Hawerchuk, Hull and St-Pierre

Day one of the Family Fest in Saskatoon brought some mixed crowds and some happy hockey people. I arrived early to check it out, not very many people, but lots to do. There were skills competitions for the kids; accuracy, rapid fire shooting and mini games hockey games. They had old Team Canada games on the big screen and NHL 2010 for the Xbox and Wii for people to play. The Hockey Hall of Fame have a few items setup, those pictures will be posted as soon as I can get them uploaded. Lots of Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby and the coolest thing I have seen in a long time, Paul Henderson's goal stick. More of that to come. In the far corner, I was pleasantly surprised by the setup, there were memorabilia auctions and trophies set up for people to view. The Memorial Cup, RBC Cup, ART ROSS and Calder Trophies were all there for people to view take pictures of get their pictures taken and printed on the spot, proceeds going to the Children's Hospital. Hawerchuk was scheduled to be there at 6:00 but as most hockey people, was a few minutes late.  We spotted him wandering around looking at the displays. Hey, can't knock a guy for that. They set him up by the trophies, with a catch, For $10 you could get a picture with Dale and the trophies he won, the Calder and Memorial. Hey, that's a unique experience even for this hockey freak. They printed the pics out and Dale signed them. I managed to get a #0 signed, a Jets puck and a blank puck. I asked him to personalize the number and I got his HOF year and All the Best. I think that is a cool request, and players seem to add more for you too. The next day was Dennis Hull. Mr. Hull, I mean Dennis (he gave me heck for calling him Mr. Hull) signed for about 30 people, more of an older crowd too. I got 2 pucks, 1 Black Hawk and 1 blank plus a white #1. I got my picture with him taken by Gary Peters, 1965-66 Stanley Cup Champion with the Montreal Candiens. That's kinda cool to have a Cup winner take your picture. I also got Gary on a black puck, he put the Cup year and Canadiens name. Dennis was very cool, signed lots and had some good visits with people. The third day was suppose to be Hayley Wickenheiser, hockey godess in these parts. Withthe best female hockey player in the world signing today, it was not hard to get my wife to come down with me. But when we got there, we found out Haley hurt her back and was not able to attend. Oh-oh, my wife was a little ticked but not much you could do and with the Olympics around the corner, Haley take care of that back, please...Kim St-Pierre came in her place, Kim of course is the Team Canada goalie for the upcoming games in February. She signed my Team Canada jersey and puck, and my wife for her Team Canada puck signed. We both got pictures with her and walked off. There was a First Nations hockey booth set up near so we walked over to have a look. Craig McCallum of the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) was signing, so I managed to get a blank puck signed. They had jerseys and cards set up of First Nations NHL current and former NHL players. Rich Pilon, Jim Neilson and Freddie Sasakamoose all had some and gone from the booth but I missed them. Today at 1:00, all the guys with Reggie Leach will be at the booth so that is today's task. More to come, its just getting started!