The puck has dropped

Consider it a promise kept: Hound Central 4.0 is now officially open for your review.

As always, folks, I appreciate all of the time that you've spent here. I hope Hound Central 4.0, even in its infancy, proves useful and entertaining.

In fact, Puckhound has already scored the first six pucks of his 2008-09 hockey-hounding campaign. Who signed? Click the link above.

Breaking news

Faithful readers of Hound Central 3.0 should take note that the wait for Hound Central 4.0's official launch can now be measured in hours, rather than days.

Look for the journal that will chronicle the 2008-09 hockey hounding season to open for business, so to speak, sometime Saturday night.

In the meantime, see how your hounding bag stacks up against mine.

As always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your patience. Hopefully, it will be rewarded.

Getting closer

Though we're still a few days away from its official launch, you'll find Puckhound's review of 2008-09 Victory Hockey at Hound Central 4.0.

A new preseason game?

I keep hearing reports about a Hurricane headed toward the Tampa Bay area. The last I knew, the Hurricanes aren't supposed to arrive until Oct. 11, the Lightning's home opener.

And who is this Fay character? I don't remember Carolina signing anyone named Fay, do you? Maybe it's some Finnish free agent who flew under the NHL radar.

Addendum (Aug. 19): Fay's only a tropical storm, not a Hurricane.

Consider it done

Given that more than 58 percent of Hound Central 3.0 readers want to see a Hound Central 4.0, who am I to disagree. That's why, even before the poll ended, the new blog for the 2008-09 season has, indeed, found its way into the hockey blogosphere.

Though Hound Central 4.0 is up and running, we're still a few days away from its official launch, when preseason features, such as fearless prognostications and my annual thoughts on the best young players in the game, will fill in the days until my first trip to the Lightning's training camp.

In the meantime, Hound Central 3.0 will continue to run its course. I hope you don't mind.

Question: Hound Central 3.0 or Hound Central 4.0?

Launch Hound Central 4.0: 10 out of 17 votes cast (58.8 percent)
Keep Hound Central 3.0: 4 out of 17 votes (23.5 percent)
Don't care: 2 out of 17 (11.8 percent)
Shut it down (Sorry, Johnny Boy): 1 vote (6 percent)

How can they resist?

Other than death and taxes, it's a popular belief that there are no sure things in life. I believe that adage goes far beyond that, namely a kid with a baseball at a minor league park stands a darn good chance to get some autographs.

Take Wednesday night at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla., for example.

Staked out near the Clearwater Threshers dugout, Colin scored 14 autographs on a ball he retrieved from batting practice (drawing scorn from a grumpy old usher for running into a closed section) as well as his hand-drawn shark poster before the game's first pitch.

Among those signing were Michael Taylor (shown above), who crushed two home runs in the Threshers' 8-1 drubbing of the Lakeland Flying Tigers in Class-A Florida State League action.

Also signing the ball were Phillies prospects Quintin Berry, Gus Milner, Joe Savery and John Urick.

Granted, very few of these players will make it to the big leagues, but it didn't matter to Colin. For him, and me, it was another instance of quality time spent together during our summer break.

All about the sharks

All summer long, Colin's fascination with sharks has grown. We traveled to a marine research facility in Sarasota to check out their specimens. He just a got a book with 1,000 facts about sharks. Heck, he even has a pair of shark sunglasses.

But, I get the sense that his summer wasn't complete until he got a bunch of Clearwater Threshers players -- Single-A prospects for the Philadelphia Phillies -- to sign his hand-drawn poster before a game earlier this week.

As usual, the players got a kick out of the poster, nearly every one asking whether he had drawn it.

Act now, save a bunch

I normally wouldn't pass along store specials, but if you're expecting to use any paint pens during the upcoming NHL season, you might want to stop by your local Michael's arts and craft stores.

It seems that DecoColor Liquid Silver opaque paint markers (paint pens for short) as well as other color are only $1.99 each, rather than the normal $3.49. I spent a little over $10 to get five, saving $7.50 (or about three pucks) in the process.

Hard at work

For those of you who may believe I've been talking to lawyers over the past few weeks, I now have proof that I've been busy creating the ninth and 10th titles to my suite of hockey collecting blogs:

Sweet Swatches: Fourteen of the sweetest memorabilia cards (primarily swatches of jerseys and patches) in our collection.

Young Guns: A look at our top-shelf Upper Deck Young Guns, the gold standard of hockey rookie cards.

Taken together, I believe all 10 offer one of the most comprehensive arrays of hockey hounding/collecting blogs on the Internet.

Check them out, won't you?

Also, keen observers may notice that Hound Central 4.0 has had its "soft" launch. The official launch is still a few days away, but the 2008-09 hockey hounding journal is up and running.

Design a mask

So, you think you're an artist, eh? And you love hockey. The Vancouver Canucks are offering a contest just for you, with the opportunity to design backup goalie Curtis Sanford's mask.

Personally, I'd rather design Roberto Luongo's mask. He's a much better goalie (a mild understatement) and, as the Canucks' starter, the design would get much more exposure.

With that in mind, perhaps the Canucks should let fans design Sanford's hat, seeing he'll be more likely to wear that from the comfort of the bench than his mask this season.

