Hamilton Bulldogs @ Adirondack Flames 3/25/15

I'm finally catching up on blog entries. Here goes a pretty big one.

This was the last time I ever went to Glens Falls Civic Center to see an AHL morning skate. After the Adirondack Flames season ended, they moved west and will begin play in the AHL's new Pacific Division next year.

I already graphed the Hamilton Bulldogs earlier this season, but a friend invited me to go with him, and I couldn't say no to one last trip to Glens Falls.

We got there right when the Flames were in the midst of their morning skate, and as soon as we got there, the ink was flowing.

A few weeks earlier, I picked up a Calgary Flames pennant at the local mall for less than $4. Can't go wrong with that. I didn't need to get another team sheet signed by the Flames, so I figured the pennant would be a nice addition.

As soon as I got to the gate to the ice, players started coming off and signing the pennant. I'll post the whole list a little further down. But a funny story happened when one player came off the ice. New guy Oleg Yevenko came off the ice, and I asked him to sign the pennant. He said, "Are you sure?" Once I told him I was sure, he signed it and went to the locker room. When I asked Trevor Gillies to sign the pennant, he picked it up, held it against the glass and signed it.

The only Flame who signed something that wasn't the pennant was Devin Setoguchi. I had a few cards of him, and he signed them nicely when he come off the ice. Here are the cards. He then signed 11 cards for someone else before heading into the locker room.

And here is the pennant and a list of everyone who signed it, in no particular order. Click on the photo to zoom in and see the photo better. I got the pennant signed in black instead of blue.

24-Trevor Gillies 23-Brett Cameron 18-Oleg Yevenko 39-Brad Thiessen

35-Doug Carr 36-Cam Reid 34-Taylor Vause 28-Ben Hanowski

38-Nolan Yonkman 7-John Ramage 14-Mark Cundari 2-Brett Kulak 

3-Ryan Culkin 13-Turner Elson 15-Ken Agostino 9-Garnet Hathaway 

21-Emile Poirier 4-Sena Acolaste 20-Brant Harris 6-Dustin Stevenson 

16-Mathieu Tousignant 30-Clay Witt

I don't know who signed inside the C on the logo. Anybody know who that is?

After all the Flames left the ice, I headed over to the other side just in time to see the Bulldogs enter the ice. I had a few photos of some players and some blank 4x6 team cards. A friend also gave me some cards, which were useful. 

One of the first autographs I got was of former goalie and current assistant coach Vincent Riendeau. He signed two card a friend gave me. He wasn't on the ice for the skate, he was just watching from the stands. He signed a whole bunch of cards for other people. Nice guy. 

Eventually, the players started coming off the ice after the morning skate. One of the ones I easily recognized was former New York Islander Joe Finely. He signed a cool photo from his Islanders days fro me. Here's the photo. No, they didn't wear those uniforms during the game.



One of the first players off the ice was the starting goalie for that night's game, Mike Condon. I took a photo with him last time, and I had printed out a copy for him to sign. He said he really liked the photo and happily signed it for me.



Another player that I recognized by his uniform number was Sven Andrighetto. He is one of the top rated prospects in the Canadiens' system. A friend had given me a custom card that he acquired of Andrighetto. Since Andrighetto had never seen the card before, my friend gave him a card to keep. That seemed to make him happy. He signed the photo and one of the cards for me.

Another player who I had a 4x6 photo of was Eric Tangradi. He and Trevor Gillies have a history from their days with the Penguins and Islanders, respectively. If you don't remember that, click HERE and be reminded of that. Tangradi signed a photo from his days with the Winnipeg Jets and a few cards for some other players.



I was given a bunch of cards of head coach Sylvain Lefebvre. He signed them all for me after coming off the ice. Pretty much everyone signed everything for everyone on the day.

Fellow assistant coach Stephan Lebeau also signed a few cards for me. I wanted him to sign one where he is wearing a dark uniform in silver sharpie, and it didn't come out too well. Always use blue on cards, end of story.

I had a few blank logo photos, and here is a photo of a player that I can't identify signing one for me. I had my GoPro camera with me, and I got some cool shots during the day. Here is one of them. This is what happened with all the players. If you know who this is, comment and let me know.











The last assistant coach that I got an autograph of was Donald Dufrense. He signed a card and one of the 4x6 logo photos for me. Here is a photo of him signing for me that my GoPro took.











Here are the two blank photo sheets and the players that signed them for me.

(Top Left)-T.J. Hensick 16-Bobby Shea 10-Charles Hudon

6-Bryan Allen 7-Darren Dietz (Bottom Right)-Frank Palazzese 

(Top Left)-Donald Dufrense 15-Drayson Bowman

12-Maxime Macenauer 21-Nick Sorkin 

That is all for this entry and that's it for the AHL season. It was an amazing one to say the least. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing! 

