It's been a couple weeks

Well, a so-called soft launch of Hound Central 5.0 is about two weeks old. Thankfully, we've had NHL players and prospects filling rinks here in Hockey Bay as well as South Florida and Toronto before NHL training camps open, giving me and others something to cheer and, when the mood strikes, write about.

Heck, there's even a hounding report on the Oshawa Generals.

I imagine, too, I'll come back with a closing post, more detailed in plans and goals for Hound Central 5.0. Until then, feel free to peruse any of the many stories from the 2008-09 hockey hounding campaign here at Hound Central 4.0.

And, if you haven't visited it yet, Hound Central 5.0 has its own YouTube channel, HockeyBay Hound.

And, as always, please know that I truly appreciate your support. It's something I can't say enough. Thanks, folks.

NHL players reporting to rinks

From what I hear, NHL players are taking to rinks getting ready for the upcoming training camps.

I read on Facebook yesterday that Buffalo's Tim Connolly was skating at the Skanteateles (N.Y.) Community Center. I've heard, too, that incredibleICE, down in South Florida, might have a few familiar faces twirling around the rink.

Looks like we'll have to take a ride over to the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, to see if anyone's shaking off some summer rust.

Flashbacks 06.10

It's been nearly three weeks since the last installment of this summer space filler. How about a mixture of team and player reports from Hound Central 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0?

April 2, 2008: Atlanta Thrashers
Oct. 27, 2007: Buffalo Sabres
Feb. 20, 2007: Florida's Eddie Belfour
Oct. 29, 2006: San Jose Sharks
Feb. 17, 2006: Hall of Famer Stan Mikita

Flashbacks 04.29

You know, I rather enjoy compiling this weekly offseason feature. Each posting is a stroll down memory lane. Hopefully, you'll enjoy them as well:

Feb. 23, 2008: Boston Bruins team sheet
Dec. 14, 2007: Calgary's Jarome Iginla
Feb. 13, 2007: Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky
Nov. 26, 2006: Ottawa's Jason Spezza
Nov. 2, 2005: Then-Florida's Roberto Luongo

Baseball bonus: Tampa Bay's Akinori Iwamura

Feel free to check out Hound Central's 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0.

Flashbacks 04.14

Now, I know most of you come here looking for tales of our hockey-hounding adventures. But, did you know there are hundreds of hounding reports from seasons past available at Hound Central 3.0, Hound Central 2.0 and the one that started it all, Hound Central 1.0?

Now that the hockey-hounding season has ended down here in Hockey Bay, I'll do my best to provide you with some must-reads from previous campaigns to tide you over.

Here's the first random sampling:

~ Jan. 10, 2008: Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin
~ Sept. 16, 2007: Hall of Famer Bill Barber
~ March 27, 2007: Florida Panthers' Martin Gelinas
~ Dec. 9, 2006: Anaheim's Teemu Selanne
~ Dec. 28, 2005: Hall of Famer Ray Bourque

Trade analysis

A few thoughts on the 22 NHL deadline-day deals that went down today:

Most interesting

Toronto gets G Olaf Kolzig, and D Jamie Heward and D Andy Rogers -- three players dealing with injuries -- and a fourth-round pick in 2009 from Tampa Bay for minor-leaguer D Richard Petoit.

My take: This deals smells like a favor, so Tampa Bay can dump some salary. Doesn't it? I won't be surprised when the other shoe drops with Toronto. How about Leafs D Tomas Kaberle for RW Marty St. Louis?

Thumbs up

~ Buffalo gets C Dominic Moore from Toronto for a 2009 second-round pick. He'll add some more grit to the Sabres lineup.

~ Boston gets RW Mark Recchi and a 2010 second-round draft pick from Tampa Bay for F Martins Karsums and D Matt Lashoff. A third Stanley Cup ring should punch Old Man Recchi's ticket to hockey's
hallowed hall.

~ Phoenix gets F Nigel Dawes, D Dmitri Kalinin and F Petr Prucha for D Derek Morris. I'd make this three-for-one trade, especially because it includes Dawes, day after day after day.

Thumbs down

~ Florida gets D Steve Eminger from Tampa Bay for D Noah Welch and a 2009 third-round pick. The Panthers will be Eminger's third team this season. At least he had a chance to make the playoffs. With all due respect to Welch, I'd rather Eminger stuck around Hockey Bay.

~ C Patrick O'Sullivan, acquired earlier from Los Angeles for Carolina's LW Justin Williams, moved again, with a 2009 second-round pick, to Edmonton for LW Erik Cole. It would've been cool had O'Sullivan, who grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C, and played youth hockey in Raleigh, suited up with the Hurricanes.

Update

I guess the high-ranking source had no clue what he was talking about. I thought it sounded kinda shaky. I hope the surgery went well.

It all adds up

It's funny how deep a player's collection can extend. Take Pittsburgh goalie Mathieu Garon, for instance.

From his days with the AHL's Manchester Monarchs to yesterday before the team's morning skate when he signed this Penguins puck, we've accumulated eight from him: Edmonton Oilers, L.A. Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Hamilton Bulldogs, Manchester Monarchs, Quebec Citadelles and the 2005 AHL All Star Game.

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it, for a guy who's bounced around a bit? Then again, goalies are a major part of our collection.

Garon also signed the right-handed goalie glove, shown above, joining Minnesota's Josh Harding and Florida's Tomas Vokoun.

Don't delay

Only hours remain to enter January's Win this Auto contest -- this puck signed by Hall of Famer and Islander hero Denis Potvin.

Really, how often do you get the chance to obtain, for a mere 100 words on how you'd spend a day with Lord Stanley's Cup, an autographed puck from one of the game's best defensemen?

