FaceOff 2007

First off, I want to apologize for not posting as many updates as I would’ve liked to the last few days… I’ve been busy as hell, I’m job hunting and interviewing and that has taken up a LOT of my time. My goal is to try to find a job that will allow me to accommodate my love for the Thrashers… somewhere where I can get plenty of hours in but not have to work until 8. I have a few things in the works so we’ll see.

I could go back and go over the last couple of pre-season games vs. the Panthers… but the Pre-Season is over and done with, so I won’t go back in time too much. I’m glad we’ve had a rather successful pre-season and I hope we win on Opening Night. Sure, you aren’t going to win every home game, but if there’s one game you really wana go home happy from, it’s Opening Night. And Opening Night win sets the tone, even perhaps for the entire season. You start off the season with a loss… I mean… even if you go to every game you can, there are a few games that you will always remember more than others… and one of those games is Opening Night. Sure there’s all the ceremony stuff, the banner, the players all being introduced… that’s all great… but you want an Opening Night victory more than anything… do YOU want to go home on Opening Night sad and disappointed? I sure as hell don’t. An Opening Night thriller… an OT win or a SO win would be sweet… but I’d rather have a secured win in regular…4-2 Thrashers is my guess for the final score. That being said, the Caps have upgraded their team and we’ll see just how good they are on Friday night. In reality, even if we don’t get a win, I hope we at least end up with a point by going into OT. If you can’t win, it’s still not too bad to go come knowing you put up a point on the board. Opening Night is one of those magical nights that you hope comes out in your favor.

Going back a little… we went to the FaceOff event as we always do. It was setup much better this time… instead of standing in line forever, the autograph tables were setup on the arena floor and fans could just sit and wait in seats while they waited for autographs. We were the very first in line for line E and Sam was excited, as you can guess, to meet her hero Kari once again. She’s taking a photography class and developed a really nice photo of Kari… Kari didn’t seem to care all that much… Sam was a bit disappointed… I felt bad but what can I do? Anyway, after autographs, we went to take a bathroom break and then headed over to get some free Moes for dinner… now that was a LOT better than the free hotdogs and coke they ran out of last year. A LOT better. In fact, it was so good, I’m going to start a petition that they do that EVERY game for season ticket holders…. Hah yeah right. Anyway after that we went to check out the gear sale… of course all of the really good stuff is gone by then, people first in line their get the best dibs on stuff… so I’m thinking ahead to next FaceOff already… that’s the line to get into first…. Autographs are cool and all… but that opportunity comes only once a year… anyway I managed to pick up a used Jimmy Slater stick … with #29 on it. My first thought was what kind of scam is this? LOL. Slater’s always worn #23. No one at FaceOff could figure out an explanation, but some helpful fellow fans on the message boards figure it out… he wore #29 while in Chicago… so I ended up with a stick from his AHL days… cool with me. Grabbed a Damian Rhodes name plate (surprised no one had picked that up, he is an original Thrasher and, although not very popular with fans back in the day, he will always be remembered by fans that’ve been there since 1999. Got a few game pucks as well.

Ben, a.k.a. All Powerful Mod a.k.a The Web Guy, chose me, Sally and Jenn to be moderators on the Thrashers message boards. He chose us out of well over 4,000 users. I was taken back, stunned, and couldn’t believe it. At first, he didn’t make it public that we were moderators, but he has announced it and now we are known as moderators. For our services, he’s given us each a new replica jersey. They are nice and it’s always good to have a new jersey, but the material isn’t as good for autographs. I’ll wear the new one, don’t get me wrong, but I still have plenty of love for my good ‘ole 5^th season jersey. It’s seen more hockey games and beer than a lot of other jerseys…

Back to FaceOff…. There was only one thing that made me angry. We got in an autograph line which wasn’t that bad… I wanted to get my stick autographed by Slater, and we thought we’d have time. I can’t be too mad because they did give us fair warning and told us we may or may not make it. We got down there… we were RIGHT by the table… and they stopped autographs. Well, instead of making fans wonder if they will get an autograph and then get pissed off when they don’t, instead of just making people guess, you cut the line. You go to the line, you tell people this is the end of the line… sure, you don’t want to be the guy who the line gets cut off from, but it’s better to make one person really mad than make a ton of people disappointed and sad they didn’t get an autograph. When I worked with the Braves for two seasons, we helped out with the FanFest in the winter. If you think the autograph lines for FaceOff are bad, you ain’t see NOTHING… the lines at Turner Field for Braves autographs are insane… they can easily wrap around the stadium. You HAVE to cut the lines at a certain point… guarantee people they’ll get their autograph and that it’s. Close the line off. You don’t leave people hanging and waiting around to MAYBE get an autograph… to wait all that time and then not get your autograph…well it SUCKS…. So next year, do the exact same format… but CUT lines…it’s better for fans, it’s better for the players so they can look up and see that they only have so many fans left at the end… don’t let them look up and see that there are still giant lines… they’d probably like it better if they see a short, cut line at the end. In the end, everyone wins this way, except the guy who gets cut off. Like I said, better one really mad person than a whole bunch of sad and disappointed fans.

But the best part are the prices of the gear…game used sticks can skyrocket in prices…but the prices on the gear was nothing short of very reasonable, even some seeming too good to be true. A game used stick for $10? Sweet. Game used pucks for a dollar? Awesome. Next year that will be the first line we hit, no doubt.

Here are some pictures I’ve taken recently:


FaceOff 2007:

Thrashers vs. Panthers (Last Pre-Season Home Game):



Thrashers First 2007-08 Practice Session: