Sunday morning homily VI

Loyalty, in any form, goes a long way.

It's easy to be loyal to your family. And your employer certainly expects some loyalty. When it comes to sports teams, though, sometimes those loyalties can be tested.

Within the NHL, there's no doubt where my loyalty lies -- through thick and thin, from Billy Inglis to Drew Stafford, it's always been the Buffalo Sabres. Growing up in western New York saw to that.

However, as my 22-plus-year newspaper career has taken me from Maine to Florida and points in between, I've come to develop appreciations for a handful of other teams:

~ the Boston Bruins, for the simple fact that Colin has a buddy on the team and we lived in New England for five-plus years;

~ the Carolina Hurricanes, as Lisa and me were among the handful of fans who watched them in their first season in North Carolina, when 5,000 people was a big crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum; and

~ the Tampa Bay Lightning, because that's where we're living and I believe you should root for your hometown team, so to speak, save for whenever the Sabres, Bruins or 'Canes come to town.

My loyalties to the Lightning, though, are pretty tenuous these days. It's one thing for the team to lose every road game so far this season. But last night's extremely disappointing 6-4 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers has pushed me to the limit.

How a team can give up five unanswered goals -- especially in its own barn, mind you -- is unfathomable. I hope they're embarrassed. I know I was.

Loyalty, I'm afraid, can only go so far.

An excellent meal

Given the sharp prices charged by food vendors inside the St. Pete Times Forum, it has become par for the course that we grab a bite to eat before Lightning games.

Sometimes, we stop at Champions, a sports bar at the Marriott Waterside, where we join other Lightning fans for pub fare.

Last Saturday, we made the mistake of eating at the pricier Cafe Waterside, another of the hotel's eateries, where we waited more than an hour for our dinner specials (roast turkey and the usual trimmings) to arrive. Even worse, our waiter forgot Colin's dinner. It'll be some time, too, before we go back.

Yesterday, though, we had one of our best pregame meals ever. After hounding the Thrashers, when we added 36 autographs to the collection, we followed through on plans for a picnic, so to speak, with friends Fay, Kathy and Kris. Thanks to a recon mission that uncovered an office building food court, we dined on fried chicken and all the fixings, not worrying (too much) about our volume as we laughed our way through dinner.

I guess it shows that it's the company, and not the address, that makes for a good meal. We're looking forward to doing it again.

Tis better to give

A year ago, while talking to a newspaper friend back in western New York, she mentioned that she was a big fan of Buffalo's Jason Pominville. Last week, when the Sabres were in town, I acted upon that nugget of information, getting the Sabres forward to sign a puck to her.

The puck arrived Friday at her office, on a day she wore her Pominville jersey to work. In an e-mail, she said it was a pleasant surprise.

As much as I'd like to take full credit for this, I really must reach out to my buddy John, back in New Hampshire. Through his graciousness and generosity, I've learned that it's just as enjoyable, sometimes even moreso, to get something signed for a friend than for myself.

My only regret is that it's taken this long for me to learn such an easy lesson. My hope now is that others will appreciate this wisdom.

5 Big Sigs

The Florida Panthers will make a return trip to Tampa this week, so I'm hoping that I'll add these to the collection:

~ Florida's Tomas Vokoun on Montreal Canadiens and Milwaukee Admirals pucks;
~ Florida's Richard Zednik on a Florida Panthers puck;
~ Florida's Nathan Horton on the Young Guns stick;
~ Denis Potvin, a TV color commentator, on Florida Panthers and Team Canada pucks; and
~ a quick return on any of the first batch of TTM requests.