Chicago Wolves @ Adirondack Flames 11/18/14

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go up to Glens Falls for the morning skates of the Adirondack Flames, AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames, and the Chicago Wolves, AHL affiliate of the St. Louis Blues. The Flames are brand new, having moved to Glens Falls, N.Y. from British Columbia in Canada. Last season, the Adirondack Phantoms played in Glens Falls as the Flyers AHL affiliate, but they moved to Lehigh Valley, P.A. prior to this season, which left the Flames to come to New York.



After showing up bright and early for the morning skate, I just went up to the tunnel where the Flames would be leaving the ice after their skate. During the skate, one of the Flames goalies made a save, sending the puck over the glass and into the stands. With pretty much nobody else there, I walked over and picked up the puck. It is just a blank puck, no logos on it or anything like that. I'll probably end up getting it signed one day in the near future.


Eventually, the Flames started coming off the ice one at a time. I had a team sheet for them and a few 4x6 photos of some of the players. One of the first guys off was Joni Ortio, the starting goalie for that night's game. He was nice and signed. The backup goalie that night was Brad Thiessen, former Pittsburgh Penguin. He also was nice and signed as soon as he came off the ice. That's him signing on the left.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Glens Falls was to see former New York Islander Trevor Gillies. Many fans know him for being in this brawl against Pittsburgh in 2011. Earlier this season, he was suspended for an illegal hit against the Rochester Americans. He was back from his suspension by the time I was in Glens Falls.

After he got off the ice, he was going to sign, then realized he was really sweaty and needed a towel. He said he would come back in a couple minutes. A few minutes later, Gillies showed up without his jersey and with a towel. I told him I was from Long Island, and he extended his right hand and said, "Trevor, nice to meet you." I shook it and handed him a sharpie. He signed the two 4x6 photos I had of him and personalized one of them. He said he liked the photo he ended up personalizing, and I didn't even ask for it. He just did it once I told him my name. I then took a picture with him, wished him luck, and he went back into the locker room. The photo is on the right. You can see the autographs further down in this entry.

Since I spent a solid two minutes talking to Gillies, I missed a couple of players coming off the ice, but it was worth it to get to hang out with a player who has some sentimental value to me.

I got a few 4x6 photos signed by the Flames, and here they are in no particular order.

Trevor Gillies

Brad Thiessen

Trevor Gillies

Corey Potter

And below is the Adirondack Flames team sheet I got signed by as many people as I could, as well as the number they signed with. One player apologized for writing the wrong number with his signature. 

6-Dustin Steven 5-Tyler Wotherspoon 46-Bill Arnold 16-Matthew Tousignant 

7-Ryan Culkin 44-Corey Potter 28-Ben Hanowski 48-Bryce Van Brabant 

14-Mark Cundari 7-John Ramage 39-Brad Thiessen 31-Joni Ortio

14-Trevor Gillies 32-Patrick Sieloff 38-Nolan Yonkman

Assistant coach Todd Gill signed in the top left corner under Steven's signature. 

After the Flames left the ice, the zamboni went on the ice and I went over to the other side of the rink to watch the Wolves skate. I took the panorama below while the Wolves were on the ice. 

Eventually, the Wolves started coming off the ice. I got autographs from pretty much everyone that was on the ice for them, including a few Stanley Cup winners. As the Wolves were doing their skate, I was told that former goaltender Ty Conklin was on the ice as one of the coaches in the Blues organization. In the photo on the left, Conklin is the one in the Blues apparel mentoring young goalie Matt Clime. Conklin signed a puck for me once he came off. Clime is the goaltender in the photo the left who signed. He was quite sweaty, so some of his sweat dripped onto people's items. 

Here is the team sheet I got signed by the Wolves and names and numbers of everyone that signed it. 

49-Gergo Nagy 9-Shane Harper 28-Brett Regner 38-Sebastian Wannstrom 42-Jake Chelios  5-Mathieu Brodeur 33-Matt Clime 24-Colin Fraser 21-Ben Ferriero  

12-Pat Cannone 6-Jani Hakanpaa 4-Petteri Lindbohm 

7-David Shields 15-Jeremy Welsh. 37-Terry Broadhurst

Ty Rattie, Jordan Binnington, and Yannick Vielleux signed without numbers. 

Coaches Mark Hardy (bottom left) and Brad Tapper (top center) signed without numbers. 

Brent Sopel

I got other items signed by some of the Wolves. Here they are.

Colin Fraser

Colin Fraser

Ty Conklin

Mark Hardy (Index Card)

Ty Rattie

That's it for this entry. It was quite a successful day in Glens Falls. I have a few more entries to catch up on, and I will have those up as soon as possible. Thanks for reading, good luck graphing, and have a great day.

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 

Back to Bridgeport in Albany 10/25/14 & 11/1/14

Thankfully, my favorite time of the year is finally here. Hockey season is back, which means that there are autographs to be had here in Albany. The Albany Devils played the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders AHL team, twice already. I figured I'll combine both of those into one entry, since it is mostly the same players. 

Saturday, Oct. 18 was opening night for the Albany Devils, and luckily for me, the Sound Tigers were the opponents. The Devils did the traditional pre-game introductions of every single player, then wore their traditional red road jerseys during the game. 

The game itself was a very entertaining one, and well worth the price of admission. However, from a Sound Tigers standpoint, the game ended terribly. Paul Thompson scored a short handed goal for the Devils with 44 seconds to play in the third period, giving them a crazy 3-2 opening night victory. In the second meeting in November, the Sound Tigers won handily by a 4-1 scoreline. 

After both times, I went outside to where the team bus was waiting for the Sound Tigers and waited in position for the team to come out. I wasn't able to take any photos when I was outside by the bus because it was dark and cold, but here is everything that I ended up getting after both games.  