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

Here you go, a handful of items to occupy idle moments.

Don't forget to vote in the latest Hound Central 3.0 poll, too.

Have fun.

Name this logo

From what I remember, the chance to identify this little quizzical visual usually drew some interest.

Heck, even my wife likes this one.

Let's see how many educated guesses we get with this logo.

Remember, too, that complete answers get full credit.

Hockey Word Association

New third jerseys =
Ted Nolan =
Detroit Red Wings =
Jaromir Jagr =
Best young defenseman =

Hockey Scrambled

Injo Kapentin =
Ancdnu Ethik =
Virast Jaacz =
Tigrebl Luber =
Striku Rofets =

Hockey math

Tony Toesave gave up 169 goals on 1,980 shots faced in 66 games. What is Tony's goals-against average and save percentage?

A.) 2.89 GAA, .905 SP
B.) 2.37 GAA, .921 SP
C.) 2.73 GAA, .911 SP
D.) 2.56 GAA, .915 SP

Easy pickings

In hounding, there must be a law of averages. For every tough autograph you get, there seems to be another that comes pretty darn easy.

Take this one from Tampa Bay's Akinori Iwamura. Rather than wait outside in the sweltering heat and humidity, all we had to do was enter a contest inside air-conditioned Tropicana Field before today's thrilling 10-7 walk-off victory over Cleveland.

Though autographed cards from some of the Rays' bigger names were picked clean, we certainly had no complaints about adding this one to the collection.

But, wait, there's more

McFarlane's Sports Picks also promises a release this month. The lineup of its NHL Hockey Series 19, combining heroes past and present, features Don Cherry 2, Tony Esposito, Grant Fuhr (in Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs uniforms), Alex Kovalev, Bernie Parent (shown above) and Ryan Smyth 2.

Looking ahead, McFarlane's promises these releases deeper into the season:

NHL Legends Series 7 (release date of October 2008): Doug Gilmour (who, like Fuhr, will be available in Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs uniforms), Gordie Howe 2, Mark Messier (in Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers uniforms), Stan Mikita and Maurice Richard (shown at left)

NHL Hockey Series 20 (release date of November 2008): Daniel Briere, Jonathan Cheechoo (shown at left), Jarome Iginla 3, Nicklas Lidstrom 2, Dion Phaneuf, Daniel Sedin 2 and Vesa Toskala.

Feeding the habit

As we all go through our various stages of hockey withdrawal, here's one instance of hope to hold onto until NHL clubs open training camps for the 2008-09 season.

Despite conflicting release dates (July 9 or Aug. 5?), we should soon expect to see Upper Deck offering Victory Hockey, the first cards for the upcoming season, featuring 200-card base and 50-card rookie sets.

Looking past its low-end reputation, meaning it'll likely be ignored by "elitist" collectors, I believe Victory provides autograph stock for quite a few big-name prospects:

~ Boston's Milan Lucic;
~ Chicago's Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews;
~ Edmonton's Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner;
~ Los Angeles' Jack Johnson;
~ Montreal's Carey Price and Andrei Kostitsyn;
~ the Rangers' Marc Staal;
~ Phoenix's Martin Hanzal;
~ St. Lous' Erik Johnson; and
~ Washington's Nicklas Backstrom

Key rookies, primarily late-season call-ups who enjoyed a couple of sips from their NHL cups of coffee last season, include Dallas' Mark Fistric, Los Angeles' Erik Ersberg, the Islanders' Kyle Okposo and Ottawa's Brian Lee.

A quick check of the Fleer hockey page, a subsidiary of Upper Deck, shows no future release dates. Disappointing, if you ask me.

The next step

As you can see, I'm seeking input, through the latest Hound Central 3.0 poll, on the future of my hockey-hounding blog. Do I continue writing this version, covering my hounding efforts of the 2008-09 NHL season? Or do I start anew, launching Hound Central 4.0?

Unlike others I know, I'll be honest. Keeping Hound Central 3.0 alive through the upcoming season would be taking the easy way out. No starting from scratch, just picking up where I left off. And that, my friends, has great appeal.

Still, though, the idea of building Hound Central 4.0 offers its own set of rewards. It's satisfying to watch something grow from the first page view. It's a hoot, too, trying out new ideas and, hopefully, fresh approaches. It'll give me another set of 999 posts.

That's where you folks come in. Provide some guidance, please. So far, eight readers have shared their opinions.

Do the right thing. Take part in the poll, won't you?

Love conquers money

I'm not sure who I believe more. Those who said, in Hound Central 3.0's latest poll, that the love of the game would motivate them to play in the NHL or those who would play simply for the money.

One approach is altruistic. The other is not. One preserves the game's basic integrity. The other preserves a bank account. There are plenty of reasons to choose one answer over another. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I voted for the love of the game.

The best answer, I believe, is twofold.

For the love of the game, a person will bust their tail just to make it to the NHL. Once there, though, I wouldn't blame them for grabbing as much money as they could. Life's too short and all it takes is one bad second for a career to evaporate.

In the end, ideals trumped income. Overwhelmingly, too.

Question: What would be your motivation to play in the NHL?

Love of the game: 19 out of 24 votes cast (79.2 percent)
Love of money: 5 out of 24 votes (20.8 percent)