My Last Game at Nassau Coliseum 4/19/15

Before this season started, I said that if the New York Islanders made the playoffs, I would come home from Albany to go to a playoff game. I've never been to an NHL playoff game, and I didn't want to live my life without going to one at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Islanders had a successful regular season, and while they didn't get home ice advantage for their first round series against the Washington Capitals, they did get a home game at a time I could attend: Sunday April 19 at noon.

Autographs were the last thing on my mind for this game, but I always come prepared just in case I see somebody.

The game itself was an amazing one. It was everything I could have asked for my first (and last) playoff game at Nassau Coliseum. In case you don't know what happened, here's how the game ended.


After the game, I didn't have my voice for a few days.

But during the game, something cool happened. At the second intermission, I went to go use the bathroom, which can be a difficult and time consuming task at the Coliseum, which may be one of the reasons they are leaving. Instead of trying to find one on the concourse, which is impossible during an intermission, I headed down to the lower lobby.

The lower lobby is where I've met many Isladner greats by the MSG studio. This season alone, I've met legends Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, and Denis Potvin. But since this game was televised live nationally on NBC, there was no show at the studio today.

While in line for the men's room, I noticed someone familiar walking toward me. After someone took a selfie with him, I realized it was Islander great Clark Gillies. I had left my bag with my sharpies and stuff to get signed at my seat, so the only option I had was to go for a photo. I went to ask for it, but he said he would be right back before walking down a VIP tunnel.

A few minutes later, Gillies emerged and was walking through the crowd quickly. After signing an autograph for someone else, I took my phone out and went next to him for a selfie. He smiled and I took the photo on the right. I think he was sitting in the stands and had to go to the bathroom at the intermission. Since his name is in the rafters, he can do whatever he wants. I got his autograph a few times before, so I wasn't upset about missing out on the chance for the autograph. It isn't the greatest selfie, but it is a selfie with a Hall of Famer, so I won't complain.

That was a pretty cool moment, and another one happened at the end of the game. As everyone was leaving, I was in no rush. I just sat in my seat and absorbed the Nassau Coliseum atmosphere one last time. When I finally left my seat, I walked down toward the concourse to go outside.

Once I entered the concourse, I noticed a group of people just standing around. After walking toward that area, I noticed it was another Islander legend, Bob Nystrom. Nystrom isn't in the Hall of Fame, but he scored the greatest goal in Islanders history to give them their first Stanley Cup in 1980.

Unlike Gillies, Nystrom was in no rush. He was shaking every hand and taking every photo with anyone who asked. I brought a puck with me and asked him to sign it. He signed it, but my silver sharpie was dead and the autograph is barely visible, as you can see on the right. He then used my sharpie to sign a woman's hoodie and a couple tickets, which came out better than my puck.

Since the puck came out bad, I wanted to get another autograph. Nystrom was still busy taking pictures so I had a minute to dig out an Islanders team logo sheet from my bag. I previously got Rick Bowness and Butch Goring to sign the sheet with a black sharpie. I had no black sharpie with me, and I grabbed the first one I could find out of my bag. That one turned out to be orange, which was fine because it's an Islanders color. Nystrom signed the logo sheet with the orange sharpie, adding the third signature to my sheet.


Before Nystrom left, I took a selfie with him and thanked him for his time. That photo turned out to be the final one I ever took inside Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. A selfie with the man who helped put the Islanders on the hockey map.

That's all for this entry. Thanks for reading. Farewell Nassau Coliseum. 

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! 

Hartford Wolfpack @ Albany Devils 3/22/15

I'm really falling behind on these entries, I'm sorry. School and life have been pretty busy, but I'm starting to catch up.

About a month ago, I attended the Albany Devils game on a Sunday afternoon when they hosted the Hartford Wolfpack. The Wolfpack were one of the first teams I ever got autographs from in Albany, so I figured I'd try my luck with them again.

The game was also scheduled as the last autograph signing for the Devils, which was good because I was looking to get a few photos signed from some players.

The game itself was a pretty good one, as the Devils scored four goals in the third period to come back and beat the Wolfpack. I got a few of them on video, as you could see HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Directly after the game, I went to my usual spot outside the Times Union Center and waited for the Wolfpack to come outside.

It was pretty cold, so I don't have any photos of the Wolfpack outside, but here's the quick story of what happened. Defenseman Michael Kostka came out and I instantly recognized him because of his long blonde hair. He quickly signed the photo on the right for me before boarding the team bus. Longtime AHLer Chris Mueller also came out and signed a photo for me. I rarely print out photos of people in AHL jerseys, but I liked this one so I got him to sign it.

Eventually, someone I actually recognized walked out the door. Dylan McIlrath signed a program for a kid, and I instantly recognized his signature from the last time I met him. He signed a nice photo for me. One of the last guys to walk out the door was Joey Crabb, and a fellow collector pointed him out for me so I could get him to sign the photo on the right.