It's not just that, either. That's a pretty sweet autograph.

I even pick up the shipping.

Certainly worthy

Besides crossing off the remaining names on the Florida Panthers team helmet, adding two distinctive players to the Team Canada jersey was the primary goal this past Saturday before Florida played the Tampa Bay Lightning.

As you can see, that objective was met, with Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester (above) and Hall of Famer Denis Potvin (below, on the right), a TV analyst for the Panthers, both signing the jersey.

It's amazing, too, the response you get from players when presenting them with a national team jersey. Both Bouwmeester and Potvin remarked that it was nice to sign something that meant so much to them.

Please know, too, that we're far from done with the Team Canada jersey. It will likely be a near-constant companion through the end of the season.

Willing to oblige

Once again, I must admit to some serious cherry-picking, primarily on the Team Canada jersey, when Colin and I headed out to hound the Florida Panthers this past Saturday. The Panthers, making their third trip to Hockey Bay this season, didn't seem to mind.

While we did let quite a few players walk past, we did our best to get these cards signed by, from left, David Booth, Michael Frolik, Nathan Horton and Anthony Stewart.

Call them what you want

While most people I know call this a memorabilia card, Colin calls them "feely cards," because you can feel the swatch of jersey that's tucked into the card.

Florida's Nick Boynton was kind enough this past Saturday to add this card from his time in Beantown to Colin's autograph collection.

Win this auto: Denis Potvin

Of all the duplicate autos that I've picked up, this official Team Canada puck -- signed by Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin -- represents two instances of historical significance for Hound Central 4.0's Win this Autograph exercise.

First and foremost, the puck is, by far (at least in my book), the biggest name to be offered. Potvin, captain of the four-straight Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders dynasty, could skate, score and hit.

Hence, the ticket to Toronto.

It's also fairly recent, obtained Dec. 27 when the Florida Panthers played Tampa Bay. Potvin, a three-time Norris Trophy and 1973-74 Calder winner, now provides commentary during Panthers TV broadcasts.

As always, my loss is your gain. Tell Hound Central 4.0, in 100 words or less, what you would do with your day with the Stanley Cup. Please, no debauchery. We have some young readers.

If you want to win, you have to participate. Answers must be left in a comment. I'll notify the winner in early February.

Have fun.

Addendum (Feb. 5, 2009): Two other entries were left on this post.

Perfect sense, I hope

Here's a bit of advice. If a team's television analyst is a Hall of Famer, like Denis Potvin is for the Florida Panthers, it's always a good idea to carry some items for him. The legendary Islanders defenseman signed these cards for Colin before last Saturday's game against Tampa Bay.

Busy afternoon

In a perfect hounding world, I'd attend every morning session, especially those on Saturday mornings Time and time again, this window of opportunity consistently provides the best chance to snag autographs.

That's not to say, though, that game-time hounding sessions should always be avoided. While mob scenes do happen, especially when the NHL's bigger-name teams come to Hockey Bay, most Southeast Division foes draw fewer than 12-15 hounds/fans as the teams head to games. No, these sessions are well worth attending.

Take the Florida Panthers, for example. I had to work last Saturday morning, meaning we'd be limited to just a game-time session. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem. With a little help and some hustle, we socked away another 45 autographs, including 30 cards, in about an hour before the Panthers' 6-4 loss to the Lightning.

Here are some highlights:

~ Getting a pair of autographs from Hall of Famer Denis Potvin;
~ expanding the breadth and depth of the puck collection;
~ scoring a hat trick of pucks from Cory Stillman;
~ having Keith Ballard and David Booth sign the Team USA jersey; and
~ marveling at Tomas Vokoun's willingness to sign autographs.

Who signed the cards shown above?

Top row: Jay Bouwmeester, Radek Dvorak and Nathan Horton
Bottom row: Kamil Kreps, Tomas Vokoun and Stephen Weiss

Also signing cards were, from left, Nick Boynton, Bryan McCabe, Noah Welch and Richard Zednik.

Different looks

We're all familiar with the Florida Panthers logo, aren't we? Not the one with a palm tree and hockey stick crossed over a blazing sun. No, the one with the leaping cat, its teeth and claws bared. Yeah, that one.

Well, now that we've made that point allow me to make mine. Tapping into a diverse pool of pucks, like the ones shown above, are an excellent way to add breadth and depth to a collection.

These four pucks, among the 10 scored from the Florida Panthers last Saturday, illustrate my point:

Team USA: Keith Ballard (also signed a Panthers puck)
Rochester Americans: David Booth
Rimouski Oceanic: Michael Frolik (also signed a Panthers puck)
Milwaukee Admirals: Karlis Skrastins (also signed a Panthers puck)

So do the three from Cory Stillman.

Thanks, Stiller

It's always nice whenever we score a hat trick of pucks from an NHL player. This time, it was Florida's Cory Stillman who signed the trio. Pretty sweet, don't you think?

Waving the flag

Every so often, the luck of a schedule launches a run on a particular item. After adding four players from the Avalanche earlier this month, Florida's Keith Ballard and David Booth signed our Team USA jersey before Saturday's game against Tampa Bay.

Booth's signature, shown above, rests between autographs from Avalanche defensemen Jordan Leopold and John-Michael Liles. That scribble above is from Boston's Phil Kessel. Ballard's signature is below.


Next trip, I'm bringing the Team Canada jersey for Jay Bouwmeester.

Can't say that I have

I'm curious. Have you ever seen Florida's Tomas Vokoun ever turn down a request for an autograph? I haven't. Ever. He is, by far, one of the most prolific signers in the NHL.

This card, one of four he signed Saturday before taking a 6-4 loss against the Bolts, comes from the 2004-05 UD Hockey All-World Edition.

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.