Back in circulation

It's amazing what I find when pawing through the multitude of boxes that are filling up The Vault, the ever-growing receptacle that holds the fruits of our hounding labors.

For example, take this Philadelphia Flyers mini mask, a work in progress from my days hounding in Boston. Deep down inside the darkest recesses of my memory, I should have remembered that I had the piece. But it wasn't until I was looking for another item, did I realize it could come in handy when the Flyers flew to Hockey Bay to play the Lightning.

Philly's goalie coach Reggie Lemelin was one of two Flyers to add to the working piece, signing just below an existing autograph from Antero Niittymaki, then with the AHL Phantoms.

Who else has signed it? They did:

Flyers goalie Martin Biron, who signed it after walking back from the team's morning skate; and

Robert Esche, now with SKA Saint Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League, was the first Flyers goalie to sign the mini mask about five years ago inside Copley Place in Boston.

I'll consider the mini mask complete once Flyers legends Bernie Parent and Ron Hextall sign it. Any others?

A few keepers

It was nice to see Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith taking part in this morning's informal practice over in Brandon, diving across the goal mouth to make a save and working on his stickhandling skills.

It was even nicer, though, when he signed the Tampa Bay Lightning and Utah Grizzlies pucks, shown above, as well as a Lightning mini goalie mask, at left, following the session.

I would've had a Dallas Stars puck for him, too, had Dallas' Brad Richards not taken part in the practice.

For the record, the Grizzlies puck was the 1,550th of the collection.