Pleasant surprise

Like most every other hockey hound I know, the upcoming NHL season can't arrive soon enough. Allan, Hound Central 4.0's corresponden...

Update: 10 Big Sigs

Before the 2008-09 hockey hounding season down here in Hockey Bay, I predicted that these items would be added to the collection. Let's...

Little Gray Box: Rick Nash

Want to know how much I like this new Hound Central 4.0 feature? So much so that I'd post two within three days. I hope you don't mi...

A tie-breaker?

What Hound Central 4.0 readers couldn't decide, the first round of the NHL playoffs will. For the time time ever, we had a tie among the...

Playoffs picks

For as long as I can remember, rooting for the underdogs in any playoff series carries great appeal. Still, though, one should be realistic,...

It wasn't easy

Of all the years that I've been pounding the pavement, braving the elements and dodging vehicles driven by inattentive drivers, this wee...

Top Shelf: Rick Nash

Excuse me for my pomposity, but any time you add four pucks from Columbus' Rick Nash , one of the NHL's brightest stars, it certainl...

Bring more than one

It should come as no surprise, I suppose, that Columbus goalie Steve Mason , the leading contender for top rookie honors, would draw a crowd...

A couple of hat tricks

It's always a good feeling when you can get an NHL player to sign three pucks for you. It's even better, however, when two players -...

It never hurts to ask

This week's 5 Big Sigs, a feature within each Sunday morning homily where I name the top autographs I hope to get within the next seven...

Catching up, so to speak

Having grown up in Western New York, the Buffalo Sabres are my favorite NHL team. And, of all the players to toil for the Sabres, Danny Gare...

That took a while

When I got Mike York to sign this Upper Deck MVP Excellence card in the 2001-02 season, when he played for the New York Rangers, I never th...

Here we go

Sure, it may be late in the 2008-08 NHL season, but I'm not going to let that keep me from starting another work-in-progress jersey: a P...

He's happy with a few

You know, it would be easy to say that Colin had a bad day yesterday working his team sheet, getting only seven signatures on it, as well as...

Gallery: Columbus Blue Jackets

Please accept my apologies for not including photos of Columbus' Rick Nash and likely Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason in this gallery...

Mondays are my Thursdays

Back in my first tour of duty down here in Hockey Bay, a blurred moment of being in my 20s during the 1980s, I had a sour taste for Mondays....

Sunday morning homily XXVII

It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it validates the time and effort that goes into producing these annual hockey-hounding bl...

Plan B, as in Bernie

Sitting atop my wish list for the St. Louis Blues last week was none other than Hall of Famer Al MacInnis . Never saw him. So, I had to sett...

Who's the best young goalie?

Even though my skating skills are suspect at best, manning the pipes is, by far, the last position I'd ever want to play in hockey. Why?...

Who's the best young tough guy?

When kicking around the idea for this feature, profiling the NHL's top young tough guys, the last thing I wanted to do was focus on figh...