Team report: Atlanta Thrashers

A long time ago, getting anything less than 25 autographs myself was considered a poor hockey-hounding effort. These days, I'm happy with just a handful of autographs. When I bring along Colin, though, it's an entirely different story.

It's no surprise, then, that he outhounded his old man last week -- by nearly a 10-to-1 margin -- when the Atlanta Thrashers, one of the best-signing teams in the NHL, came to Hockey Bay. All told, we scored 52 autographs -- our best single-team effort of the 2010-11 hockey-hounding campaign, so far -- with Colin racking up 47 to my five.

It's safe to say, at the risk of bragging, that the kid is a chip off the old block. Now, with three hounding adventures planned over his holiday break, we'll see if he can keep it up.

Until then, though, here's a look at some of the items we added to the collection:

Signing cards, shown above, were:

Top row: Zach Bogosian, Alexander Burmistrov and Dustin Byfuglien;
Middle row: Andrew Ladd, Freddy Meyer and Johnny Oduya; and
Bottom row: Ondrej Pavelec, Rich Peverley and Chris Thorburn


Increasing the international flavor of our autographed puck collection, which now numbers 2,185 and likely counting, were, from left, Zach Bogosian (USA souvenir), Evander Kane (Team Canada) and Ondrej Pavelec (Czech Republic souvenir).

The remaining highlights on the trip:

~ Having plenty on hand for Alexander Burmistrov, taken eighth overall at the 2010 NHL Draft;
~ having five players sign four cards each;
~ Andrew Ladd adding to the Threads collection; and
~ helping out a fellow Hockey Bay Hound.