Fan Pack attack II

Though I didn't enjoy much success in my fan pack efforts, it's nice to know that Moody, Hound Central 4.0's roving Southeast correspondent, had a great season getting professional hockey teams to send him a ton of free goodies.

Next season, I'm taking a different approach. Rather than sending our requests in bulk e-mails (appearing, I hate to admit, as a spammer), I'll send out a couple a day to select teams. Cherry-picking, I suppose, but that's my prerogative.

In the meantime, these items, received by Moody over the past few months, cap the fan pack reports for the 2008-09 hockey hounding:

Team: Dallas Stars
League: National Hockey League
Items: Player cards for Mike Modano and Marty Turco, oversized player cards for Trevor Daley, Brenden Morrow, Steve Ott and Tobias Stephen, a sticker set and a Stars mini pennant.

Team: Frolunda HC
League: Elitserien, or the Swedish Elite League
Items: Autographed player sheet of goalie Johan Holmqvist, a former member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Team: SC Bern
League: Swiss National League A
Items: Autographed player sheet of Martin Gelinas, a former NHL player.

Among the other teams to send items not previously profiled:

~ the New York Islanders sent out a team poster; and
~ the Rockford Ice Hogs of the American Hockey League sent a program and player photos of Evan Brophey, Mike Brennan and Bryan Bickell.

Fan Pack: New York Rangers

I imagine this might come across as being extremely ungrateful, especially within the Big Apple, but what is an organization like the New York Rangers doing sending out fan packs, including schedules for the 2008-09 season, in the final weeks of the season?

Being an Original Six franchise, one would expect the organization would have its fan marketing house in order. The recent arrivals, however, cast that assumption into the wind.

The envelopes (yes, they sent one each to the three occupants of the Hound Central 4.0 household) carried a March 31 postmark. The original request, which asked for just one fan pack, was sent, via-email, on Aug. 15, 2008.

It's not that the Rangers' effort isn't appreciated. It is. It just seems like it's a little late in the game, so to speak, for them to arrive.

Still, though, one can't complain too much. While some teams send out entire team postcard sets, the Rangers opted for one of King Henrik. Colin got a big kick, too, out of the sticker set.

The schedule, though? That one has me scratching my head.

Here's my report:

Team: New York Rangers
Date sent: Aug. 15, 2008
Date received: April 2, 2009
Elapsed time: 230 days
Items received: Henrik Lundqvist postcard, team sticker set and a 2008-09 season schedule

Update: Hounding in Georgia

Though he may be loathe to admit it, Moody, Hound Central 4.0's roving Southeast correspondent, likely lamented his move to the Greater Atlanta area from the comfort of his home near Hockey Bay.

Not only would it mean an uprooting of his family -- a far more serious consideration than anything else -- but it presented a new set of hounding challenges.

With this update, though, Hound Central 4.0 is pleased to report that Moody has got back into his groove, as these items, collected during a recent hounding adventure to the team's practice facility in Duluth, Ga., serve as undeniable proof.

Here, we have pucks signed by tough guy Eric Boulton, top, on an ECHL playoff puck, and left winger Slava Kozlov, who signed a Red Wings 1998 Stanley Cup champions puck.

On a side note, Moody reports that Atlanta's novice collectors are among the more intelligent ones in the area, with the veterans, so to speak, offering only unreliable information. Again, this shows that digging your own intel is the best way to go.

Still, after adding more than 30 autographs ("Thou Sharpie runneth over," was how Moody put it), there's little to complain about.

Those signing cards, top photo, were:

Top row: Chris Thorburn, Rich Peverley and Ron Hainsey, one of the Thrashers' most-engaging signers; and
Bottom row: Zach Bogosian, Garnet Exelby and Tobias "One-per" Enstrom

Thanks, Dallas

Moody, a lover of all things free, was delighted when Atlanta's Johan Hedberg signed this fan pack card from the goalie's days deep in the heart of Texas.

Many multiples

It doesn't matter where you hound, it's always a pleasant outing when players and/or coaches are willing to sign more than a single card:

Center Bryan Little, one of the Thrashers' rising stars, had no trouble signing these six cards;

Goalie Kari Lehtonen, a proverbial signing machine, asked Moody whether he had anything else after signing these six cards for him;

Randy Cunneyworth, an assistant coach with Atlanta, signed these Buffalo and Hartford cards; and

Center Jim Slater was good for these four cards.

Bruins' blunder

I'm hearing that the Boston Bruins organization has limits on reaching out to its fans -- primarily, the Canadian border.

Here's an excerpt from the Bruins' response for a fan pack from a Bruins fan in Ontario:

Thank you for the recent email.

The Boston Bruins wish to thank you for your loyalty and support. At this time, team policy does not permit us to mail Fan Packs outside of the United States of America.

We thank you again for your understanding.

Fan Relations
617-624-BEAR
fanrelations@bostonbruins.com

Needless to say, this is disappointing news, especially for the tipster:

"Bruins need to understand that hockey is a Canadian game," he wrote. "CRAZY!"

I couldn't have said it any better.

Fan Pack attack

I was going through some e-mail folders and discovered quite of few from Moody, Hound Central 4.0's roving Southeast correspondent, sharing some successes of his e-mailed fan pack project.

