Welcome to Buffalo, Brad Boyes!

As I'm sure you all know that today is Trade Deadline in the NHL. Some teams made moves and some teams did nothing. My team the Buffalo Sabres made one move today getting Brad Boyes from St. Louis for a 2011 2nd Round pick! I'm real exited about this pick up! Brad is a great goal scorer and I'm sure he will help us out to make the playoffs. I got a chance to see him play this year when the Blues came to town last week. I don't think he got any points but they beat us 3-0 (which sucked!). Well anyway, I think Darcy Reiger, Lindy Ruff and probably Sabres new owner Terry Pegula did a great job today. Hopefully, this won't be another Raffi Torres situation like last year!

Alexei Zhitnik TTM

Received 2/28/11
Alexei was a great defensemen for us in the 90's and in the 2000's. He was one of the best defensemen I've ever seen on the power play. I saw a couple successes from him on a couple of different sites and I figured I would give it a shot. Quick two turn-around too! He signed 2/2 + an index card through his home.

Detroit Red Wings Hounding

Another successful trip inside HSBC Arena Saturday when the Red Wings came to town. Whenever I'm there it always seems like the teams best player comes out first. Like for Chicago it was Patrick Kane we got first and for Atlanta on Wednesday, it was Dustin Byfuglien. The streak continues because the first guy we got yesterday was captain and 2011 NHL All Star Nicklas Lidstrom. He was extremely nice and signed both my card and 8x10. Then the next guy who came out was another star player, Henrik Zetterberg. He also signed my 8x1 and a card. It was also cool to see Drew Miller, who is Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller's younger brother. For about 15 or 20 minutes they were just talking near us by the Red Wings locker room. When I asked Ryan about it he said they really don't get to see each other too often and it's gonna be real fun playing against him. I would have gotten something signed by Drew, but i didn't have anything for him to sign. After a few other guys, Pavel Datsyuk came out. I really should have printed out and 8x10 of him but i didn't have the time. But, he was the only player I had two cards of to sign. I got most of thees guys TTM so I didn't bring any cards of Mike Modano, Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary, Jimmy Howard, Chris Osgood and Brian Rafalski. Also signing cards for me were Todd Bertuzzi, Tomas Holmstrom, and Kris Draper.

Shea Weber TTM

Received 2/26/11
Shea is one of my favorite D-men in the league right now and he is one of the favorite players on the Nashville Predators. He also played great as a member of team Canada in the 2010 winter games where he took home gold. Shea signed 1/1 through the Nashville Predators in about 2 or 3 months.

Atlanta Thrashers Hounding

Joe and I went down to HSBC to get some Thrashers sigs. After all the Sabres left, me and Joe were just sitting in some chairs waiting for a Thrasher to come out. We didn't expect the first person to be All Star Dustin Byfuglein. He was talking on his phone and he came right toward us and signed our stuff. I really like how the 8x10 came out in gold. So once again, another great start. Signing cards were Freddy Modin, Blake Wheeler, Andrew Ladd, Chris Mason, Nik Antropov, Evander Kane, Tobias Enstrom and Niclas Bergfores. The orther 8x10 is of Zach Bogosian.

Sabres Houndig 2/23/11

Me and Joe went down to HSBC Arena Wednesday to get some Sabres and Thrashers autographs. Like the Chicago one, we got to go down in the locker room area to get the autographs. As always, the Sabres practice before the visiting team, so we got down there early to snag some Sabres. Signing the cards were 2 Drew Stafford, Ryan Miller, 2 Thomas Vanek and Chris Butler. The 2 8x10's are Jordan Leopold and Nathan Gerbe.

Gilbert Perreault TTM

Received 2/23/11
Great success from the greatest Sabres player ever! I gotta thank my boy Joe at Joe's Hockey Autos for getting me this one. If you have ever seen his site, you'll know that his grandpa used to coach the Sabres, and Perreault was one of his players. Normally, Perreault charges $10 for a sig TTM, so I gave Joe my card and I didn't have to pay for it! I believe the card was sent to his home.

Martin Havlat TTM

Received 2/19/11

Great success from my favorite Minnesota Wild player. Marty has been in the league for a while know and he still manages to get quality goals. Havlat signed 1/1 through the Minnesota Wild in about 2 months.

