Team report: Winnipeg Jets

When the revamped 2013 NHL schedule was released, I was psyched to learn that I'd be able to go out and hound the Winnipeg Jets. Yes, I know they're the old Atlanta Thrashers and, really, they don't have many, if any, of the league's biggest names.

Because of schedules -- both work and Colin's hockey -- last season, I never got the chance to hound the team, the first in their new look and home base far north of the Mason-Dixon Line. And, after a season's worth of card releases, I had a decent stack of cards, as well as a few items, that showed the new team logo.

That's why I made sure I put myself in the right place at my new-found right time (after morning skate, rather than before) to get some ink from Sharpies and some paint from pens on our Winnipeg Jets items.

At day's end, too, I had no complaints, adding another 28 autographs, including this puck signed by team captain Andrew Ladd and another by Evander Kane, to the collection.

Signing cards, shown above were:

Top row: Ron Hainsey, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Mark Scheifele; and
Bottom row: Jim Slater, Kyle Wellwood and Blake Wheeler.

Among the other highlights:

Alexander Burmistrov, top, and Ondrej Pavelec signed four cards each;

Olli Jokinen signed a pair of pucks;

Dustin Byfuglien, left, and Al Montoya signed specialty set cards; and

Byfuglien also added to our ongoing Threads project.