Thrashers Thrashings - 10 Years of Hockey Love

A Scary Win on Halloween and Other Spooky Thoughts

2009-10-31T21:17:00.002-04:00

51 shots on goal. A 3-1 win against the Sens... just one question... where was the D? Granted, I didn't get to watch or listen to the game, I was at Taco Mac with my family watching the Dawgs go down in a much more horrific sporting event. We got back in the W column, and a win is a win, 5 shorts or 500, but 51 shots on goal? Thanks to Pavs who stood on his head and whatever else he could find... he stole us two points. Can we rely on that every game? Hell no. Totally unacceptable. I know Kovy is out. I don't want to hear excuses because there are none. 10 years of NHL hockey and we put up with this. Our "hot start" seems to have turned into a very cold losing streak that was ended today, but with 51 shots against, it's hard to be very happy about it... but we found a way to win, and that is the most important thing... but 51 shots... that in and of itself is the scariest thing I've seen this Halloween... so far.

But I am going to take a minute out here to go on a rant. Why? I just feel like it. It's my blog, so here we go.

Philips Arena has been around for over 10 years now. It's an awesome facility, and I love being there every time I go. People bitch and complain about the lack of customer service at the concession stands, they bitch about how the food sucks, they bitch about how outdated the technology is in the arena... the giant wall of early-90's style bigscreen TVs, the outdated video scoreboard, the info screens on both sides of the arena are missing tons of pixels and they look horrible, and probably haven't been touched since they were installed 10 years ago... but they are remodeling the suites, which is nice, and that is where they money is, so of course that is what they focus on first.

But Philips Arena is much more than just Blueland, as much as we'd like to believe it's our house of hockey love and nothing else. Of course the Hawks play at Philips, there are concerts all the time, and people from around the globe come to Philips for events all the time. It's part of the heart of our city and something we should be very proud of. But, you go inside, and you get crappy customer service (I will say that I have no issue with Thrashers sales and customer service employees, it's the in-arena staff...), you have extremely outdated technology... and there are things hanging from the ceiling from when they drop them for fans, there the roof is torn in places, and certain things just need to be updated, fixed up and repaired. But, despite all of that, Philips is still one of the nicest places to come see any type of event. I love it, I've been there to 100s of events of the years, and it truly is my home away from home. But it's the little things fans notice... no spin and win this year, no freebies at the door, and worst of all, in Atlanta, you really need, some times, something to draw fans to the game other than the game itself... and they just aren't doing that. Of course, I come to see hockey and in hopes that we win, and everything else just happens to be there... but there are, of course, the epic of epic Wetzel Pretzels and it's well worth the drop downstairs if you are sitting upstairs to get one... man they are good as hell.

Anyway, the team has GOT to pick it up without Kovy. Speaking of scary things, was Thursday's nearly-empty game a sign of things to come? Is that how things will look if Kovy goes? Will fans come at all if we don't have Kovy? I've been to many a Thrashers games, I rarely miss a home game... and I mean rarely.... but I've never seen such crappy attendance... it was a Thursday night and AO was in town... you'd think, if nothing else, people would want to come see Ovy... I mean he pretty much almost single-handidly beat us... speaking of scary things... yet the arena was empty. And it was a Thursday night... why was it so empty? I show up, I do my part, I got my brother and one of his friends to come... where are those same people who packed the arena for the playoffs? Opening Night? Where are you? Are you hockey fans or do you just come because it's a "big event" and you have to be seen there? I don't get it. There are tons of hockey fans here... so get your asses to the arena!

Oh, and the NHL's idea about these new message boards... I can tell, as a moderator, that usage has gone WAY down. SAD down. I even admit I'm not as active as I used to be because, well, they boards just suck. It's a huge fatal mistake and they smartest thing they could do, IMHO, is just bring back the old boards. I honestly don't hate using them to the point where I won't, but they are pretty bad... poor design = loss of use = much less activity = not so great boards.

I want to see another banner up there in Philips. I want to see us get this season on track and start winning games and earning points every night. Giving up 3 goals in a minute and some change... ain't going to earn us anything. Yet, I do see a difference in this team... no matter what the score is, they don't seem to give up and play heartless hockey like previous Thrashers teams... we try to scratch and claw our way back... but yet something isn't quite right, something isn't clicking just yet.... what is it? What is wrong? Coaching? Attitude? I dunno. But it's gotta change.

Well, back to watching the World Series. I hate the Phillies but I hate the Yankees more, of course, so I am rooting for NL.

That's all for tonight. No more rants tonight.

Just glad we got in the win column today.

Back In Business!

2009-10-28T23:59:00.002-04:00

My life has changed so much since I last wrote in my blog. But it's time for me to get this thing back in gear.

So, here we go, the season started well, but the last couple of games have been a goaltending nightmare. Putting that behind us, Thursday night is a rematch vs. the Caps... let's hope we'll fair better, even with out Kovy. The entire team has to step it up and give 150% now that Kovy is out for a little bit.

My brother is coming down from Athens before going to the Cocktail Party and we are going to the game... his first one of the season. My goal this season is to not miss a single home game... so far, so good.

It's late and I don't have too much time right now, however, I will be changing the blog up, and of course, doing my best to keep up with it throughout the season as best I can. With a full time job, going back to school and other things going on, I can't say with 100% certainty that I'll be able to keep up with it as much as I'd like, but I'll do my best.

Looking forward to going back to Blueland Thursday night.

Holy Hockey Batman, Hockey Is Back!

2008-10-08T22:36:00.007-04:00

Wow. It's really sad. I haven't updated my Thrashers blog since, well, let's just say things have changed quite a bit. But 08-09 is upon us and I figured, hey, you know what, I should fire this thing up again.

So here I am.

It's back to Thrashers Thrashings.

I'm no expert in player stats. I'm not a math student, I never claimed to be, and never will be. So if you are into stats and all that, there are plenty of other Thrashers blogs for that.

This is more just about the experience of it all. What it's like to be a fan.

Despite the fact we didn't win a single pre-season game at home... that first game back...there's nothing like it. The first thing that came to my mind was what it was like when my Dad took me to Braves games back in the day at Fulton County Stadium... seeing the field for the first home, just how awe-inspiring it is and how big it is... as little kid, it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuge. Well, when you walk back into Philips Arena and see that white ice, gleaming, for the first few moments when you walk into the bowl, you get that little-kid-seeing-it-for-the-first-time-wow-it's-so-awesome feeling. You just stop for a moment and it hits you... there really is ice down there. It really is hockey season again. You try to put all the negative stuff aside... all the crap with ownership, you don't think about what you read on the boards and how people think we won't be any better... you put all that away... and you are just thankful, that even though, yeah, the Thrashers have been here for many years now, you are thankful that we have an NHL team. There are plenty of big cities across this country that don't. There are millions of people around the world who never even get to see an NHL game in person... and here you are, in Philips Arena, about to watch an NHL game. You feel lucky that you were given awesome, free tickets in the Club section thanks to awesome co-workers. You are thankful that it's hockey season, but it hasn't really hit you yet that it's back. With the Thrashers up 4-2, you are hopeful for the win, even though it's just pre-season. Pre-season or not, you still want to leave with a win. Then reality hits you when we give up four unanswered goals. Will it be like this all season? It doesn't count, you put it behind you and a few minutes after the game, it's fine. But even for a pre-season game, I had that feeling. That feeling I haven't had since last season. That I-take-it-way, waaaaay too seriously feeling...we lost, and even though it's preseason, you have that sick feeling in your stomach... so very much you wanted to walk home with a win. Wins feel so good, they are such an awesome high... and a loss feels like the sky is falling, the world is ending and you it's the worst night ever. And then you realize that you take it way too seriously, but it's way too ingrained in you, so you are screwed, it will ALWAYS be that way for wins and losses... but there's nothing else in the world that makes you feel that way... so you come to the conclusion, that hey, it's a good thing that I take it that seriously... or is it? There's no fighting it because, damn it, that's the way it is, always has been and always will be. The hardest ones are the OT and SO losses. You don't feel THAT bad because, hey, your team earned a point in the standings. Yet it wasn't a win, so you feel kinda crappy too. It's a mix... it's better than regulation loss but not as good as win, so you feel half-and-half, so to speak. And then you ask yourself, am I the only one who takes it this seriously? Am I the only one who gets all pissed off when we lose and when we win, it feels like winning the lottery? (Ok, maybe not THAT good, but you know what I mean...) and you realize there are a lot of others just like you who take it just as serious if not even more seriously (how people can take it more seriously is beyond me, but I guess it is somehow possible...)... one of the reasons I love hockey so much is because of the mix of emotions you get before, during, and after a game. There's nothing like it.

Before every game, you are psyched, pumped, and all day at work you just can't wait... ITS HOCKEY NIGHT!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!... It's a high when we score first, and when we score first, you are so hopeful for that win. If we stay ahead, it's a great high all night. If the opponent ties the game or we blow a lead, it's a sick, horrific feeling. Gross. You don't want this feeling, trust me. But then, somehow, the Thrashers find their way back... a last-second goal right before the game ends. An overtime win. A shootout win....those are the moments you live for, the moments that make it all worth it, the moments you just can't live without. Ah, those moments. That's what makes hockey better than anything else.

But then, there's that smell. That smell...you know what I'm talking about. It's the best smell on earth. When the Philips Arena staff opens that door for the first time... it's that first big, huge whiff of cold NHL hockey ice, beer, and the mix of all the food in the arena... when you are sitting there waiting to get in in CNN Center, those doors open, and you get that smell... it's heeeeeeeeeeaven. It's better than a candy store, better than any BBQ, better than anything you could ever possibly smell... other than may a pile of $100 bills in front of you... if they could put that smell in a car sent hangy thing... I would buy them by the box. Of course once you are are in the arena, it doesn't ever smell as good as those few moments you are waiting to get in...because it's no longer a new smell any more. But damn does it smell good!

So, in pre-season we looked bad. You hope, you pray that's not a sign of things to come. Last season we were undefeated in pre-season and look where we ended up.... so hooooopefully it's not a sign of things to come. I'm sure it will take quite a few games for the Thrashers to get their shit together with Coach Anderson. I'm sure the first few games, we might look awful. But I hope I am wrong, I hope the pre-season was an indication of nothing.

But speaking of indications, tonight, at Faceoff, there was a very sad indication of the status of hockey here in Atlanta....at least seasonticket holder wise... Compared to past seasons, Faceoff was virtually empty. The only big line was, of course, the line with Kovy... but even that line was small compared to past seasons. I didn't bother with it because I know if for some reason I ever need an autograph, I can just go to practice. My goal was to hit the gear sale first. Of course, as my luck would have it, the ticket taker guy's scanner didn't work. We had to sit there and wait. Meanwhile, people are running down there. I was about to get REALLY pissed, waiting all that time then getting stuck at the door. But I got down there soon enough. I ended up with a pair of Dupuis gloves, a baby-blue practice jersey (I love those) and a Kari goalie stick.... I wasn't even gonna bother with autographs, but I was like well, it was a brand new stick, the sign said new sticks are $50, and the guy at the checkout sold it to me for $10. TEN DOLLARS for any hockey stick is a DEAL. SAAWEEEEEEET.... so I ended up getting it signed by Kari... I mean, the line was small enough LOL. They didn't have any skates for sale, which I was REEEEEEEEEALLY hoping to get, but no skates this year. (WTF?) No locker name plates. It seemed the gear sale wasn't quite as good as it has been in the past, but I got my Kari stick signed as I said and got some autographs on my black Center Ice jersey. I came with my friend Marisa and she seemed to have a good time. Anyway, it just felt empty this year at Faceoff. Then again, with the lines being so short, it was nice. To all those that didn't reup... you suck.

For those that didn't reup, I can totally understand your frustration with ownership, with all that has gone on with this team over the years. But in the end, you just have to throw that stuff out the door. It's a new season. It's a new year. It's still NHL hockey no matter what happens with the business side. Until the Thrashers move, god for bid, or they lock the doors to Philips Arena, I'll be coming... For those that left, thanks for the seats.

So that's it for now. I'm going to do my very best to keep this thing live and running during the season. I can't wait for the season to start on Friday. Everyone is psyched and you can hardly blame them. The game is sold out or damn close to it...let's just hope we keep the crowd in it and find a way to win. No one wants to go home on Opening Night with a loss because then all that hype, all that you've-been-waiting-for-months-and-are-psyched-feeling...will feel like it was all for nothing. The Craps will not be some easy cake walk and honestly I would not be surprised if we didn't win, I'm just being real. I hope I am dead wrong, I hope we skate away with a win on Opening Night. It will sure as hell make for a great weekend.

See you Friday night!

Oh, wait, yeah... the new third jerseys. Ok, well, I was not very impressed. I like it but I don't. The numbers on the front... Not sure who designed these, but man, someone needs to go back to design school. The numbers on the front suck. I'd much rather see the old batman logo back on the jerseys or some sorta new logo... but no, they stuck numbers in front. WTF? Other than the numbers issue, I did like the rest of the design.

Ok, that's it for now. Thrashers Thrashings is Back!

2008 NHL Super Skills Competition & Red Carpet Madness: The NHL Goes Hollywood.

2008-01-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

Just got back from the Super Skills Comp.

Surreal.

Amazing.

Incredible.

Bigger than life.

Once In a Lifetime.

These are just a few descriptions of what tonight was like. Words... words truly fail to describe it. From tonight's Red Carpet with the mascots and players, to being shoved and pushed by tons of people trying to get autographs, to seeing a 45 min line just to get into the store... to seeing hockey fans from around the world... to the Skills Comp itself... tonight was truly a hockey fan's dream. The best hockey players in the world... minus a few hurt ones or ones who chose not to come... but to be able to have them in your home town... the city you grew up and and love... they are finally here. We've been waiting years since we were supposed to get the ASG in 2005... this weekend is the moment we've all been waiting for for years. And now it's here and half way over.

NHL GOES HOLLYWOOD -

Got a front spot at the red carpet and waited well over two hours. Of course I brought everything I needed... but a Sharpie. Thankfully, however, I didn't need one, the players had their own. I did not tear my two tickets apart... so I had the players sign all over the tickets. It's full of autographs... I think I ended up with more autographs then most there... for anyone behind those up front, they may have been lucky to reach over and get one or two... but if you wanted the autographs, you had to be there early. It was kind of weird because you'd think an event like this would be for Hollywood stars... but who needs Hollywood movie stars when you have NHL All-Stars?!? It was awesome to get so many autographs from so many of the world's greatest players. Of course it was impossible to get them all.... and the only thing that kind of sucked was the media took them away before they could sign for a lot of folks... some players came back, some didn't... but that's ok, I got as many as I could and I'll have to get it framed after this weekend. I didn't get Kovy or Hossa... they were both dragged away before I could get them... but I can always get their autograph at practice to put on the ticket... I got Toby to sign my hat. I wanted Hossa to sign my McFarlane statue... but I'll get him do sign it at a practice.

After the red carpet, I was going to go back into CNN Center to look around some more at the memrobillia.. but the doors were already open so I just went in. My ticket had a few autographs that went over the barcode... it didn't scan... but the ticket clicker lady didn't give me a hard time, she just clicked a handheld clicker thingy... I guess they were smart about it and figured fans might get their tickets autographed...

SUPERSKILLS -

Anyway after entering Philips... seeing hockey jerseys from all over was surreal. The amount of people was surreal. Hockey fans from other teams... actually getting along... talking hockey. Whoda thunk it? Tonight was truly a celebration of the best sport on earth - hockey. Tonight was one night... well ok tomorrow night too.... where you can cheer for those on other teams... even those you normally despise... well ok there are some exceptions LOL... anyway tonight was just... I don't know the right words to say. It was over way too fast.

It's a hard choice but the YoungStars game was the most outstanding event to me. I was hoping Toby was gonna score... but it was awesome to see the hometown guy in the lineup. The 3-3 hockey... that was awesome. Would I want to see that in a normal game for overtime? It might be over in 10 seconds or less, so no... but for tonight... it was great stuff.

All in all it has been so surreal. My seat was not the best, but it was lower level and still had a great view. My camera is older... so the battery is not the best, to say the least, and it decided to die on me... but that was also after hours of use at the Red Carpet. Oh well. I'm sure there will be plenty of better pictures than mine... I was able to get a few, but no really good ones during the events... but you know what... it's all good... I was able to sit back and enjoy it all and not have to worry about or mess with the camera. So it was kind of a good thing... but I did want my own pictures. Oh well.

THE BAD - Mostly Taylor Kitsch

Ok, this guy as a host SUCKED. He wasn't funny, original and did not make a good host. He was not a household name... I didn't know who he was... and he just sucked. He really lost it and any respect I had for him when he interviewed Kovy and asked him why he only made 20% of his shots in the shootout. Kovy immediately looked uncomfortable... and if I was Kovy, I would've dropped the gloves and slugged his head off for making a stupid, ignorant and way out of line comment like that... not on SuperSkills night, not in front of the home town crowd... it was a huge slap in the face to Kovy. Kovy handled it well and switched the subject to tonight. Very smart move on Kovy's part. He made Kitsch look really stupid. It was just really bad.... bad timing, it was stupid question, and whoever thought of that question to ask... should be fired and never be allowed to a hockey game at any level... EVER! How the @#$(@#$&#$ do you say that to the Hometown Hero!?!? WTF?

The only other negative thing I can think of was at the Red Carpet... when the media stole the players away from fans and made it impossible to get autographs... I guess this is what has to happen and the player interviews come first... it's understandable... I'm not mad about it, but it kinda sucks when you are JUST about to get an autograph... and they get whisked away to be interviewed... some of the players came back, but some didn't. But it's ok... no way you can expect to get autographs from every player.

The last negative thing I will have to say about tonight is that there were WAY, WAAAAAAAY too many empty seats in the lower bowl. Not enough to make it look bad on TV... and from what I was told a lot of those seats were NHL tickets... either for player's families or sponsors... but a LOT of those seats were empty. I spoke to a couple behind me who have had season tickets since day 1... and have season tickets a few rows up from the bench. Even the most loyal of fans... were originally given tickets upstairs. Sure that's fine, that's how it was, we all knew that. But the fact that those seats... their same season ticket seats were EMPTY... I can only imagine that being very frustrating after spending all of that money and beying that loyal since day 1. I'm sure those seats were sold and paid for... but I'm also sure that the people who had those seats knew they weren't coming...and could and should have been used for fans. There should not have been an empty seat tonight for any reason... paid for or not. I hope this is not the case on Sunday night for the ASG.