Washington Capitals Hounding

This is defiantly one of the most crowded and coldest hounding events I have ever heard of. The Washington Caps practiced at a local rink here in Buffalo and I had no idea what it was gonna be like. As soon as when I pulled in, I saw a plethora of cars in the parking lot so I knew it was gonna be tough to get autos. When I got in there, they had guards every place where you could get autos in the rink, except out back by where the players get on to the bus, which is where I went. about 30 or 40 other people had the same idea as well. I was so close to getting Ovechkin's autograph. he was signing for a little bit, but said he had to go and went right on the bus. If he would have signed 1 more autograph, he would have signed mine, I was right in front of him. He did acknowledge me and he gave me a fist bump. Then Niklas Backstrom came out and he signed my stuff along with Mike Green and Mike Knuble. I could have gotten some more but it was way too cold. A real fun and interesting day.

Mathieu Garon TTM

Recieved 2/16/11
Great success from a veteran goalie in the NHL. Garon has played alright splitting time with Steve Mason. I went to the game where the Sabres faced the Blue Jackets at HSBC and Garon was playing (we beat them 5-0 and there was a ton of fights! Real good game!) Anyway, Garon signed 1/1 c/o Blue jackets in about a month and a half.

Marty Turco TTM

Recieved 2/14/11
Marty was one of the best goaltenders in the NHL in the 200-2010 era. He is also one of the best goalies the Dallas Stars have ever seen. I would have gotten these cards signed when I went Blackhawks hounding but I had to leave when he was still on the ice. Nice of him to sign them TTM though. He signed 2/2 through the Chicago Blackhawks in about 3 1/2 months.

My Sabers 4x6's

I got all of these one day at the Sabres training camp/jersey unavailing this year. It didn't turn out the way I thought they would be, but i think they are still nice. I just brought blank 4x6's for them to sign, not printing out a 4x6 of every player (trying to save ink). I didn't know how many players would sign but I thought I could just print the 4x6 over top of the signature, but after a unsuccessful try with a Chris Butler 4x6, I knew that it wasn't going to work so I just put the name, logo, and a small picture instead. These are signed by Cody McCormick, Paul Gaustad, Patrick Kaleta, Jochen Hecht, Jason Pominville, Ryan Miller, Drew Stafford and Patty Lalime.

My Sabres 4x6's

Signing these one's are Rob Niedermayer, my homeboy Mike Grier, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Tyler Myers, Jordan Leopold, Tim Connolly, Craig Rivet, Shaone Morrison and Andrej Sekera. Once again, I got these during this years training camp.

Chicago Blackhawks Hounding Pt.1

Earlier in the season, me and my buddy Joe (joeshockeyautos.blogspot.com)went down to HSBC Arena not only to get Sabres autographs, but some Blackhawks autos as well. Because of Joe's grandpa, we got to go in the locker room area to get the autographs and watch the practice. It couldn't have started out any better because the first person we see coming into the arena with tough guy Rob Ray, was Buffalo born Patrick Kane. He is a nice guy, but boy he thought he was hot s***. He was walking tall with his Stanley Cup ring, which covered up his entire finger. When Joe asked him he knew his cousin, he said he didn't know who she was, which was pretty funny. This was a great start to a very successful day.

Chicago Blackhawks Hounding Pt.2

After Kaner came out, Mike Peca's kid asked me for a black sharpie because he wanted to get his Toews jersey signed. After Toews took a picture with him, he came over to us and signed our stuff. Then Marian Hossa came out, and he signed our stuff as well. Interesting signature and a real nice guy. I believe he had 2 goals that night.

Chicago Blackhawks Hounding Pt. 3

After Toews and Hossa left, out came goaltender Corey Crawford. All I had of his was a 4x6 but Joe ordered a card of his on eBay a week prior. He didn't get his card in time so he asked him if he would sign his card if he mailed it to him. Crawford said yes he would and sure enough, a couple months later he gets his Corey Crawford card signed TTM. So Corey Crawford is a man of his word! Then one of my favorite players came out, Troy Brouwer. He is defiantly an underrated star for the Hawks and he played great in last seasons playoffs. A real nice guy who signed my card and my 4x6 of him holding Lord Stanley. Then came two of the Blackhawks premiere defense men, Brent Seabrook and Norris Trophy winner Duncan Keith. Seabrook signed a card and Keith signed a 4x6 and a puck (which he signed backwards). Then Niklas Hjalmarsson came out. After he signed my 4x6, I wished him good game; he did the opposite. He blind sided Jason Pominville, who was carried out an stretcher. I believe Hjalmarsson served a two or three game suspension.
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