Sunday morning homily XI

Within each Sunday morning homily, I try to make a valid point, one that goes beyond hockey hounding and should prove useful within life itself. You know, things like being prepared, not being afraid to make an effort and using every opportunity that presents itself to learn something.

It's good advice, I hope.

This week's lesson is simple: enjoying the fruits of one's labor.

Over the past week, when schedules (both the NHL and mine) allowed for five hounding opportunities, another 122 autographs joined the collection. Between the Ottawa Senators (twice), Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders, I'm having a hard time remembering a better week of hounding.

Here's a list, too, of some of the bigger-name players who signed: Ottawa's Dany Heatley, Wade Redden and Jason Spezza, Tampa Bay's Vinny Lecavalier, Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour and the Islanders' Rick DiPietro and Billy Guerin.

And, let's not forget that I added the 1,400th puck to the collection.

To be honest, I'd be happy to get those players over the course of a month, maybe even a season. To get them in a week, though, is pretty remarkable to me.

See what preparation, hard work and dedication can do?

Thanks for stopping by

Just a quick note to thank everyone for stopping by Hound Central 3.0 this season. As you can see, the site has passed 5,000 page views and has had nearly 2,500 visitors since mid-August.

It's especially rewarding, as this blog focuses on such a tiny niche as hockey hounding. I know there are more popular hockey blogs out there, but I like to think that Hound Central 3.0 is holding its own.

Remember, too, that the season still has a long ways to go. I'm not even close to being done.

5 Big Sigs

With the Calgary Flames and Washington Capitals coming to town this week, a heaping dose of wishful thinking dominates the items I'm hoping we add to the collection:

~ Calgary's Jarome Iginla on one sweet hat trick of Flames, Dallas Stars and Team Canada pucks;
~ Calgary's Dion Phaneuf on Flames and Red Deer Rebels pucks;
~ Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff on Flames and Cleveland Barons pucks;
~ Washington's Olaf Kolzig on Capitals (actually, I have a couple different ones) and Tri-City Americans pucks; and
~ Washington's Brent Johnson on the American-born goalies stick.