Inaugural season banner

Reader Rhonda's impressive stash continues with this gem - a banner from the Blue Jackets' inaugural season. She says, "Not autographed, but a prized possession."  I can see why!

I always liked that graphic.  Imagine that hanging in your house!

If you HAVE to buy a PSL...

...then by all means, get it signed by (then-)Blue Jackets Jody Shelley and Kevin Dineen!  At least, that's what reader Rhonda appears to think.

By the way, Rhonda unloaded a barrage of CBJ-signed goodness on me...expect to see a LOT of her goodies over the days ahead!

THE Derek Dorsett-signed jersey

The Real Deal.  With a story to match.

From reader Alison, a tale of devotion, admiration and...bunny ears:

It all started during the playoffs when I really took a liking to Derek Dorsett. He just stood out to me on the ice - its the way he plays, his tenacity and his drive to give his all for every single second that he's on the ice, he knows his role and plays his heart out. The fact that he's scrappy and will drop the gloves doesn't hurt my opinion either. 

He's been my favorite Jacket ever since...so much so, that in 2009, while waiting for my husband's adult league game to take place at Nationwide after a CBJ game, DD was spotted walking around the arena (was coming from the press box as he was recovering from his concussion). I literally ended up (practically) chasing him, just missing him, till I caught him walking thru the arena towards the locker room, and I, a 35 year old woman, asked for a pic and said I was his biggest fan. (Poor guy was freaked out by some old lady in bunny ears!) 

The CBJ quilt: Must. Have. More. Autographs!

From reader Cathy, get a load of this, you amateur autograph-seekers...

Click on the quilt to see the autographs up close.  This is impressive!

Love the blog idea and I should be embarrassed to admit I could probably keep you in posts for quite some time considering the monumental amount of "stuff" we have accumulated since 2008 when we officially got on the fan wagon.

Rusty Klesla rookie jersey

Reader John offers this gem - a genuine Klesla jersey from The Original Blue Jacket's rookie year where he played all of 8 games.  Note the inaugural season patch on the front and the silhouette of the fight strap on the back.

John tells me that he picked it up from another collector.  Doesn't look to be signed, but it's in fantastic condition.  

Jody Shelley bobblehead - from the Syracuse Crunch

Thanks, Jill, for sending along this signed piece of minor league glory from the Blue Jackets' old AHL team, featuring one of Columbus' most beloved players ever!

Todd Marchant & Tyler Wright pucks

From reader Mcsean3, I think that's Marchant on the left and Wright on the right - both boxed (classy!).  These apparently were signed at the "Adam Allgeyer Memorial Hockey Tournament" - what's the backstory on that?

And get a load of the other pucks this guy has!  That's an ECHL Columbus Chill puck behind the autographed ones...and what's the story with the hand-written Canadians puck?

Thanks for the photo!  Great collection!

[UPDATE: Sean offers a little extra for your reading pleasure...]

I love the idea for the new blog

I sat behind the home bench for the first 3 seasons, which often resulted in pucks getting chipped into the bench which invariably meant one of the trainers or coaches would flip the puck over the glass.

I picked up 4 game used pucks that way. Also, I have a puck signed by Todd Marchant and Tyler Wright that I won at silent auction at the Adam Allgeyer tournament in Dublin. This was of course, before both guys found themselves playing in Anaheim.

The Rick Nash puck

From reader Mike Z:

Yup - That's The Captain's John Hancock

Not too much to tell about this puck, aside from the fact that I do know it's Rick's signature when comparing it to other pucks. He could really stand to learn some better penmanship... I can't make out any of the letters and I presume there's a "61" in the middle, but who knows. I've got a good friend that recently bought a Macbook Air since he was moving to New York and needed something light to commute with. He didn't really know much about Apple products, and since I work in IT and frequently deal with Macs, I offered to set it up for him with a bunch of software and configure everything for him before he left. He offered the puck to me as payment, and I couldn't be happier with it. Looks great on my mantle next to my small & modest collection of unsigned pucks like my opening-night puck, 10 year anniversary puck and a practice puck I caught before the crowd protective netting was in place (unknown shooter since it was a deflection off the crossbar during warmups but I'd like to think it's an Espen, Sanderson, or similarly vintage player).

Let's start this blog right

From the DBJ blog, circa 2009:

  Yet another "Filatov loan"

The Dark Blue Jacket family is pleased to announce that, after serious and meaningful discussions with family leadership, we are loaning my signed Nikita Filatov hockey puck to my bedroom door, where it will serve as a doorstop for the balance of the 2009-2010 NHL season.  We have agreed to reconsider the role that the puck plays in our household at the end of the season.  I very much hope that it will return to the plastic puck display case that sits in our office/rec room next season.

This is a bittersweet moment.  We have high expectations for the puck.  It's just not happening as soon as we had hoped, but that's OK.  The puck is only a year old and probably needs some time to find itself.

We have not had any offers for the puck, nor have we marketed it on eBay.  At this point, we're interested in seeing how it performs as a doorstop and will reevaluate as the need dictates.

The Filatov puck's intention from the start of the season was to hold a position of prominence next to our other sports memorabilia for the duration.  It had a certain level of frustration at not being able to meet those expectations.  After the glow of the first-round draft pick wore off and all of our friends and relatives had a chance to see the puck, it settled into a position on the shelf where it really didn't get that much exposure.  Once it was pretty clear that if the puck wasn't going to be able to keep that level of prominence on our shelf, it let us know that it was going to look for other opportunities around the house.

Mrs. Dark Blue Jacket expressed optimism at this new role for our puck.  "We've needed a doorstop for some time," she remarked, "and I fully support my husband and how he handles the sports memorabilia.  I make suggestions to him on how to to organize our collection of pucks, baseballs and football helmets, and he makes suggestions to me on which acquisitions make sense for our family.  I appreciate his willingness to put the puck in harm's way for the betterment of our family.  I only hope that Dark Blue Onesie doesn't gnaw the sharpie ink off.  He's cutting a tooth, you know."

The Dark Blue Jacket family will hold the rights to the puck for the indefinite future.  The family was unwilling to comment on rumors that whether a Tommy Sestito-signed puck will take the Filatov puck's place on the shelf.  "Now's not the time for such speculation," Mrs. DBJ said. "Let's just be happy that our puck finally has found a place that fits its skill level."