showing players in outdated uniforms. Even though I found only two this release, it's hard to believe that Upper Deck can't update these images, even for a player like Montreal's Robert Lang, who signed with the Canadiens on Sept. 12.

Today's technology -- from photography to printing to distribution -- allows ample time for updates, even the opening day of training camp.

Enough complaining, okay? This Clearcuts Duos, numbered 04/25, of Montreal's Carey Price and Saku Koivu proved to the best short-print out of the three boxes.

I found it a bit ironic that the first short-print, numbered 050/100, was an UD Exclusives of Tampa Bay's Jussi Jokinen.

Of the 200 cards in the base set, and the resulting hard-to-find short prints that bedevil collectors, I get one for a player right here in Hockey Bay.

As an aside, he's one of the better-signing Bolts, not that I'd have him sign this one.

As usual, there were plenty of insert subsets, including one of my all-time favorites, the Winter Classic 2008 series. Others shown, from left, Captains Calling, Joe Sakic; Hat Trick Heroes, Eric Staal; Sophomore Sensations, Sam Gagner; and Winter Classic, Evgeni Malkin.

Puckhound's snapshot

Product: 2008-09 NHL Upper Deck Series I
Vital stats: 200-card base set with UD Exclusive (# to 100) and HG UD Exclusive (3 to 50) parallels. Hobby boxes average two game-used memorabilia cards, six Young Guns rookies and a wide assortment of insert subsets, including another Winter Classic 2008 offering.
Something good: Crisp action photography, decent quality in Young Guns and a sweet short-printed insert featuring Montreal's Carey Price.
Something bad: Old habits die hard. Though the numbers are down, cards still show some free-agent signings with last year's teams.
Puckhound's score: 2.5 of 5 pucks

Stamkos wasn't in the cards

Alright, alright, I admit it. The only reason I bought another box of Upper Deck Hockey Series I on Black Friday was the off chance that I'd finally pull a Young Guns card -- the common-man's cardboard gold standard for rookie cards -- for Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos.

It didn't surprise me when I didn't pull one out of the first box I busted. Nope, that would have been too easy. Pulling Young Guns for Atlanta's Zach Bogosian and Los Angeles' Drew Doughty, however, helped ease the pain.

I felt certain, too, that a Stamkos Young Gun was in the works when the second box yielded Philly's Lucas Sbisa and another Doughty card. In a sense, my hunch was right. I did pull a Stamkos Young Gun card. It just wasn't the one I wanted.

Nope, I got the lovely parting gift of the Young Guns checklist card, where Stamkos shares space with St. Louis' Alex Pietrangelo and Doughty.

It was the third box, though, that broke my heart. Though it produced Young Guns for St. Louis' Patrik Berglund, the Isles' Kyle Okposo and Toronto's Luke Schenn, I was pretty disappointed that I hadn't scored a Young Guns for Stamkos.

With any investment -- sound or foolish -- I prefer to take the long-term view. Though I'm happy with the quantity of quality Young Guns I've pulled so far -- and this is a pretty deep and solid set -- I believe Stamkos possesses the most potential for long-term appreciation.

Will I buy more? Doubt it. I know when to walk away.

I'm hungry

Wow! Fourteen posts in little less than fourteen hours, including 12 in four hours. Now, that's what I call live blogging.

I'm going to treat myself to another slab of apple pie.

Have a great day, folks, and thanks for stopping by.

Big Apple day

Last season, I thought it was a pretty big deal to score 50 autographs from the Montreal Canadiens. After Wednesday, though, I've realized it's nothing more than child's play.

How easy is it? Well, to bend a borrowed phrase from car insurer Geico, it's so easy a 7-year-old can do it. Just ask Colin, who snagged 51 of the 57 autographs (one better than my best day last season) we added to the collection Wednesday while hounding the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Rather than sit around the house and dream of bellies stuffed with turkey and all of the trimmings, we used one of his school vacations days to see just what kind of numbers we could produce. While I supplied him with players' names, he provided the hustle.

Thankfully, his efforts for the Rangers were rewarded, as he snagged 29 cards to my three pucks, including these from 2004 No. 1 pick Lauri Korpikoski (left) and former Sens defenseman Wade Redden.

My best? Rangers GM Glen Sather on an old-school Oilers puck. Still, though, it was Colin who stole the show.

Who helped? Most every Rangers player, including enforcer Colton Orr, added to Colin's bounty.

Looking for big names? How about Henrik Lundqvist, Markus Naslund, Redden and Nikolai Zherdev? They'll do, and they did.

The biggest signers of the day, as far as we're concerned, were role players Blair Betts, Ryan Callahan and Nigel Dawes. Thanks to them alone, it was a diverse dozen cards.

Other Rangers who signed cards (top photo):

Top row: Dan Fritsche (2 cards), Daniel Girardi and Dmitri Kalinin (3 cards)
Bottom row: Paul Mara, Petr Prucha and Michal Rozsival

Quality, not quantity

Though I didn't get many autographs Wednesday, I'll probably remember the day for a long time. Not only did Colin log his first 50-plus autograph day, but I finally got Glen Sather, the Rangers' general manager, to sign an old-school Edmonton Oilers puck.

Making the effort

It's always our intentions to add any NHL's team's top players to pucks before any other item. Some days, it happens. Other times, though, it doesn't.

Given the 20-plus crowd that swarmed the Rangers' elite Wednesday before the team's morning skate, it's remarkable that even Colin was able to snag these from New York's Henrik Lundqvist, Markus Naslund, Wade Redden and Nikolai Zherdev.

His extra effort paid off, didn't it? I didn't fare as well. Still, though, no complaints. None whatsoever.

Starring roles

Only the most jaded of hounds would say it's no big deal to get autographs from any NHL team's role players. Sorry, but I disagree. Teams need players willing to muck it up and get their noses bloodied. Good teams are full of them.

That's why Colin was pretty darn excited Wednesday after a trio of Rangers role players -- Blair Betts, Ryan Callahan and Nigel Dawes -- sign these 12 cards for him.

That's right. A dozen cards. That alone is a decent day, don't you think?

Can I tell you a secret? I was pretty pumped, too. Check out the diversity of the cards. Only three are true Rangers cards. The rest are from prospects or speciality sets.

I apologize for not being able to group all of the cards. The scanner's bed isn't big enough for all 12.

Another silver lining

To be honest, it doesn't really matter who scores the most autographs, especially when one is from the Rangers' Nikolai Zherdev, a player who appears to be realizing early expectations.

It's even better, too, that one of the cards comes out of the 2004-05 UD Hockey All-World Edition set.

Produced during the unfortunate NHL lockout of 2004-05, the set featured most any NHL player who spent their newfound time that long, cold winter playing across Russia, Scandinavia and Europe.

A quick Google search shows hobby boxes can be found for around $28, plus shipping. Not a bad deal, I'd say, to diversify your card offerings.

On a roll

Given that Colin had this week off from school, it made sense to add the Tampa Bay Lightning to our hounding adventures Wednesday. And after scoring another 22 of the 25 autographs we got from the Bolts, it was apparent that his earlier luck with the Rangers would carry over.

Though he added more than a dozen cards to the collection, including four each (above) from solid signers Olaf Kolzig and Andrej Meszaros, Colin also snagged impressive signatures from Vinny Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos.

Sorry, but Marty St. Louis didn't stop this time.

Other Lightning players who signed cards Wednesday were, from left, Chris Gratton, Adam Hall and Vinny Prospal (or V20, as Colin calls him).

Oh, really?

Every time I hear that Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos is getting more difficult about signing, I watch the young man quickly dispel what is becoming nothing more than a urban legend here in Hockey Bay.

Sure, I suppose he might decline an offer to sign an inch-thick stack of bootleg 8x10s, but he certainly had no problem signing this 2008 NHL Draft program handout for Colin after Wednesday's morning skate.

A project piece, we hope to add Atlanta's Zach Bogosian (hopefully, he'll have recovered from a broken leg when the Thrashers visit in February ) and Toronto's Luke Schenn (on the right side of the program) later this season.

No hard feelings

Even though neither won a game when Tampa Bay opened its 2008-09 campaign with a pair of games in Prague, these pucks from Lightning goalies Olaf Kolzig, left, and Mike Smith make for a couple of keepers (yes, folks, the pun is most certainly intended) for the collection.

