Hallloween is one of our favorite holidays here in Hockeywood. Ever since I was a kid, October 31 holds a magical place in my heart. Not to get too cornball about it, but it was the one holiday where I got to see my parents act like kids. And believe me, nothing opens your eyes wider than seeing your dad squeeze into a Superman outfit with his beer belly flopping out and pretending to be a middle-aged Kal-El.

Several years ago, I started carving my own photo-realistic pumpkins. I started with Frankenstein on a huge 15-pounder. After scooping out all the seeds and cutting out pretty cool likeness of Boris Karloff, I was disappointed to find out that my work only lasted a few days before rotting out.

That's when I discovered foam pumpkins. No guts to scoop out, no rotting and I could carve even more intricate designs. I've carved the classic Universal Monsters, and started doing other iconic horror figures. But my ideas were wearing thin the more obscure I was getting. (Seriously, would the average person remember what Mr. Hyde or The Mole Man look like?)

So, I came up with an idea to attempt to carve a likeness of an L.A. Kings player, and the first person I thought would make a perfect Jack O'Lantern was Jack Johnson. But then I thought to myself other people might want to carve Jack themselves, so I created a template that Kings fans can download and print out on a regular 8.5 x 11 paper.

So click inside to get your very own Jack MF'n Pumpkin King design. Just right-click or drag over or whatever to your desktop. Punch out the pattern using a push pin or knife. My suggestion to novice carvers is to start in the middle, around the nose, and carve out.

The Jack pattern came out so good that I made several more player patterns for the Kingdom to download, which I'll be releasing the next few days. I want to see how you fare, so email me a picture at lifeinhockeywod@yahoo.com, and I'll post them here for all to enjoy.

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