Montréal Canadiens IP

Earlier this month, I won a contest by The Gazette. I won 4 tickets for the "Skate with the Canadiens” event at the Bell Centre, which was held today. You got to skate with 1-3 player(s) of the Canadiens for 45 minutes, the tickets said. Players were not announced in advance though. Every hour there was a new group scheduled to take the ice. Our group was scheduled for 9 AM (we were the first group of the day). 3 players joined us on the ice: Brian Gionta, Hal Gill and Travis Moen. Since I didn’t know in advance who was going to be there, I had only brought 1 card for each player to sign, so here’s what I got signed:

Even if I’m not a Habs fan, it sure was a great experience to skate on the ice of the biggest arena of the NHL! :o)

Ron Francis TTM

Ron Francis c/o Carolina Hurricanes - 117 days - 2/2

Québec Remparts IP

Earlier today I read in a local newspaper that Ray Bourque was in town to see his son Ryan, who plays for the Remparts. The article mentioned that Patrick Roy had invited Ray to take part in on-ice practices with the Remparts yesterday and today, so I thought there was a good chance that he would be at the game tonight to see his son play. I went after the game and stayed there until 11 PM, but I never saw neither Ray nor Ryan leave, so my guess is that they were still inside when I left, especially considering how I saw a big rental SUV in the parking when I left...

Even though I didn’t get Mr. Bourque's autograph, I still managed to get these signed by Patrick Roy, who’s always a great signer in person:

Semyon Varlamov TTM

Semyon Varlamov c/o Kettler Capitals Iceplex - 25 days - 3/2

In addition to my 2 cards, Mr. Varlamov also signed 1 of the index cards used to protect my cards!