As I was putting together a puck order (and, my, what an order it will be, seeing that it's most likely the first of three or four this season), I came across a forgotten project -- an unsigned helmet for the 1999 NHL All Star Game played in Tampa Bay.The helmet, a white Itech, came from the Manchester Monarch pro shop's bargain bin a couple seasons ago. I found the stickers at the Lightning's IceFest last season, paying $1 each for home and away (shown above) versions. Five minutes of effort, namely affixing the home version of stickers to the helmet, and the rest is history.
Though there are some participants who I'm unlikely to get, such as Steve Yzerman, Al MacInnis, Theo Fleury and Sergei Krivokrasov, enough players remain active or will visit the Tampa Bay area this season.
Some of those players at the top of my wish list are New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, Detroit's Dominik Hasek and Nicklas Lidstrom, Dallas' Eric Lindros, Mike Modano and Sergei Zubov, Vancouver's Markus Naslund, the Rangers' Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka, and Toronto's Mats Sundin.
Others, and most likely easier to get, include Atlanta's Bobby Holik and Alexei Zhitnik, Boston's Marco Sturm, Buffalo's Lindy Ruff and Teppo Numminen, Minnesota's Pavol Demitra, Montreal's Roman Hamrlik, Pittsburgh's Mark Recchi and Washington's Viktor Kozlov.
Should travel take me back to New England over the next few years, and I'm pretty certain it will, I'd like to add Ray Bourque, too.
Oh, yeah, there's one other player that I'll save some room for -- game MVP Wayne Gretzky. Maybe you've heard about him.
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