Handle with care

Even after adding eight signatures yesterday to the Atlanta Thrashers team stick -- a lucky $25 find (it was already signed by Ilya Kovalchuk) at a Lightning Foundation fundraiser -- I'm still uncomfortable getting items like this signed.

It has nothing to do with actually asking the players to sign it. I could probably do that in my sleep. My issue comes with just how unwieldy these items really are. No matter how much caution I exercise, my biggest fear is conking someone -- a player, fellow hound or innocent passerby -- in the melon.

So far, thankfully, it hasn't been a problem.

Having said that, though, I hope others exercise the same amount of caution. I certainly wouldn't want to get whacked by a stick like this:

From left: Slava Kozlov (existing), Niclas Havelid (existing), Colby Armstrong (existing), Garnet Exelby and Ilya Kovalchuk (original)

From left: John Anderson, Bryan Little and Slava Kozlov (existing)

From left: Ron Hainsey, Chris Thorburn and Todd White

From left: Johan Hedberg (existing), Eric Boulton and Eric Perrin.