Well, a Flames day maybe couldn't have come at a better time!

2005-06 Be A Player

2005-06 Upper Deck THE CUP
#67/75

2001-02 Upper Deck SP Game Used

2001-02 Upper Deck SP Game Used
#61/900

Hall, Nieuwendyk, Desjardins, Jones, Kadri, McMillan, and Bourque

I will go out on a limb and say this autograph ranks in the top 3 in my life. A Flame from the Stanley Cup Team in 1989!Well what a way to end it last night. We ended up with free tickets to the Canada game, rushed into the city making sure that I grabbed my silver paint pen and sharpies, not really sure what to expect. We wandered around the arena before the game and I noticed Ron Tugnutt heading to the VIP lounge. He walked in and as I walked by, I caught a glimpse of Joe Nieuwendyk. I told my wife and we double checked it was him. He walked over to buy a 50/50 ticket (funny I know) and I approached asking if I could bother him when he was done. He said, "Sure". Music to my ears! I had bought 4 IIHF pucks at $10 a piece so I handed him a puck with silver sharpie. I had to comment to him, that I was really nervous. I mentioned that I had got a lot of autographs this week and I was shaking talking to him. I told him I was from Calgary so this was really cool to meet someone from the 1989 Cup team. Hey that's 2 in 2 months! He patted me on my shoulder and said it was nice to meet me. I could have went home right there. As my wife took some pictures of of Team Canada in warm up, I sat in the lower level behind the net. I looked behind me and saw Brian Burke, Leafs GM in one of the boxes. This one might be tough.
We saw Messier but it was clear he was in no mood for fans. During the second period we sat behind the Swiss goalie with some new friends. There were scouts galore around us, by this time, they were not hard to miss, black jackets, suits, and black binders. Funny...
With 7 mins left in the game, we headed down to try and get Messier, finding out he left early almost running out the box. I turned around seeing Burke almost running to the stairwell, even at his age. Well, first one we missed all week. We waited around by the bench noticing Coach Desjardins visiting with a friend. I waited patiently and he motioned for me to walk over. He signed my puck and I said good luck in the gold medal game. We headed down stairs to the area between the Team Canada family lounge and the dressing rooms. Ryan Ellis was the first to walk by arm in arm with a female security worker. Other players walked out so you just had to position yourself. I saw Hall come out with Bourque so I walked over to the area. He signed for everyone, I think when he hits the bigs he will toughen up a lot.
His comment was, "I have to go and see my family guys." Nice kid but time will change him. And my wife got the last item he signed, a nice IIHF logo puck. Martin Jones was next, I got him on the last IIHF puck. I had no more pucks so I had to move to my Team Canada jersey. Pietrangelo signed for a few and a stupid security guard stuck his arm out blocking my wife getting her Canada jersey signed. Kadri, Cowen, McMillan and Bourque all signed my jersey. Not many had sharpies so I ended up handing the players sharpies, just as long as mine was signed first. Eberle and Schenn were rushed through quickly. There was about 200 people down there now and the players did not sign, were just rushed to the lounge. Desjardins signed and took pictures for about 10 mins, nice to see a local guys taking more time for the fans. We had enough by then, hit Tim Hortons for some hot smoothies and subs and we headed home. I know I have said this before but I think that's it for us at the World Juniors. But we'll see what tomorrow brings.

