Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Hockey Life: 'Best autograph of my life'


Any time a body part ends up in a cast, especially when you're a kid, part of the deal is getting your family and friends to sign your cast. It's a rite of passage.

For the past three weeks, Colin as been collecting autographs on the cast for his broken ankle. Kids from school have signed. So have his hockey teammates and friends. Mama signed it. I have, too.

On Saturday, though, Colin got the person he most wanted to sign his cast to do just that - his best NHL buddy, Boston's Patrice Bergeron. For a few minutes, though, we weren't sure it would happen.

The Bruins, in town to play the Tampa Bay Lightning, were leaving a downtown hotel for the team's morning skate when Patrice walked out. He didn't hear Colin amid the shouts, signed a few autographs for people on the other side of the hotel's entrance and hopped onto the team bus.

I told Colin to walk around to the side of the bus and look for Patrice. Once he found him, I told him to start waving at him. One of Patrice's teammates spotted Colin and alerted Patrice. Patrice looked at Colin, who then pointed to his cast, pointed to Patrice and moved his hand like he was signing something.

To his credit, Patrice nodded "yes," got up from his seat, walked down the bus' aisle and steps to the street, where he found Colin waiting. And, with one simple act, shown in the photo above, Colin got the autograph he wanted.

"This is the best autograph of my life," he said. "The best."

So, not only is that a season highlight, but it's the leading contender for autograph of the year.

2 comments:

  1. Beauty signature there. A keeper cast for sure.

    Hope you're healing well Colin.

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  2. Thanks. Thank goodness the cast is waterproof, so it shouldn't smell too bad. I should add, too, that we also bumped into Dave Andreychuk that day, who also signed Colin's cast.

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