Update: 2009-10 Western Conference visitors

Back on April 3, I predicted that the following teams would be visiting Hockey Bay for the 2009-10 season: Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Phoenix Coyotes and the Vancouver Canucks.

Well, even though the Lightning's 2009-10 schedule has yet to be released, a little bird told me that these would be the teams: San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild, Los Angeles Kings, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and the Phoenix Coyotes.

The only difference? The Sharks.

It won't be long before we get official word.

Update: Lots for the Lightning

Given all of the movements made by the Tampa Bay Lightning's new ownership last season, with the team drafting Steven Stamkos first overall and signing such free agents as Olaf Kolzig, Ryan Malone, Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts, the 2008-09 edition of the Tampa Bay Lightning provided the target-rich hockey-hounding environment.

Forget Vinny Lecavalier's abysmal season, a foggy Mike Smith, the revolving door on defense and, unfortunately, executive office in-fighting. The team, despite its foibles, still carried quality NHL players. Why that talent couldn't jell, that's not my job. That's a question better left to Lightning brass.

Still, hounding the Lightning provided a backbeat to the 2008-09 campaign. Trips were made in bunches, during training camp and clustered throughout the season. All in all, three Lightning-specific themes rounded out the collection: a team jersey, adding 32; a team helmet, a somewhat disappointing effort with only six signatures; and, of course, a bunch of pucks.

Going into last season, I figured to add 75 pucks from the Lightning alone. Didn't make it. Not even close:

Len Barrie (co-owner): Lightning and Kamloops Blazers

Brandon Bochenski: Lightning

Matt Carle: Lightning and San Jose Sharks (no longer with team)

Steve Downie: Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers

Steve Eminger: Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals new

Adam Hall: Lightning, Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins

Riku Helenius: Lightning

Andrew Hutchinson: Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes (no longer with team

Olaf Kolzig: Lightning, Lightning Prague Premiere game-dated, Washington Capitals new logo, Washington Capitals eagle, Washington Capitals original logo, 2000 NHL All Star Game, Washington Capitals 25th anniversary, 1998 NHL All Star Game, Rochester Americans, Portland Pirates and Tri-City Americans

(Editor's note: A special tip of Hound Central 4.0's battered Cooper SK600 to Olie the Goalie. For what it's worth, he's a class act.)

Oren Koules (co-owner): Lightning and Saw DVD cover

Lukas Krajicek: Lightning and Vancouver Canucks

Tom Kurvers (co-assistant GM): Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils (Never saw him)

Brian Lawton (director of hockey operations): Lightning and Minnesota North Stars

Vincent Lecavalier: Lightning three-stripe, Lightning Prague Premiere game-dated, 2009 NHL All Star Game, 2008 NHL All Star Game and Notre Dame Hounds (at left)

Claude Loiselle (co-assistant GM): Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Quebec Nordiques

Ryan Malone: Lightning

Barry Melrose: Lightning, NHL 2Nite, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Winnipeg Jets (No longer with team)

Andrej Meszaros: Lightning

Vinny Prospal: Philadelphia Flyers

Kari Ramo: Tampa Bay Lightning-Norfolk Admirals (at left), Norfolk Admirals and Springfield Falcons

Mark Recchi: Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens and Kamloops Blazers

Gary Roberts: Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins

Matt Smaby: Lightning, Tampa Bay Lightning-Norfolk Admirals first year affiliation, Norfolk Admirals and Springfield Falcons

Mike Smith: Lightning, Lightning Prague Premiere game-dated, Dallas Stars and Utah Grizzlies

Martin St. Louis: 2009 NHL All Star Game

Steven Stamkos: Lightning, Lightning three-stripe, 2009 NHL All Star Game, Lightning Prague Premiere game-dated, NHL practice puck, Team Canada and Sarnia Sting

Rick Tocchet (interim head coach): Lightning, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Coyotes and Phoenix Coyotes geodesic design

Mike Vernon (special assistant to Brian Lawton): Lightning, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks and Portland Winter Hawks (never saw him)

Radim Vrbata: Lightning, Phoenix Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes (no longer with team)

Wes Walz (assistant coach): Lightning, Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild inaugural season (at left)

Ty Wishart: Lightning, San Jose Sharks and Prince George Cougars (never saw him; hope to real soon)

I had no pucks for Jussi Jokinen (no longer with team), Jeff Halpern, Mike Lundin, Shane O'Brien (no longer with team) and Paul Ranger.

2008-09 Lots for the Lightning totals
Autographed pucks: 64
Autographed jersey: 32
Autographed helmet: 6
Autographed sticks: 2
Bottom line: 104 (or 10.3 percent of Hound Central 4.0's noncard autographs collected during the 2008-09 NHL hounding campaign)

Editor's note: This list originally appeared on Hound Central 3.0.

Update: 10 Big Sigs

Before the 2008-09 hockey hounding season down here in Hockey Bay, I predicted that these items would be added to the collection.

Let's see how I did:

No. 10: Montreal's Saku Koivu on the Canadiens' legends jersey - Did not obtain

No. 9: Dallas' Brad Richards on a Stars puck

No. 8: San Jose's Dan Boyle on a Sharks puck

No. 7: A team-signed Boston Bruins jersey

No. 6: New Jersey's Martin Brodeur on a replica jersey

No. 5: Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby on Colin's #87 Penguins jersey - Did not obtain.

