Team report: Columbus Blue Jackets

It goes without saying, but I have to say it anyways. When an out-of-conference team comes to town, conditions exist to have a monster day. That's what happened last week when the Columbus Blue Jackets made their first trip to Hockey Bay since March 2009.

Don't get me wrong. Teams like the Blue Jackets may be struggling in the standings, but that doesn't mean people don't want to hound them. It's a time to load up on cards, pucks or 8x10s. When you walk away with 77 autographs, like we did, it's easy to see why.

It was, to date, the best day of the 2010-11 hockey-hounding campaign, and we still have a few more Western Conference teams coming in.

One of the top items was this Team Canada 2010 Olympic gold medal puck from Rick Nash, one of seven on the day.

Other Blue Jackets players signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Derik Brassard and Chris Clark; and
Bottom row: Kris Russell and Fedor Tyutin.

Among those signing the 42 cards were:

Top row: Derek Dorsett, Mathieu Garon, Jan Hejda and Kristian Huselius;
Bottom row: Rostislav Klesla, Steve Mason, Marc Methot and Andrew Murray; and

As well as, from left, Samuel Pahlsson, Anton Stralman, Antoine Vermette and Jakub Voracek.

Other noteworthy events:

~ Colin putting a hand-drawn team sheet to good use;
~ four Blue Jackets players signing four cards each;
~ wishing Rick Nash signed on a better spot;
~ adding Rick Nash and Jakub Voracek to the Threads collection;
~ tapping into specialty cards; and
~ getting three cheap skates signed.

Drawing them in

By Colin
Hound Central 5.0 junior correspondent

I had wanted to do the Columbus Blue Jackets' third logo of a cannon for my team sheet, but I kept messing up. I guess it was out of my drawing capabilities, so I went and looked for more logos and saw the bug head one.

For some unknown reason, I started out with the eyes, basically because they had most of the inside navy blue lines attached to it. I think it actually turned out pretty good. The only thing I left out was the gray stripe because I wanted to keep it close to the same colors.

The players liked it, as I got three compliments, including one from R.J. Umberger when he signed it for me. All together, it worked out great as I got 21 autographs, including Rick Nash, Derik Brassard, Kristian Huselius, Fedor Tyutin and Jakub Voracek.

All fours

Anytime you rack up a bunch of cards on a hockey-hounding adventure, there's a good chance that more than one player signed more than one card. When it happens, the stack of cards gets deep real quick.

That's what happened last week when four members of the Columbus Blue Jackets, in Hockey Bay to play the Tampa Bay Lightning, signed four cards each:

Jared Boll and Derik Brassard; and

Chris Clark and Kris Russell.

All things being equal ...

Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I wish Columbus' Rick Nash would have signed this McFarlane base, commemorating Canada's gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in a much better spot.

As you can see, his signature means the figurine doesn't sit in the proper position.

To me, the ideal place for Nash's autograph, if you really want to call it that, belongs to the left of his name or above the Team Canada Olympics squad logo.

Am I being too picky? Probably. Really, I should be happy enough that he signed it when the Blue Jackets visited Hockey Bay last week.

Going forward, I'll try to pay more attention when I try to add another two this season -- Chicago's Jonathan Toews and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby. So far, we have three of the nine-piece set.

Beyond the fabric

If you've ever busted a box of hockey cards (well, maybe more than one), you've likely pulled a jersey swatch card as one of the premiums. Some, especially those featuring patch, nameplate or number swatches, are put away for safe keeping. One of favorite players get tucked away, too.

For the most part, though, or at least it has been my experience, most of these cards could be viewed as run-of-the-mill jersey cards. Sure, they're nice, souvenirs of official NHL games. Some cards feature bigger names, too. But after pulling a bunch, as we've been fortunate enough to do over the years, they simply become a part of the collection.

That's one of the main reasons we started the Threads collection, taking these cards one step further by getting them signed by players. Last week, Columbus' Rick Nash and Jakub Voracek became the latest two NHL players to join our club.

