Not much room left

Want to see what happens when you cram 22 autographs from 20 players (yes, two players signed twice) on one of Colin's team sheets? Well, take a look at this one, signed by most every Washington Capitals player.

I'll give you three guesses -- and the first two don't count -- at which one didn't sign it. Though he signed later in the day for two other boys, he refused Colin's requests before morning skate, at the morning skate and at gametime.

Still, though, when you can snag autographs from Alex Ovechkin's teammates Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green and Jose Theodore, it more than makes up for it. All in all, it's a nice way for Colin to close a seasonlong project.

Standing out

It's always nice when one of the NHL's top stars does something to help his autograph stand out on one of Colin's team sheets. This time it's Ottawa's Dany Heatley providing the honors.

Heatley's signature, big and in blue, certainly stands out among the 11 players who took the time to sign the sheet, doesn't it?

Other notable signers were Mike Fisher, Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov.

He's happy with a few

You know, it would be easy to say that Colin had a bad day yesterday working his team sheet, getting only seven signatures on it, as well as one from goalie Wade Dubielewicz, on this goalie equipment sheet.

To him, though, it's more about having fun and interacting with players than it is loading up on his team sheets.

In fact, Colin passed on getting Rick Nash's autograph so the Blue Jackets' captain could put a little "goal-scoring magic" in a Nash-model TPS stick that he'll soon be using in his practices and games.

So, who did sign the team sheet? These guys did: Kristian Huselius (from left), Derek Dorsett, Raffi Torres, Manny Malhotra, Antoine Vermette, Jakub Voracek and Steve Mason.

A work of art

Yeah, Colin's hand-drawn logo for this Atlanta Thrashers team sheet may have been inspired by surrealist Salvador Dali (our regular booth at Fortunato's in downtown St. Petersburg, where we had lunch today, has "Apparition," a Dali print, on a wall), but it certainly didn't deter 16 members of the team from signing his latest handiwork.

Notable signers include Ilya Kovalchuk (top of sheet), Kari Lehtonen (under the logo), Slava Kozlov (second from left at bottom) and Zach Bogosian (far right, about two-thirds of the way down).

To date, Colin has collected 276 autographs on 19 team sheets this season. Conditions exist, too, for him to top 300 before season's end.

No problems here

Leave it to a Hall of Famer to try to stand out among a crowd. That's Ron Francis, the associate head coach for the Carolina Hurricanes, who supplied that gigantic blue signature in the middle of Colin's team sheet.

Think I'm complaining? Not a chance. Kinda cool, if you ask me.

Who else are among the 14 signatures? Here's who: Rod Brind'Amour, Eric Cole, Tim Conboy, Joe Corvo, Matt Cullen, Patrick Eaves, Chad LaRose, Kevin McCarthy, Mike Ryan, Sergei Samsonov, Dennis Seidenberg, Eric Staal and Niclas Wallin.

We didn't miss out on Cam Ward, either.

Kid's play

As is often the case, Colin's team sheet for the St. Louis Blues proved quite popular with the 17 players and/or coaches who signed it before Friday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'm no longer amazed at how players seemingly flock to his hand-drawn creations and serve up compliments as quickly as they would one-timers. They are, without a doubt, the hit of Hound Central 4.0's 2008-09 hounding campaign.

Among those signing were Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, players Dan Hinote, Barret Jackman, Cam Janssen, Chris Mason and Alexander Steen, and rookies Patrik Berglund and Ben Bishop.

Hockey history, perhaps

Moody, Hound Central 4.0 roving Southeast correspondent, believes he may have set hockey hounding history. After a recent trip to a hotel in Gwinnett, Ga., he may have been the first autograph hound to actually hound an East Coast Hockey League team at its hotel.

Actually, if Moody is right, and this was history, he can't take sole credit for it. Nope, I'm sure daughters Mikayla and Natalie might have something to say about that. From what I hear, they did the lion's share of the hounding:

Mikayla, using a pink paint pen, got a dozen Everblades players to sign a stick blade: David Leggio, #33; Anton Khudobin, #35; Noah Babin, #5; Mark Lee, #22; Benn Olsen, #59; Ryan McGinnis, #2; Kevin Baker, #71; Ernie Hartlieb, #9; Steve McJannet, #7; Ryan Lang, #20; Colin Nicholson, #16; and Doug O'Brien, #26.

Natalie, making her first-ever hounding adventure, had the same dozen players sign her team sheet.

Moody, not one to sit on the sidelines, even got into the act, snagging this card from Hartlieb.

After hounding the Everblades, Moody and the girls went to the Everblades game against the hometown Gwinnett Gladiators. After the game, after which two Gladiators sign for fans, Mikayla added autographs from Gwinnett's Joe Fallon and Jordan Fox on a freebie backpack, above, and another of her custom stick blades. The girls got the puck during warmups.

