Another milestone

When Mattias Weinhandl signed a New York Islanders puck (at left) following a morning skate at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H., it became the 650th of my collection. Granted, that is a lot, but I still have a long way to go to reach my goal of 915 pucks.

Weinhandl, in Manchester for a preseason game against the Bruins, was one of the 11 Islanders, including Alexei Yashin, Miroslav Satan and Alexei Zhitnik, to sign for me that day. I also got pucks autographed by recent No. 1 draft picks, Robert Nilsson, Petteri Nikolainen and Ryan O’Marra.

I’ve worn a path along Interstates 495 and 93 to Boston and Wilmington, Mass., for the Bruins' training camp. The trips, mostly on weekends, have proved fruitful, adding pucks from Andrew Raycroft, Sergei Samsonov and Alex Zhamnov.

During one of the trips I couldn’t help but notice a stark contrast between the Bruins top two goalies. Raycroft, who waged a brief holdout following a locked-out season of near inactivity, seemed to be under a great deal of stress, perpetually grumpy (nothing new, the Boston-based hounds report) and sullen. Hannu Toivonen, on the other hand, looked loose and relaxed, sporting a Napoleon Dynamite T-shirt and an easy smile as he happily signed pucks outside the Garden.

As I’ve told a couple of Bruins prospects who played in the American Hockey League last year, the lockout may have been the best thing for their careers. While established players toiled in Europe, hit the links or ate themselves out of the NHL, such Bruins players as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Boyes, Milan Jurcina and Toivonen maintained the regimen of a season, dealt with the bumps and bruises and took giant steps in their careers.

Maybe that’s why, and this is more than just a hunch, Toivonen has had a better camp and seems to be enjoying life much more than Raycroft