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!

Doubling up

Want to know what happens when all get into the same autograph line for Tampa Bay's prospects? Actually, that's an easy question. Not only can you get seven particular players, fresh from participating in Saturday's night scrimmage at the Lightning's Young Guns camp, to sign a team postcard, but you can also snag all on a puck.

Prospect card, from left: Luke Witkowski, Carter Ashton, Juraj Simek, Jordan Mayer, Matt Read, Dustin Tokarski and Kyle DeCoste.

Prospect puck, from left: Juraj Simek, Carter Ashton, Dustin Tokarski, Kyle DeCoste, Jordan Mayer, Matt Read and Luke Witkowski.

Sorry to make you wait

In hindsight, I would've been better off not having Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay's top pick at the 2009 NHL Draft, sign these three pucks. Nope, I should've been home tending to a cold that blossomed a day after the Swedish defenseman completed the hat trick. It's taken me three days to even remotely recover.

See Stamkos?

It was easy to see just how much Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos has matured in the past year. A year ago, he was the hugely hyped No. 1 overall pick, all smiles and full of confidence.

Then came Barry Melrose. What a mistake that was. To his credit, Stamkos showed that he did, in fact, belong in the NHL.

Now, with that sorry episode behind us, Stamkos appeared much more at ease Saturday night with his still-growing role with the Bolts. He knows it, too. Like free agent signee Mattias Ohlund, he'll help mentor 2009 top pick Victor Hedman as well.

The leap to the NHL from the OHL has been made. And Stamkos, I believe, stuck the landing.

Oh, yeah, he signed a new-look Canada puck for us.

I don't know about this

It's not that I'm complaining or anything, but I'm having a hard time getting a Carter Ashton out of these autographs. I mean, yeah, he is a first-round pick, going 29th after Tampa Bay took Victor Hedman at second overall. But, still, that auto -- stylish and all -- looks like he's been at it for 15 years.

He's having fun

If there's one person who's thoroughly enjoying himself at the Tampa Bay Lightning's Young Guns camp these days it has to be goalie Dustin Tokarski.

Every time I've seen him, from the team's hotel to the rink to a post-scrimmage autograph session, the kid, a 2008 fifth-rounder, has had a milewide grin.

My guess? He's just soaking up the experience, even if winning WJC gold for Team Canada in 2009 wasn't enough, and looking forward to training camp. If it's anything else, it's only because he's a goalie.

In an instant

Though I carried cards and pucks during his brief appearances on Tampa Bay's blueline last season, I somehow managed to miss getting a single autograph from defenseman Ty Wishart.

That all changed Thursday, at the end of a long, cold-worsening day of baseball, hockey and hounding, when Wishart not only signed the two pucks, shown above, but these cards as well.

Wishart, part of the trade that sent Dan Boyle to San Jose, is taking part in the Lightning's Young Guns camp this week.

No shame in these

With the John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene -- the top 2009 NHL Entry Draft prospects -- in Tampa earlier today for a meet-and-greet with the Tampa Bay Lightning brass, a handful of Hockey Bay hounds took it upon themselves to welcome the trio of soon-to-be millionaires to Tampa.

As you can see, Duchene, a forward who signed the Brampton Battalion puck, and Hedman, a Swedish defenseman who signed a NHL practice puck, allowed me to add to our collection, When it came to Tavares, who often personalizes items, I flat-out missed with two pucks.

I suppose I could've asked as he sat in the back seat of a waiting Escalade outside the Marriott Waterside, after I got the pucks from Hedman and Duchene. Thankfully, Tavares did sign something for Colin.

Who knows, maybe I'll head back over tomorrow morning and try my luck again. If not, he'll be around during the 2009-10 campaign.

Still, snagging two of the top three likely picks at the NHL Draft later this month isn't anything to sneeze at.

Flashbacks 04.22

Like reading about or looking at hockey autographs? Me, too.

Check out these installments from past hockey-hounding campaigns:

Jan. 16, 2008: Colorado's Joey Sakic
Nov. 4, 2007: Hall of Famer Phil Esposito
April 16, 2007: Cup winner Glenn "Chico" Resch
Sept. 24, 2006: Dallas' Mike Modano
Nov. 26, 2005: Los Angeles' Yutaka Fukufuji

Got lots of time? Find hundreds of more adventures at Hound Central 3.0, Hound Central 2.0 and, most certainly, Hound Central 1.0.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

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

Easy to take

As much as I'd love to crow about snagging an autograph or two from Washington's Alex Ovechkin during the Capitals' visit Thursday, one simple fact forbids me. For the second hockey-hounding campaign in a row, I didn't get a single one.

Want to know something? I'm not that disappointed. Not after the day enjoyed by Hockey Bay's Goofy Dudes of Hounding had, Ovie's autograph or not. It helped, too, that other Capitals, including such toughies as Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green and Jose Theodore, were more than willing to sign, especially at gametime.

Besides the pucks shown above -- signed by, from left, Mike Green, Michael Nylander and Simeon Varlamov as Washington's morning skate (yeah, we got in) wound down -- we closed out the visiting team campaign with another 38 autographs from the Capitals.

Signing cards were:

Top row: Matt Bradley, Mike Green and Viktor Kozlov
Bottom row: Brooks Laich, Brian Pothier and Simeon Varlamov.