No. 4: Columbus' Rick Nash on Blue Jackets and Team Canada pucks

No. 3: Pucks from Chicago's Patrick Kane (Blackhawks, London Knights and Team USA) and Jonathan Toews (Blackhawks, Team Canada and University of North Dakota)

No. 2: Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Henrik Zetterberg on Red Wings pucks

No. 1: Chicago's Nikolai Khabibulin (provided he stays), Columbus' Fredrik Modin (provided he stays healthy) and Toronto's Pavel Kubina on our Tampa Bay Lightning 2004 Stanley Cup Champions items. - Not a single item.

Looking back, it wasn't a great season, but it wasn't bad. Though Crosby signed during his visits to Hockey Bay, I missed getting him to sign. Perhaps, too, I overshot on the goals for the Red Wings. And Koivu signed a Canadiens team helmet instead.

The biggest disappointment, though, was not adding to the Tampa Bay Lightning 2004 Stanley Cup Champions items. One would think that the No. 1 item on the 10 Big Sigs campaign would take precedence, but a combination of players not traveling to Hockey Bay (Khabibulin and Modin) and simply forgetting (Kubina) worked against me.

Still, I'm happy to have added what we did. I'm sure, too, that this project will return for the 2009-10 hockey hounding campaign. This time, though, I'll have to keep my eyes on the prize, won't I?

Outside the norm

Though we added only six signatures to the Slovakian team jersey over the 2008-09 hockey hounding campaign, it's hard to complain when Detroit's Marian Hossa is one of them. It's too bad, though, that Big Poppa Pump's distinctive signature, one of 11 collected on the jersey over the past two NHL seasons, is a bit sloppy.

While Canadian and USA jersey projects are popular, as well as those for Czech Republic, Finnish Russian and Swedish players, this particular effort represents another solid expansion of a project that's just outside the mainstream of hockey collecting.

Here's who signed over the past season during visits to Hockey Bay:

~ Colorado's Peter Budaj and Marek Svatos;
~ Detroit's Hossa and Tomas Kopecky;
~ Montreal's Jaroslav Halak; and
~ Tampa Bay's Andrej Meszaros.

Next season, we'll be looking to add, at the least, Buffalo's Andrej Sekera and Washington's Milan Jurcina. The list will grow, I presume, once the Lightning's 2009-10 schedule is released and I can run through rosters.

Likely candidates, based on my best guesses, would include Edmonton's Lubomir Visnovsky, Los Angeles' Michal Handzus, Minnesota's Marian Gaborik and Branko Radivojevic, and Vancouver's Pavol Demitra. Tampa Bay's Vladimir Mihalik seems like a lock, too.

Just one more

In compiling the season-ending update for Hound Central 4.0's Slovakian team jersey, I discovered that an autograph went uncounted. Updated totals for the 2008-09 hounding campaign reflect the change.

Update: 85 Young Guns

After stopping by our local card shop -- the House of Cards in Pinellas Park -- I learned those 85 Young Guns I pulled from a hobby box of 2008-09 Upper Deck Hockey Series 2 were likely part of a nuclear-hot case.

It seems that other hockey card collectors who bought boxes at The House of Cards also reported insane amounts of Young Guns as they ripped open packs. In one case, Young Guns filled entire packs.

Honestly, I can't imagine Upper Deck making a conscious decision to do that. To me, it sounds more like someone putting stacks of Young Guns, rather than base cards, into the collator.

Still, though, no complaints.

Higher priority

For some reason, I thought that this Hockey USA team jersey would be nothing more than an afterthought throughout the 2008-09 NHL hounding campaign. You know, something that would be remembered occasionally, rather than regularly. A plugger, if you will, for American-born stars from visiting teams.

One day, while doing some hounding homework, I realized that each team, especially the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, had quite of few Team USA alums. Big names, too. Mike Modano. Bill Guerin. Ryan Miller. Doug Weight. They join Phil Kessel, whose tiny scribble started it all during the 2007-08 campaign.

All told, we added 20 signatures this past season. It looks like we have room for a few more, too, during the 2009-10 campaign.

One shy of two dozen

What started out as a blank slate, so to speak, quickly became one of my favorite pieces from the 2008-09 hockey-hounding campaign. All told, 23 NHL players took part in the Team Canada jersey project.

The qualifications are simple. Any Canadian-born winner of a Stanley Cup, Olympic or World Championship gold medal, No. 1 draft pick or a Hound Central 4.0 favorite is eligible. A fluid situation, at the least.

Yes, I would have been nice to add one, or even a few more, ending the campaign with two dozen or 25-plus autographs. But that's the beauty of an ongoing project. Each season brings new opportunities to fill in the blanks with players who've already signed pucks and cards for us.

Among the inaugural Class of 2008-09: New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, Hall of Famers Ron Francis, Cam Neely and Denis Potvin and Triple Gold winner Brendan Shanahan.

Dallas' Brad Richards was the first to sign it, back in late August, after a pre-training camp workout with former Tampa Bay Lightning teammates.

Others to sign were Patrice Bergeron, Jay Bouwmeester, Brad Boyes, Rod Brind'Amour, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, Barret Jackman, Vinny Lecavalier, Milan Lucic, Brad Richards, Mike Richards, Marty St. Louis, Marc Savard, Eric Staal, Steven Stamkos, Marty Turco and Cam Ward.