SUMMARY

All in all, tonight was just surreal. Amazing. Beautiful. Full of hockey love. It was NHL goes Hollywood. It was the best in the world. It was beyond fun, it was bigger than life, and it's something you'll remember for the rest of your life. I hope that someday Atlanta will get to experience it again. But I'll save the closing remarks for after everything is over. If I could go back and do it all over again... I would. All of the events were great. Everything is still a big, swirling mass right now. I DVRed everything in HD... oh yeah, gotta have it in HD... so I am watching everything again.. on TV this time... while I'm doing this blog. Hence, this is why it is taking me forever to write this post. But that's ok. I'd love to do this every year in every city it's held in. With next year's being in Montreal... that will be near impossible. But if it's somewhere in the South... Carolina, Florida... Nashville... then I'd love to travel to experience it all again. But Atlanta's ASG Weekend is only halfway over. Tomorrow night is the big night. I can't wait.

The worst thing about it all: It's all over way, way too fast!

Here are a few pics from today:

Wyclef Jean: Front & Center & Update From Rockin Skate

2008-01-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

I live about a ten min walk from Blueland over in Castleberry Hill, so I am able to do this sort-of-live blog update from ASG Weekend. There was no way to do an update last night after the Wyclef show, it was WAY too late and we had to get up early for this mornings events, so here is an update for ya. I just got back from the Rockin' Skate (no, we didn't stay for the Jonas Brothers show...I know, I know we totally missed out on... ) Anyway, this is sort of a semi-live update from ASG Weekend 2008 starting last night from the Wyclef Jean show @ The Tarbernacle.

Last night's Wyclef Jean show was the most entertaining show I've ever been to. The Old 97's opened the show, and they were great. But Wyclef truly made the night. I'm no huge Wyclef fan by any means... but if he ever comes back to Atlanta, I'll be there without a doubt.

Even the old guys in suits and ties... the VIPs... the dads... even they were jumping for most of the night. Only Wyclef could really get a crowd going like only he did.

There was a bit of confusion at first when I arrived... there was a A-List VIP entrance and another VIP entrance for those that were VIP, but not A-list so to speak. Anyway I had no idea so I walked up and the dude scanned my ticket, and I didn't realize it was a "VIP" entrance, but he stopped me and asked for my wrist band... told him I was 27 LOL... well I wasn't allowed to go in, which was fine... he told me to just tell the ticket scanner guy that it had already been scanned. Crap, now when they scan my ticket when I go back in it won't work. Luckily the guy who was scanning tickets did really seem to give a shit and I told him what happened, so I got in without any issues.

We headed straight to the front of the pit... front and center. It took a bit for the crowd to fill in, but the house was packed before Wyclef came on. Usher came out and introduced him... I don't know Usher... I'm far from being that cool... but we did go to the same high school... he graduated before I was even there, but I guess it's kinda cool... North Sprrrrrrrrrrrrrings!

Wyclef put on a hell of a show. We were dancing all night. I got plenty of amazing pictures. I even ended up with the set list at the end of the night. A cool piece of memorabilia from ASG weekend.
The show was as high-energy as you could get. Wyclef went crowd surfing and went up to both upper levels of the Tabernacle... even walked across the edges of the upper decks. Insane. Akon made a guest appearance as well and threw a bunch of money into the crowd. It was only $1 bills, so it wasn't worth much of a fight. Sam, my girlfriend, ended up with a few of Akon's dolla dolla bills yall! LOL. I was tired as hell from working all day but the show honestly gave me a second wind. The show was brilliant as well. He basically took us on a "world tour" of music.

We woke up this morning, went over to CNN Center and got in line to grab one of the Hossa figures. After that we went in to Blueland for the Rockin' Skate. I did not realize that there would be 1000's of tweens there to see the Jonas Brothers. I don't even know who they are... but now, sadly, I do. They are one of those bubblegum Disney type bands. No thanks. We stayed for the Mascot hockey game... that was awesome. I don't care how old you are... that was like being a kid. Even the N.J. Devil came over to bother us. And that stupid bug from the Lightning LOL. Of course we were there for the Eastern and Western conference skates, but left before the concert started. We didn't feel like going deaf from 1000s of 12 and 13-year old girls. We looked around at the memorabilia and then came back and here we are taking a break. I am about to head back, but I wanted to leave you with a few of pictures - I'll have lots more tomorrow before the ASG itself.

The Westin Is Hockey Heaven!

2008-01-25T01:23:00.001-05:00

Went over to the Westin today on my lunch break to pick up the free tickets they gave out to volunteers to the Wyclef Jean show on Friday night at the Tabernacle. Tickets are general admission, so gotta get there early for the best seats.

I walked in as to what looked like the end of an NHL Alumni meeting or conference. If I had only had my camera! DOH!!! The Westin is been transformed with ASG logos, banners and signs everywhere. NHL brass all around. It's too bad I had only a few minutes to spare. After getting my Wyclef tickets, I headed over to CNN Center and decided to take a detour and check out the ASG gear at TeamGear II. Some really sweet stuff, but the prices are even more expensive than the normal Thrashers retail prices... fair enough, it's the ASG, so it's warranted. I looked around. I have a feeling that after this weekend a lot of that stuff will be back down to normal prices. I'll grab a few things over the weekend, but you know that stuff will still be around after the ASG has left town.

After checking out the store, I walked around to the box office to pick up some Rock N Skate tickets. By that time my lunch hour was almost over... I had a good 10 min to eat! Ok, I ended up being a few min late back to work but no one knew. Heh.

And the Thrashers managed to end this part of the season on a high note... a much better effort than the last few nights... we didn't come out on top of the SO, and the SO is a whole nother topic that I will leave for later, but we earned a point tonight and we can build off of the effort against the Rangers.

But for now the focus of this blog will be this weekend - NHL All-Star Weekend. I'll do my best to let you know how the Wyclef show is and whatever else goes on tomorrow. I am going to wonder around the Westin and Team Gear II again tomorrow during lunch.

Not much else to report on. The only bad thing about this upcoming weekend is that it is all going to come and go so fast and Monday afternoon will be here way too soon. I wish there was a way to slow time down and enjoy this weekend for as long as possible. Even more reason to make the most of this weekend!

Until the next update...

Long Time, No See ...But The All-Star Game is Here!

2008-01-23T23:49:00.000-05:00

It's been way, way, waaaaaaaaay to long since I've updated my Thrashers blog. No, I haven't lost interest in the Thrashers or hockey.... no I haven't missed any games. Yes, I am frustrated with all that has been going on with the Thrashers. Too much drama in the ATL. I just want the team to be a success. There's the Hossa issue. The ownership court battle. Bernie "quit". The on-ice product has been horrible as of late. No head coach. Kovy got suspended. I could go on and on. But forget all that. This weekend is a once in a life time experience. When the 2000 MLB All-Star Game came to Atlanta at Turner Field, I didn't go. I regret not going to this very moment. I sure as hell am not going to miss out on the 2008 NHL All-Star Game.

You see, I got a new job. I've moved. Hence I've had next to no time to update this thing, much less have a moment to sit down and update my blog. However, with the ASG approaching, there's way too much going on not to blog away.

Sam and I signed up to be ASG volunteers at the very first pre-season game. So thankfully we were both chosen. However, I wasn't quite sure what to do - I knew I wanted to get a ticket and go, but I also wanted to volunteer. Well, I didn't get a ticket when they went on sale to STH. I waited. And waited. And waited. And I probably waited too late - however, I have a good, inside source who was able to get me a LOWER LEVEL (I know, don't hate me, K?) ASG ticket. Not the best lower level seat, but a lower level seat nonetheless. I checked the seat out at the last home game and it's not that bad at all. Anyway, Sam and I signed up to volunteer, as I was saying, however, with my new job, I really could not commit to that much, and now that I got a ticket, I could only do so much. However, I signed up to be in the driver pool and I'm glad I did. I will be driving one shift on Monday morning from 4 am - 11 am. The hours suck, but how often do you get to drive around new Dodge cars with NHL ASG wraps on them and bring players and other staff to the airport and get to talk hockey with them for a little bit? It will be surreal but I can't wait. I won't be getting much sleep this weekend... if any.

We scored some free tickets (they gave some out to volunteers) to the Wyclef Jean (too bad it wasn't Lil Jon... Okaaaaaaaaay!) show on Friday night. Monday morning we are getting up bright and early and walking over to CNN Center for the trade and memorabilia show (gotta score one of the Hossa figures before they are gone) and then head over to the Rock N Skate. Then at night, of course, is the skills comp and young star game. Sunday we'll prob hit up the memorabilia show again and then the ASG is Sunday night. I'll try to get a few minutes of sleep on Sunday after the game... and head back to the Westin to do my volunteer duty. It's going to be a hell of a long weekend with next to no sleep but that's OK... It's a once in a lifetime deal for most people and I want to take as much in as a I can.

Not to mention volunteers got some sweet free swag... and drivers are supposed to get an additional jacket of some sort as well... sweet!

I'll try to do a few more posts the next few days as things gear up and I'll try my best to do at least one blog update each day this weekend starting Friday.

One of the best perks about my new job is that I am two blocks from Blueland over on Walton street. It's a 5 min walk. And I now have a new loft in Castleberry Hill. It's less than a 10 min walk from my place to the Philips. Pretty sweet deal for a hockey fan... not to mention not having to deal with 85 or 285 rush hour traffic!

Anyway, I apologize for not keeping this thing up to date. I just hope the Thrashers can pull out a win or at this point, a point would be something positive... we need to get a W against the Rangers. We need to turn this ship around and no better time to start that then Thursday night against the Rangers.

Anyway, that's all for now. Can't make this thing too long.

Back From The Dead

2007-11-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated this thing in quite a while. I haven't lost any interest... far from it. I have no excuse other than I've just been busy.

We all know where the Thrashers stand right now. We've been doing well but the last two games haven't been pretty. The Devils game was actually a really good game... a fluke goal, a 5 on 3 and ane empty netter at the end... and that's it. The Thrashers have historically faired well against Brodeur but on that night... he was nothing short of a 10 foot thick concrete wall infront of the net... no matter how many chances we generated, nothin' went in. It was a much better game than the score indicated... and you just have to tip your cap to Marty.

I'm not sure WTF was up with that guy tonight with the Devils jersey on and a Yankees hat... he's lucky he only got booed... Never seen that guy at a Thrashers game, so I have no idea what he was thinking... that being said, I myself a Martin Brodeur fan and even though I always particiapte in the goalie suck chant, I simply can't bring myself to do that when Marty's in net... way too much talent and way too much respect to tell him he sucks.

The next night night was Thrashers vs. Pens. I didn't watch an ounce of the game... mainly because I was at the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game... and even though I was back in time to watch the end, when I saw it was 4-0 and 5-0... I didn't even bother. I know, I should never give up... we've had some amazing comebacks recently. But I just knew we weren't coming back from that kind of deficit... not on the 2nd game of a back-to-backer. The Thrashers never seem to play well on the 2nd game of a back-to-backer. Hopefully they'll rest up, recoup and be ready for Thursday's game against the Maple Leafs.

Tonight was an interesting night. I snuck outta work early and made it down to CNN Center about 6. We ate dinner and then headover over to the Omni Hotel's North Tower Grand Ballroom. There were quite a few people waiting in the lobby. We scarmmed in and grabbed some seats right up front... though it really didn't matter all that much. They gave away some prizes by asking some hockey and Thrashers trivia... thankfully that's NOT how they are giving away the tickets to the game itself. They didn't give away anything that exciting... some golf balls, NHL 08 games, hats... nothing that great. They did have some of the biggest damn chocolate chip cookies I think I've ever seen and damn were they good. They also had Pepsi... ooops, yeah uh last time I checked this is Atlanta.... this is a Coke town.... I guess that's why there were a crap ton of them left on the tables.

Basically they made a few introductions, a rep from the Thrashers spoke and got us all to do a "Let's Go Thrahers!" cheer and then they did some trivia and gave the stuff away, and then handed out the applications and they walked us through them. After that, we turned them in and that was bascially it... not sure why they could've have just sent them out via e-mail, but it was nice to meet everyone in person... and the free huge chocolate chip cookies made it well worth it. I think we were all hoping for some free swag, but not tonight... We did get some free hockey cards though... I basically applied to do anything and everything... so we'll see. There were a TON of people... aparently well over 100 people (including me!) signed up at the first pre-season game and they noted that was a record... the crowd was HUGE... awesome to see so much interest in hockey here in Atlanta.

What else... during the Devils game, I had a lady offer me $10 for my Thrashers blanket. $10. Ten damn dollars. WTF? Up the anty just a liiiiiiiiiitle bit and maybe we'll talk... but $10? I told her just to look around after the game to see if anyone left theirs. As we were walking to my car after the game in CNN Center, some crazy ass girl came up to me and asked me for blanket... I told her no (I wasn't rude at all) and she got all in my face. It's a damn blanket... they've given better ones away for signing up for a credit card. Not sure why people were so damn crazy about it... I guess it's because they aren't giving us any damn good giveaways at all this season... so this is what... the best giveaway this season? That's sad. It's just a damn blanket! If ya wanted one SO bad, it's called GET IN LINE EARLY ENOUGH!!!

Sometimes people will line up in the left most "lane" for games. For whatever reason, Philips doesn't operate that late on some nights and everyone in that line is forced to get in another line. For whatever reason, they feel as if they can just migrate into an existing line and not actually GET in line... I don't understand that shit. And then on games where there's a big crowd (Friday or Saturday night) the doors on the right are never setup for a line... yet about 10 min before they open the doors, they bring over the barriers and table... and setup a line... so those of us who have been waiting in line an hour and a half or two hours get fucked... and people can just run over there and get up front in a line and wait about 10 min... EITHER SET UP THE FUCKING LINE JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHERS OR DON'T SET IT UP AT ALL!!! Sure it helps get folks in but it's NOT cool. They should have to wait in line like the rest of us.

Secondly - If FLORIDA... fuckin FLORIDA... and TAMPA can have season ticket holder entrances... there is NO reason on earth Atlanta can't have one. It would be an aweome perk. That set of doors near the wall with all the NHL masks... that would make a PERFECT door... must move the table that's setup there somewhere else. Sine STH are there on a nightly basis... just do it. No offenese to those who don't have season tickets... but it would be a nice perk for those who are there every game... Loyalty goes a long way with me and I wish that loyalty paid off a bit more than it does these days. I'm not asking to be treated like some VIP... far from it... but I am jealous of the fact that two other teams... close to Atlanta.... have a STH entrance... and we don't. Turner Field does. It's not hard. Believe me I'm not the only one who wishes there was one... but no one else speaks up about it.

What else... let's hope the boys get rested up and ready for Thursdays game with Toronto... we've been doing well agaisnt teams in our own Division recently... let's just get back on track with a W against Toronto.

Thrashers Finally Back Home - Thrashers vs. Caps Game Preview

2007-11-06T10:45:00.001-05:00

There's one question on everyone's mind tonight: Will Ilya Kovalchuk get another hat trick? We'll just have to wait and see.

Other questions:

- Will the Thrashers continue to be "Comeback Kids"? With the last two games being huge comebacks, nothing would surprise me. However, I hope this title doesn't hold, especially tonight. We should score first and not let up from there.

- How will Pav do in his first home game start? Will he be a bit nervous in front of the home town crowd? I doubt that; I think he is primed and ready to go. He's been really sharp and I think he'll keep us in the game tonight, giving us a huge chance to win... and we should. We better. I'm not walking out of Philips Arena tonight until we win... I don't care how long it takes!

- Will there be any leftovers from the infamous Chicken night? Will Hanlon make a move again in the halls of Philips Arena against DW? Will he talk smack again? Those chicken masks from the past were awesome.

- With no TV tonight at all on either side (Thanks, VS!) will we draw a bigger crowd than normal? It might be a Tuesday night but I wana see a packed house. Bring your asses down to Philips for the game!

- Most importantly: Will the Thrashers win? I think it's a no-brainer. The Caps came here on our Opening Night and ruined the night of our SE Division Banner ceremonies. I think it's time the Thrashers paid a little revenge for that night... with the Caps losing to the Flyers and then big time to the Canes 5-0... and the Thrashers coming off a pretty successful road trip and an awesome comeback win over hated Tampa Bay, then yes, the Thrashers should win... with Pav in net and Kovy on the loose... and if Hossa steps it up a bit... he's come a live... a little... the last couple of games... the Thrashers should win this one outright.

Score Prediction: 4-1 Thrashers.

Got a bit of time before I head down to Philips today (it's always nice to have off work on a gamedays...) but can't wait to get downtown. See ya'll tonight! GO THRASHERS!

Atlanta's New Comeback Kids?

2007-11-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Braves fans will probably remember the title the Braves once had. While this title will always be from those amazing years of the Braves, the Thrashers, at least for our past two games, can borrow the name. After the near miracle comeback against the Senators... and Saturday night's comeback victory over the hated Tampa Bay Lightning, I believe that it is certainly a fitting title. That being said, it's not a title we should ever have... No way should we have to come back down 5-0 and 4-1 to try to win games. But a win is a win is a win, and if you have to comeback to do so, then so be it. Maybe it's that dramatic, fiery speech that a coach gives the team that creates the spark. Perhaps it's that one goal that helps to spark the team to comeback. Whatever it may be, it's worked the last two games. I really hope the Thrashers don't become know as Atlanta's New Comeback Kids... but they very well could adapt that title if these kid of comebacks occur more down the road. At least for the last two games it is a very fitting title to say the least.

Kovalchuk has been playing like a bat outta hell. Nothing against Bobby, but right now Kovy is leading this team. I wouldn't be surprised if you take the jersey off, underneath is a Terminator-like, hockey playing, highly advanced robot. There's no doubt that fans have already cast their All-Star vote for him in their minds. I'm sure he'll be a hometown hero for the All-Star game.

Of course, as a fan, it feels good to comeback and win over any team. But after our trip to Tampa a few weeks ago, after the altercation with those two losers, I have a feeling they went home crying to their mommies. It's called revenge and sometimes it's best served up ice cold with a 6-4 comeback victory. Those two jerkoffs had nothing better to do than come ALL the way up to our section to talk shit... it wasn't even good shit, it was about the level of a 3rd or 4th grader. In fact, I hope they found their way back up to the group of Thrashers fans that were there in Tampa and were reeling in their fruitless, pointless effort. I hope that if those two losers were there that Thrashers fans got their point across to them. But enough about these two loser Tampa "fans". No longer can Tampa and their fans expect an easy win against Atlanta in their house. For whatever reason, Tampa has always had our number in Tampa and I'm tired of it. Hopefully Saturday night's win will end that.

