November 2014: Falcons, Pirates, and Devils

I am slowly falling behind on these blog entries about getting autographs in Albany, so I am going to try and catch up as much as I can in one entry.

Springfield Falcons 10/29/14 

As Game 7 of the World Series was happening, I headed downtown to try and get some autographs from the Springfield Falcons, the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I had gotten a bunch of them last season, but I figured I'd go again because they have a lot of new players. After the game, I waited outside with a couple other people that were getting autographs.

While players were coming out, it became apparent that both Brian Gibbons and Sean Collins had been called up to the NHL Blue Jackets. Both of them went on the bus, grabbed some food and then went back inside the arena to wait for their ride. Eventually, when their ride showed up, my friend and I opened the door and they went on their way to the NHL. I snapped the picture on the right when they were waiting.

I had nothing to get signed except for a team sheet. Here is the team sheet, along with a list of everyone who signed it and the number they wrote on the sheet in no particular order. I got pretty much everyone that played for the Falcons that night.

40-Domenic Monardo 13-Trent Vogelhuber 31-Oscar Dansk 11-Mike Hoeffel

3-Hubert Labrie 32-Frederic St. Denis 17-Sean Collins 22-Lukas Sedlak

12-Ryan Craig 36-Corey Cowick 18-TJ Tynan 8-Josh Anderson 37-Thomas Larkin

15-Kerby Rychel 9-Brandon Gibbons 29-Jerry D'Amigo 33-Scott Munroe

5-Austin Madaisky 28-???? (I wish I knew who that was. Anyone know?)

Also that night, Devils assistant coach and longtime NHL goalie Johan Hedberg signed two cards for me. I rarely have cards for people, but I've had two cards of Hedberg with me since March. It's nice to finally get these signed. He signed 16 cards for another person. Very nice guy. 

 

Portland Pirates/Devils Autograph Session 11/2/14

Shortly after getting Bridgeport, the Devils were having their first autograph session of the season after playing the Portland Pirates, the Phoenix Coyotes AHL affiliate. After the Pirates won the game in overtime, I headed out to my spot by the door armed with nothing but a team sheet for the Pirates. On my way there, I met someone who said hi and said that he reads his blog. I forgot his name, but if you're reading this, you know who you are. Thanks. Once I got back to the bus, the ink flowed. Here's the sheet and everyone I got. 

32-Tyler Gaudet 11-Francis Wathier 4-Andrew Campbell 49-Alex Bolduc

26-Darian Dziurzynski 38-Lucas Lessio 2-Dylan Reese 17-Jordan Martinook

56-Mike McKenna 28-Justin Hache 19-Henrik Samuelsson 14-Dan O'Donoghue

27-Evan Oberg 22-Phil Lane 37-Louis Domingue 

23-(???? on Bottom Left) 39-(??? on Top Right) Any idea who those are?

After the Pirates had gotten onto their bus, a Devils player walked out carrying all of his sticks and put them into his car. After someone else told me it was Steve Bernier, I approached him with a photo I had for him to sign at the autograph session. After asking him, he told me he just got called up to the NHL Devils, and was leaving immediately. He signed the photo I had of him and then went on his way to the NHL.


After I got back inside, I got all of the Devils that were at the game to sign my program. You can see that below. I wish Bernier had signed that, because I don't think he will be back in the AHL anytime soon. Click on those images or any of the others in this entry to make them bigger so you can zoom in.

At the autograph signing, I also got a few more photos signed, as you can see below.

Peter Harrold

Stefan Matteau

I took the photo of Kinkaid myself at the Islanders game at Barclays Center in September. That's it for this blog entry. I've gotten more autographs since then, but I'll get to those as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing!

Keith Kinkaid