The Montréal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning played their last preseason game earlier tonight at the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City, QC.
During the 1st intermission, I went and waited next to the stairs leading up to the press gallery where Steve Yzerman, the Lightning's general manager, was watching the game. I waited the whole intermission as well as the beginning of the 2nd period, but he never came off the press gallery. On the other hand, I was able to get autographs from 2 players from the Lightning who were scratched from tonight's lineup: Bruno Gervais (very friendly) and Ryan Shannon, who was nice enough to wait while I was looking for his card. Here's what I got signed:
I could also have gotten the Canadiens' Ryan White's autograph, but I didn't have anything for him to sign.
As the 3rd period was nearing its end, I went back to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the press gallery and waited for Steve Yzerman to come down. About 15 minutes after the game had ended, he finally came down the stairs with 2 other men. My friend got his Red Wings puck signed and Mr. Yzerman signed one of the 2 cards I handed him:
After that, I headed to the area where the players leave the arena. The Lightning's bus was parked inside, so I didn't see any of their players after the game. On the other hand, the Canadiens' bus was parked outside, so they had to walk from the arena to the bus. Several players signed either while walking to their bus, or inside the arena because they had gone through the wrong door. :o) I got autographs from Brian Gionta, Erik Cole and Scott Gomez inside the arena as well as Lars Eller and Andrei Kostitsyn outside as they were walking to their bus.
Lars Eller commented on how the card I had him sign looked nice but unfortunately, the marker he used didn't adhere to the card very well... As for the card Scott Gomez signed for me, I had already gotten it signed by Alex Tanguay last year at the Pro-Am Simon Gagné.
