Erasing doubts

Never in a million years, no, make that a gazillion years, would I believe that four of the biggest names from the Montreal Canadiens all agree to sign the team helmet, bringing one chapter of Hound Central 4.0's season goals to completion.

That's what happened, though, when these players and the head coach found room on the helmet:

Captain Saku Koivu (top right) and Robert Lang (bottom left). Others shown, from left, are Kirk Muller, Guillaume Latendresse and Carey Price;

All Star Game MVP Alex Kovalev, top, joining Bob Gainey on the Canadiens logo; and

Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau.

Glad I missed this

Most times, I regret having to drive home from hounding in Tampa so I can get into the office at the prescribed hour. This past Tuesday, with the Montreal Canadiens, was no different. Because I had to work -- reading back on stories and rewriting the occasional headline -- Colin and I were limited to just the morning session.

From what I hear, though, I should be happy I had to work that evening. No fewer than three hounds told me the game-time hounding session for the Canadiens could be summed up in two words: mob scene.

Between a larger-than-normal complement of Hockey Bay hounds and a sizable clutch of French-speaking Habs fans enjoying a holiday week of Florida sunshine, estimates for Tuesday's game-time crowd ranged from 75 to 100.

The crowd was so big and unruly that hotel security, who tried to escort the Habs' bigger-name players to the team's bus, apparently lost control of the crowd. How bad did it get? Well, the driver of the team's bus reportedly had to keep fans from climbing aboard.

All the time, I was about 20 miles away, content in my chair at the office, knowing full well that we had a solid morning, snagging 43 autographs. And, as you can see, my main project was a Canadiens team helmet, which 22 players and coaches took the time to sign:

Signing the right side, shown above, were, from left: Alex Tanguay (shown, in better detail, at left), Ryan O'Byrne, Maxim Lapierre, Tom Kostopolous, Bob Gainey and Andrei Markov.

Signing the left side were, from left: Carey Price, Guillaume Latendresse, Doug Jarvis, Francis Bouillon and Patrice Brisebois.

Signing the front were, from left: Steve Begin, Ben Maxwell, Mike Komisarek, Roman Hamrlik and Kirk Muller.

Signing the middle were, from left: Sergei Kostitsyn, Josh Gorges, Matt D'Agostini, Tomas Plekanic, Andrei Kostitsyn and Roland Melanson.

Who did I miss? Most of the Canadiens stars, including Alex Kovalev and Robert Lang, who said they'd sign after the morning skate but waited until game time to sign a handful of autographs for the crowd.

We'll also have to add coach Guy Carbonneau and goalie Jaroslav Halak as well as injured players Saku Koivu, Chris Higgins, George Laraque and Mathieu Dandenault.

Still, though, a pretty respectable effort in the morning and certainly no complaints for missing a mob scene.

Other highlights included:

~ veteran defenseman Patrice Brisebois reminding Colin that patience is, indeed, a virtue;
~ Halak becoming the 11th player to sign the Slovakian team jersey; and
~ having a game-used stick for Tampa Bay goalie Karri Ramo, an emergency AHL call-up staying at the same hotel as the Habs and their willing-to-travel faithful.

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.

Getting what we could

Though I would've liked to finish this 2008-09 season project in one trip, I'm going to have to wait until March 29 to complete this Ottawa Senators team helmet. Still, though, getting 11 players and coaches to sign in an abbreviated hounding session is nothing to sneeze at.

Because I had to work Saturday (I'm running out of vacation days to use), we were relegated to about an hour of hounding Ottawa. And though a late afternoon rainstorm cut short the session, I consider ourselves lucky we added another 16 items to the collection.

So, who signed the helmet? Here's who, in alphabetical order: Mike Fisher, Nick (not Mike) Foligno, Martin Gerber, Craig Hartsburg, Curtis Hunt, Filip Kuba, Dean McAmmond, Chris Phillips, Christoph Schubert, Jason Smith and, thankfully, Jason Spezza.

Beyond the decent start to the helmet, other items added to the collection were:

~ Four pucks from Alexandre Picard, a former Bolts defenseman; and
~ Ten players, including Spezza, who signed Colin's team sheet.

Though on-scene reports applauded the Senators' signing habits before the team's morning skate, it was a classic example of role reversal later in the day.

Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who's becoming tougher with each season, stuck to his "I signed this morning" routine as he headed over to the St. Pete Times Forum. Others following suit, or those who simply ignored requests to sign, were Dany Heatley, Chris Neil, Chris Kelly, Antoine Vermette and Anton Volchenkov.

Good suggestion

An old friend of mine once told me that the blog needed more pictures of players signing autographs.

I imagine this -- Hall of Famer and Bolts radio color guy Phil Esposito putting the first signature on my Lightning team helmet -- is just what he was talking about.

Stop by later tomorrow. I'll have another interesting item from a future Hall of Famer.

Points of entry

There's always a point of realization in one's pursuit that branching out only enhances the value of your efforts. While I see no problem maintaining my particular focus -- autographed hockey pucks -- the benefit to building the depth of the collection is crystal clear.

That's why, as we sit on the cusp of an NHL season, a journal's pages more empty than full, Hound Central 4.0 will embark upon another three projects:

Team Canada jersey: Given the many players who've worn the tri-color leaf, this would be easy to fill. I'm thinking, though, that this will be used for cherry-picking. I'm hoping Tampa Bay's Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis and Steven Stamkos are the first three to sign it.

Colorado's Joey Sakic, Columbus' Rick Nash, San Jose's Joey Thornton and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur would be a darn good start, too.

Team helmets 2008-09: To me, the Lightning is a must-have. Between all the new faces and last season's retooled logo, working this through the season is something I'm good at: a no-brainer.

The main reason I picked Ottawa and Florida is that I won't have too many pucks, don't need too many more cards and, for the most part, they're good-signing teams. So, why not?

Lots for the Lightning: I've been writing about this for some time now. It's funny, too. Without all of the new ownership group's changes, I was looking at a pretty lean year with the Lightning. That's changed now.

The trio joins these existing projects:

~ American-born goalie stick
~ USA Hockey team jersey
~ Slovakian team jersey
~ Team Canada goalie mask
~ 1999 NHL All Star Game helmet