One of the first people out was Kevin Poulin. He is clearly the third goalie in the Islanders organization, so if Chad Johnson or Jaroslav Halak ever get hurt, he will be on the Isles. After opening night, he signed a 4x6 photo and his page in the Islanders 2013-14 yearbook. After the second game, in which he earned the win in net, he signed a 4x6 photo from the Stadium Series.

One of the other guys who came out early was former first round draft pick Griffin Reinhart. It was debated all summer whether or not he would make the Islanders out of training camp. He did make the team and played in the Islanders first three games, all wins, but was sent down to Bridgeport after the third game. After the first time, he signed a 4x6 and his part in the yearbook. After the second game, he signed another 4x6 and didn't add his number. 

Another guy that looked like he was going to make the Islanders out of training camp was Anders Lee. Unfortunately for him, he didn't make the team out of camp and played the first week of the season for the Sound Tigers. After the first game, he signed a card that a friend had given me. I got him a bunch of times in Albany last year, and had nothing else for him to sign going into this season. A couple days after I got that card signed, Lee got called up and probably won't get sent down again if he plays well. 

Another first round draft pick, Ryan Pulock of the 2013 draft, signed a photo and his part in the yearbook after the first game. I didn't have anything for him after the second game. I took the photo myself at this summer's rookie scrimmage.

After the first game, Sound Tigers captain Aaron Ness signed his page in the Islanders yearbook. After the second, I didn't have anything for him, but he in a good mood despite the drizzle outside. I got him to sign an index card after that one. I keep a small bunch of them with me for that reason.

Last year, Kevin Czuczman (pronounced Church-man) played the last part of the season on the Islanders straight out of college. Now, he is getting his first taste of AHL action. He seems to be one of the defensemen that could see more time with the Islanders in the near future. He signed a picture after each game for me. The one of him in the black jersey is from after the first game. I'm just happy I don't have to try and write his last name all the time. 

Scott Mayfield and Johan Sundstrom each played a handful of games with the Islanders last season. They both signed photos for me. Sundstrom signed the photo on the right after the first game and Mayfield signed the photo on the left after the second game. Like pretty much everyone else, they were nice and happy to sign for anyone that asked.  

Colton Gillies and Harry Zolnierczyk have both played in the NHL before, just not for the Islanders. The Isles invited both of them to training camp, and now they are in Bridgeport playing for a job. After the first game, both of them signed a generic Islanders 4x6 photo that I printed out. Gillies' signature is on the top. I really feel sorry for the Sound Tigers people who have to spell Zolnierczyk and Czuczman every night. 

Here's the last thing for this entry. Former NHLer and Islanders assistant and current Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson signed his part of the Islanders yearbook in silver. 

That's it for this entry. I've gotten some autographs from people and other teams in the past few weeks, and I'll get to those as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing! 

Celebrities on Campus: Dave Coulier

If you don't know already, I'm a SUNY Albany student. At SUNY Albany, well-known celebrities rarely come to campus. So therefore, on-campus autographs are hard to come by. Last year, well known Broadway actress Carolee Carmello came to campus, and I got her autograph. You can read about that HERE. However, a recent opportunity arose, and I took full advantage of it.

As a child growing up, I watched Full House reruns on ABC Family on Nick at Nite all the time. My family even has multiple seasons of it on DVD. So when I found out that Dave Coulier (aka Joey Gladstone) was going to be doing stand-up comedy on campus, I was thrilled.

Coulier's comedy event was scheduled for right after the annual homecoming football game, which was a perfect time for me. A half hour before the event was scheduled to start, I made sure to grab an aisle seat in the middle of the ballroom where the event was going to take place. Here are a couple good pictures I took of Coulier during his event.

In the photo on the right, Coulier had called a student on stage to take a video for Twitter. Here is the result. 

Sheri, it worked! Sort of... @Sherijoy0531 LIVE @UAlbanySA - sorry it is sideways! :) https://t.co/xhH358vLCc #cutitout
— Dave Coulier (@DaveCoulier) October 12, 2014

If only it wasn't sideways. Oh well. The show itself was hilarious. Coulier made many Full House references, talked about Bob Saget and John Stamos. He also made a whole bunch of sports jokes, including some about A-Rod. The show was as funny as I hoped it would be and was probably one of the highlights of my school year so far.

I had heard there was going to be a meet and greet after the show, but that turned out to be just a rumor. However, since the event took place right in the middle of campus, I had a guess as to where Coulier would be going. After the show ended, Coulier took photos with some of the programming people who organized the event.

Since I am familiar with my college's campus, I had a good idea as to where he would be leaving. So, I grabbed a seat within eye sight of the stairs leading to the exit door. After many nervous minutes waiting by the door, I heard a noise at the top of the step. A few seconds later, Coulier and a couple of the programming people walked down the stairs.

Upon seeing me, one of the programming people jokingly said, "Oh, there's only one stalker tonight." While I thought Coulier might just walk past me, he laughed at her joke and came over to me.

"Look at you coming prepared with the Full House pictures," Coulier said as I handed him my sharpie and thanked him for the hilarious show. He beautifully signed the two photos I had printed out. When he signed one of him and Mr. Woodchuck, hemarked that he is doing a new bit with Mr. Woodchuck coming out online. HERE is the new bit, it's funny. Below are the pictures Coulier signed for me.

After signing for me, I handed my new iPhone 6 to the programming woman and took a picture with Coulier. My eyes are slightly closed, but that's ok.

After taking the picture, I shook his hand, then took a picture of him and someone else who happened to be in the room. Shortly after that, he left, continuing his tour across the country.

Hopefully UAlbany can get some other good celebrities to come to campus. I enjoy getting a not sports autograph when I get the chance. That's all I have for this entry. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing.