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