Washington wingers Alexander Semin, left, and Tomas Fleishmann added to the Portland Pirates practice jersey:


Other highlights of the Capitals adventure:

~ Saying "Ovie who?" after Colin scored a stick from Alexander Semin just after the Capitals' morning skate;
~ Getting Nicklas Backstrom to sign the 330th, and perhaps final, puck of the 2008-09 hockey-hounding campaign;
~ Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, winner of the 2008 Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach, signing an ECHL Mississippi Sea Wolves puck; and
~ Last, but not least, Colin running out of room on his team sheet.

And, let's not forget the Capitals photo gallery.

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.

Did you know this?

If I have a calling card when it comes to hounding, it's my penchant for pulling out obscure pucks for players and coaches to sign. Not only does it often lead to getting more than one puck signed at a time, but it also adds depth and an element of scarcity to the collection.

Following this philosophy, Washington coach Bruce Boudreau added one of the few East Coast Hockey League pucks to The Vault during Thursday's morning skate. Boudreau, who won the 2008 Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach, led the Mississippi Sea Wolves to the 1999 Turner Cup championship.

While I know he guided the Hershey Bears to the 2006 Calder Cup title in the American Hockey League, I was somewhat surprised to learn that he's ranked 14th all-time in AHL scoring, including a 116-point season with the 1987-88 Springfield (Mass.) Indians.

A real clunker

It'll have to go down as a pretty sad day in Hound Central history. When the biggest highlight of hounding the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday is this Tampa Bay Lightning coin card of Ruslan Fedotenko, well, you see where I'm headed.

Even this puck, signed by Jordan Staal, a player with a growing reputation for being a toughie, hardly makes up for the disappointment of, once again, missing out on Sidney Crosby.

Though he signed for a few folks, I was too far back in the crowd to get close enough for him to sign Colin's replica Crosby jersey.

Yes, it's disappointing. It would've been nice to have him sign it for Colin. Thankfully, he'll be around for awhile and my luck will turn.

The same situation took place with Marc-Andre Fleury. Again, I was too deep in the crowd, a residual effect of Crosby's appearance, to get within Fleury's range. Yes, it's been a long season.

Evgeni Malkin? Never saw him leave for morning skate. And I don't remember seeing off coming back off the team's bus.

Oh, well, can't win them all, can we?

Well, we did get backup goalie Mathieu Garon to sign the Manchester Monarchs practice jersey. All told, the effort for the Penguins produced seven autographs. Yes, seven autographs.

Now that I'm done feeling sorry for myself, I must say the day wasn't a total bust. These alone made the trip well worth the time:

~ Right winger Bill Guerin, acquired in a trade-deadline deal, signing the sixth puck in less than 13 months; and
~ Appreciating defenseman Philippe Boucher's placement of an autograph. Yes, it was that bad.

Though I was too busy missing out on Crosby and Fleury to get pictures of them signing for a handful of hounds. I put together a second gallery of the season for the Penguins.

Firsthand knowledge

Looking back over the past 13 months, I've got to give Bill Guerin, a trade-day acquisition by the Pittsburgh Penguins, a long round of applause.

This Penguins puck, signed before Tuesday's morning skate, was the sixth he's added to The Vault, Hound Central's puck repository, in little over a year:

03.11.08: New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues
10.16.08: New York Islanders and San Jose Sharks
02.07.09: Edmonton Oilers

Years ago, I'd heard that Guerin was a decent signer. It's the truth.

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.

They delivered

Despite the best-laid plans, there are hounding adventures that simply don't work out. Yesterday's planned morning trip for the Ottawa Senators, in town to play the Lightning, was just one of the instances.

Between morning thunderstorms and an afternoon shift at the newspaper, I was unable to hound Ottawa. Instead, two highly capable replacements -- Colin and Momma -- were dispatched to the scene.

They came through in flying colors, adding a couple of sweet signatures, including Dany Heatley (top left) on the work-in-progress Team Canada jersey, to the collection.

In all, they scored 17, including 11 on Colin's team sheet.

Beyond Heatley, Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson was the other big name who stopped to sign. In doing my prep work, I was surprised that I've yet to get Alfredsson on any type of Senators puck.

This puck, commemorating the 2004 NHL All Star Game, is a welcome addition, nonetheless. It's relevant, too, as Alfredsson scored two goals, including the game-winner, in the midseason classic.

Given that Ottawa will travel twice to Hockey Bay next season, I'll have to remember, though, to try to get Alfredsson on some Senators pucks.

Colin also had pretty decent luck adding to his late-season project, a goalie-only mini stick.

Ottawa's Alex Auld, who's bounced around a bit over the past few seasons, became the fourth netminder to sign the stick.

Sorry, but you'll have to wait until next season for a Senators photo gallery. It's hard to take good pictures when you're sitting at a desk about 18 miles away from the action.

Top Shelf: Rick Nash

Excuse me for my pomposity, but any time you add four pucks from Columbus' Rick Nash, one of the NHL's brightest stars, it certainly qualifies for Top Shelf status. Granted, it may taken me two days to get all four, but it just goes to show the rewards of making an effort.

A couple of hat tricks

It's always a good feeling when you can get an NHL player to sign three pucks for you. It's even better, however, when two players -- such as Columbus' Rostislav Klesla (top row) and Raffi Torres -- each sign a trio.

These six pucks were among the dozen scored in Monday's rain-filled hounding adventure.

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.