You'll see that responses arrived from far and wide:

Team: Boston Bruins
League: NHL
Items: Bumper stickers, pocket and wallet schedules, and a keychain
Notes: Apparently, the Bruins won't send these packs to Canada

Team: Phoenix Coyotes
League: NHL
Items: Calendar magnet, mascot magnet, pocket schedule, mascot trading card and four temporary tattoos

Team: ERC Ingolstadt
League: Deutsche Eishockey Liga, or DEL
Items:Three autographed team posts, including Bruno St. Jacques and Michael Bakos

Team: Eissportverein Zug, or EVZ
League: Swiss National League A
Items: Signed set of postcards, including former NHLers Josh Holden and Brad Isbister

Team: Sinupret Ice Tigers
League: Deutsche Eishockey Liga, or DEL
Items: Team-signed set, including former NHLers Frederic Cassivi, Cole Jarrett (1 game), Brad Leeb, Greg Leeb, Alain Nasreddine, Andre Savage and Brian Swanson.

Team: HC Lugano
League: Swiss National League A
Items: A full set of autographed 5 x 7 player cards, including John Pohl, Julien Vauclair, Patrick Thoresen, David Aebischer and Timo Helbing

Team: SC Bern
League: Swiss National League A
Items: Autographed players sheets, including, Simon Gamache, Ramzi Abid, Christian Dube, Sebastien Bordeleau and Travis Roche, as well as a team pin

He's a big fan of these cards

Want to know why it's a good idea to ask hockey teams for fan packs? Well, sometimes you receive a set of team-issued postcards that work well for in-person hounding.

Hound Central 4.0 correspondent Moody, who properly preaches the virtues of anything free, put these for Buffalo's Toni Lydman and Craig Rivet to good use when the Sabres visited Hockey Bay on Saturday.

Fan Pack: Florida Everblades

In a way, I'm disappointed in myself.

Having lived down here in Humidity Bay for two-plus years now, the only pro hockey we've seen has been in Tampa.

We've yet to make the four-hour run across Alligator Alley to watch the Panthers, even turning down an offer to make a road trip next week because of work. Even closer, down in Estero, are the Florida Everblades.

The Everblades, the ECHL affiliate shared by the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, became the first minor pro team to honor our e-mailed request for a fan pack.

Though some may quibble over schedules and stickers, they can always be put to good use.

The schedule shows when the Augusta Lynx, the Lightning's ECHL club, will be in town. A sticker and white paint on a stick blade create a useful team item. From what I hear, it's pretty easy to get autographs.

Here's my report:

Team: Florida Everblades
Date sent: Aug. 15
Date received: Oct. 25
Elapsed time: 71 days
Items received: three 2008-09 season schedules and three team stickers

No disappointment here

In the grand scheme of things, there's only one person who ranks higher than Carolina goalie Cam Ward in Colin's world of favorite NHL players.

That's why it's such a big deal every time the Hurricanes arrive in Humidity Bay to play the Lightning. This season's first trip, however, nearly brought a missed opportunity.

It seems that Colin had expended too much energy in his day with his Auntie Kathy, falling asleep about the time Ward and the Hurricanes made their way to the St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday afternoon.

Not wanting to disappoint Colin, Momma and I made sure that sincere pleasantries were exchanged and that Ward signed these items for him. The card, shown above, came in the Hurricanes fan pack we received last week. The puck, an official game model, came from Red Deer, Alberta, where Ward played his junior career.

Oh, yeah, who tops Colin's list? C'mon, you ought to know by now. It's Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

Fan Pack: Carolina Hurricanes

I imagine it's just sheer coincidence, but we did get a kick out of receiving a fan pack from the Carolina Hurricanes just days before they take on Tampa Bay in the Lightning's home opener. Still, there were zero complaints when our mailman delivered the third fan pack of the season.

If Colin's lucky, too, he just might get Carolina goalie Cam Ward, one of his favorite Hurricanes, to sign one of the team-issued player cards. The team sticker was a big hit, too.

Here's my report:

Team: Carolina Hurricanes
Date sent: Aug. 15
Date received: Oct. 9
Elapsed time: 55 days
Items received: four player cards: Rod Brind'Amour, Scott Walker, Cam Ward and Ray Whitney; one team card; one logo sticker, one logo tattoo and a 2008-09 pocket schedule

Fan Pack: SCL Tigers

I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever receive another fan pack in the mail when one arrived earlier this week from the SCL Tigers of the Swiss National League A. In it were three players autographed player cards, including this one by Michel Zeiter.

Besides an introductory letter in German, there were also cards of Alan Tallarini and Jeff Toms.

The best thing about this fan pack? It allows me to teach Colin a little geography, showing him that hockey is played across the world, just not North America.

Here's my report:

Team: SCL Tigers
Date sent: Aug. 15
Date received: Sept. 22
Elapsed time: 38 days
Items received: three signed player cards: Alan Tallarini, Jeff Toms and Michel Zeiter

Fan Pack: Vancouver Canucks

Earlier this summer, I spent an e-mail blast to professional hockey teams from North America to Europe asking whether they provided -- free of charge -- fan packs or promotional materials.

At first, I got some bounceback e-mails from bad addresses. Then came e-mails stating that fan packs required a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Yesterday, the wait ended, thanks to the Vancouver Canucks.

Here's my report:

Team: Vancouver Canucks
Date sent: Aug. 15
Date received: Aug. 27
Elapsed time: 12 days
Items received: five player cards perfect for signing: Jeff Cowan, Brad Isbister, Ryan Kesler (shown above), Mattias Ohlund and Byron Ritchie; and a team sticker.