A huge mail day

By Al
Hockey Hounds Universe senior Toronto correspondent

As a kid and I'm sure most of you fall in this catagory, we all had our childhood idoles. For me, growing up in Toronto, it was my Maple Leafs captain, Mr. Dave Keon. Throughout my hockey career, I had to have jersey number 14 and was very upset if a fellow teammate wanted the same number and it came down to a coin toss ... and I lost.

Some 20-plus years ago, my girlfriend, now wife, knew about my childhood idol and bought me a replica Leafs jersey with the number 14 and the name KEON on the back. At $100-plus at the time, that was a big purchase for a girlfriend.

The jersey has been proudly put on display in different locations in the two houses where we've lived.

Recently I came across an 8 x 10 of Mr. Keon and I also purchased his Hockey Hall of Fame Card (about the size of a postcard). I also was lucky enough to find out his home address in Florida.

Now living some 1,500 miles away from him, I came to the realization that meeting him in person for the auto would be out of the question. On a wish, I mailed it to him, including a short note explaining just how much of a role he played in my younger years and my hockey career.

Well can you guess what came in the mail? Yep!

Useful, I'll tell you

By Puckhound
Hockey Hounds Universe editor

I had this Lowell Devils pucks kicking around the stockpile, when I remembered that Florida Panthers goalie Scott Clemmensen came up the the AHL team's parent club, the New Jersey Devils.

A little research showed that Clemmensen played a few games in the Massachusetts mill city during the 2206-07 and 2008-09 seasons. Not wanting to let this puck collect any more dust, I made it part of the late-season push to top 2,300 autographed pucks for the collection.

Brag Book: Calgary Flames

Hound: Michael, Hockey Hounds Universe's Calgary correspondent
Hounding opportunity: Last home non-game practice of the season
Where: Father Bauer Arena
When: April 8th, 2011

Let the bragging begin:

Shown above: Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Tanguay, Jarome Iginla, Jay Bouwmeester;

Mikael Backlund, David Moss, Curtis Glencross and Steve Staios;

Jarome Iginla x 3 and Tom Kostopolous;

Daymond Langkow x 2 and Craig Conroy x 2;

Olli Jokinen x 2 and Miikka Kiprusoff x 2; and

Rene Bourque x 2, Alex Tanguay and Mark Giordano.

Double duties

By Puckhound
Hockey Hounds Universe editor

Though I'm not in the running to win our fantasy hockey league, instead settling for the consolation round this week, I must thank Pittsburgh's Tyler Kennedy for his late-season efforts in cementing our solid finish.

A late-season pick-up off the waiver wire, I was lucky enough to add him to the Florida Kings roster about the time he went on his scoring run. Last week, with the Pittsburgh Penguins in town, he was nice enough to have him sign these four cards, too.

Farm hands

By Mike
Hockey Hounds Universe Toronto correspondent

The Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs AHL club, held an open practice recently at Burnhamthorpe Arena in Mississauga. Afterwards, the team had a free signing session. That's where I added these:

Signing the cards shown above are Joe Colborne (top) and Fabian Brunnstrom.

Signing these pucks were Colborne, left, and Jake Gardiner.