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.

Don't be greedy

I'm seldom surprised any time a new face hits the hounding scene down here in Hockey Bay. Most are either ill-prepared, scrambling for scraps of paper and asking for your Sharpies, or, from my point of view, just another person who makes it harder on collectors or those who hound for a living.

Consider this scene not that long ago, for example, when one hound, apparently visiting from New York, via Orlando, wasn't happy with just a single autograph from Winnipeg's Evander Kane.

After getting one puck signed, the young man pushed another toward Kane.

"Just sign this, so I can go home," he said. "Please. It's all I need before I can go home."

Kane, on the phone, refused. In an instant, the hound got ugly.

"C'mon, you're telling me you're just gonna sign one puck?" the continued. "Really? You players owe it to fans to sign. We pay your salaries. If it wasn't for us, there's wouldn't even be a league."

Kane smiled and turned his attention to another hound, signing his item. Then, he signed the puck, shown above, for me.

Kane's moves only incensed the first hound, who continued his diatribe against Kane, who was now smirking.

"Oh, yeah, you're a big star. A big star," he said. "Really, who wants your autograph anyways."

It's instances like this, as regrettable as they are, that none of us need. That's why I told Kane that I was appreciative of the puck he signed for me.

"You're welcome," he said. "Have a good day."

Up next: Jets team report