Back To Blueland

So, finally, after over three weeks of no home games, the Thrashers are back home tomorrow... back in Blueland... finally! It's been way, way too long. There's another fairly long road trip in Feb and one at the end of March, but there are plenty of home games the rest of the way.. at least one game every week this month... and Dec has at least two games each week... so we'll surely have our fill of games in Blueland! This 3+ week road trip has felt like an eternity but finally, thankfully... we'll be back where we belong tomorrow night! With this big string of divisional games coming up as well, we have a good chance in front of us to make up a lot of ground after our disastrous start, which will hopefully start against the Caps tomorrow night. It's been way too long. I went to the Hawks Home Opener, and it was fun and a great game, but it's not Blueland. Gladiators games help with the hockey game withdrawal symptoms, but it's far from Blueland. I'm glad Tuesday is almost here!

Thrashers Games In Athens

I was in Athens this weekend for the Dawgs game against Troy. Troy is a helluva of a team by the way. Anyway, thankfully the Dawgs game was a day game and we didn't have to miss the Thrashers game. My little brother is a Senior at UGA and he lives in ECV (East Campus Village) and of course I go up to Athens all the time to visit and for football, basketball and baseball games. While ECV is a really nice place to live, for whatever reason, UGA does not provide SportSpouth to university housing. My brother is also a huge Thrashers fan but rarely gets a chance to watch Thrashers games because of the lack of SportSouth. We did find a good place to go - World of Wings ("WOW") Cafe and Wingery . Each booth has it's own small flat screen TV, so you can choose whatever you want to watch, and thankfully they have SportSouth. We were the ONLY table in the entire place watch the Thrashers game. When we started to come back, we were screaming and highfiving, getting plenty of "WTF?" looks at our table. What a good feeling... Dawgs win, Thrashers comeback over Tampa... what a good night. So, if you are ever in Athens and need a place to watch Thrashers games... it's going to be very hard to compete for a TV with all the college football games going on on a Saturday night, but you can catch all the football you want... and still not miss the Thrashers Saturday night games either. And the food was pretty good to boot. Why UGA has never bothered to add SportSouth to their TV lineup is beyond me.

Well, I've spent more than 20 mintues doing this when I should be doing work... so I need to get back to business... but I'm ready, I'm anxious and I can't wait to get back to Blueland tomorrow night!

Tampa Review & Fast Forward

2007-10-30T12:06:00.000-04:00

First off, I need to apologize for having a lack of posts... like anyone actually reads this thing anyways....

Tampa Away Game: The Review

Pre-Game

We arrived into Tampa and didn't even have time to check in to our hotel... along the way, a guy with one of those RVs that you attach to your truck, he had been in the wrong lane to get on to 75 and aparently swerved at the last moment trying to get back into the correct late, and the entire thing rolled over... creating a good 30-45min backup of traffic... it was a pretty horrific looking accident... cars had to drive on the dirt to get around it... Anyway, once we arrived, as I said, we didn't have enough time to even check in to our hotel... we all met up at Sally's hotel at 3, hopped in her RV and drove over to St. Pete Times Forum. She was kind enough to drive us all there, allowing us to avoid paying for parking. Sally knows a spot that she can park for only $5, so it was a steal. We had plenty of time before the game, so we all hung out at Dave Andreychuk's Grille, right in front of the arena. I was a bit jealous of how it's setup in Tampa... sure we have CNN Center, but they have Channelside right next door... restaurants, bars, awesome hangout place before the game... sorry but it puts CNN Center to shame, as much as I love CNN Center. There's also several sports bars right across from the arena, including Dave Andreychuk's Grille. The food is nothing spectacular, but it's a sports pub, so it's to be expected. Toward the end of our meal, we noticed a nice Mercedes Benz rolling into the lot... and low and behold, Dave Andreychuk himself got out! Fans ran up to him asking for autographs and to take pictures... I didn't get a chance to get an autograph, but we all took a group photo with him and he was a really nice guy and shook all of our hands. A bit later we walked across the street into the arena.

Inside the Arena

Tampa opens their arena an hour and a half before game time as opposed to an hour in Atlanta. I'm not sure if that is a weekend thing or their standard opening time, but in all honesty, it's a bit pointless. After visiting the store and buying official game puck, we went down to where the Thrashers came out for warmups. We sat there a good hour or so before anything really happened. But it was all good, after hours and hours of driving, we got to sit... even more. But it's ok because I couldn't stop looking at the...

Tampa Scoreboard Screen.

Holly shit that thing is absolutely gorgeous! It's like one giant wrap around screen. The quality of the graphics and video is amazing. Even more amazing, later on, when they showed fans on the screen... it was HD like if not HD. I'm a tech geek and the thing was just so beautiful. Now the funny thing to me is that hey, we have our games in PHILIPS Arena. You'd like to think if there was a place for Philips to showcase their latest and greatest in technology, that Philips Arena would be the place. Our scoreboard screen has been the same since the joint opened. Nothing wrong with it; it's a good setup, but after seeing the system in Tampa, it makes the screens inside Philips look like something outta the 1980's. According to one of the guys working the game near where the Thrashers came out, they are going to try to market the screens to other arenas. I don't think Atlanta would get it because it's not a Philips product... but man, it's awesome. I've heard the one in Philly is pretty sick too, but I've never been.

Warm Ups.

The Thrashers finally came out for warm ups... there was a decent sized group of fans banging on the glass and cheering them on... and this one lady comes over with her husband, has a Kovalchuk t-shirt on but it's tied up above her belly. She had on some hooker-looking white pants and totally had some cameltoe action going on. She apparently was from Colorado and I think she mentioned Denver (losing 4 games in the World Series and a MNF game on the first play of overtime... man I feel sorry for Denver fans!)... anyway she was nice and all but totally looked like she had no clue how to dress up for a hockey game. I mean I'm glad we have fans from other places than Atlanta, but man, it was just funny the way she was looking at the game. Anyway, enough about cameltoe lady.

Got some good pics during warm ups and then we headed up to our seats.

Tampa Fans.

Tampa fans have a horrible stereotype of being assholes. Yeah, I said it... assholes. Now, of course not every Tampa fan is an asshole. In fact, we met a few really nice Tampa fans. But for the most part, yeah, they are assholes. I'll give you a few example.

Example 1: The Father & Son Boyscout

There was a dad (or a very older brother but I believe it was his dad) dressed up in Boy Scout clothes, patches and all. The kid must of been between the ages of 4 and 7. They were sitting in the row in front of us. The little kid and his father would turn around talking trash. The little kid would turn around and say "You Suck!" on a consistent basis during the game. Well, I don't know about you, but I'd like to think that if you have your son in the Boy Scouts that they'd teach him not to act like that in public, even at a hockey game. And at that young age, if I had turned around to tell people "You suck!" at that age, my mom and dad would have put me in serious time out and taken away a bunch of my stuff for talking to people that way. It's the fact that he was apparently a Boy Scout... and yet still said all of that stuff... at that age. Way to raise your little kids, bro. That's being a really good father. Letting your little kids say "You suck!". Maybe if they were older kids it would be fine. But at that age... no. Horrible, horrible parent.

The Mullet Guy

There was a guy in the seats in front of us, but a bit to the right, that had a full on old-school mullet. If you thought the Thrashers mullet wigs were bad, this guy had a real 100% mullet. I even grabbed a picture of it. It was hilarious.

The Losers

There were some empty seats behind us. Late in the third period, there were two guys who came up there to sit behind us. Tampa "fans" of course. Well, no... they don't even deserve to be called "fans". I am not going to exaggerate or fluff what I'm about to tell you. Both of these guys looked like they could have been Osama Bin Laden's cousin or brother. They looked like they hadn't shaved in months... possibly years. The literally looked like they were homeless or lived in a shack. They decided to come up there to egg us on. Their comments were on the level of MAYBE (and this is giving them a huge benefit of the doubt) about a 3rd or 4th grade level. They weren't even intelligent comments or disses. I don't remember much of what they said because I just blocked it out. Yet they came ALL the way up there to where we were sitting... simply to taunt us. The only reason I can see that they had to do this was to help them feel better about them selves. It wasn't good enough for them that Tampa killed Atlanta 6-2. They had to truck all the way from where they were to come up to the seats behind us... and start talking trash. It wasn't even good trash. It was immature, really, really unintelligent comments. We all ignored then but they did manage to get on my girlfriend's last nerve and she got into it wit them. I didn't want to start a fight, I didn't want to get arrested and thrown out, I sure as hell didn't want to get in trouble and that's exactly what would've happened had it gone any further... but she was really angry and I had to turn her away from the guys for her own good... later on she realized that I was right to turn her away, but at the moment they made her really angry, but I understand why she was so angry. These two assholes lowered every other Tampa fan to ever exist to the ground. No longer will I ever hold any Tampa fan with any respect or kindness. I'm sure some of them are still nice, down to earth people that can have a good discussion about a hockey game. These two super losers had nothing better to do than find their way up to our section and talk shit. It wasn't even shit. It was so bad we were laughing at them... not in their faces but toward each other and for the most part we ignored them. After the game, they had the never to follow us out of the arena and continue to talk shit.

I hope that the next game in Tampa the Thrashers come out and win the game. We've been playing much better since the game we were at and I hope they come into Tampa and shut their fans up. I really do. Not only were these two losers some of the worst human beings I've ever come across in my life, there were plenty of other Tampa "fans" that had to taunt us and talk shit all night. I know it's hockey and I know fans are insane and talk shit to each other. That's fine. But there's a point at which it crosses a line and is beyond. Even Buffalo fans I've talked to in Atlanta haven't been this obnoxious.

Tampa fans get an F. A big, fat failing grade. They suck. And I'm a nice guy. I give people the benefit out the doubt. Yes, like I said, there were some nice Tampa fans. But the few ruined it for the entire crowd.

The Arena

It's pretty much a giant blur now, but the inside of the arena reminded me a lot of when we went to the game against the Panthers. The arena bowl is dark and cavernous. Even the ice is very dimly lit until right before the players come out onto the ice. But even after the come out, the lighting everywhere else besides the ice was really dark. In our game seats, you could really tell that the ice was lit up well but the rest of the arena was really dark. I didn't like it at all. You could also tell exactly why when games are broadcast from Tampa, they look horrible on TV. The lighting in the building sucks. The bottom section of the arena was nice, but the upstairs are was small. The hallways for fans to walk were really small and cramped... kind of reminded me of how it is at Yankee Stadium. It was hard to move around since everything was so cramped up there. It was ugly upstairs and nothing to speak of at all. I can't give you anything about the food because we didn't eat anything at the arena - we ate before the game. I mean, yeah, the arena is right on the bay, there are palm trees all around, it's short walk to Channelside and bars and pubs... and I mean it's Tampa... right near the beach... to see a hockey game and be on the beach... that's like a wet dream for me.

Post Game

We all tried to get into a bar after the game, but it was so full jam packed of Red Sox fans that there was just no where to sit... so a few min later, we ended up at the hotel where the Thrashers were staying... we didn't see any of them, but Craig Custance did stop by our table. We drank our sorrows for quite a while.

Fast forward to today.

We've won two in a row... and that is a big accomplishment for us. Sure, it's a SO win, but a win is a win. Little got his first ever SO goal, Kovy played like a freak, and the Thrashers played really well against Montreal. We didn't get to see most of the game, as we were supposed to end up at the Smashing Pumkins show at the Fox... which was canceled... the drummer ended up in the hospital... from what I've heard on a drug OD. Sad. Hopefully they'd reschedule it soon. I was about half way to downtown on 85 when I got the message from the Ticketcrapster robot lady. So instead of going to the show @ the Fox, we went to the nearest Taco Mac by my girlfriends house, and of couse, no Center Ice. DOH! So we went back and watched a movie. But of course I found out this morning that the game was being broadcast for free on Comcast... I guess it's a free Center Ice preview or something... if we had only known... but no matter we heard the end of the third, OT and the SO on the radio and we won... so that is all that really matters. Two in a row baby! Hopefully we can keep it going against the Senators...and then back in Tampa. I really really hope we can win against Tampa. They are now officially on my shit list of teams... Yankees, Georgia Tech, and now Tampa Bay.

Anyway, I have a meeting at work in a bit and I've been really bad, making it look as if I am working, yet instead I'm writing in my blog. I better go. But I'll try my best for more updates.

Limited Edition McFarlane Hossa Figure Coming Soon For 2008 ASG

2007-10-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

It seems that no one on the Thrashers message boards seems to care all that much about discussing collectibles... I am a collectaholic and have been collecting all sorts of things for a long time... from die cast model cars, DVDs, sports memorabilia, shot glasses, etc.... I collect a lot of stuff... including bobbleheads, player statues and the like.

Well, turns out that McFarlane, maker of collectible sports figures, will be making a limited edition Hossa figure, limited to a run 0f 3,000 figures, and will be available during the ASG festivities.

The McFarlane Press Release is here: http://www.spawn.com/news/news6.aspx?id=13228

It appears that McFarlane may have their own ASG-related event or be part of the official festivities; there are no details yet, but make room on your shelves for a new McFarlane Hossa!

That's really all for now... good luck to the Thrashers tonight in Philly as we search for our first win... it ain't gonna be easy tonight.

The Thrashers Win Their First Game Of the 2007-08 Season

2007-10-15T15:24:00.000-04:00

Well, OK, I knew that would grab your attention.

No, we still have yet to win a game. Up 4-2 vs. the Devils, I thought we had a chance, I thought we played well enough to win, and frankly, it is a game we should have won and had no business losing. Hartley changed the lines in the 3^rd period and we pretty much fell apart. With a score of 5-5 with about 30 seconds left in the game, the Devils went ahead and held on for the win. There was a pretty close shot on goal from the Thrashers at the very end, and from my vantage point in 411, it looked like, from what I saw on the replay, that it had been so close to the line, on it or over it. But from the 400s, it can be hard to see the detail on the screen and according to some fellow messageboarders, it wasn’t even close. Oh well. I thought it was so close and I couldn’t believe it was not reviewed, only to find out later it wasn’t close.

The positives are that we played very well for most of the game, we finally scored more than 1 goal in a game, and we actually led in a game for the first time, and played with a lot of heart. But taking a penalty at the very end of the game – not cool.

Usually after a big heartbreaker like that, I sleep it off and the next day Idon’t even think about it. But this one was different. I was so pumped, so excited that we’d get our first win… only to be let down. The Thrashers took a big ‘ole dump on my heart. In fact, I’m STILL in denial we actually blew the game. Kari wasn’t as sharp as he normally was either. I was hoping for, at the very least, going into OT and gaining a point – SOMETHING positive. But no. No. We blew the game at the very end.

Well, what can you do? Not much. Gotta move on and look forward to the next game – Philly. Even though they sucked last season, they were our bitch… we couldn’t muster a win against them. And now they have vastly improve their team… so we’ll see what happens. I’m really hoping we pull out a win for selfish reason – I have a huge job interview on Wednesday morning and I’d really, REALLY like to go into that interview with the positive feeling knowing the Thrashers won a game. If they don’t win, of course I can’t and won’t let it effect me during an interview, but it could only be a positive boost if they do.

Also, we are going to our second-ever Thrashers road game in Tampa on the 20^th. I’m looking forward to making a post about my experience there. Can’t wait!

That’s all for now.

0 'n 3... Not Time To Flee... Except Maybe Ken Klee

2007-10-11T16:41:00.001-04:00

I was so hopeful last night. Tied up going into the third period. Our best played game of the season, despite the loss. I thought we played well enough to win… but yet again, too many turnovers, too many penalties, too many costly mistakes. Kari has been sharp… I think he could be better, but to anyone who has doubts about him… why don’t YOU go strap on some goalie equipment and try it yourself… and see how many people complain about you. Anyway, I was worried at first because there seemed to be no one in the arena… and right before game time, it filled out decently…

Anyway not much else to report right now other than what you already know… no matter how well we played last night, we are 0-3. There's no sugar coating that fact. Tonight we are playing an 0-2 Sabres team… I think tonight is, hopefully, our first chance to really win a game… we had a great opportunity last night, but nothing bounced our way… plenty of shots on goal… Kovy was a monster out there… but nothing went in… plenty of pings and clinks hitting the pipes but nothing would fall our way. At least, from a positive aspect, we have looked like we’ve improved over the first two games and played a better, more consistent game.

Also just wanted to note that with all of the job interviews going on and things changing in my life, my posts may not be as consistent as a I like… If I get a certain position then big things will be changing in my life… but I guarantee you this… if I get this particular job, the very first thing I’m going to do is pay the rest of my season tickets off, buy All-Star tickets, and put a down payment for next season already if they’ll let me know.

Anyway, that’s all for now...or maybe not... I hope we will finally get a W tonight. We have a work bowling league (exciting, I know…) and I won’t be able to see most of the game tonight. I’m hoping for some good news when I get back to the car.

Oh, also, I know the AJC finally picked their fan blogger. So far I see one post. The guy is very knowledgeable and seems to be a big fan. But I have a few questions… is this guy there every night? Is he that dedicated of a fan? I dunno. I was honestly hoping I’d get the job. Am I some big hockey expert? Far from it. But I guarantee you the guy doesn’t have the same passion that I do. Nothing against who they picked – I’m sure he’ll make a fine IceMan… but hey AJC... the guy is married and has kids… I seriously doubt he has the same amount of time to dedicate to going to games, watching games, and being a fan. He probably has better credentials than me and that’s more than fine… but the AJC didn’t pick the person with the most passion and dedication out there… something also tells me there’s some sorta inside connection going on as well. Well ,whatever, my rant is over and done with...well not yet... One more thing… can we please get some bobbleheads and / or player statues as giveaways? Our gate giveaways listed so far are pretty lame IMHO. The replica banner is cool, but man, whatever happened to getting some awesome bobbleheads? Bring ‘em back.

Also, sorry about the supposed ticket giveaway... some one at work wanted them and it was good brownie points for me, so, I apologize about that...they were in the 400s so you didn't lose out on any big free tickets.

