Team report: Ottawa Senators

Not that I'm a big Ottawa fan, but I was glad to see the Senators visit Hockey Bay a week ago. Seeing that I'd had a fairly unremarkable run with the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, it was time to work a team known for taking a friendlier stance toward hounds.

Again, my work schedule limited my hounding to before the morning skate, but I put it to good use, or at least the best I could, despite not having any pucks on hand. Unfortunately, for me, I missed on Jason Spezza, as did everyone else that morning, as he headed straight from the hotel to the team bus.

I did manage, however, to add 18 autographs, including 17 cards, for my efforts.

Signing cards, shown above, were:

Top row: Craig Anderson, Erik Karlsson and Filip Kuba; and
Bottom row: Chris Neil, Ryan Shannon and Jesse Winchester.

Other highlights:

~ Taking a career approach with Sergei Gonchar;
~ Colin scoring 16 autographs on another neat team sheet; and
~ Providing, yet again, another reason to use cheap skate cards.

Two more, please

The Phoenix Coyotes' recent trip to Hockey Bay resulted in another two additions to the Threads collection, this time with Colin getting the honors.

Coyotes captain Shane Doan signed the double-swatch card. Apparently, the black Sharpie was left uncapped for too long, resulting in a pretty thin signature. Still, Doan was nice enough to sign it and, really, an autograph is an autograph.

Mikkel Boedker kicked off another quad-card project. We'll need Peter Mueller, now with the Colorado Avalanche, to complete this side. Los Angeles' Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar are featured on the other side.

Team report: Colorado Avalanche

For those of you who don't believe timing is everything, please consider our latest hockey-hounding adventure for the Colorado Avalanche.

With my work schedule limiting me to just game-time hounding, defined as the time when players leave the hotel and head to the rink, I knew our opportunities would be limited to, at most, an hour. Still, I didn't let that keep Colin and me from heading over to Tampa.

Though we missed on some players, most notably Craig Anderson, John-Michael Liles and Paul Stastny, we were more than happy to add another 20 cards to the collection. Even better, Colin scored some autographs from the Avs' top players.

Those signing cards were:

Top row: Peter Budaj, Matt Duchene and Adam Foote; and
Bottom row: Milan Hejduk, David Jones and Ryan Wilson

Other highlights from the abbreviated session:

~ Evidence that a change in scenery changes a player's signing habits; and
~ knowing that every addition to the Threads collection doesn't have to come from a big-name NHL player.

Not that picky

Not every addition to our Threads collection has to be a big-name NHL player. The only standard we apply is that the card must have a jersey swatch. This double-swatch card of Colorado's Kevin Porter, shown from his days with the Phoenix Coyotes, is a good example.

Doubling up

In part of our bid this season to add former NHL players to the autographed puck collection, Colin was quick to add Gilles Meloche, top, and Tony Granato, part of the Pittsburgh Penguins' coaching staff, during the team's extended stay here in Hockey Bay recently.

Next trip, we'll try to get Meloche on California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons pucks and Granato on Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks pucks.

Farewell to two greats

This week the NHL had two future Hall of Famers hang up their skates. Scott Niedermayer and Rob Blake both decided it was time to move on.

Scott Niedermayer played 18 seasons and is the only hockey player in the world to win the Stanley Cup, Olympic gold, the World Championship, World Junior Championship, the World Cup and the Memorial Cup. He may go done in history as the best defenseman (in his era) to play the game

Rob Blake is another great defenseman with his name on the Stanley Cup as well as an Olympic gold medal around his neck.

Hound Central would like to thank both of these greats and wish them all of the best in their futures.

Moody's Olympics Gold: Team U.S.A.

Team USA won its last gold medal in 1980 (Miracle On Ice), but failed to medal in the last Olympiad, earning only a eighth-place finish. Of the 23-man roster, I've managed to get only 16 players from the NHL-rich squad.

Cards signed by some of Team U.S.A.'s players:

Top row: St. Louis' David Backes, Carolina's Tim Gleason, Los Angeles's Jack Johnson, Tampa's Ryan Malone; and
Bottom row: Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick, San Jose's Joe Pavelski, Boston's Tim Thomas and Colorado's Paul Stastny.

