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 

Springfield Falcons @ Albany Devils 4/19/14

For their last game of the regular season, the Albany Devils hosted the Springfield Falcons. I had already met many of the Falcons back in December. After the game, I was at my usual spot by the back door near the bus. 

I only had some stuff for a few of the Falcons, and they started coming out quickly after the game. There were a bunch of people outside in the back, and it made me wonder where those people were back in December when it was freezing out. 

The first Falcon out that I had something for was Tim Erixon, a former New York Ranger who was a part of the Rick Nash trade in 2012. He was very nice, signing everything for everybody. He signed the 4x6 photo I had. I'm pretty sure he signed six or seven cards for one of the other people that was there. I got a good photo of him signing for one of the other people that wanted his autograph.

The next person whose autograph I wanted was goalie Mike McKenna, a former Albany Devil. He came out, and signed for people who asked. He even stood and talked to the fans outside for a good 15 minutes. One person was wearing a McKenna jersey, and he seemed very happy to see someone was wearing his jersey. He signed that fan's jersey and signed everything for anyone else that wanted, including my photo. I also took a good picture of McKenna, in the backwards blue cap, signing for another person.

The last Falcon autograph I got was Dana Tyrell. As soon as he left the building, he walked far away from everyone to make a phone call. When he walked back to the bus, he signed very quickly. He only signed one item per person, good thing I only had one photo. It seemed like he made an effort to sign some cards for people as sloppily as he could. I thanked him for the autograph, and then he boarded the bus, which soon drove away.

I did get a couple autographs from the Devils, but I didn't have much for most of the team. The main person I was hoping to see was Jon Merrill. I printed out a picture from his first NHL goal, which was actually an overtime winner as well. He added the inscription that I asked for. He will most likely be with New Jersey for next season, but since New Jersey didn't make the NHL playoffs, he was back in Albany. He signed for the mob of Devils fans that assembled in the warm spring weather, then ducked into the parking garage and left.




The last autograph on the day that I got was of Tim Sestito. I had taken a picture with him back in January. I printed it out, and when he came out the door. He signed for everyone, including myself. I wished him good luck in the playoffs, and he went to his car and drove away.

That's it for now. I will be going to one of the Albany Devils playoff games this weekend. Thanks for reading! Good luck graphing! 

Springfield Falcons in Albany

Recently, I went to the Times Union Center after one of the Albany Devils games. The Devils had beat the Springfield Falcons, AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I arrived just as the game was ending, and this is going to be a brief entry.

Earlier, I had printed out a 8.5x11 photo from the Falcons' website commemorating their 20th season. That and a couple pucks were the only things I brought to get signed.

Here are a few blurry picture I took on my iPhone of some of the Falcons signing for me. It was freezing cold out, I was wearing gloves, forgive the blurriness.

Sean Collins

Jonathan Marchessault

While players were getting onto the bus, one of the coaches looked familiar to another one of the people getting autographs. That person turned out to be Manny Legace, former NHL All-Star and Stanley Cup Champion. I quickly rummaged through my pockets and picked out one of my pucks, and Legace had no problem signing it and signing for anyone else that wanted an autograph. 

As players were going to the bus, most of them stopped and signed for me. Tim Erixon walked all the way around the bus and said, "I'm not signing." I might have missed out on a couple players toward the end of the night as it got colder. But here is the photo I got signed and the autographs I got. 

In no particular order: Here are the autographs I got that I can recognize. 

4-Will Weber 24-Andrew Joudrey 40-Alex Aleardi 12-Ryan Craig 

32-Frederic St. Denis 33-Dalton Smith 39-Jean-Francois Jacques 

17-Sean Collins 22-Ilari Melart 26-Cody Bass 30-Jeremy Smith

16-Michael Chaput 27-Cody Goloubef 21-Jake Hansen

There is one other player, he wrote the #5 on the bottom middle part of the photo. I don't know who that is as there is no #5 on the roster. If anyone knows who that is, any help would be great. Assistant Coach Nolan Pratt signed on the NS in the word Falcons. Assistant Coach Jared Bedner also signed it, on the bottom right part of the photo. 

I didn't have anything for the Devils players, but I did get a good picture of Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood signing for someone else. I'll get him on something else when I find something else to get Devils on. 

The Devils have a few more home games in December, and I should be going to at least one of them before I go back to Long Island for winter break. Thanks for reading!