Oh yeah, I finally got the Upper Deck mini jerseys… both the red batman jersey and the blue Atlanta jersey as well… they are cool collectibles. Also, I saw a TON of the McFarlane Hossa player statues at the Perimeter Wal-Mart if you want to grab one… or two.

Let’s get a #%&(@*W#%&#@*(%& win tonight!!! GO THRASHERS!!!

T-Minus 24 Hours And Counting.. and POSSIBLE Ticket Giveaway!

2007-10-04T13:26:00.000-04:00

Opening Night is more than 24 hours away at this point, but actually less than 24 Hours until I’ll be there hanging out.

Let’s just say I’ve found a way to not have to work tomorrow, and normally I work all day on Friday.

It’s also now public that Gary Bettman will be in Atlanta on Opening Night. What you don’t know is that there is a not-so-public event before the game. I was going to save it as a surprise of-sorts for after Opening Night, but now that it’s public, I’ll go ahead and spill the beans.

Gary Bettman, love him or hate him, is an AEPi Alum, and I am also an AEPi Alum. I got an e-mail from the AEPi National Office that he would be coming to Atlanta and there is going to be a speaking event with Bettman before the game. For $50 a ticket, you get a lower level seat, food and drink, and attend the speaking event before the game. For a few more bucks a ticket, you can upgrade to better lower level seats, and that I did… Center ice, section 115, row X. While it’s the last row, it’s still a great view…and to be able to sit there on Opening Night…is awesome. Even if it was just a ticket at that price it’d be a good deal. The speaking event, from what I’ve been told, is an invite-only event and not open to the public. The best part of it all is that we get to go into the arena early for the event and don’t have to mess with Opening Night lines. Sweet!

Not much else to say at this point… the anticipation is building, Friday night can not come soon enough, and got the camera charged and ready to go. That’s about all for now. Saturday morning we’ll be going to the event at the Krispy Kreme. After that event, I’ll have a recap of everything and plenty of pictures.

Also, one last thing. I happen to have an EXTRA PAIR OF TICKETS for Opening Night. I am attempting to see if anyone at work wants them (good for brownie points at work)… if no one is interested, I’ll GIVE THEM AWAY… JUST STRAIGHT UP GIVE THEM AWAY… so I’ll LET YOU KNOW BY TONIGHT… KEEP CHECKING BACK…. If I am unable to give them away at work, I’ll think of something to give them away to someone who reads this. They are NOT being given away YET… I’ll let you know what happens. I can e-mail these tickets, so you don’t have to worry about meeting and picking them up.

FaceOff 2007

2007-10-03T18:04:00.000-04:00

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:

Thrashers vs. Predators: A Big Confidence MOOSEster

2007-09-26T13:14:00.000-04:00

Last night the final score should have been 2-0, no overtime, no shootout. Moose let in on really sloppy goal, leaving the net, or the Moose Cave as I like to call it, and it was an all too easy goal. Both goals scored on Moose should have not been goals, they were simply presents to the Predators. Yet despite Moose’s costly mistakes, he more than made up for them with a shutout in the shootout. Second pre-season home game and we’re already going to a SO. The SO is the worst way to win or lose a game. Sure, it’s awesome and exciting when your team wins in SO, but I just don’t like it being the one thing that determines the outcome of a game. But the other night, when the Georgia vs. Alabama game went into OT, I couldn’t help but think of how similar it was. Each team starts on the 30… close enough for a good touchdown pass or at least a field goal… so it’s almost like a shootout. It’s not the same, but it’s similar…each team gets a shot… and in hockey, it is also true. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a college football game go into OT, so I wasn’t up on all the OT rules until they displayed them on TV.

So, we put in “Mr. Automatic” (Kozlov), Hossa, and Kovy. Now, Kozzy was on an amazing streak of SO goals last season… he kind of let up at the end of the season, but I just assumed that he’d start up right back where he left off… but it wasn’t even close, he couldn’t even really get a shot off. Hossa, to my surprise, wasn’t any better. And then to our surprise, it was Kovy that was put in as the third shooter. Here we go, like we are really gonna win this one now. We all know of Kovy’s all-so-wonderful history in the SO… he’s historically horrible in the SO… yet this time he proved us wrong. This was a huge confidence booster for Kovy. I don’t think he’ll score in every single SO, but he’s gotten better, and last night’s sniper shot simply proved that. Not only was it a confidence booster for Kovy, but mostly for Moose. After giving up those two horrific goals, once of which was a huge brain fart mistake, he was solid as a rock ‘tween the pipes during the SO… giving the Thrashers a shutout in the shootout… This coming through in the clutch performance more than made up for his earlier blunders… and giving the small crowd at Philips a happy drive home.

My worry is that if Kari is hurt, even if he’s not, can the Moose be a consistently good goaltender? After last night, it’s hard to say… giving up those two mindnumblingly bad goals it’s hard to say… sure event he best goaltenders, even the great Marty Brodeur, will let in a bad one every now and then… and better now we get those out of the way during pre-season than the regular season. I forgive the Moose for his mistakes, as he is one of the best professionals you will ever see out on the ice. He gave us a helluva a performance in the playoffs, despite the outcome, and he is generally a very consistent and reliable goaltender, not to mention a really nice guy.

So tonight the guys play in Sunrise. I hope we won’t be too tired after last night’s win and then having to leave right for Florida… but I mean, it could be worse… I wouldn’t complain about playing hockey in Florida in sunny whether surrounded by palm trees, an ocean breeze, and, well, it’s Florida. I hope Kari gets the start as reported and I hope he’s able to stay in and re-injure himself playing.

Best of luck to Kari and the Thrashers tonight in Sunrise. Let’s make the Panthers pay!

A Dawg Gone Good Weekend... for the Thrashers and Falcons, Not So Much

2007-09-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was awesome. Thrashers, Braves, and Falcons games... all in one weekend. But I'm trying my best to forget about the Falcons game... I've been to plenty of Falcons games, but that was a sorry ass game. We did have Club seats; that was my first time in the Club seating at the Dome and I've gotta say it's awesome. But it's sad, we both the tickets for less than 1/2 the cost of face value... I wish we had of gone to the last Braves home game instead; it would've been more fun. Oh well... on to important things here: The Thrashers

Saturday night as surreal. It's been a little over five months since we've been to a hockey game. Walking back into Philips for the first time was, well... it was strange, yet I felt at home at the same time. Standing there, looking out onto the ice and checking out the arena bowl, I thought back to the first playoff game... instead of a 1/2 empty pre-season game, I saw a jam-packed Philips Arena roaring all night for the Thrashers. I saw the boards and glass all lit up in Blue. I heard the roar of a deafening crowd; a city set on fire by the Thrashers. Am I delusional? Last time I checked, no. Some times I wish I was; life would be more fun that way. It was surreal being back in Philips... watching an actual hockey game. Not some crappy video stream from North Bay but a real, live in-person game. It was hard to believe we were there, watching the Thrashers. It hasn't even hit me yet hockey season is back. Perhaps that will happen tonight for the 2nd pre-season home game? I hope so.

So, guess what, as usual, Sam and I were there early. Not super insane early like we will for for Opening Night... but early enough. First in line, as usual. The best part is that smell. That ice, beer, and arena food smell. I haven't smelled that glorious smell in months. It's the best smell in the world next to freshly printed money. As the doors opened, and you get that first whiff of the smell that is Blueland, your senses open up, and you realize that you are about to watch the best sport on earth - NHL hockey. Oh, that smell... there's nothing quite like it. If I could bottle it up and make my house smell that way... or maybe just a smelly thing for your car... that would be awesome... to get into your car and every time it smells like Philips Arena. The ice, the cold, the beer, the food... whatever it is that makes up that combination to make that unique, sweet smell of Philips Arena... it's awesome. There's nothing like it anywhere.

The game itself was almost irrelevant... not a full roster, nothing counts, it's just pre-season... of course you want the Thrashers to win... well that's all some bullshit right there. Yeah, it was pre-season, but it was that all too-familiar feeling I get after a Thrashers loss... even in pre-season. But it was to be erased quickly. After stopping at the V (that's the Varsity for you non-ATL types) to get some grub, I drove to my moms to watch the end of the Georgia vs. Alabama game. I won't go into how weird and strange it was not hearing Larry Munson on the radio on the way home; this is not a Dawgs blog, but man, it was weird. Got there just in time to watch the last half of the 4th quarter... I drove up to my moms house to find a house full of people still there... she has a break-the-fast dinner every year after Yom Kippur, but I wasn't about to miss the Thrashers game, even for that. I get inside and everyone is gathered around the TV. OT rolls around, the Dawgs win, and my brother who was home for the holiday, who would have otherwise been at the game, went absolutely insanely berserk, dancing and jumping around... it would have made a priceless YouTube video if we had only captured his victory dance after the game. It was exciting to say the least and the Dawgs OT win 100% turned around any crappy feelings from the Thrashers loss. It erased it all. I'll take a Dawgs OT win ... especially over Bama...and a Thrashers pre-season loss any day.

So tonight is the second pre-season home game. I have a feeling, seeing as how it is a Tuesday night, that there will be a really small crowd... fine with me. Just means better seats to sneak down to!

I am a bit concerned that Kari is not starting tonight; Moose is back in goal... guessing they are letting Kari heal up as much as he can before the regular season starts. The line is also very interesting tonight with Little and Kovy... we'll see what happens. I dunno bout you but with these two guys I'm expecting some highlight-reel plays. We'll see.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll do a post-game... uh... post... either tonight or sometime tomorrow.

See you in Blueland tonight! LETS GO THRASHERS!!!

The Religion of Hockey

2007-09-21T14:30:00.000-04:00

Being that tonight and tomorrow is Yom Kippur, I thought I'd do a post a little off the beaten path. With hockey fans being among the most passionate, obsessed, and loyal fans on earth, it isn't a long shot to say that hockey might as well be a religion in and of itself.

Here are a few photos and links of proof:

- Interesting Blog Article on Canadian Jews who play hockey

- Israel Ice Hockey Federation

- Jews have been playing hockey for longer than you think!

- The Coolest Jewish Hockey Jersey You'll Ever See:

- Even Jesus loves hockey:

- Jesus playing hockey:

- Jesus Saves:

- Jesus as a Flyer:

Negative Result From Nashville & Chief - The Man, The Myth, The Living Legend

2007-09-21T01:28:00.001-04:00

Got back from the Braves vs. Brewers game late and didn't see or scoreboard watch the game, so I really can't tell you much more than what you already know - we lost 5-3. Sure it would've been sweet to go 3-0 in the pre-season, but reality finally set in tonight: You mean we aren't going to win every single game? Of course it's just pre-season and the disappointment of a loss isn't on the level of a regular-season game... But the Braves did win 3-1... When we left the game, the Mets had gone ahead.... but I get back to the car and my brother calls me to tell me the Marlins tied it back up with 3 runs in the 9th... and ended up winning the game. Of course the Nats blew a nice lead on the Phillies and the Phillies ended up winning... but if the Braves are to make it, we are gonna need some help along the way... but it surely doesn't help that both the Mets and Phillies essentially have a cake walk the rest of the game... playing teams like the Marlins. The Braves are hot right now and let's just hope for a playoff-making miracle.

So, yes, ok, back to the Thrashers here. I so badly wanted to be in Nashville tonight... more than anything. But that's ok... you can put money on the table that I'll be incredibly early to Saturday night's game... I ran into Chief (if you live in Atlanta and go to Braves and Thrashers games and don't know who Chief is, than you aren't a true Atlantan) and we talked to him tonight for quite a while.... to say the least, he is excited that the Thrashers are finally back. Of course, Chief will be there, but you know he can't break his Braves attendance record, and will be a bit late... but it was great to catch up with Chief tonight.... he is the nicest guy you'll ever meet too. And if you thought I was loyal, Chief is hard to beat. We are always hanging out in line talking Thrashers, Braves, Falcons and sports in general before Thrashers games... he plays sports himself... he's an avid softball player (he was very animated tonight telling us about ending up in first place) and and avid floor hockey player.

In fact, Chief, Sam and I have become good buddies. So much so, in fact, that I created a MySpace page... just for Chief. I'll be honest, I haven't kept up with it as much as I should have, but if you know Chief and you're on MySpace, add him to your friends list. I did a huge interview with Chief and need to get around to adding the info from our interview. The MySpace page is here:

http://www.myspace.com/chief755

Not much else to say tonight... but I am pysched for Saturday... I can't wait for that Blueland smell... cold ice, beer, hotdogs, and, well, of course... more beer. I can't wait to see the ice, I can't wait to actually be at hockey game... it's been WAY, WAY too long and I'm anxious to see our boys in blue play the other... boys in blue... and this time with no huge pressure for a win... win or lose, it's not the end of the world - it doesn't count - and I'd rather save those pissed-off moods for the regular season... this Saturday is a take-it-easy kind of game. Of course, yeah, you want a W, but it doesn't count.

One last minor thing... not sure how long services will run on Saturday... I hope to be able to make it to the Nasty Nesty BBQ down in the Gulch but it all depends on my timing... I have to change, put my suit in my car and then go back... that may take some time.

There's just one more little thing: On my season ticket box, it says "2007-08 Southeast Division Champions"... I'd like to believe this is not a misprint - rather it's the truth. But before we start making such bold predictions... which are totally cool with me, I don't mind.... let's get the season started... let's raise that banner, let's kick some ice and... ITS @#$()@(#$&@# HOCKEY SEASON!!!!!

Oh yeah... before I go.... tonight at The Ted... it was a small crowd but I did notice serveral Thrashers shirts and hats throughout the ballpark... even a couple of kids got one the screen - one a hockey jersey (couldn't make out the team) and one with a Thrashers jersey. I'm still, of course, a huge Braves fan and will wear Braves gear to a Braves game, but I kind of wish I had thrown my my Thrashers gear tonight. Oh well. It was cool to see some Thrashers Hockey Love at The Ted tonight. We got some free fireworks from Cent. Park, a Smoltz statue, a Braves win, a Mets loss, and the best part - a subtle reminder that hockey season is upon us.

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!

Class Is In Session

2007-09-20T01:19:00.000-04:00

Ever wondered just where the Thrashers got their name?

Check out the Brown Thrasher entry in Wikipedia. It even mentions that the bird is the inspiration for Thrashers as our team name. Take a minute or two from all your Thrashers and hockey news, blogging, and fantasy hockey and educate yourself.

Or listen to one. I swear he's saying "Let's go Thrashers!!" ....in Thrash-sorta speak. Or maybe he's just trying to tell off some Sabres or Rangers fans...

And did you ever think about it... seeing as how it's a BROWN Thrasher... aren't you glad our main team color is not UPS brown? If we have a bad game, at least we can't say we look like shit... literally.

And yes, the Georgia Brown Thrasher has his own highlight video.

The Birds,The Braves & The Battle

2007-09-20T00:17:00.000-04:00

I love this time of the year. It's not all that often you get to go to a Braves, Thrashers, and Falcons game all in one weekend. If only it was like this all year!

I've been invited to go to the game in Nashville, but there's just no way I can really get up there. I have to work all day Friday. My girlfriend can't go. Friday night is Yum Kippur. Saturday morning as well. Great timing, right? Sadly I will have to miss the Open Practice... as much as I want to be there, my conscious simply won't let me skip going to synagogue on the holiest day of the year. I will, however, change right after services and meet up with folks at the Nasty Nest tailgate in the Gulch. Thankfully my synagogue is off of Peachtree Battle, so I won't be too far from Philips... I'll just have to stop somewhere and change.

So, as I said, there's just no way we can make it up to Nashville for the game... it makes sense to save $$$ for regular-season games anyway. Not to mention we'll be at the Braves game (John Smoltz statute night!).... which will probably be the last Braves game I get to go to this season....barring any last minute playoff-making miracles.

Sunday my brother and will be at the Falcons home-opener. And speaking of miracles, they are gonna surely need one as well... could they pull out a W?

So, Thursday night it's Braves...
Saturday it Thrashers home pre-season game 1...
Sunday it's the Falcons....

The only tough part about Saturday night is that the Dawgs will be at 'Bama... just hoping they'll keep us up to date on the scores on the boards in Philips... and of course it means checking the TVs during intermission.

But I'm anxious as all hell to finally see some hockey again... of course Saturday the Thrashers won't be playing most of our main guys, it will be the younger guys to see who will get some of the last roster spots... could the Thrashers go 3-0 in the pre-season?

As you already know, Custance is the Thrashers one and only AJC writer / blogger. Sadly, the AJC, ironically located next door to Philips Arena, has one Thrashers writer. ONE. Pathetic. However, Custance is a great source of inside info. He published a piece today regarding our goalie situation. Kari, as you know, was our #1 "Franchise" goalie last season, and no doubt is still the future of this franchise and still, to me anyway, our Franchise netminder. However, Thrashers fans will have the opportunity to yell "Mooooooooooooose!!" a bit more often this season, as Kari and Moose will be competing for the starting position. Will Kari start on Opening Night or will you go deaf hearing "Mooooooooooooose!"on Opening Night? That remains to be seen. There will be a battle between Kari and Moose and I only see that as a positive... it will keep them fighting for the chance and can only make them better. I don't know if this is Coach Hartley's idea or DW playing master of puppets, but whoever made the decision to make it a battle did the right thing. The question remains, however.... will this help get the Thrashers more wins? That remains to be seen for now. I do know that Kari stood on his head when his parents were in town to watch him play. Hopefully they'll come as MUCH as possible this season.

AJC.COM: "Lehtonen has competition in the nets"

X Hero of the Day in North Bay

2007-09-17T22:31:00.000-04:00

Well, well.... whadda we have here?

The Thrashers are now 2-0 in the pre-season!

The game was, in theory, broadcast on NHL Center Ice Online.... but half the time the site wouldn't load, and sometimes it did but the player didn't launch....if the player did launch there was no feed...luckily the CBC was also broadcasting the game online... it was a decent video feed, it was grainy and choppy but better than nothing. People kept walking in front of the camera... guess that's what you get in a small arena like that.

X scored the game-winning OT goal over the NY Islanders. Now, here's the scary part... it's only the 2nd pre-season game but my heart was racing as if it's post-season. Man I really, really missed hockey!

I don't know if Crabb will make the team, but I think he looked pretty good in the game despite that last minute penalty.

Hockeyville 2007 Media:

Thrashers Game Recap

Islanders Game Recap

AJC.COM Game Recap

NHL.COM: "North Bay lives up to 'Hockeyville' title"

The North Bay Nugget: "Kovalchuk , Thrashers eager to suit up for Hockeyville game"

2007 Hockeyville Website

Pictures of North Bay Fans After Winning the 2007 Hockeyville Contest

Official City of North Bay Website

Thrashers Fever: Will ATL Catch It Again?

2007-09-17T17:40:00.000-04:00

I was cleaning up some files on my computer and going through a bunch of random photos and came across this screen shot of AJC.COM from last season. It serves as an excellent reminder of just what we accomplished last year: Not only were we Division Champs, but we made the playoffs for the first time. For the first time, the city of Atlanta was abuzz about the Thrashers. It was the talk of the town. Even where I work, people I didn't know would stop by to talk to me about the Thrashers. All over the city, there was not a place you could go where you didn't hear someone talking about hockey and the Thrashers. It was the biggest thing this city had going at the time. The fever, the buzz, the anticipation of Stanley Cup playoffs...

And then finally it came: The first-ever Playoff game in Thrashers history. The sold out crowd inside Philips Arena had an energy, a force about it if you will... unlike anything we've experienced before.

My question is this: Can we do this again? Can this city rise to it's feet and support this team the same way? If we make the playoffs again, will Atlanta come out in full support? Will that same Thrashers fever catch on throughout Atlanta like it did last season?

I think our fans and this city will not only show the same level of support, but even go beyond what we had last season. Last season was just a taste... an appetizer if you will.... this season, if we make the playoffs, let's try our best not to get swept... and maybe make it to the 2nd round? We make it that that far and this city will catch not only Thrashers fever but it will be more like an epidemic of Thrashers mania.

We'll need to alert local hospitals to be on the lookout for individuals with Thrashers fever... It can easily be diagnosed by constant talk about the Thrashres, hockey, the NHL and Stanley Cup Playoffs. Victims will be dressed in Thrashers jerseys, shirts and hats, and are known to eat, sleep and breathe all that is Blueland. Victims of Thrashers fever are also known to escape jail... err... work to arrive early to games. These victims can also be seen traveling up interstate 85 to the Duluth Ice Forum to catch Thrashers Training Camp and practices. Be cautious around those you may believe to have Thrashers Fever: It is HIGHLY and EXTREMELY contagious and if you are around or near ANYONE with these symptoms and conditions, you too will be at the mercy of Thrashers Fever. Be forewarned, there is NO cure and there is nothing you can do to get rid of it. Even during the off season, Thrashers Fever's symptoms may be reduced, however, there is no cure.

On a side note:

Atlanta fans: One thing... Like our Mayor or not, if we DO happen to make the playoffs again, let's NOT boo her, no matter where your political stance is. If one day, God forbid, the Thrashers should ever have the threat of moving hanging over our heads, and we have a fan rally like Nashville did, and our Mayor is there to show support... we may in fact need her one day, if it ever comes to that, and if we boo her, she may never show her support for the Thrashers to stay in town... so let's be smart about this one Thrashers fans... like her or not, let's NOT boo her just in case, like I said, God forbid we may need her support one day. I hope that day never comes, but if it does, the power of politicians is priceless.

Now We Are Famous! Thanks, AJC!

2007-09-17T17:34:00.001-04:00

Ok, not really, but we were in a training camp photo on AJC.COM.

We are to the right of the lady in the Canada jacket... that's my friend Jordan, my girlfriend Sam, and me with the backwards hat on.

Click here for the link to the story.

Photo:

Bluelanders Give The Blues ...The Blues

2007-09-17T16:52:00.000-04:00

Well, I must apologize already... I had such a busy weekend that I haven't been able to get around to posting anything. On Friday I was at the first day of camp, of course, but headed straight to Athens after for the Georgia game. Not too much time to post anything. I was busy with the girlfriend all day Sunday as well... this is my first real opportunity to post.

I did take quite a few pictures... it's a new camera, but they just didn't' seem to come out that well. After practice I found out there are better settings I should have used. Oh well. Here are the pictures that actually came out.

I'm glad we got the season off to a good start with a W against the Blues... might be pre-season but a win is a win is a win. And I hope the broadcast tonight from the Hockeyville game works without any issues.

What else... I'm kind of disappointed in the Open Practice date. I'm Jewish and the Open Practice juuuuuuuuust so happens to be on the same date as... oh... only the holiest day of the year: Yum Kippur. This is no different than having the event on Christmas Day or Easter... They would, of course, never have an event on the same day... Why does it have to be the one day out of the year? In all honesty, it's kind of offensive. Last year I believe the event was only for season ticket holders and BBQ and drinks were provided... this year it's open to the public and no food or drinks are provided... That kinda bums me out too. But the fact that it's on Yum Kippur... that is just bad. Now I'm not sure how many Jewish folks around here are also hard core Thrashers fans like me, but it's very frustrating. But I have to to the right thing. I'll be going to services Friday night and Saturday... meaning I won't be able to go to the open practice... but I will be going to the game that night. I wish they had schedule it for another time and day... but I guess they didn't see Yum Kippur on the calendar. Man you can really tell I am Jewish with all the complaining... but I think it's a legit reason to complain.

Anyway, after seeing the new jerseys for myself at the practice and now in pictures from the Blues game, I have to say the only thing I don't like is the arrows and stripe along the bottom.

What else... the season is not far away and every day the anticipation grows more and more.

Minor Blog Update

2007-09-14T00:08:00.000-04:00

Well I should be in bed already, gotta get up bright and early to get to training camp in the morning!

I've made a few minor updates and changes... brought back using a small icon for each post.. I really like this one. Also added another graphic or two as well as a new link list for Thrashers-related MySpace pages... if you'd like your Thrasher-themed MySpace page added or if you are just a Thrashers fan and want your MySpace page added to the list, just let me know.

I'm looking to see if I can find past years training camp shirts, so if you have any pictures or remembered what was said on them, let me know.

Expect plenty of pictures from training camp tomorrow....err make that later today.... I won't be going on Saturday... I'll be in Athens for the Georgia game, but I'll be back Sunday and at least a few days during the week if and when I can make it up to Duluth.

Also in case you missed it, last year's Fan Correspondent Sean Grace is having a free ticket contest over on his blog so check it out... I've already put my name in the hat. Sorry, I have no free tickets to give away. Maybe I'll give something away later on to entice people to actually read this thing. I have a few Thrashers goodies and a contest or two kinda sounds like fun. Problem is I'm way to lazy to actually go out and ship something so if you do win a contest from me, you'll have to get it from me at a game.... ok, ok I'll ship whatever it may be as long as it's not really heavy.

That's it for now. See you in Duluth!

So Close You Can Feel The Cold

2007-09-12T22:43:00.002-04:00

So hockey is almost here. Almost time yet again for the greatest sport on earth. It can't come soon enough. And speaking of things that can't come soon enough: Season Tickets. They were shipped out on Monday and arrived on Tuesday... well, they were SUPPOSED to arrive on Tuesday. Of course I tracked the package... it said damaged and missing merchandise and that it was being returned. So I call UPS (thankfully you can actually talk to a human being) and they lady told me something fell out and was missing. Great. Wonderful. Who else but Mr. UPS driver would have opened the box??? I thought something fishy may have been going on. The last package I got from UPS, which was an envelope that contained front row tickets to see Dave Chappelle at the Tabernacle, was torn up, had some sort of black goo all over it, and the flap where you open it was already half open. Thank god my front row tickets were in there. The next thing I get from UPS are my Thrashers season tickets, and out of all the tickets that were mailed out, MY box is the one box that somehow, someway couldn't make it to it's destination... in the same city. I can understand a messup if I were sending something to say... the south pole... but in the same city? Cmon. What can brown do for me? They can get me my packages... on time and not messed with! Thankfully they were returned and ended up in the hands of my ticket rep Dustin and I told him I'm just going to pick them up... no more taking chances with UPS.

Anyway, this Friday I am going to be a bad Jew and skip the second day of Rosh Hashanah to go to the first Thrashers practice. The 2nd day is always half empty anyway. Can't miss the first official practice!

The Braves are toast. The Falcons... well... not giving up on them yet, they did manage to win 3 of 4 in the pre-season, and I know pre-season doesn't mean much, but let's just hope the next game is a BIT closer than the opener. Georgia lost to South Carolina and should've played a lot better. So it's time for some Thrashers hockey!

The Thrashers will be a mix of new and familiar faces... and I think we have a heck of a roster. Thankfully, as you know, Sutton is gone. That should help us win a few more games alone! Ok, I shouldn't pick on Andy, he'll probably come back to play us and take some of our guys out.

What else... considering going to the pre-season game in Nashville but I think the smart thing to do will be to save money for away games during the regular season. But then again, it is the Thrashers and hockey... so... gotta make up my mind soon.

My girlfriend is more than excited to finally see the boys on the ice, especially Kari... oh how she is madly in love .... well more like lust... with him. I don't care... I'm madly in love with Bridgette Wilson (you know, Veronica Vaughn in the movie Billy Madison...) and she's totally cool with that... although I've never been so lucky to have met her. Maybe one day....

My hope is, of course, who doesn't want a Stanley Cup? I just hope the Thrashers not only make the playoffs again but win a series or two and maybe even go deep in the playoffs... no more sweeps by the Rangers or any other team for that matter. Those are still fresh, painful memories... that freak puck that bounced off the boards...I won't even go into other details... just trying NOT to think about it... I'd much rather think about how awesome Blueland was that night... never before had Philips been that loud... the energy in the building was awesome... insane... something you'll never forget. I hope the 2007-08 Opening Night is just as loud and has just as much energy. I can't wait. October 5th can't come soon enough!!!

I hope there are more fans at games this year during the week. Even if a game falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday, I wana see the place rockin'. Traffic, work, more traffic, kids, more work... excuses, excuses, excuses... tired of 'em. Get your asses down to Philips Arena, come support the best damn team in this city and even if you've never been to a hockey game, you'll be hooked once you go. The Thrashers are the best addiction you can have... at least they are better than a crack addiction! There's nothing like hockey and if you've never been... COME OUT TO A GAME... you WILL fall in love with the Thrashers and hockey.... if you don't, something is very, very wrong.

If you have been living under a rock or in a cave than you might not have heard there was finally a legal decision about the Atlanta Spirit ownership group... and I think it fell the way most people wanted it to... Belkin won't get control of the team. Now that the legal battle is hopefully near an end, the Thrashers won't have to cut their budgets on certain things...

What else.... Face Off 2007 is coming soon which is always fun... there's the open morning skate...last year coach Hartley was mic'd up, hopefully they'll do that again... and then on the same day is the first home pre-season game. Can't wait!!!

Don't have much time left tonight; have to get up early to get to services in the morning... expect consistently more updates now that the season is gearing up!

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!!!

My Season Ticket Rep:

2007-08-15T14:57:00.000-04:00

I haven't done any blogging, well, because there's not too much to blog about. There's the Hossa rumors and then, of course, Sutton is gone, and well, that's a big cause for celebration if you ask me. I thought he was a good dman but he was way too inconsistent.

Anyway, the point of this post is to give props and kudos to my season ticket rep: Dustin Skidmore. Dustin has been my rep ever since I became a STH. Now, with season tickets, you can have an 8 month payment plan with no interest to make it easier for fans to afford... which is a very, VERY nice option and makes it easy to afford tickets.

Dustin has been VERY... EXTREMELY accommodating to me, allowing me to pay when I get paid, allowing me to make a payment when I can, even if it's not exactly according to the scheduled. For example, I gave Dustin a payment of $100 and told him the next time I get paid I'd send him $200. Well, he e-mailed me back asking if I wanted to go ahead and make a payment... well, I was helping my younger brother move to a new apartment in Athens and on my way back to Atlanta, about 1/2 down 316, my car decided to, what I thought at the time, throw a rod. It was making horrible, horrific sounds and I somehow, someway drove back to Atlanta in the right hand lane and made it to the shop. It cost me over $1600 to fix and, to say the least, that set me back quite a bit until my next paycheck... I told Dustin and he was more than willing to let me pay him a week later when I get my next paycheck... he has done this several times for me, making my life a lot easier. He didn't have to. He could have told me to pay or we'll have to hold your tickets or cancel my account, but no, he has been and continues to be very accommodating and I want to give him thanks for that.

Instead of seeing the short term, he sees the long term. This year I might not be able to afford the best tickets or I might have to pay him little by little when I can, but next season I might be able to afford much better seats and actually pay him on time... and the season after that, who knows, I might be able to move down to the lower level... so I think he knows I'll be a long-term customer... and he knows just how to keep me as one. He could demand payment and cancel my account and not keep me as a customer and a fan, but he "puts up" with me, for lack of a better term, and I truly appreciate that. He knows that we are both HUGE fans and I know that the last thing he or the Thrashers want to do is diminish that in any way.

So thanks, Dustin, for being a great rep and for being so accommodating and understanding.

In other news, I'm looking forward to seeing the new Taco Mac in Philips Arena.

It's now half way through August and camp starts in September, so not too much longer to go until hockey!!

Kozzy & X Reup, Thrash Launch New Website

2007-07-18T22:37:00.000-04:00

Well by now you know all of the above is old news. Kozlov, otherwise lovingly known as "Mr. Automatic" in the shootout, is back with ATL. X has also resigned. As a fan fav, it's good to see X staying in Blueland as well.

But the question remains: Can the Thrash make the playoffs again? Will Atlanta hockey fans be able to again experience the magic that is The Stanley Cup Playoffs? (Maybe it's supposed to be "are the Stanley Cup Playoffs"... I'm not going to do dig up my AP Style Guide at the moment, K?)

And in case you've been living under a rock, or perhaps in the new pothole in NYC (ok that was mean) the Thrashers have launched their new website based on the NHL publishing system. While the site does make it easier for content providers to focus on content rather than site management, it also has the same look and feel as every other NHL team's website now. MLB did this years ago as well. But now every site is a cookie-cutter type site. The individualism is gone. Each team previously had it's own, unique look, feel, layout and style to it... and now that uniqueness is all but gone. The good news is that nothing that was there previously is missing; in fact there is a lot more content already, even before the season has started. But at the same time, it's also sad that the days of having your own website are gone. Some websites, such as the Blackhawks website, have a giant sponsor logo smack right in the middle of the top team logo banner, such as the giant at&t logo on their page. Now, thankfully, the Thrashers don't have a giant corporate logo plastered on the head banner.

While it is good to have NHL news on the front page... most fans visit their team's site first.. but you can also view this as a total waste of space; if I want news from around the NHL, then I'll go to NHL.COM or other hockey websites... this space could be used for something else.

But the best news is that for the casual user who may visit the site just every now and then, things look different yet familiar; many of the graphics are the same or similar enough.

When the site went live today at noon, there was instantly a new post on the message boards about it... and the Thrashers web crew was there to see what the fans had to say. I had noted that on the old site, directly on the home page was a link to the message boards, and on the new site, it was no longer there. Not even 5 minutes later, they added the link to the message boards on the home page. I guess you can thank me for that... at least you don't have to go to the menu to get to the boards.

There is more stuff under the Fan Zone for fans to check out than there is for most other teams. The wealth of multimedia is astounding and is more than enough to keep fans entertained during the offseason and between games.

Other good news is that, of course, you can still go to the website the same way (www.atlantathrashers.com) and you don't have to remember to type in thrashers.nhl.com.

The blocky look and feel does give it kind of a MySpace look and feel (that is if you don't pimp out your MySpace profile too much). It will take a bit of getting used to; but it could also be a lot worse.

The one thing missing that some teams have is a mobile version of the site. The Hurricanes have one. These sites are formatted for use on devices that are Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, etc. based. They have updates and news and are great for keeping up with your team's news on the go... hopefully the Thrashers will consider doing one. You can check out the Hurricanes' mobile site here. Don't worry, it'll work in a normal PC / Mac browser just fine.

Well, the above paragraph is wrong. I just tested the same URL as the Hurricanes instead with the Thrashers, and low and behold, there is a mobile version there. I don't even think they've linked to it anywhere, but it's located here. Be sure to bookmark it on your smartphone!

Another thing I've noticed: The team banner at the top of the home page used to have several players, and in fact it used to rotate images and had different players and groups of players. With the new site, it is just one static image with Kari. I love seeing Kari there, but I did like having the random images up there. It was a small surprise every time you went to the site.

The stats are another amazing feature on the site. They have stats all the way back from the 2000-01 season and on. Why the 1999-2000 inaugural season stats aren't up there is beyond me; I hope they add them in.

I had the privilege of meeting Ben, otherwise once know as The Web Guy, last season at the Thrashers Blog Night. I'm hoping they do that again this season. The view from the press boxes are awesome. Ben and his web team did a great job with the new site and the content is going to be insane during the season. I am looking forward to it.

While a few things could be better and improved on, for the most part, it's a great new site. Let's hope that with the great new site comes a great new season.

August is just around the corner and then September hits and training camp and pre-season games start, so hockey is not as far away as you think!

Who Needs Fireworks...

2007-07-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

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.

07-08 Suggestions

2007-06-04T16:50:00.001-04:00

These are a few suggestions I have for the Thrashers for the upcoming 07-08 season... not so much related to players, but things you'd like to see at the arena. If you have your own suggestions, add them to the comments area. I'm interested to see what others have to say.

A season ticket holder / VIP entrance. The Florida Panthers have one... the PANTHERS we are talking about here. If THEY have one, the Thrashers certainly should have one. There are more than enough doors that are unused at Philips Arena to do so. As long as you have a season ticket in hand (and your STH ID) then they should let you in. Since you are there every night, and the most loyal of fans, don't you think you should be shown that every night? Waiting in smaller lines, if any, would be a very nice perk.

I know this is never going to happen, but allow food from CNN Center inside Philips Arena. Most people are going to avoid buying snacks and food inside the arena if they have time to eat it at CNN Center beforehand, so why not just let people bring it in? I know they are two separate entities, but it would be so nice. I don't see food and drink sells suffering much, if any, because there will always still be that crowd that arrives right before the game and doesn't have time to eat at CNN Center... so they'll still buy food. But for those that arrive early enough to grab something at CNN Center... let 'em bring it in. Seriously, it's not that big of a deal.

