The Hockey Life: Week 13

Over the past week, I've had two instances where telling folks that we had more than 2,200 autographed pucks brought raised eyebrows. Not so much in disbelief, I think, but in a sense of wonder. "Twenty-two hundred pucks," they ask. "What do you do with them?"

Even I've started to marvel at the magnitude of the collection. There's no way we can display them all, with only 100, at most, on display in two cases in our office/playroom. Most are packed away in boxes, duly noted in multiple records, waiting for the right time and place to be put on display and handed down to future generations.

There's been a concerted effort during this hockey-hounding campaign to slow the pace of the collection. For a variety of reasons, financial and dwindling storage space among them, I'm turning more to cards than pucks anytime a team makes its way to Hockey Bay. Though there are some teams that I'll carry at least a dozen pucks for, very few teams require more than six pucks.

In a sense, we need the league to reload. By focusing on pucks for more than 10 years now, and limiting our efforts to particularly puckworthy players, we've been adding depth to, rather than broadening the scope of, the collection.

So, when will enough be enough? That's hard telling. There's no round number, like 2,500 or even 5,000, that will lead us to pull the plug on pucks. It'll happen when it happens. Until then, we'll add to the collection -- one puck at a time.

Serves 'em right

Couldn't help but chuckle at some autograph dealers coming up empty with Washington's Alex Ovechkin last week. Not only did they bring a full crew (at least six adults and two children all wearing Capitals jerseys, with some of the guys wearing two jerseys), but they honestly expected that Ovechkin would sign each and every jersey.

Sorry, guys, but that was extremely wishful thinking. Ovechkin may not speak perfect English, but he has a pretty good handle on one word -- "No." From what I hear, Ovie signed for the two children, but that was it.

It's hard to believe that any Washington Capitals team jersey, ultimately bound for eBay or some other sports memorabilia outlet, would be worth the effort, or any reasonable amount of money, lacking one of the NHL's toughest autographs.

I wonder, too, if the children got to keep their jerseys. I hope so, but something tells me they didn't.

Quote(s) of the Week

"You looked good out there."
Puckhound, to New Jersey Devils assistant coach and Hall of Famer Larry Robinson, at the end of the team's practice in Brandon on Thursday.

"I don't know about that."
Larry Robinson, in response, to the compliment.

"C'mon, two weeks of hard skating and you could play for most any NHL team."
Puckhound

"Ah, I tried that before."
Larry Robinson