Bottom line, everyone had fun. Moody got to spend some quality time with his daughters. The girls had a great day. I imagine, too, the players got a kick out of it as well.

Plenty of room

Yes, it's a bit of a surprise that only 10 Bruins signed Colin's team sheet yesterday, given Boston's reputation, other than Phil Kessel, as a good-signing squad. Still, three of them came from All Star Marc Savard, pest Milan Lucic and Hall of Famer Cam Neely.

Not a bad hat trick, if you ask me.

Others signing were P.J. Axelsson, Byron Bitz, Shane Hnidy, Michael Ryder, Mark Stuart, Shawn Thornton and Dennis Wideman.

In full color

Sure, I suppose Colin should've stuck to one color Sharpie while working his team sheet for the New Jersey Devils earlier tonight. But, really, does it matter?

It didn't bother him or the 14 players -- including Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta, Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise and Brian Rolston -- who signed for him.

These guys also signed: David Clarkson, Scott Clemmensen, Jay Leach, John MacLean, Michael Rupp, Anssi Salmela, Bryce Salvador, Colin White and Dainius Zubrus.

Proven formula

As always, Colin's team sheets were a big hit. A respectable number (13) of Chicago Blackhawks, including Patrick Kane, Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook and Cristobal Huet took the time Tuesday afternoon to sign for Colin.

The highlight, though, was a fairly animated conversation between Eddie Olczyk, a former Blackhawk and current TV analyst, and the Goofy Dude about the virtues of doing well in school.

Other signers were Cam Barker, Marc Bergevin, Troy Brouwer, Aaron Johnson, Antti Niemi, Joel Quenneville, Matt Walker and James Wisniewski.

Good as gold

If there is a constant within hounding, it has to be that NHL players love seeing kids with hand-drawn items, like Colin's team sheet for the Toronto Maple Leafs. How can we tell? Nearly every one of the 19 Leafs -- including Nikolai Antropov, Jason Blake, Pavel Kubina and Luke Schenn -- who signed complimented Colin on his artistic efforts.

It's like I say, I don't know who has more fun -- Colin or the players.

Nineteen out of 20

I used to pride myself on being able to identify most any signature that Colin got on one of his team sheets. I'm not so sure I'm able to do that anymore.

For the life of me, I can't tell which member of the Buffalo Sabres signed the bottom left corner of this sheet yesterday before heading off to play the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'm hoping it's Derek Roy, but I've never seen a sloppy Roy autograph like that.

What I can say, though, is that these players and coaches did sign:

Tim Connolly, Matt Ellis, Paul Gaustad, Jochen Hecht, Ales Kotalik (top center), Patrick Lalime, Toni Lydman, Clarke MacArthur, Ryan Miller (above and to the left of the "30"), Teppo Numminen (atop the Buffaslug's head), Nathan Paetsch, Daniel Paille, James Patrick, Jason Pominville (to the right of Miller's signature), Craig Rivet, Lindy Ruff, Jaroslav Spacek, Drew Stafford (under "Sabres") and Thomas Vanek (above, and to the top right of that undecipherable scribble).

Anyone out there in hockey hounding land recognize it?

They're on board

How popular are Colin's team sheets with visiting team players? Judging by the number of positive comments he received yesterday from Dallas Stars players and coaches, including Dave Tippett and Marty Turco, it only reaffirms our belief that they all get quite a kick out of seeing them.

Colin even explained to Turco how he drew the star, with the goalie smiling and taking it all in.

"That's a pretty good job there, buddy," Turco told Colin.

Here's who signed Colin team sheet yesterday morning: Krystofer Barch, Stu Barnes, Fabian Brunnstrom (top-left corner), Chris Conner, Trevor Daley, Loui Eriksson, Nicklas Grossman, Andrew Hutchinson, Mark Lamb, Jere Lehtinen (bottom-right corner), Joel Lundqvist, Mike Modano (on the star), James Neal, Matt Niskanen, Steve Ott, Mark Parrish, Toby Petersen, Mike Ribeiro (top left of star), Stephane Robidas, Tobias Stephan, Darryl Sydor, Tippett, Turco (top right of star) and Rick Wilson.

No, Colin didn't have the "pleasure" of meeting Brett Hull. We never saw him. His loss, right?

What's an hour?

It wasn't until I got a tip about the team's arrival time earlier today that I decided to take the Goofy Dude over to Tampa for an after-school hounding trip for the Philadelphia Flyers. And though the Flyers arrived about an hour late, we were both glad we made the trip.

Not only did it end a 10-day run without us hounding any hockey teams, but we also added another 28 autographs, including 16 on Colin's team sheet. Not bad, I'd say, for an impromptu trip.

In the two times we've hounded teams right after their arrivals, we've had pretty decent luck. Now, I'm not ready to declare this window of opportunity as the best time to score autographs, but it is quickly gaining favor here at Hound Central 4.0.