The Thrashers allow people to go down to to watch warmups, yet on a consistent basis you get kicked out of where you are standing because people want their seats that are there. Well, if this happens all the time, what's the point of letting people down there? I wish they'd make those with tickets down there understand that that are is PUBLIC during warm ups... you can just wait for your seats until we are done watching. People with tickets down there should know this and I wish they'd be nicer and cooler about people that stay there for warmups... it's not like you can't go find another couple of seats to sit in during warmups and then move after they are done... there's got to be a compromise, but kicking people out who were there FIRST watching warm ups isn't cool.

Better Spin-N-Win Giveaways. At least during the 05-06 season you had a chance to win an autographed item. Oh, I came within a hair of winning an autographed item many times, but I never was lucky enough to get one. The giveaways don't have to be any better, but I'd like to see the return of the autograph item slice on the prize wheel. Now that it's not there, I still like to spin, but I found myself not wanting to bother with it towards the end of the season... with no chance at winning a nicer prize, there seems to be little point in spinning.

I also wanted to see a STH-Only Spin-N-Win. Show your STH ID and you can spin. Since you are there every game, you deserve better prizes than someone who comes once or twice a season. It should be worth every penny to the Thrashers to treat STH with better giveaways... these small perks probably cost them little or nothing and would help keep STH happy.

Perhaps have something similar to the Blueland Block Party before certain games, such as games on holidays or weekends...

Bring back the home win Volvo 1 year lease giveaway. That was awesome. Never won, but entered every time.

I really hope they bring back Thrashers Blog Night. That was an amazing experience I really hope they do that again. It was something I'll never forget and I'm sure everyone else who particiapted too will never forget.

That's it for me right now. Take these with a grain of salt - they are simply suggestions. I've never had any real complaints with Philips Arena. It's just fine as it is... but there is room for improvement, as there is everywhere.

Holy Puck - An Update!

2007-06-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

Well, obviously the Sabres weren't swept... but if there was any team I thought was going to make it all the way, it was them. Gotta tip your cap or foam puck head or whatever it may be to the Sabres on an amazing season with a helluva a team. One of my best memories was when we beat them that last time during the regular season 4-3 and the Sabre fans walked out of their in dead silence. I hope we have many more similar battles next season.

The Stanley Cup Finals have been exciting, and I've been pulling for the Ducks, one because I don't think Heatley deserves a Cup, much less to be even playing in the NHL after what he did. And also, well, I'd rather the American team win than a Canadian team.

Well, the first small indication that the 07-08 season isn't TOO far away is this coming weekend. A yes, it's Select-A-Seat where you come to pick out new seats for the next season. It's great because, well, it's been way too long since I've been inside Philips and just being able to go in there and be in my home away from home, even if it's a short time, is always good.

So you get some free snacks and drinks and pick out your seats... and they always have Thrashers stuff to give out... so I'm already anxious for this Sunday. It's always weird to me see Philips without ice on the floor.

I'm glad to see that the Blueland Blog continues to be updated with Thrashers-related news... I check it at least a few times a day. In fact, my boss just caught me reading it, but she knows that I do, and she didn't say anything, so I think I am ok. I know, I am evil... reading Blueland Blog when I should be working. But she's gone now so I am able to write this. I'm not really THAT evil. I mean, ok, I've done all the work I can do... and it's a few minutes till five... so...

I just hope we can keep KT. I think he made a great impact on this team and everyone on the team and I just hope DW and the Thrashers can find a way.

I'm counting down the days until the first homegame till we see that banner revealed. And hopefully we'll be able to add one or two more this season!!

Your anxious-for-Select-A-Seat-Should-Be-Working-
Thrashers-Fanatic,

-Jason

Thrashers Not Only Team To Be Swept?

2007-05-16T16:53:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've made a post. I've been keeping up with the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but not every game. But the last thing that I thought was going to happen was the Sabres being swept... and I certainly didn't see the Senators making it this far. But that's what has happened. And tonight the Sabres could be swept into summer vacation with an Ottawa win. And with the momentum they have, it just might happen. For the Sabres and their fans sake, I hope not... but if it does happen, at least the Thrashers will not have been the only team to have been swept.

Having no hockey to watch locally is hard right now. Thrashers withdrawal is bad this time of the year. While the Braves are doing great right now, and I'm thankful they are where they are right now, nothing, not even the Braves, can replace the Thrashers right now. Make the playoffs, it might come close. But it's too early too tell. This weekend will be a big test against the AL's best, the Red Sox. Anyway, there are no Gladiators playoff games to help ease the withdrawal. There's not much to do but watch the playoffs on TV... but it's not the same as being at games. Hockey, even in HD, is nothing compared to being there. And that's what I miss a lot right now.

I'm glad that Kari performed so well for Finland. But I can't wait to see what the team will look like and I just can't wait to get back to Philips Arena. But there are months to go and right now it's all about the Braves.

Damn... just damn do I miss hockey right now. But it's like that every summer. But this summer is particularly bad.

I've got Thrashers withdrawal and I've got it bad. But that's OK. The anticipation of next season grows by the hour.

You Know You Have Thrashers Withdrawal When...

2007-04-25T12:49:00.000-04:00

You keep looking look up at your desk to check the Thrashers schedule out of habit... only to realize you took it down because the season is over... yet you keep looking there as if it was there...

You actually miss waiting in line for the doors to open...
You wish they made a Philips Arena beer/hotdog/cold ice car smell thingy to hang from your rear view mirror... you know, it's that awesome smell that hits your senses right as you walk into the arena... it's the best smell in the world.
Still visit the msg boards and Blueland Blog and the web site several times a day just to see if there are any updates and see what people are talking about... when you really should be doing your work... pretty soon they are just going to have to block the Thrashers website!
Still haven't hung up your jersey because you refuse to believe the season is really... really over.
SEND IN YOUR THRASHERS WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS!!!

Thrashers Thrashings: 2.0

2007-04-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

I've decided to change the template a little bit... I've seen it in several other blogs and it looks sleeker and more modern. I think it does the Blueland theme and Thrashers blue colors more justice.

Thrashers Thrashings 2.0 - The 2006/07 season's not over yet, but I'm already ready for the 2007/08 season. Welcome to Thrashers Thrashings 2.0!

The Past, Present, & Future

2007-04-25T00:24:00.000-04:00

Most blogs you see don't add too many pictures or make it much more than the default look and some text. Well, being a sports fan and, of course, a Thrashers fans since the beginning, I want to use the space on the right as sort of a time capsule and a shrine to the past, present, and future of the Thrashers. Some things you see you might have seen years ago. It's more of like a Thrashers museum, if you will. For nostalgia purposes. It will probably go through a bunch of changes, however, I want to have it ready to go well before the start of next season.

So if you happen to have any sort of old-school images, logos, moments, etc. etc from the past, I'd like to keep a Thrashers shrine here as well. Send them in if you like.

Yes, there was no 2005 All-Star game. But someday you may want to go back and remember that moment and logo. No, you can't register to ride the Zamboni, but it's just a little piece of hockey art, so to speak. Basically, if you can't click on it, then it's just there for looks. So don't ask me why doesn't it work, where can I sign up to ride the Zamboni.

Since there's no Thrashers hockey now, I gotta find something to do with this blog until next season!

Mellanby Hangs Up His Skates

2007-04-24T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Thrashers have been privileged to have such a great leader and Captain. Mellanby's shoes...err... skates... will be very difficult, if not impossible, to fill. Scott provided amazing leadership on and off the ice - a true professional at every level.

This morning Scott was interviewed on AM 680 The Fan. He mentioned that it was going to be difficult to walk away, as hockey has been his life for over two decades now. He said that his son had asked him if he was playing tonight... and I'm sure that it hit him then when his son didn't understand that he was retiring. He did mention, of course, wanting to stay in hockey in some capacity... he didn't want to go into coaching right away but said that might be a possibility some day. He said he would be talking to DW and BH about the possibility of staying with the organization in some capacity - if that turns out to be true, that would be a priceless asset to the organization.

It's sad to see Mellanby go, and after 20 something years he never got to raise the Cup. Close, but no cigar. He has had one hell of an NHL career, he has truly lived the American Dream, and has a career that most of us could only dream about. He represented the Thrashers well during his time here and I hope that we retire his number. I'd like to see him as a commentator or analyst... he may not have a TV face, but that's the last thing any hockey fan cares about. Scott is a great player, a great man, and I wish him nothing but the very best in whatever he chooses to do.

Thanks Scott for being a great leader and for being an Atlanta Thrasher. Your leadership will be missed and impossible to replace. Best wishes to Scott, his family, and to the Thrashers... they'll need it to try to find someone to fill his skates... it won't be easy at all.

NHL Hockey = A Drug?

2007-04-20T15:28:00.000-04:00

Is it just me... or am I the only one who is having horribly bad Thrashers withdrawal already?? I know it's only been a few days... but hockey and the Thrashers are like a drug... it's addicting, you gotta watch it and be there, and it's the one thing that is a huge part of your life. But now it feels like you just quit cold turkey. There's no more hockey to watch. Oh sure, you could go watch the Gladiators, and as much fun as it is, there's no comparing the ECHL to the NHL. A fan of any NHL team is an NHL snob and watching any form of lesser hockey helps, but doesn't cut the mustard. (Who the hell came up with that and what does that REALLY mean anyway?)

Think about it. Hockey is the fastest paced sport there is, making it great for people with ADD and who have next to no attention. Hockey is the best drug you can get. It's like it was designed for those kinds of people.

It's like... now that hockey is over, what the hell are you gonna do? Nights not spent at the games were spent either watching the Thrashers away games or watching some random game on .VS. There's always the Braves, and don't get me wrong, I love my Braves, but man, when you compare it to hockey, it's at a snail's pace. (And if we run into any more pitchers like the Braves did last night, we might be in trouble... but this series with the Mets is already a big series, even tough it's early in the year.)
Makes me wonder... will some of the same jackass Rangers "fans" also be at Shea Stadium making fun of the Braves and doing their version of the tomahawk chop? I think the ONLY reason they do that is because they are jealous. Think about it. They wish they had something like that... something unique only to the Braves. I sure as hell don't know any Mets-only cheer. So they might SAY it's making fun of us, the South... whatever... but it's simply is only one thing: Jealousy.

See this just proves I have no attention span: I go from talking about hockey withdrawal to bitching about the Mets and their fans and the tomahawk chop. Man I really need hockey back quick!

Hey, it's better than... say... crack or cocaine! And a hell of a lot cheaper.

It's Been a Great Ride.

2007-04-20T12:49:00.000-04:00

Well, it came to a close all too quickly. Despite the fact that game 3 was a disaster for the Thrashers, and even though it seems we were mostly outplayed, 3 out of the 4 games were incredibly close score wise. And to say the least the Rangers also got incredibly lucky – twice. The fluke goal on Moose in game 2 and the one in game 4 that hit the crossbar and just so happened to bounce off of it within a hair behind the goal line. Those stung and they still sting this morning.

But let me tell you something. I’m damn proud of this team and what they accomplished. Some argue that the Thrashers are no longer a young organization. Well, compared to some NHL teams that have been around for decades and decades, 7 years is still, relatively speaking, a young organization. We might not be considered an expansion team any more, but it can take years and years for newer teams to make it in the right direction. And this season has been a step in that direction. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that we’d be Division Champs and in the playoffs for the first time, I think anyone would have taken that in a heartbeat. It’s better than we’ve ever done before and really brought the sport to life here in Atlanta.

Last week I couldn’t get any work done because my fellow co-workers kept stopping by to ask me about and talk about the Thrashers. There were the first Thrashers playoff bootleg tshirts being sold outside Philips. We actually got some prominent coverage in the AJC. Heck, even driving through downtown I saw bums with Blueland shirts and flags. It was the talk of the town and the thing to do in Atlanta.

That first playoff game on Thursday night… that was awe inspiring. Not a seat left in the house. I’ve never been in a place that loud before. Our fans, despite being NHL playoff virgins, were there in force. We were loud. The arena was beautiful. It was an amazing sight and sound that for anyone that was there will never forget. It was something special. Saturday was great too, but didn’t quite have the same magic as Game 1. But man, we’ve been waiting for that moment for over 7 years, and it finally came. Even the media took notice. I bet you they though we’d pull a Braves postseason-like attendance. I bet you they though we wouldn’t be that loud. I bet you they thought we wouldn’t bring it. Well, we brought it to say the least.

This has been the most memorable season as well. My girlfriend and I, yes, we were the very first ones in line for Opening Night. We got there incredibly early, a few hours before anyone else. Yeah, we love our Thrashers that much. As I was sitting there reading, Coach Hartley comes up behind me and goes “So, are you reading about how we are going to win tonight?” I was startled but I came to attention and replied with something along the lines of “Hell yeah!” After he came back from getting Starbucks or whatever it was, he took a picture with me. Despite his questionable moves at times, he seems like a really nice guy. Don Waddell also walked by that day, along with several players. That day, we were also on 11 Alive news in a Home Opener feature. The calls didn’t end for a few days.

We went to quite a few practices. Sam got to meet and get a picture with her idol Kari. She, to this day, is still stunned she got to meet him. There was that autograph session earlier in the season where about MAYBE 20-30 people showed up at Philips; I think it was a Monday night. Since it was such a small crowd, people stood around and chatted it up with the players there.

The STH Town Hall Meetings were always fun you always wanted to hear whatever Waddell had to say. Plus the great food and drinks, well, that’s awesome too. The last Town Hall Meeting of the season was packed with more people than I’ve ever seen. Those are always a great experience.

We also got on the Kiss Kam earlier in the season. It was something, as a guy, that I’ve always wanted to experience. Well, finally the moment came. And we never looked go. I think we were both a bit nervous but, still, we kept going until the camera changed. Sam was quite embarrassed, but we she didn’t stop getting phone calls about it for a month.

The Stanley Cup also came to Atlanta. It had been hear before, it was here during a Hawks game I believe a long time ago, but I never got a chance to see it. I knew it was coming to the Buck & Kincaid 680 The Fan broadcast inside CNN Center, so I setup there about an hour before it’s arrival, and got as close as I could. Not too many people knew about it’s visit there. I was able to get up really close and get a good 50-60 pictures of it. It really is something to see. And as soon as it came out, all the sudden it was like a flock of hornets… the cameras and cell phone cameras broke out like a bad case of the herpes. People came in from out of nowhere. Interested CNN Center patrons also took notice that had no idea it was going to be there. But I was lucky enough to get up close and get some great photos. No, I didn’t touch it. But seeing it in person was awesome.

And then, after it’s stop at 680, it went into the Arena. Now, the line for that was a mess, they were totally unprepared for the massive line it created. Anyway, I wanted to see it again, and this time with the offifical NHL table cloth that it normally sits on. As I was waiting, I was interviewed by Sam Crenshaw of 11 Alive Sports… and yet again, I ended up on 11 Alive.

We also met a lot of really nice people as well that we saw nearly every game. From Lisa our Thrashers “mom” to Chief, everyone has been incredibly nice and fun to be around.

There are plenty of other great memories too. The fan rally at Jillians. The Rangers players trying to enter Philips the wrong way. The practices. The close games. Seeing Sabres fans walk out of Philips quiet after we beat them 4-3. I’m probably missing a bunch of great things that happened over the course of the season. That last game vs. Tampa is something I’ll never forget. Oh yeah, of course, I can’t forget – Blog Night.

Blog Night was awesome. Getting the full tour of Philips Arena. Sitting in the press box and meeting a lot of the press crew. Seeing the game from that angle. Blogging live during the game… not to mention free entry into the game… getting to meet Ben (the Web Guy) and meeting all of the other bloggers. I hope they do that again next season!

What else, what else? I’m sure I’m missing a few things. But all around, this season was, by far, the most memorable for me, at least personally. I fell in love with this team since they’ve been here, but none more so than this season. It was a special team, the likes of which we may never see again. I just hope next season we make it again and take that next step… not just winning a game in the playoffs, but maybe making it to the next round. That would be incredible.

I’m sad, I’m depressed, disappointed… I can’t find the right words to say how I feel about losing the way we did in the playoffs. I don’t think anyone saw that coming. It stung, it still stings, and will sting for a probably a few more days. But here in Atlanta, we’ve been let down before, many, many times in postseason sports… hell, the Braves have been doing that to us since 1991… so it doesn’t get any easier for the years, you just learn to handle that stomach-twisting, gut wrenching, depressing feeling better.

At least we got to experience the playoffs and got to experience what it feels like to lose in the playoffs. Perhaps that’s just what it takes to make it further next season. But right now that seems so very, far, far away. At least we had the experience to feel this way… if it wasn’t for making the playoffs, you wouldn’t have had the experience of that feeling… and when you love your team THAT much, it makes it that much harder.

One of the best things about the Thrashers compared to the other teams in Atlanta, are by far, the most accessible and fan friendly you can ask for. They’ll stop and sign your hockey gear. They’ll take pictures with you. The team and the organization make you feel closer to the team and the players than any other team does. We should be so lucky, teams up north would have crowds and lines going out the door for miles. In Atlanta, it’s not so bad. Even the most busy practices aren’t so full you can’t move. You really do feel like you are a part of something bigger.

Of course it wouldn’t be fair to only blog about the good things during the season. The team was incredibly streaky and that surely doesn’t help you in the post season. 5 wins, 4 losses… that’s just weird. They need to be more consistent next season.

What else. STH weren’t treated as well as in past season. No money to spend in the team gear store. Increased prices. Few, if any, perks outside of hockey. Heck, the tickets came in a UPS bag unlike the previous season when they came in a sweet looking package.

What else. The thing that pissed me off the most was the stunt they pulled in Game 2 at Headlines Grill. Now if you have tickets in 300 or 400, and you get to the arena early, you know the secret – go to Headlines Grill. It might be a race to get a good seat there, but if you get one, it’s worth the run. Now, for game 1 of the playoffs, there was a cooperate party before the game started. While we were standing there waiting, we did get to meet Don Waddell and Billy Knight, who were hanging around the bottom of the stairs that lead up to Headlines Grill. Anyway, we were able to run up the stairs and grab some great seats. Now our plan was the same for game 2.

