I am obligated (self imposed, mind you) to get a puck from each game I go to. I’m happy limiting myself to that, so long as there isn’t anything else really cool to pick up.

First, the puck:

OK, nice puck, eh? But then I spotted the Grab Bag.

Dude, it’s a grab bag. I couldn’t resist.

Anticipation.

And I get a signed puck from Ryan White. Whoo-hoo!!! Wait, who is Ryan White? Well, he was born in Parker, CO. So there.

Well, there you go. Swag report complete. My post from the Tri-City Americans hits tomorrow.

Now that I have made it to San Jose, I can post the swag report from the Kings vs Thrashers game.

First off, the puck I wanted to get the first time. I got the last one at the stand. Apparently, they keep selling out. Gee, I wonder why.

As part of Armenian Heritage Night, they were also handing out Armenian flags. Mind you, somewhat modified ones, but still:

OK, it’s silly and cheesy, but you know my feelings on the night. So I’m going to hang on to this one.

During warmups, I was down low to interview Connie from Kings World Podcast, and afterwards, I stayed to watch and get a few pics of the star of the night for the Thrashers (hint: I am not talking about Kovalchuk). As I sat there, a puck came over the glass, caught the netting just right, and landed at my feet. All I had to do was reach down and pick it up. And I did.

That is one piece of swag from an incredible night that I won’t forget for a long time.

If you are just finding this blog, and want to catch up on my west coast hockey tour, you can find all the posts by clicking here. My big post about Armenian Heritage Night, where I got all this swag, can be found here.

And I have a microblog going, posting what is happening at the time. Think of it as twitter on my own space. Find it here.

I took a similar road trip a few years back through the old UHL (back in it’s glory days of 14 teams, before becoming the unimpressive 6 team IHL of today), and I wound up with a lot of neat stuff along the way. I always bought a puck at every game, but this being the minors, there was often something extra. A caught t-shirt, a magnet schedule, some signed item, or something unique. Part of the fun of going to all these places is having something to take home with you.

This is what I got last night.

First off, let me say that overcharging for a puck should be a federal crime. I understand that beer prices are going to be high when consumed indoors out of a plastic cup, and you will shell out more for food than at your local Denny’s, but pucks aren’t that expensive to make. I remember complaining about paying seven dollars for a Roanoke Valley Vipers puck, only to be told that it was the inaugural year, and that’s why it was more than the average (around $5 on that road trip). Know where the Vipers went after that season? The slush pile, never to be seen again.

L.A. Kings, $10 for a puck is criminal.

Ohhhh, official. Who cares? Actually, I wanted one with the new 3rd jersey logo, but it wasn’t to be found.

Mind you, something a little different, now that will get my attention, and make me complain a little less. Such as…

That’s right, game used net, with what I assume is a puck mark. Mind you, there were a ton of these still there, but I got it because it was interesting, not to sell on ebay.

A little reading material as well. I don’t expect this to be deep or anything, but I haven’t read a hockey book in a little while.

This final piece came gratis. I got to the counter to check out, and that was when I saw the sign. If you bought more than $25 dollars of stuff, you got this:

Yeah. After last night’s game, I think fans wanted to use it like this:

BOOM!!!!

And I just want to say this about last night’s game. I felt like I was in some sort of bizarro hockey land, where Mike Cammalleri was booed, but Todd Bertuzzi was not. I can’t figure people out sometimes.

If you want the quick updates, I started a microblog for the trip. You can see it here, as well as subscribe to it’s feed. There should be a lot of content there along the way.

And all the West Coast Hockey Tour posts can be found by clicking here.