More cards signed by Team USA players:

Top row: Toronto's Phil Kessel, Nashville's Ryan Suter, New York's Ryan Callahan and Anaheim's Bobby Ryan; and
Bottom row: New Jersey's Zach Parise, Anaheim's Ryan Whitney, LA's Dustin Brown and Buffalo's Ryan Miller

Most of these cards have been signed in the past two seasons, either in Hockey Bay or South Florida. Puckhound helped with the acquisition of the Stastny card.

Anyone else?

It's been some time since I've extolled the virtues of using homemade cards to add to your autograph collection, mainly because I've either had plenty of items for visiting players or little time to make any. Either way, though, as these cheap skates samples show, they are pretty useful.

I like to take a simplistic approach, reusing a template from seasons past. In less than 10 minutes, I'm able to update logos, photos and colors. Could I add more detail, even creating my own cards? Certainly. But if something isn't broke, why would you fix it? Until then, I'll be happy to use these.

What am I interested in, though, are examples of other's handiwork making cards. Drop me a line if you'd like to share your creations.

Threads: Steven Reinprecht

I don't know what it is, but the Florida Panthers are a Threads magnet. Earlier this season, three Panthers players -- Jordan Leopold, Tomas Vokoun and Stephen Weiss -- helped to kick off the Threads project.

On Thursday, when Florida visited Hockey Bay to start a home-and-home series against the Lightning, I added two cards to the seasonlong project. In this case, it's Steven Reinprecht, signing memorabilia card from 2002-03 Upper Deck Classic Portraits.

The other, for a very good reason, remains a work in progress.

Moody's midseason hounding report

Because we are around the halfway point of the 2009-10 NHL season, I thought I would give my report of how the season has gone for me.

I assume that for most Hockey Bay hounds, the numbers and item counts are different, but the overall success for each team is relative.

This has been one of my most successful seasons to date, knocking out more than 1,000 signatures from nearly 350 players.

This is a team-by-team breakdown of how the season has played out so far.

As expected, I've done pretty well with the Lightning and Panthers. Can't complain, either, about the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, Atlanta Thrashers, Colorado Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks.

I am debating on tapering off my efforts the rest of the season or continuing on just to see how well I do.

(Puckhound's note: Why stop now? You could hit 2,000 autographs or 500 players by season's end.)

There are still a few West Coast teams on the calendar, so I'm sure I will make the trip out for them.

Threads: Alex Tanguay

He may not be having the best season of his career, but we didn't let that stop us from adding Tampa Bay's Alex Tanguay to Hound Central 5.0's work-in-progress Threads campaign during the 2009-10 hockey-hounding campaign.

Tanguay signed this card, part of the Authentic Fabrics subset within the 2005-06 SP Game-Used Edition, following Wednesday's morning skate.

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.

Loading up

It's not just because the Colorado Avalanche are my favorite Western Conference team that I get jacked up any time they come to Hockey Bay. There's a lot more to it than that. It's because the Avs are one of the best-signing teams.

Last season, Colorado provided the front half of the biggest haul of the 2009-09 campaign. This season's no different, as the Avs tied the Los Angeles Kings as the most productive team. And though Colorado lacks Joe Sakic this season, it's no reason not to load up on autographs.

All told, we added 79 autographs, including a dozen pucks, from Avs players between the morning skate walk and the gametime bus.

Among those signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Matt Duchene, Adam Foote and Milan Hejduk; and
Bottom row: Marek Svatos and Darcy Tucker.

Even members of the coaching staff got into the act, including, from left: Adam Deadmarsh, Steve Konowalchuk and Joe Sacco.

It should come as no surprise, either, that cards (36, altogether) made up for nearly half of the day's haul:

Top row: Craig Anderson, Peter Budaj, T.J.Galiardi and Scott Hannan
Bottom row: Matt Hendricks, John-Michael Liles, Cody McLeod and Darcy Tucker.

Also signing cards, especially in the specialty variety, were:

Top row: Milan Hejduk, Ryan O'Reilly and Paul Stastny; and
Bottom row: Chris Stewart, Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski.

Other highlights:

~ Colin filling up a team sheet with 26 signatures; and
~ Adam Foote signing an appropriate patch on an Avalanche jersey.

Not much room left

For the players sake, I'm glad Colin drew a small secondary logo for his Colorado Avalanche team sheet. That way, he could get 26 autographs on it. Granted, not everyone is a player, as there are signatures from the assistant general Manager, three-fourths of the coaching staff and, down in the bottom left corner, an unidentified equipment or training staff member.

