Not too bad, but ...

Even though the regular season is dwindling to its final days, Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby remained in midseason form during the Penguins visit to Tampa Bay late last week.

Not only did The Next One blow off a handful of collectors waiting for him to leave for the team's morning skate, but he never gave the hounds a chance to ask. Two steps outside the hotel's front door, a yawning van door awaited Crosby and his nearly inseparable teammate, Colby Armstrong.

The day, thankfully, was not a total loss. Crosby's teammates, save for John Leclair, who apparently opted out of the practice, stopped and signed for everyone.

My big scores were three pucks from Sergei Gonchar (Penguins, Bruins and Capitals) and two pucks from Marc-Andre Fleury (Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and Team Canada).

My luck was a little better a day earlier when I hounded the Lightning after a practice in Brandon. Not only did I witness a rarity (see related posting above), but of the 16 pucks I got signed I was able to get multiples from Brad Richards (Lightning Stanley Cup Champions and Rimouski Oceanic*) and Martin St. Louis (Lightning Stanley Cup Champions and Calgary Flames*). (* = shown above)

All in all, the two trips produced another 49 autographs, including 24 pucks, for the collection. For those interested, the puck collection stands at 992 with trips for Atlanta (April 11) and Washington (April 18) in the works.