Flashbacks 07.21

It's been a long time since we tried one of these, hasn't it? More than five weeks, if you're keeping track.

Long overdue, if you ask me. Enjoy.

June 4, 2008: Tampa Bay's Dave Andreychuk
Jan. 23, 2008: Edmonton's Dwayne Roloson
Feb. 23, 2007: Kevin Paul Dupont, of the Boston Globe
Dec. 6, 2006: Buffalo's Daniel Briere
April 12, 2006: Atlanta's Marian Hossa

Hello, Tony O

Though Colin may have gotten more than 300 autographs on his hand-drawn team sheets over the course of the 2008-09 hockey-hounding season, none were bigger, in my opinion, than this card signed by Hall of Famer goalie Tony Esposito.

I'd heard that Esposito was a frequent visitor to Lightning games and would sign single items as he walked across the plaza at the St. Pete Times Forum.

On Thursday, after hounding the visiting Washington Capitals, we finally put the information to good use. Our patience, I believe, was rewarded.

Next time, though, I'll carry Blackhawks and Canadiens pucks.

Last puck of the season

It wasn't until a moment ago, as I was importing this picture, did I realize that one of these two pucks signed by Washington's Nicklas Backstrom was the last one of the 2008-09 hockey-hounding campaign.

For the record, it's the new-look Capitals logo puck, on the left, that's the 330th of the season and 1,867th of the collection.

Backstrom, not to be confused with Minnesota's Nicklas Backstrom, signed it Thursday before boarding the team bus at gametime. He signed the other during Washington's morning skate.

Former Lightning players Olaf Kolzig, traded to Toronto, and Mark Recchi, in the playoffs with Boston, signed the first pucks of the campaign back in late August.

It never hurts to ask

This week's 5 Big Sigs, a feature within each Sunday morning homily where I name the top autographs I hope to get within the next seven days, included a trio of pucks from Columbus' Mike Peca.

A Hound Central 4.0 reader cautioned me, though, that I might have difficulties getting the veteran center to sign even puck for me. Still, I had to ask when the opportunity arose.

I mean, it's not like I've haven't heard "no" before.

Well, not only did Peca sign two of the three pucks listed, but this Maple Leafs puck is the 300th of the 2008-09 campaign.

Thanks for the memory

When it comes to a player like Toronto's Brad May, there's no problem calling him a pest. He's the kind of player who fans either applaud or loathe.

For Sabres fans, he's the "May Day! May Day! May Day!" call by announcer Rick Jeanneret after May sent the Boston Bruins packing in the 1993 Adams semis.

On a side note, this puck, which May signed on his way to Tuesday's morning skate, was the 1,500th of the 2008-09 hounding campaign.

Puck No. 1,800

Going into Friday's hounding session for the St. Louis Blues, there were 1,799 pucks in The Vault. The first puck signed by a player meant another milestone.

St. Louis' rookie Ben Bishop, who at 6-foot-7 is the NHL's tallest goalie, didn't make me wait too long, signing this Blues puck for the 1,800th of the collection.

Bishop, who played college hockey at the University of Maine, also signed the American-born goalie stick.

They didn't get any beads

For those of you unfamiliar with Tampa Bay area festivities, the annual Gasparilla Day event -- from the flotilla to the parade along Bayshore Boulevard -- is one reserved for adult drunkenness and R-rated debauchery.

It's a day for people, from all walks of life, to dress up as pirates. The drinking? It starts before sunrise. No wall, or tree, is safe from bloated bladders. If you're lucky, you'll even see an impromptu striptease by a fetching young woman as she bumps and grinds her way to the currency of the day -- a string of beads.

Thankfully, I suppose, members of the New York Islanders behaved themselves Saturday. Not a single one, when asked, fessed up to receiving a strand of beads. There wore no tri-colored hats nor carried any plastic swords. Even better, not a single "Aaarrrggghhh" was uttered.

What the Islanders did do, however, was sign for anyone who asked. Though a Saturday morning shift at the paper limited my hounding to the gametime bus, I won't complain after adding 26 autographs, including 18 cards, to the collection.

