"Chico" and The Man

In a corner of our laundry room, nestled among a pile of boxes, are two small boxes that hold an assortment of pucks. One is devoted to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a collection of logos new and old as well as some for certain members of team management. The other, known as the working box, is rather eclectic, a full range of pucks, from prep school to the NHL.

That box, which can hold up to three dozen pucks at a time, is my go-to receptacle when I prepare for a hounding adventure. Mostly, it'll have two to three pucks for every team coming to Hockey Bay in the next month or so. The bottom layer, mostly holding pucks for defunct teams, hardly has any turnover.

This Colorado Rockies puck, signed by former NHL goalie Glenn "Chico" Resch, has been taking up space for a few years now. I bought it specifically for Resch, knowing that he spent his days proving color commentary for New Jersey Devils telecasts.

Lately, though, I had the misfortune of not having it any time I saw Resch or having it, but not seeing Resch. For two years, that's how it went.

When the Devils visited recently, I dug the puck out of the box. Maybe this time, I hoped, it would finally get put to use. Resch, you see, stays at a different hotel than the team. To get him, I've come to learn, takes more luck than skill. And, after a day of hounding, I felt this most recent adventure would end the same way -- the puck, still unsigned, would go back into the box.

As I get getting ready to head home for the day, Scott, one of my hounding buddies, offered to take it for the rest of the day. If he saw Resch, he'd get it signed. He knew what it felt like to carry an item many, many times before getting it signed. So, I took him up on the offer.

Later that night, when I was at work at the paper, I got a text from Scott. Resch, in fact, signed the puck after the game. To me, it doesn't matter that I didn't get the puck signed myself. What mattered most was that it was signed -- finally.

Thanks, Scott, for doing that.

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