The Kolzig puck, the 500th autograph of Hound Central's 2008-09 campaign, was among the six items that Colin allowed me to get signed Wednesday. Yes, I feel guilty about it.

Waste not, want not

Because a true hockey hound will never let an opportunity for an autograph to pass, this Tampa Bay Lightning jumbo card was put to good use Wednesday when, from left, Paul Ranger, Jussi Jokinen and Brian Bradley signed it. It's too bad, though, it's our last one.

Live and learn

I really have to start remembering to use my silver paint pens whenever a Lightning player signs one of his team cards. As you can see, even by clicking on the image, this autograph from Tampa Bay's Mike Smith is pretty darn difficult to see.

I suppose, too, I could have asked him to, rather than hoping he would, sign at the top of the card, rather than at the bottom, when he stopped after the team's morning skate Wednesday.

No shortage

If there's one thing about Tampa Bay's Mark Recchi, hounds should never have a hard time finding something for him to sign.

Seeing that he's a big name (scoring 500 goals helps with that), has also played for Atlanta, Carolina, Montreal, Philadelphia (twice) and Pittsburgh (twice), and has rookie cards in sets from 1990, I'll have plenty of items for as long as he's with the Lightning.

Despite getting Recchi to sign this Flyers puck and one other card Wednesday, I still need him on a current Penguins puck.

Food coma, notwithstanding . . .

. . . plan on a turkey gravy boat-load of postings later this evening. One of us loaded up on autographs from the Rangers and Lightning.

It wasn't me.

In the meantime, can you guess who Colin got on his appropriately named Notre Dame College prep school jersey?

Stamkos fought?

Here's a Hound Central 4.0 tip of the helmet for Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos for taking interim coach Rick Tocchet's words to heart for the team to get more physical.

Stamkos' entertaining dust-up with the Rangers' Nikolai Zherdev last night shows that Hockey Bay's youngest son is, indeed, becoming a man.

Bravo, young man, for the show of character, though I believe you were drafted for your playmaking prowess, not your pugilistic skills.

Just asking

Who has the better hockey name: Nashville's Radek Bonk or Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck?

Sunday morning homily XI

When it comes right down to it, the Nashville Predators taught Humidity Bay hounds a pretty valuable lesson on Friday.

Over the past few years, I believe we've come to expect that visiting NHL teams are always happy to come to the sunny south. Furthermore, we expect that they'll show their appreciation by willingly obliging each and every request for an autograph.

While that may have been the case early Friday morning when most of the Predators players (I keep hearing that defenseman Dan Hamhuis was particularly rough) signed before the team's morning skate, my own observations and reports from fellow hounds say the team wasn't as willing to put pen to paper or pucks later in the day.

In a way, I can hardly blame them. The closer you get to game time, the more you should be focusing on the task at hand, not worrying whether the visiting hounds have had their fill.

The lesson I'm taking away from hounding the Predators, and I suggest you might want to file this away for future hounding sessions, is that the best time to score autographs is before a team's morning skate. To me, the players seem much more approachable and it's always nice, from where I sit, to get things done sooner rather than later.

It's not to say that players won't sign after morning skates or before the game, but my experience has taught me to lower my expectations the closer you get to game time.

Anyone else care to weigh in?

Time's running out

With only a week left in November, your opportunity to win this autograph from Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos is narrowing by the moment.

So far, there are nine entries in the simple contest: Tell me, in less than 100 words, what you would do with the first million dollars you earned -- through contracts, bonuses and endorsements -- if you were the No. 1 overall pick at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Leave your answer in a message and I'll pick a winner early in December. Sounds pretty simple to me.

5 Big Sigs

With Colin's hockey game and my work schedule keeping us from hounding the Martin Brodeur-less New Jersey Devils, we'll have to settle for hounding the New York Rangers on Wednesday morning. These are at the top of our wish list:

~ Rangers and Canucks pucks signed by Markus Naslund;
~ a Rangers puck signed by Henrik Lundqvist;
~ Devils and Rangers pucks signed by Scott Gomez;
~ a Prague Premiere puck signed by Brandon Dubinsky; and
~ a baseball signed by Little League hero Chris Drury.

One and dones

If you're going to hound the Nashville Predators, my advice is to get them early and don't expect them too often. Though the team proved to be willing signers before the morning skate, a number of players refused requests for hounds a little late to the breakfast table.

Following the morning skate, I had to convince Ryan Suter, one of the Predators' talented blueliners, that he hadn't signed for me earlier in the day. Even J.P. Dumont, who signed three pucks for me earlier, shot down another hound's request.

"Sorry, man," Dumont told him, "I signed this morning."

I would've stayed longer, to see how the players were at game time, but we have our final Little League game of the season tonight and I wouldn't want to miss the Mudcats play one more time.

Still, though, it's always a good day when you can score 16 pucks among the 27 autographs collected near the St. Pete Times Forum.

Among those signing pucks:

Top row: Radek Bonk, Dan Ellis and Martin Erat
Bottom row: Pekka Rinne, Ryan Suter and Jordin Tootoo

Those signing Predators cards were, from left,Vernon Fiddler, Scott Nichol and Jerred Smithson.

Also contributing to the collection were:

~ Pucks from Jason Arnott, Dumont, David Legwand and Shea Weber; and
~ cards from Kevin Klein, Rich Peverley and Smithson.

Interesting choice

Perhaps I appeared a tad greedy when I approached Nashville's Jason Arnott with four "career road-map" pucks -- Nashville, Dallas, New Jersey and Edmonton -- this morning.

It's not that I'm complaining, either, that he signed just one puck. No, it's like I always say: one puck is better than none.

What I find interesting was that Arnott, the Predators' captain, signed the Stars puck rather than the Predators puck.

Paying attention

It seems like every time I watch the NHL Network's On the Fly show, I see Nashville's Shea Weber making another highlight-reel-caliber play. I suppose, then, it was pretty smart to have him sign these Predators and Milwaukee Admirals pucks.

Catching up

If memory serves me correct, I believe Nashville's David Legwand was one of the first players to send back in one of my most ambitious hounding projects ever -- a multiseason 1,000-request through-the-mail campaign.

Not only did he sign and return the couple of cards we sent, but he also included a nice note thanking us for following his career.

We caught up again Thursday, when Legwand signed these pucks and card for me before and after the team's morning skate.

Maintaining perspective

Ask any veteran hound what NHL player has the worst-looking autograph and there's a good chance that Nashville's J.P. Dumont would be mentioned. You know, I used to agree. Now, after having him sign it three times earlier today, it doesn't look that bad.

Third-line stars

It doesn't happen too often, but it's always a kick when you actually see an NHL player enjoy signing autographs. Mostly, they're second- and third-year pros. As a result, most Upper Deck products lack cards for these players.

That's where minor league sets, from teams to top prospects to All Star Game participants, come in handy. They're a great way to fill out a team book and, if you're good, bulk up the day's haul. Sure, you get a couple of stinkers, but it's common for 75 percent of these sets to serve as card stock.

Case in point: If if wasn't for three Manchester Monarchs cards from AHL team sets, I'd have gotten only one card signed by Nashville's Jerred Smithson, an O-Pee-Chee Predators card.

Nashville's Rich Peverley seemed a bit surprised as I addressed him by name. So, too, did Kevin Klein.

Klein's card comes from In the Game's Heroes and Prospects sets, another book-filling must-have for card hounds.

On the right side

It's rather early in the game for this project piece, but Florida's Tomas Vokoun, a fairly prolific signer (nine-card boards don't even faze him), became the second player to sign Hound Central 4.0's right-handed goalie glove when the Panthers were in town earlier this week.

Vokoun's signature is at the lower right. The other goalie to sign? Minnesota's Josh Harding.

Who else can we add this season? How about the Isles' Rick DiPietro and Washington's Jose Theodore. Tom Barrasso, Carolina's goaltending coach, Columbus' Steve Mason and Tony Esposito, a reported game-night visitor to the St. Pete Times Forum, are also candidates.

Looking ahead, there should be plenty of space left over for Edmonton's Mathieu Garon, Minnesota prospect Nolan Schaefer and Grant Fuhr, Phoenix's goaltending coach.

If you know of anyone else worthy of this project piece, please, don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks.

