Team report: Toronto Maple Leafs

Can't remember why, but I missed the Toronto Maple Leafs first visit to Hockey Bay during this abbreviated hockey-hounding campaign. That's likely the biggest reason why I had relative success, adding another 32 autographs as the team made its way to a morning skate in late April.

And once you add the 23 that Colin scored on his nearly team-signed jersey, we logged the third-biggest team haul of the season.

Beyond the two pucks (shown above) signed by Joffrey Lupul, left, and James Reimer, the rest of the haul came in cards:

Top row: Tyler Bozak, Matt Frattin, Jake Gardiner and Mikhail Grabovski; and

Bottom row: Carl Gunnarsson, Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin and John-Michael Liles

Top row: Frazer McLaren, Colton Orr and Dion Phaneuf; and

Bottom row: Reimer, Ben Scrivens and James van Riemsdyk

Three Leafs players -- Cody Franson, from top to bottom, Nazim Kadri and Clarke MacArthur -- signed four cards each:

Up next: Florida Panthers team sheet

Nearly complete

Given the number of hockey jerseys that fill the closets of our home, I'm surprised we don't have more team-signed items, such as this one from the Toronto Maple Leafs, added to the collection. But, like most any other subset of our hockey memorabilia, it has to start somewhere.

Honestly, to call this Leafs jersey, which Colin had 23 players, coaches and a general manager sign, a team-signed item is a bit of a misnomer. Despite the numbers, it lacks signatures from two of Toronto's bigger names -- Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul.

Who did sign? Well, most everyone else, including Dion Phaneuf, James Reimer, Nazim Kadri, Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk, Colton Orr, Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin.

As for Kessel and Lupul, it's not as though Colin didn't try.

Putting in a quick session before attending a hockey clinic, he asked Kessel to sign it before he boarded the team bus before the game. Kessel, who can be a little frosty, simply kept on walking, dropping of his luggage and then getting onto the bus, a good 15 minutes before its departure. As for Lupul, we never saw him.

Even without their autographs, the jersey is pretty special to Colin. Mr. Al, our buddy in Toronto, gave it to him a few years ago. We later added the patch, from the Toronto fire station where Mr. Al once worked. I'm sure he'll wear it next summer, when we visit Toronto.

Up next: Leafs team report

Mailbox surprise

When I saw a yellow padded envelope sticking out of our mailbox recently, I figured Colin had won some prize from an online contest he had entered. The envelope, though, wasn't addressed to him. Instead, it had my name on it.

For the life of me, I had no idea what it was or who it came from. The return address, rubber-stamped in the top-left corner, was unfamiliar. I can only imagine the puzzled look upon my face.

Upon opening it, though, I saw there was a few autographed hockey cards. Again, I didn't remember winning any eBay auctions lately. One look at the accompanying letter ended the mystery.

It seems I'd sent in some redemption cards a while back, so long ago that I'd forgotten about them. According to Upper Deck, the cards I was supposed to get were no longer available. In their place, the card company sent me these:

• an autographed buyback card from Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille; and
• a short-print, autographed rookie card for Toronto's Nikolai Kulemin.

It's hard to say whether I should be happy with these cards, as I can't remember what they replaced. Still, that Robitaille card is pretty cool.

Next up: Tampa Bay Lightning