"This guy has all my stuff!" Me and Mo at the DCS.

I've met Mike at least a hundred times, and it had been a while since the last time I had got to catch up.

In fact, probably the last time we chatted was when he messaged me asking me about a 1999 T-Flex for the statue.  I haven't done a complete story about that yet, but the short of it is the Stars through Mike borrowed one my Modano game used sticks for the making of the Modano statue that overlooks the AAC now. The Stars front office have always been first-class to me, especially Stukes and Lites, so I was grateful to be part of that process.

Mike was scheduled to appear with several former Stars from the 99 Cup Team in Allen, TX.  So, I made the drive on Saturday and decided to take a few items to get signed with obligatory photo op. I have so many Modano items that it's hard to haul them out to a certain location by myself.  I haven't been successful in getting Mike to stop by the house to see and sign all the items, but hey, anything is possible right?  

For this trip, I took my 1995 game worn Modano jersey (this was the shortened season), a couple twigs, including the one he used in his last game in Dallas and the stick I lent the Stars for the statue. I'm not a big collector of hockey cards anymore, but I did have the 1996 first ever Upper Deck jersey card, and so I took that as well.  

The show itself was very well put together.  Everything from the lines and instructions were all straight forward and the standing in long lines went by pretty fast.  DCS also has an amazing social media team; they deserve their flowers as well.  I hadn't been to a card show since probably when I was a little kid and my mom took me, but I enjoyed the DCS and when I left, I wanted to see when the next one was.

Mike was signing at 1PM, but he also had photo-ops before that.  While waiting in line, I thought to myself, I have so many pictures with Mike from the time I was 12 to now, but never one where we did a pose with sticks like it's a ceremonial face-off.  So, I had two sticks, and thought, hey let me ask him and see what he says.  Mike, as always, was gracious about it and loved the idea.  While proposing the idea, he also looked at the sticks, and a few people asked him "are those really your sticks?" to which Mike replied, "Yeah, this guy has all my stuff."  That in itself made my year.  It was so reminiscent of when he pulled up in his 850 and said he had seen the video about the Modano Dome in 1995. He also said he's seen the posts on this site, which again was amazing.  

The signing was next. The lines were long; they stretched through the entire first floor.  Mike Keane who was also there, made the quip, "Is Mo signing until 8pm?" when he saw the line.  Once I made it to the front of the line, Mike said, "alright man, let's do this" and started signing all my game used items.  On the Warrior which he used in the last game in Dallas, he inscribed it as such, and for the T-Flex from 1999, he inscribed it "the statue stick," which I thought was really cool because I didn't really tell him what to put. The jersey and the card were next, and he again, came through with those.

Overall, I had such a great time.  Also, if you ever get a chance to attend a DCS show, I highly recommend it. And, although I didn't really need any of the other guys from the 99 team, it was cool to see a few of them while at the show.  Seeing Mike brought back so many childhood memories, again, so grateful for his time, then and now.  Thanks Mike.  For the next photo-op, can we re-create the 9 & 26 poster pose?  I'll be Russ!