Among the best signers: Defenseman Brendan Witt (top photo) and winger Blake Comeau (who signed the 500th card - the H&P on far right -- of the 2008-09 campaign), who each inked four cards.

Islanders captain Bill Guerin helped to complete our NHL career collection by signing this Edmonton Oilers puck.

I don't mind sounding like a skipping 33-rpm vinyl record (remember those?), but Guerin is one of the more approachable players not just on the Islanders, but in the league as well.

For my own selfish reasons, more NHL players, from top stars to seventh defensemen, should follow his lead. Then again, I stand a better chance of winning a $247 million Powerball jackpot than that happening, eh?

Also signing cards Saturday were, from left, Chris Campoli, Bruno Gervais and Radek Martinek.

Other highlights of the abbreviated hounding session:

~ Forward Doug Weight redoing a couple of pucks, initially scored during the Islanders' first trip to Hockey Bay this season, that didn't pass Hound Central 4.0's quality-assurance standards;
~ Forwards Kyle Okposo, Guerin and Weight on the USA Hockey team jersey; and
~ Rookie Josh Bailey sticking with silver for a pair of pucks and cards.

The trip for the Islanders also produced a new Hound Central 4.0 feature -- Gallery, a photographic exhibit of NHL players signing for Hockey Bay hounds.

Another platform

As promised, both here in Hockey Bay and in Dallas, here's a sneak peak at my latest article for Beckett publications. This article, in the Feb./March 2009 edition of Beckett Hockey, articulates a puck-hungry hound's newfound appreciation for today's NHL tough guys.

The magazine hit newstands earlier today.

Just a couple weeks ago, the February 2009 edition of Beckett Sports Card Monthly recounted my tale of the day Colin scored 50-plus autographs from the Rangers and Lightning.

Going forward, expect a piece on goalies in the next Beckett Hockey.

And, as always, folks, thanks for stopping by. I hope it's worth it.

Seeing Stars

It should come as no surprise that Hound Central 4.0 gets a little ramped up any time a Western Conference team crosses the Mississippi and makes its way down here to Hockey Bay. Take the Dallas Stars, for instance.

Thanks to a work schedule, a school holiday and leftover 2008 holiday time, the central command here at Hound Central 4.0 headquarters helped to welcome the Stars to town yesterday. We got up early, loaded the car with cards, pucks, sticks, jerseys as well as our game tickets and, by putting in the time and effort, added 65 autographs, including 31 cards, to the collection.

Sure beats work, doesn't it?

It was fun, too, snagging signatures from the Stars' big names -- Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen, Marty Turco, Loui Eriksson, among others. Other than Brian Sutherby, who signed at game time, every Stars player signed on his way over to morning skate.

We missed former Bolt Brad Richards (I'm glad I got him before camps opened) and Brett Hull, one of the Stars' two GMs. Though both signed for a few folks Sunday night, we never saw them Monday. Yes, it would have been nice, but the rest of the team more than made up for it.

Signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Fabian Brunnstrom, Jere Lehtinen and Matt Niskanen
Bottom row: Mike Ribeiro, Darryl Sydor and Marty Turco

Among those signing cards were:

Top row: Stu Barnes, Trevor Daley and Loui Eriksson
Middle row: Jere Lehtinen, Joel Lundqvist and James Neal
Bottom row: Matt Niskanen, Steve Ott and Stephane Robidas

And, no, we didn't forget to have Turco sign the Team Canada jersey. All told, the goalie signed seven items for us yesterday.

We also added these to the collection:

~ Future Hall of Famer Mike Modano on a Stars puck and a Team USA jersey;
~ Four autographed cards each from Marty Turco, Mike Ribeiro and Mark Parrish;
~ Twenty-four players and coaches, including Modano, Turco and Lehtinen, on Colin's team sheet
~ a game-used stick signed by Doug Janik; and
~ the 1,000th autograph of the season from James Neal.

No. 1,000 for the season

Not that I checked with Big Four accounting auditors Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, but Hound Central 4.0 passed a significant milestone yesterday while hounding the Dallas Stars.

Dallas' James Neal signed this card, from In the Game's 2005-06 Heroes and Prospects, for the 1,000th autograph we've collected this season.

Want to know what's scary? We still have another 14 teams, give or take a couple, before season's end.