Really, though, does it matter? To Colin, all that matters is that the sheet if chock-full of signatures at the end of the day. In this case, I believe he nailed it.

Though he didn't get Milan Hejduk, who was scratched from the lineup, nor Paul Stastny, who doesn't appear to be a big fan of signing, Colin managed to add signatures from:

Craig Anderson (underneath Sylvain Lefebvre's loopy signature along left side and southwest of logo), who's not as friendly as he used to be, Matt Duchene (vertical, along right edge), Adam Foote (left of the of the Bigfoot logo), Marek Svatos (second from left along bottom) and Wojtek Wolski (second scribble up from the bottom left corner).

Colin didn't stop at just his team sheet, getting Ryan O'Reilly, left, and Matt Duchene to sign this mini pennant. They may be hard to see, but, trust me, they're on it.

Predictable? Perhaps

Part of the beauty of cherry-picking autographs is looking for specific players to sign specific items. In some cases, I'm able to take it a step further. I did just that Monday, getting Colorado captain Adam Foote to sign the Bigfoot shoulder patch on my Avalanche jersey. I've seen other hounds/fans have Foote sign there and thought it was a heckuva idea.

Foote joins Avalanche legend Joey Sakic, who signed the jersey two seasons ago.

Sunday morning homily IX

It never ceases to amaze me, really, when the Hockey Gods cast their gaze upon us. Sometimes, it's a sequence of events that lead to an unexpected outcome -- good or bad. Mostly, though, it's how our hockey fortunes provide lessons in life.

Take these two instances from last week, when we found ourselves watching morning skates for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning:

~ Colin, on a week of Thanksgiving vacation, would join me in hounding the Loafs. But a nearly flat tire (resulting in a trip to a tire dealership and a bill) and a steady morning rain threatened to wash us out. Thankfully, though, the day turned out much better. Not only were we able to get in and watch the Loafs skate, but Colin scored an autographed goalie stick from Joey MacDonald.

The lesson: Don't let adversity -- real, meteorological or imagined -- keep you from trying. Only through effort comes reward.

~ Two days later, while most of the world is snapping up holiday shopping bargains, we find ourselves back inside the St. Pete Times Forum, watching the Lightning during an open morning skate. Moody's there with his two daughters, one of whom is Lightning rookie James Wright's biggest fan. At the close of practice, Wright, ever the charmer, skates over and tosses pucks to each girl. Colin, on the other hand, doesn't get one and starts to pout.

The lesson: Let others revel in their wonderful hockey moments and, more importantly, remember other's generosity toward you.

Making change

Here's a story from Chris, Hound Central 5.0's Big Apple correspondent, who was in Hockey Bay on Friday hounding his favorite team, the New York Rangers:

"A dealer walks up to New York's Sean Avery and asks for an autograph. Avery tells him, "I'm not going to help you make money." The dealer says "I'm a huge fan and collector." Avery responds "OK, I will sign for $30 Mr. Big Fan."

"So, the dealer asks, "You got change for a $50?" as he jokingly pulls out a $50 bill. Avery pulls out a $20 bill, rips the $50 bill out of the dealer's hand, signs, gives him the change and walks off."

"Later, before the game, Avery comes out of the hotel to put his bags on the team bus. He does the head shake for no autographs, of course. The crowd then erupts into a "30 bucks" chant."

"Avery looks around, smiles and goes into the bus."

Pretty funny stuff, if you ask me. I wish I could've been there to see it.

5 Big Sigs

It'll be an interesting week in the days ahead. The Goofy Dudes sandwich a couple hounding adventures between a train ride north for a few days. Here's what we're hoping to add from the Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders:

~ Colorado's Adam Foote on Quebec Nordiques puck;
~ Colorado's Milan Hejduk and Marek Svatos on Czech Republic and Slovakia souvenir pucks, respectively;
~ Colorado's Matt Duchene on an Avalanche puck;
~ New York's John Tavares, a reputed tough sig, on Colin's team sheet; and
~ New York goalie coach Mike Dunham on a Threads project card.

Follow their careers

One approach to take when building an autographed puck collection is to a player sign pucks showing every NHL team he's played for during his career. After New Jersey's Brian Rolston signed these two pucks before Thursday's morning skate, we can cross him off our list.