Handy items

When it comes to training camps, there's no limit to the items that hockey hounds can get signed. Beyond 8x10s and cards, as well as a handful of pucks, jersey swatch cards are one of the first items to make the wish list.

Over the past week, Tampa Bay's Adam Hall, Mike Lundin and Marc-Antoine Pouliot added to our growing Threads collection, one of Hound Central 5.0's primary projects for the 2010-11 hockey-hounding campaign.

While Hall and Pouliot signed individual cards, Lundin kicked off a work-in-progress project featuring NHL defensemen. Only after Atlanta's Tobias Enstrom, Dallas' Matt Niskanen and Vancouver's Kevin Bieska sign it will the 2 on 2 Jerseys card, part of the 2008-09 NHL MVP set, be complete.

Enstrom and Niskanen are scheduled to visit Hockey Bay this season. Bieska, a reported toughie on hounds, will have to wait until the Canucks return to Florida.

Making his debut

Check out Colin's first-ever blog post at Hockey Hounds Universe. Though I may not be the most objective source, I think he did a fine job. He'll be writing for Hound Central 5.0 soon enough.

Wasn't expecting this

Last Thursday, on the day before the Tampa Bay Lightning open its training camp for the 2010-11 season, the usual, albeit small, cast of Hockey Bay's hounding characters found its way over the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon.

After exchanging "How was your summer?" pleasantries, we got down to the task at hand, scoring autographs from Lightning players. My late arrival, I'd been told, meant I'd missed Lightning star Steven Stamkos before the start of the informal skate. Though I was disappointed to not have been in the right place at the right time, I was thankful that I missed getting the unusual scribble that Stamkos had doled out.

That all changed, thankfully, about two hours later when Stamkos, tooling around in his convertible, slowed down and asked a handful of us gathered in the parking lot if he'd missed any of us earlier in the day. Immediately, I spoke up, snagged this photo and walked up to Stamkos.

As you can see, he was more than happy to oblige my request that he personalize the photo to Colin. The signature, too, was much better than what I'd seen earlier in the day.

Something to read

The last thing I wanted to do after introducing Hockey Hounds Universe was to send any visitors to a nearly blank page. That problem's been solved, I believe, with the blog's first hockey-hounding-related post.

Looking ahead

I can say, with the utmost degree of certainty, that there won't be a Hound Central 6.0 for the 2010-11 hockey -hounding season. Instead, we're trotting out a new concept, called Hockey Hounds Universe, that will serve as a repository of hockey-hounding information, insider knowledge and an opportunity for other hounds to show off their efforts.

Once the season gets rolling, you'll find occasional posts from some familiar Hound Central 5.0 names -- Moody, our senior correspondent; Al, our man in Toronto; Mike, our Ontario Hockey League expert; and yours truly, Puckhound. Colin, my hound-in-training, will even become a contributor.

We'll also be making a bigger splash in social media. We already have a Facebook page up and running. So, please, friend us. Through Twitter, we hope to file live tweets from hounding sessions. That dusty, old YouTube account might get a workout, too.

In the days ahead, I'll be reaching out to hockey hounds who contributed to last year's "Your Turn" project, gauging their interest in providing 100- to 150-words posts, as well as a couple pictures of signed items, on a monthly basis.

If you're interested in becoming one of our correspondents, and we are actively seeking those in most pro hockey cities, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Be prepared, though. I'll want a writing sample. Understand, too, I'm a big fan of deadlines and won't have time to track down people for posts. If you're serious, I'm definitely listening.

As for HC5.0, it will live on. I'll still file occasional posts, though I'll be making far fewer hounding adventures this season and focusing only on specific projects. One of those may include a book that culls the best from the past five hockey-hounding campaigns.

As always, I appreciate the time that people spend here. That's why I can't walk away. Thanks, folks.

Certainly worthy

It's always nice to get fan mail or, in Hound Central 5.0's case, comments. Here's one I'd like to share with everyone:

"Hello, I've been an avid reader of your blog for a while and I thought you might like to check out a fundraiser me and my brother are doing involving hockey against breast cancer.

"I would email you, but I'm not exactly sure how I go about doing that on here (it's probably something really obvious...lol).

"Anyway, just thought you might want to give it a look and perhaps stick it at the end of one of your posts sometime? Either way, thanks and I hope you do 6.0 next season!"

Well, guys, I hope this is a little better than that.

