1. As a kid I was #88, because nobody wore it. Then Eric Lindros came around, and I was pissed - he stole my number.
2. I changed it to #95 for the same reason. And all was good for a few years.
3. Then Michel Petit and Alexei Morozov started wearing it. But by then, I liked the number too much, so I said the hell with changing it - I had it first.
4. My second greatest NHL hockey memory ever happened when I was 11. I had been to a few games at Buffalo's old Memorial Auditorium, always in the cheap blue or orange seats. A friend of mine called me the day of a Sabres-Bruins game, and said he had an extra ticket for the game, and his mom would drive us. He didn't tell me that the seats were in the lower golds, the second row behind the Sabres bench - it was absolutely incredible to see a game from that close for the first time!
5. My greatest NHL memory was a few years ago, when I took my then 3 year-old son to his first game, Sabres vs. Penguins. Despite being only 3, he was riveted the entire game - I loved every minute of sharing it with him!
6. I still have my first stick ever.......a white Canadien model that is to this day the heaviest stick I've ever used regularly, despite being an intermediate model.
7. Despite playing hockey in one form or another from the age of 7, it took my until 2007, at the age of 32, to score my first hat trick in a competitive game.
8. I recently became a regular goaltender again after ten years of being out of the crease.
9. I separated my left and right shoulders in consecutive seasons back in the late 90s, missing a combined total of 4 shifts with the two injuries.
10. I have shoulder pain to this day because I was young and stupid enough to miss only 4 shifts with the injuries.
11. In my team's only championship game appearance, I hit a goalpost on a breakaway in the second overtime in a game which my team ultimately lost three minutes later.
12. My all time favorite NHL player is Mike Foligno.
13. My nose even looks like Foligno's.
14. I thought it was awesome that Foligno's son Nick of the Ottawa Senators celebrated his first NHL goal with an imitation of his father's "monkey jump" goal celebration.
15. I met former Sabres and Islanders great Pat LaFontaine......and if you didn't know who he was, you'd never guess - one of the most unassuming and down-to-earth athletes I've ever seen.
16. I get a lot of questions from opposing players and referees who don't know me about my jersey, which has three different numbers on it - 95 on the back, and 16 and 96 on the left and right sleeves respectively.
17. The 16 and 96 represent my late brothers - those were the numbers they wore when they played.
18. I recently set an unofficial record in my league for number of shots to hit a goalie in the face. The opposing team rang 8 shots off my mask (all in the first two periods, actually), including two on consecutive shots in the first minute of the game. The longtime ref said he couldn't remember anyone ever being hit more than three times.
19. I think it's a travesty that places like Phoenix, Carolina and Nashville have NHL teams, while Winnipeg and Quebec don't.
20. There is never a day where I am not thinking, talking or writing about, or playing, hockey. Breathing, eating, hockey. Not necessarily in that order.
http://hockey-sense.today.com 