I can live with these

One of the last things I do in preparing for a visiting NHL team, after I've gathered pucks, erased cards and checked the American Hockey League transactions, I create as many of these cheap skate cards I need.

In the case of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who visited Hockey Bay last week, I needed to make four of the cards. As you can see, three proved very useful in what turned out to be a very productive, as well as a long, day of hockey hounding.

Though I couldn't find hockey cards for neither Grant Clitsome nor Derek MacKenzie, I had only one card for Jan Hejda. Each was more than willing to sign.

The only Blue Jackets player who didn't sign one? That would be Matt Calvert. It wasn't that he wouldn't, I just never recognized him. Oh, my bad. Maybe next time, I'll have some cards for him.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Sweden

Team Sweden won its last gold medal in 2006 at the last Olympiad held in Torino, Italy. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 16 players from the NHL-rich squad.

Cards signed by some of Team Sweden's players:

Top row: Atlanta's Tobias Enstrom, New York's Henrik Lundquist, Columbus' Fred Modin, Tampa's Mattias Ohlund; and
Bottom row: Vancouver's Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Bufalo's Henrik Tallinder and Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg.

More cards signed by Team Sweden players:

Top row: Detroit's Johan Franzen, Dallas' Loui Eriksson; and
Bottom row: Nashville's Patric Hornqvist, Detroit's Niklas Kronwall, and Washington's Nicklas Backstrom.

San Jose's Doug Murray

Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson stadium poster

Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson.

Most of these items have been signed over the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team Canada

Team Canada won its last gold medal in 2002, but failed to medal in the last Olympiad, earning only a seventh-place finish. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get 21 players from the NHL-rich squad, only missing out on Philadelphia's Mike Richards (kinda) and Dallas' Brenden Morrow

Cards signed by some of Team Canada's forwards:

Top row: Anaheim's Corey Perry, Columbus' Rick Nash, San Jose's Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley; and
Bottom row: Calgary's Jarome Iginla, Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

More cards signed by Team Canada players:

Top row: Philadelphia's Chris Pronger, Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer, Chicago's Duncan Keith and Los Angeles' Drew Doughty; and
Bottom row: San Jose's Dan Boyle, Chicago's Jonathan Toews, San Jose's Joe Thornton and Carolina's Eric Staal

Even more cards signed by Team Canada players:

Top row: Vancouver's Roberto Luongo; and
Bottom row: Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury, New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, Nashville's Shea Weber and Chicago's Brent Seabrook.

Most of these cards have been signed in the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida.

Concerning Richards, I do have an autograph from him. Unfortunately, though, it's on a wrong card.

Pirates bounty

Given the sometime revolving door of affiliation of American Hockey League teams, one would think this Portland Pirates practice jersey would be loaded with signatures by now. Since 2004-05, when I began following the team during the NHL lockout, the Washington Capitals Anaheim Ducks and, these days, the Buffalo Sabres have sent their top prospects to Maine for seasoning.

Unfortunately, it's remained something of an afterthought, though it's been getting a bit more attention this season. Through early December it's gained another five signatures to it, matching the entire output of the 2008-09 campaign.

To date, the former Portland Pirates to sign, from left, are: Edmonton's Ladislav Smid (during the 2009-10 campaign), Tampa Bay's Zenon Konopka (2009-10), Colorado's Brian Willsie (2009-10), Edmonton's Dustin Penner (2009-10), Tampa Bay's Jeff Halpern (2008-09), Washington's Alex Semin (2008-09), then-Tampa Bay's Matt Pettinger (2008-09), Washington's Tomas Fleischmann (2008-09), then-Columbus' Aaron Rome (2008-09) and San Jose's Kent Huskins (2009-10).

Here's the wish list for the rest of the 2009-10 campaign: Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan, Buffalo's Nathan Gerbe, Calgary's Curtis Glencross, Montreal's (not Philadelphia's) Glen Metropolit, the Islanders Brendan Witt, the Rangers' PA Parenteau, Ottawa's Ryan Shannon, Vancouver's Shane O'Brien (our favorite Pirates player) and Washington's Brooks Laich.