Hamilton Bulldogs @ Adirondack Flames 12/2/14

A few weeks ago, I was back in Albany after a brief break from school for Thanksgiving. Within a couple days of coming back, I went to Glens Falls Civic Center to try and get some autographs from the Adirondack Flames and Hamilton Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. I had gotten pretty much anybody on the Flames last time, but I had a few things for some people that weren't there last time.

One of the main targets for this trip to Glens Falls was Devin Setoguchi, who was recently sent down from the Calgary Flames. I'm pretty sure this was his first skate with Adirondack since being sent down. After a few other players went off before him, Setoguchi stepped off the ice and started signing for everyone. He used someone else's dying Sharpie for all the autographs, but I got him to sign two photos anyway, which is always fine. Right out of the gate, I had one of my main targets.

One of the other targets for this day was Max Reinhart, older brother of Griffin, an Islanders prospect who I met recently. Max wasn't playing in that night's game, so he was getting some extra work in after the formal skate ended. Eventually, he came off the ice and signed a 4x6 photo for me. He's been up and down from the NHL, and it looks like it will stay that way for the near future.

The last player left on the ice for the Flames was former Islander Trevor Gillies. He is one of few enforcers and fighters left in professional hockey, and HERE is a great article about him from a few weeks ago. He was doing some drills with one of the coaches to improve his hand-eye coordination. I took the photo on the left a few minutes before he came off. Once he left the ice, he signed the picture I took with him last time. That was the last Flames autograph I got.

Shortly after the Flames left the ice, the zamboni came on, and I relaxed in the stands. During that time, I got an autograph from Vincent Riendeau, who is the Assistant GM of the Bulldogs and a former NHL goaltender. He signed my team sheet while sitting in the stands. Also before the skate started, assistant coach Donald Dufrense and player Connor Crisp sat down in the stands to talk before the skate. While a few people including myself wanted them to sign, we didn't want to interrupt their conversation. After about 15 minutes, they headed back into the locker room, but not before signing first. Dufrense signed a card that a friend had given me, and I got Crisp to sign the team sheet. The skate eventually started, and I took the panorama you see below.

The first player to come off the ice was former Islander Joey MacDonald. I met him many years ago when he was still playing for the Islanders. He was very nice, and he signed a photo, a card, and my team sheet for me before going into the locker room. When someone told him I was an Islanders fan, he joked about it a little bit. 

Another former Islander came off shortly after. Standing at 6 feet 8 inches tall, it is hard to miss Joe Finley. When he came off the ice, he walked right over to me and signed a 4x6 photo that I actually printed out last season when he was on Bridgeport. Good thing I didn't throw it out. He also signed his page in last year's Islanders yearbook. He made a joke about Evgeni Nabokov's face in the yearbook photo, which is pretty funny when you see it.

Davis Drewiske and Drayson Bowman also came off the ice at about the same time. Drewiske won the Stanley Cup with the Kings a few years ago, and Bowman recently played for the Hurricanes. I had some trouble figuring out who was who, but I figured it out well enough to get both of them to sign a photo and my team sheet. Drewiske said he likes signing the photo on the left, with good reason.

The last photo I had was of Canadiens top prospect Nathan Beaulieu. I hadn't heard of him before reading through the Bulldogs roster, but I figured I'd print out a photo and see what happens. When someone else recognized him coming off the ice, I went over to him and got him to sign the photo. That was the last photo I got signed on the day. That night's backup goalie Mike Condon came off after, and he signed my team sheet. I also took a photo with him after he took photos with a few other Canadiens fans.











One of the last autographs I got on the day was that of assistant coach Stephan Lebeau. I was given three cards of him, and he had no problem signing all three. A couple other people had about 20 cards each of him, and Lebeau had no problem signing them all and talking to us about his favorite card, one of him bumping into Wayne Gretzky, and telling us about his personal collection. I don't think he could have been any nicer.







And lastly, here is my Bulldogs signed team sheet with everyone that signed it and the numberer they put on it.

19-Christian Thomas 15-Drayson Bowman 21-Nick Sorkin  18-Jake Dowell

 9-Mac Bennett 24-Jack Nevins 39-Joey MacDonald 23-Connor Crisp

2-Greg Pateryn 5-Jarred Tinordi 11-Daniel Carr 1-Mike Condon 

4- Davis Drewiske 8-Nathan Beaulieu 20-Jacob de la Rose

TJ Hensick (center right) and Vincent Riendeau (bottom left) signed without numbers.

That will do it for this entry. Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays!!