Circus comes to town

By J.R.
Hockey Hounds Universe correspondent

As I arrived at the Buffalo Sabres hotel in San Jose a few moments in time for the morning skate hockey-hounding opportunity, a half dozen dealers were already on site. I didn't need my iPod. Entrance of the Gladiators, the soundtrack for the day, was blaring in my head. Clearly, the Ryan Miller circus was in town.

For the first few minutes, the only activity was the ever increasing number of dealers making their presence felt, growing faster than the population of (Jason) Pominville. Suddenly, the front doors of the lobby swung open and former Sharks and current Sabres defenseman Craig Rivet, Nathan Gerbe and another unidentified teammate stepped out into the chilly morning air. They immediately made a right turn, walked along the outer wall and headed down the street. I grabbed my bag and caught up to them about a half a block away.

I asked Rivet if he would please sign a puck and he nodded, not uttering a sound. When he handed the puck back to me, I noticed that the autograph came out lousy. Stupid paint pens, I thought. Upon further review, let's blame the stupid individual in charge of priming said paint pens. Apparently, this is a simple lesson that I will never learn. Puck Signing 101: Make sure your paint pens are primed and ready for action.

Back in front of the hotel, sneaking peeks at the enormous and glorious Ryan Miller photographs being handled by the dealers, I recognized Patrick Lalime walking toward me from the other end of the street. I politely asked him if he would mind signing a couple of cards (shown above with one from Rob Niedermayer) and he graciously obliged.

"Man, it's pretty cold out here," he said.

"Indeed it is," I agreed. I wanted to tell him that he is from Quebec and the temperature in San Jose was probably a little warmer than what he was used to in Canada (or Buffalo), but I chickened out. Never argue with the man holding the blue Sharpie.

Not too much time elapsed when the man everybody was waiting for made his grand appearance. Miller took one look at all of "his biggest fans" and made a subtle, yet obvious gesture of slight irritation. To his credit, though, he signed at least one item (and I saw a couple of guys get two) for every person there.

Unfortunately for me, while patiently waiting for Miller to sign my puck, I missed several Sabres as they got on the bus, including another former Shark, Mike Grier. Miller may have been annoyed, but he put marker to photos and paint pens to puck for everyone.

Truth be told, Miller was certainly my No. 1 priority, but I also wanted to get former defenseman and current Sabres assistant coach James Patrick to sign a New York Rangers puck. Patrick seemed surprised that somebody recognized him and actually wanted his autograph.

"You were one of my favorite players growing up in New York," I told him.

"Thank you," he replied. "Those were some good times."

Indeed they were, James. Good times and memories. That's what autograph collecting should be about, not dollars and cents.

Fortunately, the circus theme song is finally out of my head.

Signing pucks, show above, were, from top to bottom, Lindy Ruff, Patrick, Rivet, Miller and Tyler Myers.