Renewing acquaintances

After hitting the Tampa Bay Lightning hard in training camp, it's been a conscious decision to take a break from hounding the Bolts. With Colin on holiday vacation, however, we've found that it's a solid opportunity to revisit the hometown team.

We made our first trip of the break Wednesday, snagging a baker's dozen autographs in less than 30 minutes. Later today, we'll spend some more time hounding the Lightning with hopes of adding quality and quantity. Recent card releases have added to the Bolts' stockpile, so we hope to make as a big of a dent as we can.

If not, though, we're more than happy to have added these from Wednesday's trip:

Signing cards were, from left, Kurtis Foster, Ryan Malone, Antero Niittymaki and Alex Tanguay.

The card was not the only item Tanguay, who's been on somewhat of a hot streak as of late, signed for us.

He also signed this puck, from his junior days when he was tearing it up in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, as well as adding to the Threads project, which features jersey swatch cards.

As a side note, this puck represents the first step in a long march to the next major milestone of the autographed puck collection. After Boston's Patrice Bergeron signed the 2,000th puck of the collection, it didn't take long to score No. 2,001.

If you're down here in the Hockey Bay area, make sure you stop by one of the local Champs sporting goods stores in most of the malls. For most of the season, the stores have been handing out -- simply for the asking -- these promotional cards of Lightning players.

Also on Wednesday, we had Matt Walker, one of the Lightning's offseason acquisitions, sign this one.