Puck No. 2,000

Enough with the suspense, right? After a week of writing about it, and leaving faithful Hound Central 5.0 readers hanging for the past few hours, you're now looking at the 2,000th autographed puck of the collection.

Much to our amazement, the Hockey Gods aligned the planets, setting in place the opportunity for Colin to get the milestone puck from his best NHL buddy and favorite player: Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

Though I know I should've captured the actual moment, the memory of witnessing this interaction is indelibly ingrained in my mind:

Patrice comes walking toward us, a smile growing on his face as he recognizes his little buddy. I hand Colin, wearing his Bergeron jersey, the two pucks -- one for the 2010 Winter Classic and this Canada souvenir puck -- we had for Patrice.

"Hey, buddy," Patrice says, "How have you been?"

"Hi, Patrice," Colin says. "I'm good. Can you sign these pucks, please? If you do, we'll have 2,000 for the collection."

Of course, as he always has, Patrice signs whatever Colin asks of him. The Winter Classic puck, one of four we got signed by Bruins players, was No. 1,999. The Canada puck was next.

"Oh, my God," Patrice says. "That's a lot of pucks."

Then, as I'm chiding myself for not grabbing the camera to record the occasion, Patrice and Colin walk away, side by side, heading toward the rink. Patrice asks Colin about his hockey season. I stay a few steps back, letting them have their moment.

The torch, I'm proud to say, has officially been passed.

For the record, though, here's the annual picture of Colin and Patrice, taken after the Bruins' morning skate, moments after Colin gave him an autographed puck.