Pleasant surprise

Like most every other hockey hound I know, the upcoming NHL season can't arrive soon enough. Allan, Hound Central 4.0's correspondent in Toronto, got an early start. Here's his report:

Well I'm happy to say that hockey is up and running in the Great White North! Leafs players, I hear, started showing up at their practice rink last week.

Recently, a local sporting goods store held a grand opening with Columbus goalie Steve Mason, who was signing for free. Imagine that? Free autographs from the reigning rookie of the year.

Because there were limits of one per adult and two per kid, I took my two kids. All told, we snagged five autographs - two pucks and the three 8x10s shown below. Mason also brought the Calder trophy with him.

We were about 25th in line and it only took about 15 minutes to go through the line. My kids wanted to go through again, but I didn't want to. I guess we could have, but it didn't feel right.

Mason was a nice kid and posed for photos with the kids. I wished him a great and healthy season, but asked him to take it easy on my Leafs!

Be first in line

With only hours to go before Hound Central 4.0's latest and most organized attempt at live blogging, why not get your questions or comments in early? They can be submitted via a comment (preferred) or an e-mail, available at my profile. It'll help us out, if you do, as we'd like to hit the ground running at 10 p.m. EST.

I've heard from Moody, so he's on board, offering insight on hounding from Alaska to Michigan to Georgia and many points in between. Given the hoops of communication that will have to be jumped through, it would be better if questions for Hound Central 4.0's roving Southeast correspondent arrive earlier, rather than later.

I'm still waiting to hear, too, from Al, our Toronto-based correspondent. Even if he can't take part, we can look forward to his Toronto Blue Jays hounding report next week at Baseball Mondays. Baseball in hockey-mad Toronto? Hard to believe, isn't it, the Jays have playing since 1977.

And, yes, I'll be bummed if I can't share my "fish poop" argument.

Remember, the live blogging starts at 10 p.m. EST tomorrow. We'll start answering your questions then. Send some good ones, okay?

Update: Air Canada Centre

Professional courtesies are cool. They certainly help you get into places that others less connected can not. Given that access, any hound worth his or her salt needs to be put the target-rich opportunity to good use. Anything less, I'm afraid, is unacceptable.

For instance, there's Al, Hound Central 4.0's correspondent in Toronto. From time to time, he's able to gain postgame access to the visiting team locker room area at the Air Canada Centre. As a result, he and his children have added some pretty sweet autographs to their collection.

How close do they get to the players? Want a slice of pizza from Washington's Alex Ovechkin? Go ahead, ask.

In a stellar example of practicing quality over quantity, taking place a little more than a week ago, Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Sergei Fedorov signed following a game against the Leafs.

A closer look at the latest haul. Ovechkin's auto is much different than his rare road "AO8."

Another postgame visit, taken place earlier this season, yielded these items from Philadelphia Flyers players: 8x10s signed by, clockwise from top left, Mike Knuble, Mike Richards, Martin Biron and Simon Gagne.

Hall of Famer Bob Clarke signed the Flyers puck.

Here's the end result of some real hustle, a Philadelphia Flyers team helmet signed after a game in Toronto.

Players signing the helmet were Jeff Carter, Matt Carle, Scottie Upshall, Luca Sbisa, Knuble, Antero Niittymaki, Andreas Nodl, Richards, Andrew Alberts, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, Riley Cote, Joffrey Lupul, Josh Gratton, Biron, Jon Kalinski and Braydon Coburn.

From what I hear, though, not everyone in the vicinity was as thrilled with the effort shown in putting together the piece. From that point forward, quality took precedence over quantity.

Still, though, some things are worth a little grief.

Here's a nice haul from another instance of postgame access: three 8x10s and a puck from Ovechkin. The bottom puck is signed by teammate Michael Nylander.

Bounty from earlier trips include McFarlane bases signed by Ovechkin and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, who signed as he walked from the visiting team locker room to the team bus.