At first, I was a bit skeptical. Now, after waiting a few weeks, I realize I'd made a mistake. This effort, called Goalies Against Cancer 2010, is the real deal. USA Hockey is involved. So is Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, through his Steadfast Foundation. So, too, is the Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure organization.

Two hockey-playing, Colorado-based brothers, Joey and Brandon Maestas, are the goalies behind the scenes, working hard to help bring hope to the fight against breast cancer. If you can, help them out with one of their fundraisers. I've elected to donate $25. Thanks.

As for Hound Central 6.0, we'll have to see. Something else might be in the works. You'll know when we know, but it's coming soon.

Hotlanta's hopping

I was able to make a quick trip by the Duluth, Ga., training facility to check in on the Atlanta Thrashers. Really glad that I did. Pretty much the whole team, as well as a few prospects, were there getting in some skating before camp opens.

We showed up a bit early for the Thrashers and saw a goalie out on the ice. It turns out to be Dave Caruso, a current New Jersey Devils prospect and former Ohio State Buckeye. He was kind enough to stop and talk with us for a couple of minutes before heading out to catch a flight to New Jersey.

The Thrashers then entered the ice for a little scrimmage. It's my opinion that these guys shouldn't be taken lightly this year.

As the players exited the ice (almost all at once), it got a bit crazy stopping them. I decided I would ask them as I was able to get to their page in my binder. The ones I missed, well, I'd just have to wait for another day.

Those who stopped to sign:

Akim Aliu on an 8x10;

Ben Eager on an 8x10;

Evander Kane on an 8x10, expressing dissatisfaction with Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke;

Arturs Kulda on an 8x10;

Rich Peverly on an 8x10;

Chris Mason on a practice puck; and

Head coach Craig Ramsay on a card.

Craig Ramsay being at the rink was a bit of a surprise, because I thought the coaching staff wasn't allowed to meet with the players until the start of camp. The entire coaching staff, as well as new general manager Rick Dudley, once a Buffalo Sabres teammate of Ramsay's, was on hand in the locker rooms, but not on ice.

Hmmmmmm!

More than autographs

As much as I enjoy being a hound, I've learned along the way that there's more to it that simply loading up on signatures. Sometimes, such as this past Saturday, it's just as fun to take in a baseball game from a different perspective.

If you haven't checked out Baseball Mondays, a baseball hounding blog that occupies my time during the hockey offseason, now is as good of a time as any. Soon enough, hockey season will be back.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Well, well, well

It was more than a hunch that our last day of Colin's summer vacation yesterday might include getting some autographs from NHL players. What I didn't know, though, was that it would involve Dallas' Brad Richards and Tampa Bay's Marty St. Louis.

But that's exactly what happened, as we took in the final minutes of an informal workout by a handful of NHL players at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon. Richards, a former Bolts player, and St. Louis were among those skating. Other confirmed sightings were Tampa Bay defensemen Brett Clark and Mattias Ohlund.

Colin hustled to have Richards and St. Louis sign the pucks shown above. St. Louis, who was in a downright jovial mood, signed the new 2004 Stanley Cup champions puck in the top left corner. Richards signed the others.

I didn't get shut out, either, as Richards and St. Louis signed this photo, showing Tampa Bay's old Big Three celebrating Canada's championship in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. Now, all we need is for Vinny Lecavalier to complete this photo.

Each and every one

Not that I'm any sort of technological genius like my good friend Moody, but I couldn't figure out why the old Vault wouldn't list our complete collection of autographed pucks.

Hopefully, that's all been taken care of now.

The Vault, Part I: Pucks A - L
The Vault, Part II: Pucks M - Z

Card show

Once Colin completed his Florida State League team ball project and loaded up his Dunedin Blue Jays batting helmet, we're down to getting cards signed as we start to close out our 2010 Summer of Baseball over at Baseball Mondays.

Minors accomplishment

As our 2010 Summer of Baseball winds down, we're putting the finishing touches on some of our summer projects. In this case, it's a game-used Dunedin Blue Jays batting helmet signed by 31 members of the Florida State League squad.

You can read about the helmet, as well as another summer project, at Baseball Mondays, our hockey offseason hounding blog.

Boys will be boys, but men are still boys

Editor's note: Just making sure that Hound Central readers know this post is by Moody, not Puckhound. I'm thinking Moody may have gone a little batty waiting for the season to begin. Still, though, the man makes a point:

My wife tells me this all the time, and, as a man, it frustrates me to no end. I work hard, I provide for my family and always try to do the right thing.

