Team report: Toronto Maple Leafs

Part of my goals for the 2010-11 hockey-hounding campaign was to scale back my efforts. Between work and family obligations, I needed to cut back on other endeavors. Limiting my time spent hounding was one way to do that.

I'm finding, however, that it's easier said than done. Rather than pack up and leave after Toronto's Kris Versteeg was the last player to head out Tuesday for the Maple Leafs' morning skate, I stuck around near the St. Pete Times Forum instead.

My reason for staying wasn't just adding more autographs. Seldom does the reward match the effort, I've learned. No, it was more about hanging out with friends, busting each other's chops and talking hockey. To me, that's the best part of the hobby. Adding another 28 autographs doesn't hurt, either.

Signing some of the 11 pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Tyler Bozak, Luca Caputi and Mike Komisarek; and
Bottom row: Clarke MacArthur, John Mitchell and Colton Orr.

Among those signing cards were, from left, Francois Beauchemin, Jonas Gustavsson and Tomas Kaberle.

Other highlights from a morning of hounding:

~ Pucks signed by Toronto's Big Four; and
~ a shout-out to Mikhail Grabovski and Fredrik Sjostrom.