Who Needs Fireworks...

When you got The Professor?!? As I'm sure you know by now, even though he had offers from Dallas and a few Canadian clubs, Slava took a hometown discount and decided to not uproot his family and stay with the Thrashers... something you just don't see in this day and age any more. Kozzy is one of my favorite Thrashers and I'm glad he decided to stay on because without him the team wouldn't be the same. He is an integral part... a cornerstone... a foundation... of this team. The fans love him and he's an all-around great guy. I'm glad he decided to stay here. With all of the great players already gone to other teams, I think Atlanta would have been in REAL trouble had he decided to play elsewhere. I'm sure DW had a Plan B, but I don't even want to know what that was, but it would be interesting to find out what the backup plan was. Now we have to worry about signing Hossa for next season, and hopefully we'll have that taken care of before the season starts.

I did attend the Thrashers Draft Party a few weeks ago. I entered the raffle they had and ended up winning the first prize - an autographed Xlb photo with certificate of authenticity. Pretty damn nice. They raffled off a Kari signed stick.. not a game used... but still I wanted to win that for my Girlfriend... so I bought a bunch of tickets figuring I'd give myself the best possible chance. They drew for it at the end of the event, and by then, people had already started to leave (who leaves before something is over?!?). Anyway, she called a number and no one came. She had to start calling other numbers... oh I came SO very close ...2 or 3 numbers away, but no one with those ticket numbers showed up. Eventually so other dude won it. Oh well. I didn't come home empty-handed , but I wanted to win that stick SO badly for Sam. Oh well. I ended up with about $40 in free game cards and a 07 Draft guide as well. They also had a silent auction, a spin-n-win (I won a damn Hossa poster of which I have like 10.

So now comes the waiting... and waiting... yes, the training camp for new prospects starts next week and that should be interesting... I'll try to make it up to Duluth once or twice to check it out.

But back to Kozzy for a moment... when DW came on 680 The Fan on Monday afternoon with no news, no updates, nothing... there were quite a few disappointed people on the msg boards. We were all anticipating news of Slava or someone else signing... except he had no news to say... so why on earth would you have DW on the radio, in the middle of the summer, and have no news to report? It was hard to hear as a fan. But DW managed to come through a few days later. I have a feeling they knew all along but just wanted to tell us on the 4th... knowing people had the day off and would be able to tune in a bit more than a normal Wednesday. He is an essential, key element to this team and I know the fans will surely welcome him back with open arms.

Oh, and to the person who has no clue how to spell and left a message about warmups... you really, really just don't get it. At all. Please don't post here again.