Taking it easy

Pound for pound, and player for player, the Florida Panthers are one of the best-signing teams in the National Hockey League. Granted, the team may struggle to be competitive, but I certainly didn't let that stop me yesterday from adding 26 signatures from players, coaches and others on a team helmet.

Though I had a full book of cards and a few pucks, I focused on the helmet. It's nice, I believe, to treat one's self to a relative easy day of hounding. It's simple, too, working a team helmet, as it eliminates the need -- for most people, that is -- from prep work and putting names to faces. Rest assured, though, that wasn't my case.


Coaches and players signing the left side of the helmet (from left to right): Peter DeBoer (head coach), Mike Kitchen (assistant coach), Anthony Stewart, Jim Hulton (assistant coach), Jay Bouwmeester, Jamie Pringle (video coach) and Michael Frolik.

Players signing the right side of the helmet (from left to right): Jassen Cullimore, Bill Lindsay (player-turned analyst), Gregory Campbell, Rostislav Olesz, Stephen Weiss, Radek Dvorak, Bryan McCabe and Nick Boynton.

Players signing the front of the helmet (from left to right): Richard Zednik, Noah Welch, Jacques Martin (Florida's GM), Wade Belak, Ville Peltonen and Tomas Vokoun.

Players signing the middle of the helmet (top to bottom): Keith Ballard, Karlis Skrastins, Kamil Kreps, Nathan Horton and Craig Anderson.

With the Panthers coming back to Humidity Bay on Dec. 27 and Jan. 17, I'm hoping to complete the helmet with these players: Bryan Allen, David Booth, Brett McLean, Cory Murphy, Cory Stillman and Pierre Groulx (assistant coach/goaltending).

With any luck, Hall of Famer Denis Potvin, the Panthers' TV color guy, will find the time and room to sign, too.

Mixing it up

There are days within hounding that you simply have to grind it out, putting in the time it takes to round out a collection. That's why after snagging 26 autographs on a Florida Panthers team helmet yesterday, I turned my attention toward the Lightning, bringing an assortment of pucks, cards and a team helmet for the team.

Though I may not have scored autographs from all of Tampa Bay's latest Big Three, snagging nearly a dozen signed cards, including four each from Paul Ranger and Lukas Krajicek, is nothing to sneeze at. Sure, it would've been nice, but it's highly unlikely to get Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis and Steven Stamkos to sign on the same day.

Beyond the cards, those adding to the work-in-progress Lightning team helmet yesterday were Evgeny Artyukhin, Chris Gratton, Adam Hall, Andrej Meszaros and Radim Vrbata.

For the record, an earlier autograph from Michel Ouellet, now with the Vancouver organization, was removed.

All told, the Lightning, including Gary Roberts and Stamkos, added another 19 autographs to the collection.

And, yes, another member of the Big Three did stop to sign, but Santa asked me to keep who it was under my hat.

Another nice memento

It's not too often that you get the NHL's top draft pick to sign a game-dated puck of his NHL debut, but this Prague Premiere puck worked real nice for Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos.

I'd heard Stamkos was getting tougher with signing, but this was the second item Stamkos signed in less than a week.

A bit of advice, though: Stick to one or two items. Offering more than that will likely lead to getting shot down.

Get them while you can

It's not that I'm saying Tampa Bay's Gary Roberts is old or anything, but I believe it's always best to load up on players nearing the end of their career. Dating to his days with the Carolina Hurricanes, Roberts has now signed seven pucks for the collection.

Oh, the indifference

Though the New York Rangers and their fast start might make them the talk of the Big Apple, those taking part in Hound Central 4.0's latest poll show little confidence that the Blueshirts have what it takes to be considered a legitimate contender.

Fifty percent of the 32 taking part believed that the Rangers are not for real. Another 12 voters didn't care what the team did. Combined, a stunning 87.5 percent of participants don't have much faith in the Rangers.

Another telling indictment: Only four true-blue Rangers fans wore their hearts on the voting sleeves.

As of today, the Rangers have posted the most points (28) in the Eastern Conference, trailing only the San Jose Sharks (31) for the NHL lead. Still, though, the Rangers have played a few more games than some of their closest competitors -- Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington.

There's only one way to find out, in fact, whether the Rangers are for real. We'll have to wait until April for that answer.

Question: Are the New York Rangers for real?

No: 16 votes out of 32 cast (50 percent)
Don't care: 12 votes out of 32 (37.5 percent)
Yes: 4 votes out of 32 (12.5 percent)

Sunday morning homily X

Longtime readers of my Hound Central blogs know how much I stress the importance of preparation when it comes to hounding NHL teams. From prepping cards to ordering pucks to recognizing players beyond the stars (any chimp with half a brain, like myself, can do that), it's incumbent upon hounds to do their homework.

But when hounds don't take the time to do this, and come to expect a free ride of my knowledge, well, they quickly learn just how wrong they are. To me, knowledge is valued currency. If you do your homework, your efforts are rewarded. If you don't, you go home emptyhanded.

The empty excuse of not having enough time doesn't cut it, either. Beyond the demands of hounding, I work a fulltime job, help out with household chores, try to be a good husband and, most importantly, an even better father. And despite this welcome workload, I still find the time to get my homework done, even if it means a week of 18-hour days.

Now, I don't mind dispensing some goodwill, in the form of identifying players or snagging an autograph from one of the game's top stars. In my world, though, you need to bring something to the table, rather than another day of "Who's that?" questions, in return.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but sharing has to be a two-way street. I'm not talking about photos, cards, or gas money. No, I'm talking about loyalty, returning favors by offering to lend the occasional hand and, like most of Humidity Bay's hounds, doing things the right way.

Sorry, folks, but I'm only being honest. That's the way it is.

Feeding a reputation

When Oren Koules and Len Barrie bought the Tampa Bay Lightning, I was willing to give them a chance to prove themselves as responsible NHL owners. Being new to the game, so to speak, they deserved at least a season before I would be willing to pass judgment.

After sending coach Barry Melrose back to the boob tube, though, I'm beginning to wonder whether they have a clue to just what the Sam Hell Houston they're doing at 400 Channelside Drive in Tampa.

Okay, so maybe Melrose wasn't the best man for the job. But giving him less than three months to try to correct last season's problems was hardly enough time, especially given the revolving player-only door on the Lightning's roster.

As it stands, I'm afraid Koules and Barrie have adopted a free fantasy-league approach to running the team, where players and coaches are added or dropped on whims. For an organization desperate for consistency, that's no way to run a team.

5 Big Sigs

With both the Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators coming to town this week, Hound Central 4.0 is looking to add these items to the collection:

~ Florida's Jay Bouwmeester, Nathan Horton, Cory Stillman, Stephen Weiss and Richard Zednik, at the least, on the Panthers team helmet;
~ Hall of Famer Denis Potvin, who does color commentary for the Panthers' TV broadcasts, on a Team Canada puck;
~ Florida's Tomas Vokoun on the right-handed goalie glove;
~ Nashville's Ryan Suter and Shea Weber on Predators pucks; and
~ Nashville's Jason Arnott on Dallas, Edmonton, Nashville and New Jersey pucks.

On second thought

It was almost an afterthought to bring items for the Tampa Bay Lightning to sign Thursday, but I'm glad I made that call. Though we were primarily hounding the Detroit Red Wings, Colin and I put our relatively short time with the Lightning to good use.

All told, we probably spent less than 30 minutes trying to get autographs from the Lightning. In that time, though, we scored another 18 signatures, including a Sarnia Sting hat signed by the Bolts' star-in-training Steven Stamkos.

Besides Stamkos, other Bolts who signed yesterday were Evgeny Artyukhin (shown above), Steve Eminger, Marek Malik, Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts.

Eminger, the team's most recent acquisition for its turnstile-like blueline, added to the puck collection by signing these Lightning, Flyers and new-look Capitals pucks. This trio brought our Eminger collection to 10, dating to his days playing for the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League.

Those signing cards were, from left, Artyukhin, Malik, Recchi and Roberts.

For the day, and this includes our efforts with the Red Wings, we added another 46 autographs to our collection.

Nice hat

Who says you need pucks, photos or cards to snag an autograph from Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos? All Colin had to do Thursday was take his Sarnia Sting hat off his head and hand it and a silver paint pen to the Bolts' top 2008 pick. As you can see, Stamkos took care of the rest.