We got there and there was a sign that said that the bar stool seats were “researved” for “ticketed guests.” Two things. First, the sign was misspelled, so technically, you can say that you do no understand what it means. A sign must be obvious and clear, and this sign was FAR from that. Under the misspelled “researved”, it said “reserved for ticketed guests.” I’m sorry but this bullshit is incredibly vague and has no meaning to me. I am ticketed. I am a guest. I should be able to sit there. We’ve been sitting there all season. And now you try to milk every single little, last dime? We were TOLD BY SEASON TICKET HOLDER REP that these seats, during the entire playoffs, would be first come, first serve as always. Now, we get there. The guy tells us they are selling the seats, however, at 2:30, for those seats not sold, they will release them. Some time after that, we were told that the seats would NOT be for sale and that they were going to try to sell all the tickets. We still stood there and waited in hopes of something changing. Then, he came BACK to tell us that yes, again, they are going to open up at 2:30. And then, of course, again, we were told the seats would not be opened up and they were selling all of them. It was the misinformation that pissed me off more than anything. People that get there early and wait for those spots should get them, not some guy in a suit or some guy with more money than he knows what to do with get them… those kind of people aren’t the real fans by any means. Some idiots paid 60-75 dollars EXTRA, per seat to sit there. And what really, really pisses me of is that even during the game there were STILL quite a few of those seats – EMPTY. It was a stunt that I can’t believe was pulled. It was unethical, it was immoral, and NOT a good way to screw over your fans like that. I understand that it’s their arena and they can do what they want. But that doesn’t mean it’s right. It makes me think all they want and care about is to milk everyone for every little dime they spend. As if spending money on tickets and food isn’t enough, you gotta charge for the seats just because it’s playoffs? Fuck that. Even the waitresses, who went out of there way to get to know us during the season, said it sucked because the big buck mother fuckers who pay that much for a seat don’t buy the same food like we do. She said she thought it sucked and she didn’t like it either. In fact, quite a FEW arena employees around Headlines Grill voiced their displeasure.

I really, really hope they don’t pull that stunt EVER, EVER again. If they start doing that next season, then the shit will hit the fan. If you don’t do it all season, and not for game 1, what makes you think you should be able to do that to fans who know and depend on that being there? Seriously. It was wrong, they know it, and everyone that came up there to get a seat was JUST as pissed and ticked off as I was.

Because of the situation, we all had to sit in our separate seats. Second, it’s the playoffs – it was a bad, bad omen to the start of the game. The LAST thing an organization should do is create ANY possible negative things going on… and blocking your fans from seats at Headlines Grill is not a good thing. It was a bad omen, a bad, bad start to the game, and then we get beat. Of course it has nothing to do with the on ice performance, but any little sign of negativity before the playoffs just is not a good idea in any shape or form.

The only other thing is that the doors have GOT to open on time. Not 3 minutes after the hour, not 5 minutes, but right on the button. No excuses. I worked for the Braves and if we were not in place at least 20 minutes or so before and ready to go, then we got in huge trouble. The ticket scanners should be ready to go and the doors should be ready to open at the strike of the hour. Fans get restless and angry when they’ve been waiting there for a long time and can’t get in when they should. It can take a while to get in line for the spin-n-win game, go to the store, get some food, and get a seat. That is why the doors MUST open ON TIME.

Grill disaster, I have no other complaints. The arena has a great smell and feel to it when you walk in the door. The food and service has always been great. The ushers and employees have been great and you have to give them credit for what they do. It’s not easy working with the public with 1000’s of people. I thought it was tough working for the Braves when Mets fans came to town, but man, I don’t even want to imagine what it’s like with crazy hockey fans.

But it’s now time to close this out. I’m not sure if there’ll be another post for a while unless there is any major Thrashers-related news to discuss. Next season can’t come soon enough. I’m already have really, really bad Thrashers and hockey withdrawal. It became such a big part of my life. I only missed ONE game the entire season for the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech football game, which I have never missed and never will. But missing only ONE game during the entire season isn’t too bad I’d say. So, to close out, I just wanted to say thanks to the Thrashers, the organization, the employees at Philips and all of the great fans for making this the most memorable season yet. I hope next season is ever better. I can’t wait and I’m counting down the days until we reveal the Division Champs banner and we get the season under way.

So for now, goodbye. I hope that if you’ve read this blog (yeah right, someone reads my blog?) that you continue to do so next season. I might not has as much technical information in regards to stats or that truly hard core hockey talk, but you know what, I love this team with all my heart and that is all that matters.

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!

Thrashers First Playoff Game Experience

2007-04-13T17:28:00.001-04:00

Ok, so we lost game 1. In all honesty, the Rangers seemed like they just wanted it more for a while. But the Thrashers came storming back in the 3rd to make it close… and then the 6 on 4 at the very end… I was SO sure we were going to tie it up in the end… but no, the Rangers survived.

So now tomorrow afternoon is not death, but it is pretty much a must win now. You don’t want to go into NY… into hostile territory… down 0-2 … on the Rangers home ice. That would be devastating. Not un-recoverable, but unlikely.

But let me tell you something. Last night was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in this town. A completely sold out, standing-room only Philips Arena. Giant Blueland flags hanging from every suite. Everyone waving their Blueland scarves. Blue between the glass. Blue rope lightning around the glass during intermission. Fans that never gave up. It was so loud you could have gone deaf. Everyone was impressed, including the media. I was impressed. I shed a tear of joy. It was a moment we’ve been waiting for 7 years since 1999. It was impressive. Amazing. And I bet that Saturday will be even better.

Saturday – People won’t be working, people will be down there very early, and people will be excited, pumped, ready to rock Blueland and the Rangers down to the ground.

Last night, we were waiting for Headlines Grill to open up to the public at 7… it was a stampede up the stairs, but we managed to get great seats.

Now, I have to give props to my brother. He drove all the way from Athens, somehow didn’t get a speeding ticket, parked, took MARTA, somehow caught a train as soon as he got there, waited less than 2 minutes for a westbound train, and somehow managed to make it 10 minutes before 7. How in the world he made it that fast and before the game started was beyond me. But the ticket was his 22nd birthday present and he wouldn’t have missed it for the world either. Now, he did get lucky because he was let out of class earlier that normal because they had a sub… so man, did he luck out or what?

My girlfriend’s friend even made it on time… so we all got to sit together, so it was great to be surrounded by friends and family for the first ever Thrashers playoff game.

While we were waiting, Thrashers GM Don Waddell and Hawks GM Billy Knight were there, talking, and meeting and greeting a bunch of suits… they had some sort of party for those corporate suit types who had probably not been to a Thrashers game all season… probably never before. But we did get to meet them both at the same time, which was cool. It’s not too often you get to meet two of the most powerful men in this city.

Of course there were plenty of celebrities at the game… several Hawks players were there, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was there… they both got booed… why I don’t know, but who cares…Evander Holyfield was there… but the rest was a blur. Oh but our biggest “supporter”, Lil Jon, who claims to be this huge Thrashers and hockey fan, didn’t even bother to make the trip for his team’s first ever playoff appearance. I know he’s out west making records, but still, if he was truly a devout fan as he claims, he has enough money and would’ve shown up. He hasn’t been to a game since… what… the very beginning of the season… he was there more often last season…

Anyway, my heart was racing at the end of the game, it was so exciting and tense and emotional… but it was not to be. My heart is STILL racing from that moment last night.

Anyway, I know, I know… but somehow my brother managed to win the College Night giveaway at a Hawks game earlier this year and he got a 15” inch flat Philips TV and a Philips portable DVD player… he picked them up today and also got some free tickets for tonight’s game… so my girlfriend and I are going to go… just so we can look at the Thrashers gear w/o the insane crowds tomorrow… and hit up spin and win, maybe stay for a few minutes for the game, and then it’s on to Kobe Steaks to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

Last night as we were waiting in line, 2 Rangers players attempted to enter Philips Arena in the doors all the way to the right… you’ve probably seen them before… people who don’t know and try to enter the arena always try to pull the doors open there… so we gave them a little southern hospitality and directed them to the correct entrance… we tried to tell them they were at the wrong place and to walk down Peachtree Street to the Georgia Dome… oh well, they didn’t bite.

We did get to wish Mellanby and Boulton good luck as they walked into the arena from CNN Center.

I also ran into at least one Rangers fan with a Yankees hat on, and well, it’s my mission in life to let the world know just what I think of the Yankees… so I let ‘em have it.

Anyway, I’m leaving madd early tomorrow to be at CNN Center early as can be. If it were up to me, I’d bring a sleeping back and a pillow and sleep inside CNN Center, but I don’t need to land in jail.

Anyway, that’s it for now…. LETS KICK SOME NEW YORK RANGER ASS!!!!!!!

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!!!

AM 680 The Fan - Fan Rally / Playoff Anxiety

2007-04-11T12:52:00.000-04:00

So, it was our 2^nd year anniversary. We’ve been dating two years now… and, so we simply could not have found anything better to do, seeing as how it was a week night, then go to the Thrashers Fan Rally at Jillians. I wasn’t even sure what Jillians was; I don’t spend any time up that way except for going to Thrashers practices and Gladiators games… but it’s just like Dave N. Busters. Anyway, we walked in, and 680 The Fan had their prize wheel; I ended up with a 680 The Fan t-shirt.

Anyway, we sat down at the bar and got some drinks and ordered the doughnut holes; we had already eaten earlier. Damn they were good. We had already put our name in the box for the giveaways.

Don Waddell was first on the air followed by Coach Bob Hartley and lastly was Scott Mellanby’s father. He had some very interesting comments about hockey in HD and having all of the camera angels standardized in ever arena. He also spoke about shootout vs. overtime in the playoffs. He had a very interesting perspective. He mentioned that about 1 in 36,000 kids get to ever have a chance to play pro hockey.

It was fun; there was a good sized group of fans there. We didn’t win anything, but some folks though it was ok to enter their name numerous times in the box… well some girl won something and then won again, but she was at least honest about it and didn’t take the second item. But I’m guessing some folks probably upped their odds by entering more than once. There SHOULD have been a rule saying one entry per person only. Some dude won, I think it was the Kovy jersey, and didn’t have a SINGLE item of clothing on with the Thrashers on it. What kind of “fan” is that? I mean, you are going to a FAN RALLY, not a wear-your-work-clothes rally. Who knows if the guy was even really a fan? I’m not upset I didn’t win anything, but I am thinking that there were some who tried to take advantage of the situation by entering multiple times.

Nonetheless, it was a great experience, and they’ve already got plans for another one when we get past the Rangers (notice I didn’t say “if”!)

So tomorrow I’m wearing my jersey all day; I’m representin’ Blueland and the Thrashers all day long… I can’t WAIT to get there; I get out of class around 3:45ish and then, as I always do around that time, I go over to CNN Center and chill. But seeing as how the doors will now open at 5:30 instead of six, it’s perfect. I got my brother a ticket for his birthday, he is coming ALL the way down from Athens in that wonderful rush hour traffic to go to the first ever Thrashers playoff game.

I’m nervous, I’m excited, and I’m anxious. Part of me wants the excitement of it going to 7 games, but most of me would like to see a 4 game sweep of the Rangers… I know that is highly unlikely, but it would be the most comforting.

Hopefully we’ll be able to ride the splendor from that last game against Tampa. We can ride that momentum all the way to the Stanley Cup!

So yes it’s true that Atlanta Spirit was out at Colony Square yesterday… too bad I don’t work on Tuesdays… but someone or a few people left me two Blueland shirts and Thrashers logo magnet. Like I don’t already have enough Blueland shirts!! LOL. They are always good to have around.

So the next post I make here will be after the first playoff game. If we win, then more than likely you’ll see a post that night, along with plenty of photos. If we lose, I probably won’t be in any mood to write that night, so it’ll be later on.

I’m anxious. I’m ready. I simply can not wait.

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!!!

Are You Ready?

2007-04-10T16:14:00.000-04:00

My girlfriend and I are heading up to the 680 The Fan fan rally shortly.

But I've been thinking... unless you are an older fan and were in Atlanta and experienced the Flames playoff experience, then you may know. But even for those that have lived in Atlanta since then and remember it, it goes without saying it's been a very long time and remembering what it's like it something too far in the past.

But Thursday is a special time. Win or lose, it's the first playoff game in this team's history. If you thought Saturday night's last game was intense, it will be nothing compared to Thursday and Saturday night.

Are you prepared? Can you really prepare for the playoffs? Most of us have never experienced it. Will it feel like a game 7 of a World Series? With a 1-1 game, bottom of the 9th and runner on 2nd and two outs and you're up to bat with a chance to win it all?

Most of the media has picked the Rangers to win it and even go far. But I could really care less what they say.

It's a moment in history, years from now, you'll never forget. One day, god willing, you'll bring your kid(s) to their first-ever hockey game and you'll be able to share the story - I was here for the first ever Thrashers playoff game.

I just hope our fans don't pull a Braves-like post-season attendance. If we can nearly sell out a game in the middle of the week on a Wednesday, the house had better be ready to rock come Thursday night. It's only Tuesday yet it feels like a year away. It can't come soon enough.

I just can't wait.

I hope the Thrashers play like every game is a game 7. I hope no one gets hurt. I hope we go far. I hop we win it all.

But no matter what happens in the playoffs, this is a year we'll never forget with all the great players we have right now. One day we may look back and consider this a glory year. Or the yea that put this team on the map. The year. This is our year.

I'm ready... at least I think I am.... so, are you?

Thrashers End Season with Dramatic 3-2 SO Victory over the Lightning!

2007-04-09T13:37:00.000-04:00

As you know, the Thrashers are the Southeast Division Champs. This has been, obviously, the Thrashers best season in it’s history after narrowly missing a playoff opportunity last season.On Friday, when the Thrashers faced the Canes, I, nor did anyone, expect a Division Championship to come so easily… or that night. The emotionally-out-of-it Canes didn’t play with much heart or drive, and the Thrashers won easily 4-1. No surprise there. The surprise of the night, however, was the fact that not only was Center Ice doing another free preview and the game was on TV, but the fact that about every time I flipped back to the Lightning vs. Panthers game, the Panthers seemed to score another goal. Most assumed the Lightning would easily beat the Panthers, but most people were sadly mistaken. It was 1-0 Panthers, shortly after 2-0 Panthers… before long it was 4-0, 5-0… pretty soon there was a feeling that this was, in fact, the Thrashers night to clinch the Division. Not anything I expected to happen. Not even close. But soon enough it was 7-0 Panthers in the 3rd period. There was no way Tampa could even attempt to come back from a huge deficit like that. Tampa did manage to squeeze in 2 goals in the 3rd, but it was way too little, way too late, and by then, the Thrashers heard the news, they were your 2006-07 Southeast Division Champs!! So not only did we get into the playoffs, no matter what happens, we have a new banner to hang on Opening Night next season!!

It’s almost too bad the Division Championship decision didn’t come down to Saturday night’s last regular season game vs. Tampa. Of all the games this season, this one, was, by far, the most dramatic of the season, even though a Division was not on the line. Could you even come close to imagining what it would have been like Saturday night if the Division HAD been on the line? But what a game. I can’t describe it in words. I can’t get over seeing Kovy in the SO…and Kovy SCORING in the SO for the first time! If he had not had made that shot, everyone would have been up in arms questioning BH… but low and behold, Kovy made that shot. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. As my girlfriend said, the Thrashers reduced the Lightning to nothing more than mere static electricity on Saturday night. We sent them to face the Devils and Martin Brodeur. Good luck with THAT, Tampa!!

By the way, yes, I did happen to bring my Lucky Puck with me, holding it during the entire game... and yet again, it proved to be lucky. So you better bet that I'll have it with me during every playoff game!!

They seemed like two evenly matched teams. The Thrashers went down 2-0 but never gave up the fight. When Kovy came through with the first goal, you could just sense it. By far the best regular season game this season. The longest shootout of the season. Could you imagine if the Division championship was on the line in a SO? How tense would that have been?

As tense as it would have been, it would’ve been NOTHING compared to what you are going to feel Thursday night in the first ever Thrashers playoff game. This is going to be a whole new level that Thrashers fans have never experienced before. It’s going to grab a hold of your emotions and never let them go.

The only complaint I have of the Fan Appreciation Day… well there are a few. First of all, I was told by one person that the “jerseys off our backs” promotion was given out to random seats, it could be anyone in the arena. I was told by someone else that it was randomly chosen season ticket holders and they were notified days before that they would be given a jersey, and they just make it seem like it is random during the game. I don’t know what to believe. All I know is that I’ve never wanted to be down there more than I wanted to Saturday night. I know it’s a highly unlikely chance of getting to go down there, but I could SEE myself down there. I thought about it and thought about it and how much it would have meant to have been given the opportunity to have that experience. But it’s yet another season, yet another disappointment. But that’s ok. As much as I wanted and wished to have been down there, all that really matters was that we won, and won we did. But then there’s the 7th Man Contest. But it was no contest at all. I don’t personally know the lady who won it but the Thrashers have made it a PR media story all season long about the lady because she needed, I believe, a kidney transplant. While the story is great, and while I know she is a huge fan, I also know that the point of the contest was to give the person who wrote the best essay the 7th Man award… but she was obviously chosen, it was setup beforehand, it was totally rigged… meaning everyone and anyone who spent the time and used their creativity to come up with an essay never even had a chance; it was going to be her no matter what. It’s a great PR move for the Thrashers, don’t get me wrong, but that was not the point of the contest. There might as well have been no contest because it wasn’t a contest. I’m sure she still wrote an essay, or at least I’d like to think so, but I think she was chosen well before hand. While the story is great and heart warming, it was unfair to every single other Thrashers fan out there. I’m not upset that I didn’t win, although, of course, I was hoping one day I’d get that call… but I would have liked to have seen it to the fan that really wrote the best essay. Also, it has been a tradition at the last regular season home game to give out a team poster… which was not the case this year. I can just hope they are waiting to give them out during the playoffs this week.

Anyway, there’s always next season as they say. But now is the next step – the New York Rangers. The media, because they are based mostly in NYC, are, of course, going to pick the Rangers. The media is going to give it all to the Rangers, but don’t let it get to you. Take it with a grain of salt. In fact, take it with a giant sized CostCo bucket of salt. Let the boys on the ice determine who is going to win the series, not the media. Let it go in one ear and out the other and just worry about how the Thrashers do, not what the media says. But I wanted to share my thanks to the Thrashers for a great season. I wrote this on the message boards but I think it’s worth sharing with you here as well.