Well, after looking over some photos of the Stanley Cup, I realized just how juvenile a grown man can be. I can now agree with the missus everytime she says those words.

Take a look at Hall of Famer Frank Selke's title as it's printed on the Stanley Cup. (Editor's note: Even better, how about Arc Campbell's? Figures, too, that it's the Loafs.)

Yes, I realize it's a bit childish to giggle at this, but I did and I still am as I write this post. I also chuckled a bit when I noticed that even the team's mascot even got his name on the Cup.

I apologize now for this immature post, but man, oh, man.

What it's all about

Take a moment, please, to read a letter from Dan Goldie, one of Moody's recent TTM successes. It's a good hockey story.

Goldie's a Buffalo kid to boot, too.

Caught up

It may have taken more than five hours, but all 147 pucks that needed to be catalogued and cared for can now consider themselves done. To be honest, I expected it to take a little longer.

With only a 30-minute break for dinner, I spent most of my afternoon off sitting at the table shown above, processing the pucks that we'd collected, some as far back as last November, over the 2009-10 hockey-hounding campaign.

In a way, chronicling a collection is much like a production process. Each puck gets logged into a master file (really, it's just a piece of paper), receives an identification card (another piece of paper), like this one for a puck signed by Tampa Bay's general manager Steve Yzerman, and put into a case.

From there, most end up in a 72-case box that's put in storage. A handful, though, find their way into one of our two burgeoning display cases.

I may not be ready for the upcoming 2010-11 campaign, but I'm considerably closer. I'm sure the bag will be packed by the time Lightning players start their informal skating sessions this month.

Catching up

Every so often, I get asked what I do with or how do we display all of our autographed pucks. Lately, it hasn't been all that well. Between being a Daddy and a husband, work, freelance work and enjoying Colin's company this summer, I haven't had much time since early April to put away the fruits of our labor.

Today, though, will be different when I asked Colin what he wanted to do today, he suggested we have a "chill out" day, where we do nothing but hang out at home. To me, it was a good idea.

Now that he's busy working yet another Lego creation, I've started putting away pucks, some from as far back as last November. As you can see, I have my work cut out for me:

Pucks obtained during the Tampa Bay Lightning's Young Guns camp;

These pucks were signed during the last 10 days of the regular season;

More from our late-season hounding efforts; and

The first batch of pucks I'll put away.

With any luck, I'll complete this project tonight.

Twelve down, none to go

Thanks to the Fort Myers Miracle, Colin completed his main 2010 Summer of Baseball project -- getting team-signed baseballs from all 12 Florida State League clubs. Check it out at Baseball Mondays.

Love those zebras

It may have taken hours for me to get Stevie Y and I may have looked a tad bit foolish while doing so. That's okay in my book.

I decided to speed things up a bit in my last hounding outing. I went over to the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon because I knew that Jonny Murray, an NHL linesman, was running a power skating camp there. In less than five minutes, my patience paid off.

Jonny signed four photos for me on his way in to the forum and even took the time to ask where I got them. He even went through the work-in-progress "Officials" team sheet, below, and tried to name the others who'd signed.

There are still plenty of camps going on this summer. Take the time to research your local ice rinks and see what kind of gems you can haul in.

Welcome back, Rocco

For those of you outside the Tampa Bay area, the news that former Tampa Bay Rays player Rocco Baldelli is attempting a comeback might not be that important. For Rays fans, though, it's a big deal that he's playing with the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Florida State League.

Over the past few weeks, we've watched Baldelli play in a couple of games, serving as the Stone Crabs' designated hitter. Of course, his presence draws a crowd, ourselves among it. Though he signs only after games, he doesn't leave fans disappointed.

Among the postings at Baseball Mondays:

~ a signed 8x10 showing Baldelli's first-ever FSL hit -- a double against the Clearwater Threshers;
~ a single-signed baseball from Baldelli;
~ the 11th team-signed ball of Colin's 12-team FSL team ball project; and
~ Colin's first FSL team sheet of our 2010 Summer of Baseball.

A little toasty

So, how warm did it get last week during a Florida State League matinee between the St. Lucie Mets and the Clearwater Threshers? Try 113.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, it was only 90 degrees in the shade.

Even better, Colin knocked out his 10th team ball of our 2010 Summer of Baseball. He can complete his 12-team FSL team ball project Wednesday, when we travel to Dunedin to watch the Fort Myers Miracle play the Blue Jays.

Read about these feats, as well as many more, at Baseball Mondays.