First off, I totally agree that this was a great cause and from what I heard it will happen again by years end. Now, I was fortunate to get two pucks, but here is why: I was informed and prepared. I have a flex plan and live in Philadelphia, and left an extra 90 mins before the doors opened at 5: 30 PM ,which was advertised by the Devs on tv broadcasts, radio broadcasts and their web site.SO I was outside the door at 3:55. U used last year’s open house at the Rock as a test run. There you could meet the Devils for FREE. Same thing, left early and instead of going to the bathroom and what not I ran to the Marty line. Funny, Marty’s line and the puck giveaway were at the same locations. Because got there really early, I ran to the line (not anywhere else..hold it in) and I was fortunate.

I agree that the line was horrible, there was mass confusion and a couple of people butting in front of someone. Yes, there should’ve been a limit to the pucks being sold, especially since a person 8 people ahead of me purchased 35 pucks and needed a friggin box. The Devs wives and gf’s were very nice and even were mixing the pucks up so it be better odds not to the same player.

Now here is the really bad part. They ran out of pucks right when one woman showed up and just wanted one puck. She was really upset when they ran out, not angry upset though..just really sad. Now my sadness was that the credi card machine was not working for a long, long time and I only had one cash $20 on me. I bought two pucks and one of the girls asked me to open them and I got Paul Martin and Scott Stevens. The woman who missed out was asking if anyone wanted to sell one. The machine was not working, Paul Martin is NOT one of my fave players ..in fact we should trade him and his draft/scouting reports, clippings NOW. Anyway, I sold her the Paul Martin puck because I could not see here go empty handed. So I prepared and left early and I did not buy as many as I wanted to at the end, but I got Stevens and made someone happy. Now, while I was waiting for the machine to work, this “woman” with an autographed Gionta Red jersey came over to the desk (the wives and gf’s had left) and only three people were there: A girl working the box of cash, a Devs rep in a grey suit and someone else. This Gionta fan started dropping F bombs and a huge tired of hwo the Devs marketing sucks and they “F” up all the time..she went ballistic on this guy and he just stood there and took it, not one word. And this my friends is where I have the problem. If there are only 500 pucks and I prepared and got there early and what not, especially from where I live..there is no excuse for a local not to be there early..IF you really wanted a puck. That is a slap in the face to me who prepared for this. Should there have been more pucks: Yes, a puck sale limit: YES..all correct however that woman had no right to do what she did. I was going to say something to her but, I did not because I would’ve dropped the C word on her. She yelld “I’ve been fan since 1995” WOW..good you did not one you bandwagon jumper, where were you when we were bad?

The WORST story though was that some woman was bragging afterwards that she got three pucks: Marty, Holik and Rupp and just walked out and did not pay. It was advertised that you had to pay for your pucks first, then you pick them up. Well it was reversed and a bunch of theives got away with free pucks, I’m sure she was not the only one.

So to the fans left out, it’s a shame..I only walked out with one (I only would’ve purchased three at the max, but got one) but I got one and I feel fortunate. Then again I prepared so I should’ve gotten one. I am going to email my ticket rep and Devs management becuase they lost money on this and the Devs rep there did not deserve what he got from a pathetic woman. The Devs could’ve done this better..for sure, so could a lot of complaining fans.

Sorry about the bad spelling, forgot to go through spell check, I type to fast sometimes. Apologies

I was pretty well prepared myself…in fact, I was right next to John! They really could have done the whole thing better. For one, they should definitely have a limit…I only wanted 2 pucks (my dad and I were each going to get 1), im not looking to collect one from every team.

The second, is that they probably could have done, was just break it up more. Have several tables at the different entrances to break up the crowd.

The only thing I didn’t know, was that it was at the Verizon tower entrance….I came in from the PNC one …. so anyone who entered the Verizon tower got there first..which leads me to believe they should really have stated that if you wanted the pucks you had to go into THAT entrance (or at least advised). If it was state somewhere that it was near that entrance, than I totally missed it, but i"m pretty sure it wasn’t (they probably didn’t know until that morning where they were putting it).

I understand that maybe signing more than 500 pucks could be a bit much for the players, but they’re already signing 500 pucks… a few more wouldn’t kill them would it? They can do it within a few days….not all at once. Just think, if they had a higher amount (like say 2,000 or 3,000 ) that’s still not a lot if you base it on a 17,000 sell out ( i know they dont always sell out) …thats still not that many pucks..and thats even MORE money they can be raising for the charity.

Anyway, those were just my thoughts! I’m sure they’ll fix it for next time….they know, people know this didn’t work out very well…if they didnt at least ATTEMPT to do something better they know they’ll look like fools.

Just my opinions, anyway :p