So, who signed Colin's team sheet? Craig Berube, Matt Carle, Jeff Carter, Braydon Coburn, Riley Cote, Simon Gagne, Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Mike Knuble, Lasse Kukkonen, Joffrey Lupul, Joe Mullen, Mike Richards, Kimmo Timonen, Scottie Upshall and Ossi Vaananen.

Loud and clear

Given that I'm his father, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Colin needs to work a little on his patience. Having crunched deadlines for decades, I'm a sooner-rather-than-later kind of guy. And the apple, I'm afraid, didn't fall far from the tree.

Just ask Montreal's Patrice Brisebois, one of 17 players to sign Colin's team sheet before Tuesday's game against Tampa Bay.

It seems that the young man made repeated "Can you sign, please?" requests to the Canadiens defenseman before he responded "Can you be a little more patient, please?"

Properly scolded, and much to my relief, Colin waited his turn as Brisebois worked his way through pucks, cards and photos.

"Now," Brisebois said, turning to Colin, "I have time to sign for you."

Also signing the team sheet, the ninth of the 2008-09 season, were, in alphabetical order, Steve Begin, Matt D'Agostini, Bob Gainey, Josh Gorges, Jaroslav Halak, Roman Hamrlik, Doug Jarvis, Andrei Kostitsyn, Sergei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, Guillaume Latendresse, Ben Maxwell, Kirk Muller, Tomas Plekanic, Carey Price and Alex Tanguay.

Day off from school

It's not every day that a 7-year-old gets to meet the defending Stanley Cup champions. That's why we took an "educational" field trip to Tampa yesterday to not only take in the Red Wings-Lightning game, but for Colin to get the chance to meet some Detroit players.

And, as you can see, the young man was able to meet 16 players and one television play-by-play guy, who were more than willing to make his day by signing another one of his team sheets.

Among the notable signers were Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby and Chris Osgood.

For the record, we also added to the "educational" nature of the trip by taking a streetcar ride to the Florida Aquarium, where we checked out sharks, petted cownose rays and learned about otters.

Tough draw

I've gained a greater appreciation for the designer of the Ottawa Senators logo. Though I like to think I possess a little artistic talent, I struggled mightily trying to draw the logo for Colin's team sheet.

As you can see, he did a much better job of coloring, rendering it recognizable to most, than I did using up our card stock.

Though work limited us to only a rain-shortened game time bus session, he was able to score 10 Senators players and coaches.

Notable signers include Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Jason Smith, Nick Foligno and ex-Bolts defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard.

Time well spent

It's been a busy day so far today, between hounding, a makeup Little League game, a boy's-only lunch (Momma had to work) at Wing House and getting ready for tonight's San Jose-Tampa Bay game.

As you can see, though, we put our time to good use this morning, as Colin scored 17 autographs from the Sharks before the team headed over for its morning skate. Among those signing were Joey Thornton, Dan Boyle, Rob Blake, Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek.

Daddy didn't have too bad of a morning, but you'll have to wait to see how he did. He's not done yet.

Room for 20

If I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times: If your child wants to be a hit with NHL players, have him draw or color a team sheet like Colin did this morning for the Minnesota Wild.

Most every player commented on Colin's artistic abilities. In the interest of full disclosure, though, I must admit I drew the outline of the logo, but Colin was the one who applied the colors.

Twenty members of the Minnesota Wild, including such big names as Marian Gaborik, Nicklas Backstrom, Nick Schultz and Jacques Lemaire took care of the rest.

Immediate dividends

One of our favorite events during the Lightning's training camp is the annual IceFest for fans. Like most NHL teams, it's a day designed to get fans excited about the return of hockey.

Between the games and festivities for children, an early look at the team and the opportunity to score some autographs, it's no surprise that the IceFest draws a good number of fans to the St. Pete Times Forum.

That doesn't mean, though, that you have to stand in long lines to get a couple of signatures.

Following our formula to put ourselves in the right place at the right time with only a handful of other hounds, Colin had another awesome day of hounding, thanks to Lightning players young and old.

Using a team sheet, drawn on the ride over from St. Petersburg, he scored a cool dozen autographs, including some from established NHLers Andrej Meszaros, Adam Hall and Mike Lundin. As always, the players get a kick out of these, asking him whether he made the sheet or commenting upon his artistic abilities.

The jersey, however, was a different story. After a couple hours out in the Sunday morning heat, the cool relief inside the Forum was a little too much. Rather than spend $35 for a long-sleeve Lightning shirt, I snagged a used Lightning practice jersey for the ridiculously low price of $25 for him to stay warm.

Later, as we attended a season-ticket-holder-only event, which provided tasty Cuban sandwiches and pizza as well as much shorter lines for autographs, he was able to get such Lightning notables as Dave Andreychuk, Chris Gratton and Shane "Popeye" O'Brien to christen the jersey.

Not bad for a kid, eh?