Keep this to yourself

I'll let you in on a little secret. Using specialty pucks is one of the quickest ways to get NHL players to stop and sign. After seeing the same old team pucks, city after city and season after season, players gravitate toward something new to sign.

Signing these three, during the Florida Panthers' visit to Hockey Bay last week, were, from left, Niclas Bergfors, Dmitry Kulikov and Stephen Weiss.

Works for me

Heading out for the New York Rangers last Friday morning, I carried two pucks for Marian Gaborik -- a Minnesota Wild and a 2004 World Cup of Hockey. Gaborik, however, signed only one -- the Wild puck.

Not wanting to let the other puck go unused, I called an audible, getting Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to sign it rather than the McFarlane base I had the Sweden's King Henrik. Not a bad call, wouldn't you say?

Best of days

Hounding in Toronto is like hounding in most any NHL city. You have your good days, bleeding a blue Sharpie dry. Conversely, you have your bad days, when uncapping a paint pen is a waste of time. If you're lucky, you'll have far more good days than bad.

For Al, Hound Central 5.0's man in Toronto, the month of March had a few good days of hounding. Besides loading up on the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs' top farm club, he snagged a nice array of items from some of the Leafs' new arrivals and their teammates:

Al made sure, as any good hound would do, to make acquaintances with new Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf, snagging the pair of 8x10s and a McFarlane base shown above.

Other rewards of Al's efforts:

Blue Sharpie always looks good on a Team Sweden jersey. At least it does on this photo of Jonas Gustavsson, who will soon have his own McFarlane;

It looks pretty good, too, on these 8x10s from Jonas Gustavsson, top, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere;

All Star Game photos, like this one for Jean-Sebestian Giguere, are seldom turned down. An all-expense-paid trip to an NHL city for a weekend of showing off and wide-open hockey? Who wouldn't be happy to remember that?

And, not to be overlooked, 8x10s from Mikhail Grabovski, top, and Francis Beauchemin, shown celebrating the 2007 Stanley Cup championship with the Anaheim Ducks.

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.

Home rink advantage

Maybe it's strong national pride or a major case of wishful thinking, but there was no doubt among Hound Central 5.0 readers about what nation will stand atop the podium with gold medals in mens hockey -- Canada.

Really, it's easy to see why. Team Canada fields a very strong squad. Lots of talent and, as always, stellar goaltending. To win, though, it'll have to go through Russia, Sweden and Team U.S.A., which won't be easy.

Imagine the pressure, though, of not winning gold in your home country. That's why, I believe, Team Canada has to play desperate hockey. Anything less than a gold medal will likely demoralize a nation.

Question: Hockey gold in Vancouver?

Canada: 31 votes out of 51 cast (60.8 percent)
Russia: 9 votes (17.6 percent)
U.S.A.: 5 votes (9.8 percent)
Sweden: 3 votes (5.9 percent)
Czech Republic: 2 votes (3.9 percent)
Finland: 1 vote (2 percent)

This better be easy

Can you guess what pair of Swedish twins signed this pair of pucks earlier today before Vancouver Canucks practiced at the St. Pete Times Forum? See, I told you it was easy.

My bad

Thanks to Moody, Hound Central 5.0's senior correspondent, for noticing that Russia wasn't included in the HC5.0 poll asking which nation would win the hockey gold medal at the Olympics in Vancouver.

That oversight, certainly not an intended slight to a talented squad based on residual feelings from the Cold War, has been rectified.

So, that's why ...

Hockey Bay hounds, myself included, learned a pretty good lesson in preparation Saturday when the Atlanta Thrashers came to town. Thinking that the team would fly in late on Christmas night, we were a bit surprised to learn, through a flight-tracking Web site, that the team flew in early Saturday and took a bus to the St. Pete Times Forum for its morning skate.