Another notch

During the course of a season, there are certain milestones that help define the success of a hounding campaign.

As the wearer of many hats here at Hound Central 4.0, methinks we hit one today.

Philadelphia's Martin Biron inked the 200th puck of the 2008-09 season. He signed after I called him over as most of the Flyers paraded off the bus after morning skate.

It's odd, though. No one remembers seeing him leave this morning. My guess, like most others this morning, was that he took an alternate exit (How's that for not saying he snuck out the back door?).

Thanks, folks

Hound Central 4.0 is calling a quick time-out (the good kind) to thank all of the beautiful, intelligent people who visit this little journal of hockey, hounding and life.

Okay, for the rest of us, please accept my sincere appreciation. Our time is valuable; it's humbling when anyone reads what I write.

Yesterday marked the quickest that any of the Hound Central blogs topped 10,000 page views. Normally, it takes until later in the month.

Bravo!

Puck No. 1,700

Over the past four-plus years, I've received a number of autographs from Colorado's Andrew Raycroft.

The first came from his days with the Bruins, where he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year. Then, I added a few more when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But it was last Thursday when Raycroft provided another milestone for Hound Central 4.0 -- the 1,700 autographed puck of the collection.

With more than half of the 2008-09 season remaining, I'd say it's a safe bet that we'll reach 1,800 pucks before April.

Sunday morning homily XII

Ever since the puck first dropped on the 2008-09 NHL season, we've had Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, circled on our calendar. That's when the Boston Bruins and Colin's favorite NHL buddy, Patrice Bergeron, come to town.

We missed seeing Bergeron twice last year, as he recovered from a cheap early season hit from Philly's Randy Jones. Needless to say, the littlest hound in the house, though appreciating the need for Patrice to recover, was a little disappointed.

Now that Bergeron is back in the game, and the Bruins are enjoying a nice run, Colin's pretty pumped that he'll get to see his hockey hero again. Hopefully, too, an early arrival by the Bruins will provide a few minutes for the renewing of acquaintances.

And, yes, we have tickets to the game. We wouldn't miss it for the world.

Upon further review

Earlier this season, I predicted that we'd add another 432 autographs to the collection by next April. Man, was I ever wrong.

When Tampa Bay's Olaf Kolzig signed a 2008 Prague Premier puck last week, it represented the 500th autograph of the season. Granted, it's a family effort here at Hound Central 4.0, but that season milestone came rather quickly.

As a result, and because of how early we are in the season, I've raised the bar to 1,100 autographs before we close the books on the campaign.

Catching a ride

For the second time in as many trips, the Rangers' Markus Naslund and Scott Gomez got a free ride back to the team's hotel following Wednesday's morning skate, thanks to Lightning security staff. Also hopping aboard the all-terrain vehicle was Daniel Girardi.

I guess the half-mile walk on a gorgeous Florida day, as well as a handful of hounds, was a little too much for them.

5 Big Sigs

It'll be a big week here in Hockey Bay if work and practice schedules allow for trips to hound the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres:

~ Boston's Patrice Bergeron on a Bruins helmet;
~ Boston's Milan Lucic on Bruins and Vancouver Giants pucks;
~ those mentioned above, as well as their teammates, on a Bruins jersey;
~ Buffalo's Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller on a Sabres mini helmet; and
~ Buffalo's Patrick Lalime on Sabres, Blackhawks and Senators pucks.

No hard feelings

Even though neither won a game when Tampa Bay opened its 2008-09 campaign with a pair of games in Prague, these pucks from Lightning goalies Olaf Kolzig, left, and Mike Smith make for a couple of keepers (yes, folks, the pun is most certainly intended) for the collection.

The Kolzig puck, the 500th autograph of Hound Central's 2008-09 campaign, was among the six items that Colin allowed me to get signed Wednesday. Yes, I feel guilty about it.

Puck No. 1,600

Of the 36 autographs I collected yesterday from the New York Islanders, only one of the 11 pucks signed carried true significance.

When forward Mike Comrie signed this Kootenay Ice puck, it became the 1,600th autographed puck of the Hound Central collection.

Next stop: 1,700 autographed pucks.