Day (before) trip

Between Colin's hockey game and my inability to be in two places at one time, I knew full well that hounding the New Jersey Devils before Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning was out of the question. As a result, I went into full mop-up duty the day before the game, adding another 21 autographs last Friday between trips to the team's hotel and the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, where the Devils held an afternoon practice.

The day-long effort, overshadowed by concerns (eventually unfounded, thank God) of a costly repair for the aging Houndmobile, was important, I believe, for two reasons:

1.) It was New Jersey's second, and final, trip of the regular season to Hockey Bay, meaning I could miss, for the first season in recent memory, autographs from living legend Martin Brodeur. I whiffed on Brodeur the first trip in, so adding at least another was a top priority.

2.) I wanted to knock out most of the cards I'd prepared this season for the Devils. After so many seasons of hounding the Devils, from the cold streets of Beantown to the humid air of Hockey Bay, I really don't have much, in terms of pucks, for the team. That's why my attention turned to cards. The fewer I have to put away for future usage, the better.

Among those who signed the 18 cards collected were:

Top row: Andy Greene, Matt Halischuk and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond; and
Bottom row: Colin White, Travis Zajac and Dainius Zubrus.

Also signing cards were, from left, Nicklas Bergfors, Yann Danis, Rob Niedermayer and Andrew Peters.

Other highlights from the day:

~ A couple of pucks from future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur;
~ Scoring a U.S.A. souvenir puck from Zach Parise; and
~ Having Andy Greene chip away at a couple specialty card sets.