Watching the bus drive by answered plenty of our questions, then, as to why we didn't see the team's training and equipment staff, as well as the coaches, head out earlier than the players. In fact, the lack of a bus at the team's hotel was another sign that something was up.

Even seeing Thrashers captain Ilya Kovalchuk walk out by himself, being the only player to sign before the morning skate, raised questions. Apparently, he flew in on his own.

But, as you can see, we didn't miss out. After we added only two signatures (Colin's team sheet and a puck) in the morning, Hockey Bay hounds stepped up to help (I was at work) the Missus and Colin.

All told, they added another 36 items, including another six pucks, later in the day as the players headed out for the gametime bus:

Signing pucks, shown above, were:

Top row: Nikolai Antropov (who also signed a New York Rangers puck), Tobias Enstrom and Evander Kane; and
Bottom row: Ilya Kovalchuk, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Pavel Kubina.

Signing cards, shown below, were:

Top row: Maxim Afinogenov, Ron Hainsey and Johan Hedberg; and
Bottom row: Ondrej Pavelec, Rich Peverley and Christoph Schubert.

The other highlights from the day:

~ Colin snagging 15 signatures on his team sheet;
~ Ilya Kovalchuk adding to the Threads project; and
~ Moody's report from a family outing with the Thrashers.

Top Shelf: Henrik Lundqvist

I may have had a run of bad luck with New York's Marian Gaborik last Friday, but I certainly have no complaints with our efforts for Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

Not only did King Henrik sign these two pucks, including the Sweden souvenir puck, but he also signed this 2006-07 Bee Hive jumbo card (which, to me, is highly suitable for framing), another card as well as Colin's team sheet.

After going for years without snagging an autograph, it's kinda cool to get five from him in a single outing. That calls for a Top Shelf rating.

Thanksgiving travels

Rather than joining the masses traveling great distances for the Thanksgiving holiday, we opted to stay close to home. No jammed airports. No clogged highways. No dysfunctional family gatherings, thank you very much.

Sure, having to work on Turkey Day (at holiday and overtime pay, mind you) played a major role in our close-to-home holiday activities. What we did do, though, was put one of Colin's days off from school from extremely good use by hounding the team that Sabres fans, such as myself, love to loathe -- the Toronto Maple Loafs (Sorry, Al, I can't help myself).

After tending to some car repairs (two new tires for the Houndmobile) and ignoring early morning showers, we found ourselves inside the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday watching the Loafs take part in their pregame morning skate.

It wasn't long, though, before Colin took over, snagging, in total, 37 autographs, including these two pucks from rookie goalie Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson, for the collection. My contribution? Identifying players. After all, it was my only day off of the week.

Among those signing cards:

Top row: Francois Beauchemin, Jason Blake and Garnet Exelby;
Middle row: Jeff Finger, Mikhail Grabovski and Phil Kessel; and
Bottom row: Nikolai Kulemin, Jamal Mayers and Colton Orr

Other highlights of the trip:

~ Colin getting a used goalie stick from Joey MacDonald;
~ Seeing that Luke Schenn's autograph hasn't improved that much; and
~ getting an autograph from the man credited with inventing the butterfly-style of goaltending.

Feeling blue

Yes, I know that a puck signed in blue paint this season is supposed to represent one that Colin added to his Colin's Pucks project. But I'm finding that, in some cases, the color really stands out on a puck.

This Sweden souvenir puck, signed last week by Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson, proves my point. Pretty sweet, don't you think?

Good impressions

It's no secret that free-agent signees try to make a positive first impression with their new employer. The players will greet the media, reach out to fans and, as training camp nears, be among the first to hit the ice.

Two of the Lightning's offseason acquisitions have done just that, each signing a pair of pucks following the informal workout in Brandon:

Goalie Antero Niittymaki; and

defenseman Mattias Ohlund.

Missed on defenseman Matt Walker twice -- coming off the ice and in the Ice Sports Forum parking lot. He didn't seem too interested in stopping. I think he waved, though. Maybe.