I had printed out a Hartford Wolfpack team logo 4x6 photo to get a few random people to sign. I got a couple of players to sign it, but I'll get to them in a second. Assistant coach and 1994 Stanley Cup Champion Jeff Beukeboom walked out the door carrying some food, and when a couple collectors asked him to sign, he went on the bus and said he would be right back. A lot of people say that, but few live up to their word. But thankfully, Beukeboom but his stuff down on the bus and came back. He signed a cool 1994 Stanley Cup Championship puck that I had, as well as the Wolfpack logo sheet. Here are both items with the other people who signed the logo sheet.

Beukeboom signed it on the top right corner.
74-Nick Tarnasky 29-Danny Kristo
2-Mat Bodie 48-Carl Klingberg

After that, I went back inside for the Devils autograph signing. The first table I got in line for was that of the day's winning goalie, Scott Clemmensen. I met Clemmensen the first time he got sent down back in November, but he wasn't coming out the usual back door since then. I took a photo with him that first time, and I printed it out and tried to get it signed. When I handed him the photo, he said that we look like a couple of handsome men. Then, he said he liked the photo of him playing on the Cats, aka the Florida Panthers. Here are the two photos he signed for me.









The other Albany Devils' player who I had an individual item of was Joe Whitney. I printed out a photo from his first NHL goal in Detroit earlier this season.  I told him that I've never seen anyone look so happy in a hockey photo, and he said he remembers how happy he was after putting the puck in the net. Judge how happy he is for yourself, the photo is on the right.

The giveaway at the game was a team poster. They gave posters out last year, and I was there for that game too. This year's poster was significantly smaller, which made it easier to carry around. After the game, I got everybody that was there to sign the poster. I don't have a specific list of names, but here are a few photos I took at the signing.

And below is the team signed poster. I put pucks on the corners to hold it down. Click on the photo for a closer look.

That's all for this entry, I'll have another one coming up soon. Thanks for reading! 

Iowa Wild @ Adirondack Flames 2/4/15

A couple weeks ago, I got to go back to Glens Falls again. This time, the Iowa Wild were in town to play the soon to be moving to California Adirondack Flames. I'll just jump right into all the fun.

While walking down the stairs while the Flames were skating, I noticed a puck in the stands. After picking it up, I noticed it was an Adirondack Flames official game puck. Once I looked at the ice, I saw that most of the pucks used in the skate were official game pucks. Maybe they figured that since they are leaving, they might as well use all the pucks while they can. Here's the puck near where I found it, it's a beauty. I don't know about everyone, but I'm a big fan of the classic Atlanta Flames 'A' logo that Adirondack adopted for this season

When I got over to the Flames side, I was able to get a few autographs from players as they were heading off the ice near the locker room. I got five players (Drew Shore, Max Reinhart, Mark Cundari, Mathiu Tousignant and Garnet Hathaway) to sign a basic Flames 4x6 logo sheet I had printed out. Here it is with the people that signed it.


I also got Shore to sign a 4x6 photo that I pritend out. Shore was recently traded to the Flames from the Panthers and promptly got sent down to Adriondack. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back up with Calgary real soon.

Later, assistant coach Todd Gill walked off the ice and came over to me, and I asked, "Mr. Gill, can you please sign?"
He joked, "No because you called me mister."
Then, he signed for a couple other people before coming over to me again. This time I called him Todd and asked him to sign.
He said, "No because you called me Todd."
Then he took my sharpie, signed the photo and said, "Call me mister because I'm older than you"
That was an interesting moment to say the least, but I'm happy to say Gill was just busting my chops.

The last Flames person who I got an autograph from was Trevor Gillies. I met Gillies earlier this season, but a friend gave me a couple cards of Gillies, so I tried to get them signed. Eventually, Gillies walked right over to me and signed all the cards. He's a nice guy.

That was all I got for the Flames. I missed a couple guys that I was hoping to get, but I'll give it another try later in the season. Eventually, the Iowa Wild came out for the morning skate, but they were missing a couple players I was hoping to meet. Former Islanders Ruslan Fedotenko and Joel Rechlicz both didn't make the trip to Glens Falls, and no reason was specifically given for why. That was disappointing, but there was nothing anybody could do about it. I took this picture during the Iowa skate.

The Wild had a rough morning skate, as a scuffle broke out in the middle of it. A couple players dropped their gloves, curse words were yelled, and a couple players had to be restrained. Ultimately, nothing too serious happened and the skate continued without incident.

The first one off the ice was starting goalie Darcy Kuemper. He was sent down because Devan Dubnyk has had a strong season for the Minnesota Wild. Kuemper walked off the ice, handed his blocker, glove, and stick to an equipment manager and started signing. I got him to sign a 4x6 photo and an Iowa Wild team sheet. He signed for everyone then went on to get a shutout in the game that night.

Later on, fellow goalie John Curry came off and also signed a 4x6 and my team sheet. He was a nice guy. I don't usually get AHL photos signed too much, but I didn't have much else for him so I figured I'd print out something cool. Curry was with the Penguins when they won the Stanley Cup a few years ago in 2009 even though he didn't play in a playoff game.