1990-1991 Team Canada World Junior Gold Medal Team 2X

This all began yesterday when I was reading a local online news article about the World Juniors. They said that the 1990-1991 Team would be at World Fest at 4:30 on New Years Eve. We planned on going in to watch the game there so this was just an excuse to get there early. Now, you have to understand, when I say the 1990-1991 Gold Medal Team, that's just the western Canada players, no one from eastern Canada showed, ie Lindros, Ricci, Potvin. As per Hockey Canada they were an hour and a half late from the program starting. We were there for the long haul so no matter to us but HC has been doing this all week. They introduced the players, NHL experience and any World Junior tidbits they could add. The players appeared to be excited to be with the guys again and most are from around here and they were shuttled off to the CAN/US game across the street after. They had an autograph session with posters for fans to get signed. I have cards of most of the guys but hey, you know me, I had jerseys and pucks galore. And yes, I did get that look from players. Most of the jerseys I had lying around so more so than anything, just putting them to good use. I played against Pat Falloon so I chatted with him for a bit about the old days. I had the Islander puck for Sillinger but did not want to come off greedy so when I went up again, I asked him if he could personalize it to my wife, avoiding the obvious assumption. They were scurried off and we watched the CAN/US game with 2000 of our best friends. Na, there were too many people for my liking. Friends who went to the game, came over to bring in the New Year with us. The 50/50 was $200,000 last night too, I have been to Flames games with 25,000 people and it was only $60,000. I am not a drinker so the alarm went off early today, bringing more tired eyes than anything else. We headed down to the brunch with the same players in -40 weather, rushed inside and had a nice meal with some new friends. Some players were a little late for the brunch, must have had a little too much fun I guess. There was a small program and then an autograph session again. I had only two logo pucks left, plus 4 blank pucks so I thought I'd get them filled. Hey at $75 a plate, I was walking out with some autographs. I chatted with Falloon again, got a picture with him. We laughed about something 'back in the day'. Most of the players were walking around so I managed to score some pics with Sillinger again, Needham and Chyzowski. I got my pucks signed and asked Sillinger about some of the games in Regina. He said he was not really worried about the Canada games, only 1 Oiler (Eberle) but Finland had 3 players drafted so he watched them pretty close. Dykhuis was bugging Sillinger about him being traded so many times. He said "She had a 1 in 9 chance to get one of your teams Mike!" The odds were not correct but funny anyway. I got to Kidd and kept a full puck for him, said I was a die hard Flames fan and got a picture with him. Cool guy...

Karl Dykuis and Scott Thorton

Regina's Mike Sillinger

Trevor Kidd

Top L-R Dave Chyzowski, Chris Snell and Dick Todd, Mike Sillinger, Mike Needham

Bottom L-R Trevor Kidd, Scott Thorton and Karl Dykhuis, Mike Needham and Steven Rice

Top L-R Mike Needham, Dave Chyzowski and Scott Thorton

Stewart Malgunas and Mike Sillinger

Martin Gelinas, Ron Tugnutt and Cody Hodgson Signed Jerseys and Puck IP

If you can recall in my earlier posts about hockey games at Credit Union Center, I am 2 for 2 going for a walk inside the rink. Bryan Trottier & Gerry Cheevers...I told my wife I should try again. I got up the steps and Cody Hodgson of the Vancouver Canucks or last years Team Canada leading scorer. I waited and asked him for an autograph on a Team Canada puck. He said sure and we chatted for a few seconds, he told me when he was going to the Canuck camp and I told him I thought he would stick with them this year. He is a really down to earth guy. But I had a Canucks jersey in my bag but I did not want to go back. I walked around the corner to go back down to our seats and Martin Gelinas was talking with Ron Tugnutt. I got Ron on an Oiler jersey and Martin on the Canucks jersey. Karma baby, karma...Martin spoke about his new job Nashville. I was bugging him about the Canucks jersey, I told him it killed me a little, Martin of course was on the '04 Flames team that just about took the Cup. And he thought the puck was in...Flames fans will get that one...

Cliff Ronning-Vancouver Canucks's Jersey IP

On the RBK Canuck's Away jersey is Cliff Ronning, Warren Skordenski and Jack Valiquette. All autos were in-person. Cliff will sign but won't go out of his way, wierd. Nice guy though, chatted about his broken hand against the Rangers in the Cup final. He flexed his hand and said it still bothers him, 10 years later.

Scott Hartnell Flyers Jersey-IP

Scott Hartnell is one heck of a hockey player and one heck of a nice guy. Got him at Stoll's Golf thing in Saskatoon.