And two makes 1,400

There's something rewarding about hitting a milestone as you build your collection. For me, puck No. 1,400 came earlier today, when Carolina's Andrew Ladd signed the Lowell Lock Monsters puck before the Hurricanes' morning skate.

It's funny, too, that it has taken me this long to get Ladd. I saw him a couple times when he was with Lowell, the then farm team for Carolina. For some reason, though, I never was able to get him to sign. Just last month, too, I saw him, but he pulled the "hands full" trick (cup of coffee in one hand, cellphone pressed against his ear with the other).

This morning, however, it was a different story:

Me: "If you sign these two pucks, we'll have 1,400 in our collection."

Ladd: "Fourteen hundred pucks? My God, that's a lot."

Me: "You're telling me."

Now, I can start working toward 1,500 autographed pucks.