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.