Today in the "A": Falcons Equipment Sale

Welcome to my new feature on The Cannon, "Today in the A". Of course, the "A" represents the American Hockey League. I'll be featuring news that is relevant to the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Springfield Falcons when it's available. Other times, I will add some AHL content that hopefully will be of interest to Jackets fans. Other times, there may be AHL odds and ends. Think of "Today in the A" as all AHL, all the time!

Today, I'm taking at a look at the event that is the punctuation mark at the end of the Springfield Falcons season, the annual team equipment sale. The Falcons equipment sale took place on Saturday at the team's headquarters at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.

Trash or treasure, the buyer decides. Everything from sticks and skates to pants and protective equipment were available.

I have been to past sales and find myself always guilty of buying an item or two. Among my prized equipment sale finds were some new goalie sticks (Steve Valiquette) from a Hartford sale a couple of years ago.

This year's sale started promptly at 9AM. With my two "helpers", eight year old Jacob and six year old Joshua and the one hour drive, I didn't get there until 10:30. By then, the stock had been pretty much wiped out.

On hand from the Falcons front office were Senior VP and alternate governor, Bob Oliver. Along with Bob was Director of Media Relations, Damon Markiewicz and Ralph Calvanese, long time equipment manager, and AHL All Star equipment manager from this season.

Among the highlights left at 10:30 were a couple of well worn pairs of gloves (palms totally worn out...they had the holes to prove it), about half of the team's skates remained. A Petr Kalus jersey was discounted to $200 (no takers).

Also from years past, some goalie equipment (Glenn Fisher, I believe from 2006 or '07) and quite a collection of new sticks. Again, the sticks were mostly from the Edmonton Oilers time here, with Jean Francois Jacques being the most abundant.

However in the last corner of the sale area, there were a few used sticks. From about ten feet away, I clearly saw "Frischmon" on one. As I got closer, I noticed another of Frisch's. There were a couple that the name was rubbed off entirely and had no number on the tape to help identify them.

Then, I saw it! At the end of the row, overlooked by all but me, a Reebok Sickick. On the handle: "Calvert". On the tape at the knob: "11". It's here in my office with me right now. I'm glad I bought it, as it is a great reminder of one of the season's biggest success stories.