While the former Islanders weren't present for the Wild, the former Rangers were there. I had printed photos of Stu Bickel and Justin Falk to get signed, and as I was reorganizing my stuff, Bickel walked off the ice. I barely had enough time to fumble the picture of Bickel so he could sign it, but it his signature smudged onto Falk's photo as well. Falk later signed the photo as well as the team sheet. Here are both signed photos. You can see where Bickel's signature went onto Falk's photo. Falk's photo is on the right, Bickel's is on the left.

Those were all the photos I got signed. To the right is a photo of a player that I just can't remember signing for everyone. I'm a fan of the Iowa Wild practice jerseys. They have a good color scheme. If anyone knows who this player is, let me know.



Below is my signed team sheet along with a list of everyone that signed it and the number (if any) that they signed with in no particular order. I'm pretty sure I got every player that was on the ice except Bickel to sign the team sheet.

21-Brady Brassart 3-Jason Gregoire 29-Marc Hagel 27-Brett Sutter 

4-Tyler Graovac 25-Danny Syvret 2-Guillaume Gelinas 25-Darcy Kuemper 

19-Stephane Veilleux 17-Brett Bulmer 36-Michael Keranen 24-Alex Gudbranson 

44-Justin Falk 33-John Curry 39-Kurtis Gabriel 7-Jonathon Blum 

28-Raphael Bussieres 51-Zack Phillips 18-Zack Mitchell

That does it for this entry. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing! 

Jack McKeon and Multiple Jets: What a Weekend

Some weekends are more fun than others, and this weekend was one of them. Three straight days of graphing opportunities arose, and I took full advantage of all of them, and covered a wide variety of different sports while doing so.

Friday 1/30
Last season, the St. John's IceCaps knocked out the Albany Devils in the first round of the AHL playoffs. I met some of the IceCaps, the Winnipeg Jets AHL Affiliate, after game one last season. They were nice. This year, they were coming back to Albany, and I figured I'd try and get some more autographs.

Since I had some extra time on Friday, I went down towards the Times Union Center before the game, something I rarely do. I didn't have too much stuff, so I printed out a couple 4x6 photos to get a bunch of people on.

I didn't have much individual stuff, but one person I did have stuff for was Carl Klingberg. He came walking out and signed a 4x6 photo I had printed out of him. He is one of the Jets top prospects and he should be in the NHL again real soon. He also said that his hometown is Sweden is closer to St. Johns than we thought it was.


Many other players were walking toward me, and I got most of them to sign one of two other photos I had printed. One was a basic Winnipeg Jets 4x6 logo paper, and the other was a photo I took before game one of last year's playoffs. Here are both photos and everyone that signed them.

34-JC Lipon 16-John Albert 25-Blair Riley

8-Brenden Kichton 48-Carl Klingberg 7-Kris Fredheim

19-Kyle MacKinnon 26-Nicolas Blanchard 50-Austen Brassard

7-Keaton Ellerby 49-Julien Brouillette 9-Ryan Olsen 

That was all I got from the IceCaps on Saturday. The IceCaps then beat the Devils on Friday, and lost to them on Saturday. 

Saturday 1/31

A friend of mine works for the Amsterdam Mohawks, a collegiate summer-league team. Every year, the Mohawks have a winter hot-stove dinner with a guest speaker. Doc Gooden was one of the speakers a few years ago. My friend invited me to join him for the dinner, and I was happy to accept the invitation. This year, former Marlins manger and World Series Champion manager Jack McKeon was scheduled to be the guest speaker, as he played in the Amsterdam area in the 1950s. 

After getting a little lost on the way there, my friend and I made it to the event during the cocktail hour. An autograph signing with McKeon was scheduled for the cocktail hour, but my friend and I missed that portion of it. Eventually, we sat down for the dinner. A few people gave speeches, and food was served. I was able to grab photo that he already signed at the signing during the dinner. So, at least I wouldn't go home empty handed. 

Eventually, I noticed McKeon go into a room where a silent auction was being held. He was taking pictures with a couple people who were honored at the event. After the photos were over, I walked up to McKeon while he was standing by himself and asked him if he could sign a couple cards for me. He said he would and I handed him a sharpie. I put the cards on a nearby table and McKeon leaned over and signed them all beautifully. I then thanked him, shook his hand, and told him I was looking forward to his speech. Here are the cards he signed for me.

His speech was pretty funny. My favorite moment is when he recalled his playing days and said, "I hit three ways, right, left, and seldom." That drew a large applause from the crowd. He talked about his managerial days, his time in the Amsterdam area, and many other topics. He was pretty funny and one of his main messages was to follow your dream. He said his dream wasn't accomplished until he was 72 and managed the Marlins to a World Series title. He is the oldest manager in MLB history to win the World Series. On our way out of the dinner, my friend and I stopped McKeon and asked if we could get pictures. He happily obliged, and we left the dinner in a good mood. 

Sunday 2/1 

Super Bowl Sunday, always a fun day. Long story short, a few of the football coaches at my college played in the NFL, and I heard they were doing an autograph signing during a basketball game. I had found a card of longtime New York Jets center Jim Sweeney at home a few weeks ago. I was happy to get that card signed and a friend gave me a card of Nate Byham, a new assistant coach, which he signed. 

That is it for this entry. It was a fun weekend and I should have some more stories up soon. Good luck graphing and thanks for reading!