This has, obviously, been our best season as a franchise so far. Of course I want us to win and go all the way... but I just wanted to say thanks for everything, this season has been an amazing run and there are a lot of great memories... no matter what happens in the playoffs, I'm proud of my Thrashers, I'm proud of what we accomplished this year, I'm proud that we are the hottest thing to do in Atlanta, I'm proud that we won the Division, and I think we all owe our beloved Thrashers a big thank you for what they have done so far. You've made an entire city believe in Blueland, you've made a city fall in love with hockey and the Thrashers, and you've made a city that once could only depend on one team to win now have another winning team. What you have accomplished so far this season is priceless in terms of the history of this team and for the city of Atlanta. I appreciate all that you have done for us as fans, I appreciate feeling at home in Blueland, I appreciate you having great customer service, I appreciate you having great fan giveaways, I appreciate the open practices and being able to feel like you are a huge part of something, I appreciate all of the hard fought victories and the heart-breaking losses. I appreciate the hustle and the heart of our team and coaches. I appreciate what the ownership has given us the chance to do this year. I wish the Thrashers the greatest success in the playoffs; I hope we are in it until the end. But no matter what happens the rest of the way, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for giving this city something to believe in. I appreciate the dedication of the fans, especially to the core group who are there on nightly basis. I appreciate the fact that the Thrashers have shown the world that hockey belongs in the South, in Georgia, in Atlanta. It belongs here and hopefully will always remain here. I just wanted to share my hockey love for the Thrashers and wanted to say thanks for a great regular season.Congratulations to the Thrashers, their fans, the city of Atlanta, and best wishes in the playoffs!!

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DIVISION CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

2007-04-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

2007 SOUTHEAST DIVISION CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Story of the Lucky Puck

2007-03-30T10:53:00.000-04:00

I apologize for not having updated the blog in a while… I’ve been quite busy and just haven’t had the time. But after last night, I gotta post.

It’s all about the lucky puck. Yep. Not Sutton saving the day. Not our awesome PK last night. No, it was all about the puck. I’ve been down to a million warmups and, well, never was lucky enough to get a puck. I did manage to get one when we went to Florida only because one of the players noticed me wearing my Mullet Wig. But this time I wasn’t handed a puck. I was down behind the glass to the right of the benches. A puck came flying over, and I saw a ton of people leap and jump for it, but somehow it bounced over and to the left of me. To my left there was no one. Somehow it bounced up and over and landed in the isle to my left. No one else was able to reach over, so I ran over and picked it up. This was the first time I’ve ever gotten a puck that randomly flew over the glass. Last time, like I said, I was given the puck, so as cool as it was to get one from a player, it’s not quite the same feeling as when you get one out of the blue. So now I have two. But the moment I got it I had a feeling. A good feeling… a feel that this puck was different. It was a lucky puck. After all, it was the first one I’ve ever gotten by chance.

I called it The Lucky Puck.

And that, my friends, is exactly what it was.

I was holding on to the thing for dear life last night. I kissed it every time we scored, holding it up to the roof of Blueland. I held it in my hands the entire game. Of course it was another tight, close nail bighting game… but I knew something good was going to happen when Ben, the Web Guy, wrote that he felt a win coming. I felt it too. Call me crazy, but I just knew. I was rubbing it like genie in a lamp for good luck. If Toronto ever came close to scoring, and many times they did, I gripped it tighter. But the point is it worked. We won in OT as you know. So now I’m thinking I need to bring it with me the rest of the season and into the playoffs. After all, it is a lucky puck. Ok, so in reality the outcome of the game had nothing to do with me getting a puck or it being lucky. But to me it made a difference. I was lucky enough to get one and we were lucky enough to win.

I mean it HAD to have been a lucky puck. Sutton was GOOD last night. He saved the game, perhaps maybe even our season. It HAD to have been lucky because we pulled off the victory. It HAD to have been lucky because we needed the W and the 2 points last night more than a zombie needs blood. We were in the drivers seat, but last night put us a few car lengths ahead. The finish line is almost there. We just gotta cross it.

We gotta take care of business in Boston. Thankfully it’s not a do or die situation, but I think now that Boston is out, they have nothing to do but play the role of spoiler. But I’m thinking after last night we have some momentum. I hope last night was the start of something special. A very long hot streak. From now and deeeeeeeeep into the playoffs.

There’s a million things going on in Atlanta this weekend – the Braves are in town for the last two spring training games vs. the White Sox… of course there’s the NCAA Final Four and downtown is insane… there’s the GT Car Show going on… but I don’t want to be anywhere near downtown. As exciting as the Final Four may be, in all honesty, I don’t care that much about it. As much as it pains me, and as much as I hate Florida, I did pick them to win the entire thing… so I will be very softly and quietly “rooting” for Florida. I’d like an SEC team to win, that would be cool. Anyway, after the game last night, I noticed that there were several temporary shops setup to sell NCCA gear. Not just the giant tents outside Philips… but inside buildings… they had flashing lights. Everyone is trying to make a buck off the event. I went in to luck around for a few minutes last night before going to my car just to see what they had. Everything was so incredibly overpriced it’s not even funny. I told the guy working the store that I haven’t even been paying too much attention to the tournament… not with the race for the Division and the tight race going on in the SE Division. In fact, I almost forgot the NCAA was even in town!! Wait, no, the fact there were no parking spots that morning and the fact that parking prices were jacked so high that you’d have to take out a loan just to park downtown this weekend!

Last night was awesome. It felt good. Damn good. A win usually does, but this has a lot more meaning now. And with that meaning comes a much better feeling with a victory.

I loved the “Unleash The Fury” artwork on the steps around the arena. I can’t WAIT until next Wednesday to get my picture with the Cup. And I can’t wait for the last regular season game. I hope by then, somehow, someway we already have the Division won by that game. I don’t want that game to have any consequences for the Thrashers. I’d like to have it where the Thrashers are locked into the playoffs, won the Division, and if the Thrashers beat Tampa, that kicks them out of the playoffs. We can have it all AND play spoiler too. Now THAT would be incredible. But mostly I just don’t want that game to matter. I want to go, enjoy the last regular season game, have fun, and for once not have to worry about having to win. Of course I want them to win no matter what, but I want that last game to not matter. Hell, they should be able to rest most of our guys and play some guys who don’t get a lot of ice time.

So tonight it’s Tampa vs. Carolina. I wish there was someway they could both lose. I won’t be watching the game tonight, but I do hope I get the good news when I get home. If Tampa loses tonight, I have the feeling we are money. And Carolina just got whopped by the lowly Flyers during their last game (we aren’t the only ones to fall victim to the bottom feeders!) so hopefully they are looking to rebound against Tampon Bay.

This thing is ours now. It’s ours to lose. We are in the driver’s seat, and as Ricky Bobby once said, it’s time to shake and bake! SHAKE! AND! BAKE!!!

LETS GO THRASHERS!!!!!!!!!

Oh The Humor!

2007-03-21T17:05:00.000-04:00

Ok, it just hit me... the Thrashers are having "Aqaurium Night" on Thursday when we play the Sharks....

Aquarium... Sharks... how creative! (You can just sense the sarcasm here...)

Thanks, New York!

2007-03-21T16:52:00.000-04:00

Thrashers fans need to thank the state of New York and two of their hockey teams for having a great past weekend of hockey. The wins against the Rangers and Sabres have all but locked in our chances for being in the playoffs.

Now, as you know, Sabres fans come out in drove. They are notorious for being some of the worst, most obnoxious group of fans anywhere. We've played the Sabres obviously in years past and they've NEVER come out in droves like this or never been as obnoxious as they are this season. Do you think they'd come out in these kinds of numbers if they weren't in first place? No way. Would they come out and support their team if, say, they were like the Flyers this season and sucked and were in last place? Hell no! They are are so bandwagon it's not even funny. There were a bunch of 'em sitting a few rows in front of us today in 310 and they kept standing up and wouldn't sit down. Apparently their mama's just don't raise those Sabres fans right. I dunno what it is. But I do know that as soon as we won, they left QUIETLY... as quietly as a church mouse... they made no noise, no cheers, and they just left. They can dish it out, but oh they couldn't take the heat or the loss and just left as fast as possible. They can dish it out but they can't take some of their own medicine. If they were REALLY hardcore was they say they are, even though they lost, they'd still be yelling and cheering for their team, but no, they were as quiet as could be leaving Blueland. They were so quiet you barely knew they were there... and that was a GOOD thing!

Now, of course Tampa JUST had to go and win in OT last night against the Islanders. They are on home ice for the next three games I believe. I hope now is not the time they start to get hot. I hope it was just a fluke, especially with all of their goaltender issues.

I'm excited about Thursday... I'm not quite sure why we are playing a Western conference team this late in the season... we all know the problems we had with Western confernece teams when we went out there, but that was before the Thrashers got the new guys, that was before the Oilers crashed and burned... so I'm anxious for Thursday, one because, well, it's the only game this week at home, and two, the Sharks are good and it's a team that we never get a chance to see, so it'll be interested. Plus, my girlfriend is just slightly crazy about Kari, and she can't wait to get her hands on the Kari and Moose 3D cup on Thursday!

While we still have a 4 point lead, the last thing that I want, or any Thrashers fan wants, is for for the Division title to come down to that last game on April 7th. While it would prove to be an exciting and dramatic game if that is the case, I'd MUCH rather that game not matter at all and have that Division Banner hanging in their for the Lightning and their fans to see when the come into Blueland that night.

Thursday I'll be able to get there quiet early so we can snag some seats at Headlines Grill.

For some reason the links to all of the Blogs on Blueland Blog have disapeared... not sure what's up with that!

I'll get a post in on Friday about the game. 'Till Then...

Town Halls, Practice, Moose Signings, and some Green Ice!

2007-03-17T14:34:00.000-04:00

What an exciting game and what a setup and blast by Zhitnik. Ok, so it wasn't technically a sellout but man people love to argue over the stupidest things.

It felt DAMN good to win that game too. I was jumping up and down and yelling as if I had just won the lottery... I'm not sure if that's what it feels like to win it, but it must be close. Yeah, it felt that good.

Last night really could not have gotten any better. There were lines by the time I had got there, but for some reason, there was still one entrance with nobody standing in line... even though the other lines were already pretty deep.... weird. Anyway, we stood there until my brother arrived, I got him a ticket and he took our place in line. Soon as the doors opened, he ran to Headlines Grill, grabbed a seat and saved us two seats while Sam and I went to the Town Hall Meeting. If I had known my brother was going to be there when I signed up for the meeting, I would have invited him, but oh well. I've never seen a Town Hall THAT packed full of fans. It looks like people have signed up here at the end of the season and for next season... now that we are doing so well, people are jumping on the Thrashers bandwagon fast and furious. With success surely this was to come. It's all good.

Most of the questions asked were great, legit hockey-related questions. But then you always have the people complaining about game start times, radio stations, gate opening times... while I understand their concerns, the POINT of a Town Hall Meeting is to disuss the Thrashers and the game of hockey, NOT things outside of the game. There simply is not enough time and too many people wanting to ask questions to waste time on questions like these. People complain they can't get into the city by 7... too much traffic... yes but there are also those of us who already work downtown and are around the corner from the arena... so I could care less if the game starts at 7, 7:30, 8... hell the game could start at 6 pm or 10pm... I'd still find a way to be there... I look at it like this... first of all, it's not the Thrashers problem you can't be there on time. Second, the schedule is out BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS, so if you want to go to a game, PLAN AHEAD to make sure you get there on time! It's just that simple. People complain - I wish the arena was in the suburbs... I wish you started the game later... I wish you did this , I wish you did that... The Thrashers themselves have little control over it. Nothing is perfect. A hockey fan doesn't care when the game starts, they are going to be there regardless. A hockey fan doesn't care when the arena doors open as long as the team wins. I hockey fan doesn't care what the radio station is because you are going to be at the game anyways, and for away games you can't go to, you probably already have XM... this sounds like someone I know... wait...that's me ... and plenty of other Thrashers fans... but man, people still haven't learned... don't waste DW's and the rest of the fans time by asking questions about things aren't imporant... I mean.. if you can't make it to the game by 7, what difference does 30 minutes make? Not really that much. Please, if you attend these Town Hall Meetings, ask anything you want... as long as it is related to the GAME of hockey! Ask your ticket rep or customer service about the other issues... not DW!

Anyway, I brought my brother some food from the meeting and he deserved it because he managed to save Sam and I two barstools, so props to my brother for saving us seats, especially with a packed house.

Moose was the man last night. That's the best performance by him I've seen by him as a Thrasher. Amazing saves I'm sure you've all seen and watched the highlights over and over (I can't stop watching the OT winner sequence.)

So we got to go to the Town Hall, get some free food, my brother saved us two seats right behind the goal at Headlines Grill, my brother got food, the Thrashers won in OT, and to top it off, the Sabres beat Tampa in regulation 3-2. The night could not have gone any better!

So last night the Sabres were our best friend... but Sunday they are going to be our worst enemy. Win or lose this game, we are in good shape. It's always a good game between these two teams. It seems like just yesterday the Thrashers played them for the first time at the beginning of the season and stopped their 10 game start winning streak . Remember all the media coverage we got for that one? Last night on TSN, the headline wasn't about the Thrashers, the headline was "Rangers pick up a needed point in OT Loss..." what a bad headline... instead of the Thrashers win in OT, it was about the Rangers?!? WTF was up with that?

The thing I am NOT looking forward to on Sunday is the Sabres fans. They are, by far, the worst, most obnoxious fans in the NHL. I hate them. I wish we could put every single Sabres fan up somewhere in the nosebleed upper corner of the 400 section. Keep them away!!!

This morning I decided to go the the Thrashers practice. It didn't look like they were doing anything too demanding at all... it looked like they were having fun if anything. I brought my Moose bobblehead from his rookie year with the Pens and also his rookie card. A nice older lady in front of me offered to let me use her silver photo pen to have him sign it and she was in front of me and got him to sign it for me. A few moments later, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to reach Moose with as many people that were at practice this morning, but he noticed the bobblehead and looked surprised to see it. He signed it very neatly and somehow he fit it on the body of the bobblehead; at first I thought there'd be no good spot for him to sign it, but Moose is the man, and he found the sweet spot to sign it. I told Moose thanks and he smiled back... I figured what better day and time to get my Moose stuff signed then after his incredible performance last night.

I also got KT and Simmer to sign my hat. It was tough to get any good pics from the practice there, but KT was out there with his kids skating around and that was nice to see... and good ole Odgers was also messin' around on the ice and looked like he was having a the time of his life out on the ice. After the practice, I drove over to the Gwinnett Arena to pick up some Glads tickets... normally when we go, there are pleny of great seats left, and I figured that this early in the day there'd still be some good seats left... but I was wrong. We got lower level but in the corner.. tonight they have green ice for St. Patrick's Day, so it should be something to see.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Sabres game and then I have to go directly from the game to my girlfriend's Rollerderby game; I'm helping out their team keeping up with people in the penalty box... if you have never seen Rollerderby you have got to come out. If you are a hockey fan (and you are since you are reading this) then this is RIGHT up your alley.

Visit http://www.atlantarollergirls.com. The game is tomorrow night starts at 7. My girlfriend plays for the Apocalypstix and will play vs. the Sake Tuyas (otherwise known as the "Sucky Tunas"). This game is a re-match of the Championship Bout from last season, and the Stix are looking for some down and derby (dirty) revenge. Think of it like this: It's a bunch of chicks on rollerskates beating the living crap out of each other. That's all you need to know. And there's PLENTY of time to go to both the Thrashers vs. Sabres game and then head out to Stone Mountain for some derby action. The Thrashers game should be over by 4:30, 5 at the very latest, leaving you plenty of time to get a quick dinner and head out to Stone Mountain for the game.

If the Thrashers can beat the Sabres and the Stix win, I know I and my girlfriend will be happy as hell. I just hope it can go that way. Win or lose, the Thrashers are still in great shape. I do know that my girlfriend wants to win her game more than anything, so I just want to see her happy at the end of the night... if the Thrashers find a way to win, that will simply be the cherry on top. But don't expect a post tomorrow; I'll have to get to it Monday... I'm going straight from the Thrashers game out to the derby game, and won't be home till late, so I just won't have the time.

Till next time...

The Moose Is Loose In Our Hoose!

2007-03-16T15:12:00.000-04:00

I hope that BH's decision to start Kari in Philly and Moose tonight against the Rangers will be the correct one. I was hoping and thought it should be the revse. But I'm no NHL coach, so what I say is meaningless. I just think that we shoud have won last night and we should've played Moose to stir things up against them.

Logically you'd think a first place team would easily manhandle a last place team. For whatever the reason, we have been unable to do so. We are lucky it didn't hurt us that much, but it sure could've been a big help.

I guess tonight we are all Sabres fans. Tonight I said. Not Sunday. Just tonight. So we have to love them tonight and hope they beat the Bolts... and then go back to hating them. What a weird love-hate relationship we'll have with them this weekend.

I hope we come out firing on all 8 cylinders tonight. I know they are going to be tired as this is a back-t0-backer. But that is not a valid excuse tonight, not this time of year.

I can't wait to get outta here. I'm going to the Town Hall tonight and I should have some pics for ya this weekend.

Let's just hope Moose is ready to go tonight and stays sharp.

Back to work!

- Jason

Philly's Bitch

2007-03-15T22:07:00.000-04:00

I had a bad feeling things wouldn't go our way when the Flyers went up 1-0. I didn't get to see most of the game... I heard most of the 1st period on the radio on the way home from the AJC Car Show (got to test drive a Chrysler 300 and a Vette! The best time to go to the show is during the week; the crowds were incredibly light and almost no lines to test drive the cars)

Steve Craig, 99X DJ and Thrashers PA Announcer was also out on location where they were doing the test drives. I showed him my 0ld school 99X card and they wanted to give me a set of wrenches... I was like man I don't need that, I have an entire tool box full of tools, so they gave me a Live X 11 CD. I should've asked him if he had any Thrashers stuff! Oh well. It was nice to meet him though.

Ok back to the game. I didn't get to see or hear any of the 2nd period except for the last few moments, but we were only down 2-1.

I made it home to see all of the 3rd period. That 3rd goal should havenever happened. We brought it late in the 3rd and made it a one goal game, but Biron was having one fucking hell of a night... the frustrating thing was that we had sooooooooooooooooooooooo many chances to tie the game. I would've been happy even with a point tonight. The problem is we didn't score when we needed it the most. You HAVE to. You HAVE to make those goals. We were on the doorstep bashing the door down but it wouldn't fall. They were also giving us chance after chance at the end, they nearly missed an EN goal they could've easily had but did not. We still could not manage to tie it.

I'm frustrated, we should have beat the shit out of these guys. I really think Moose should've played in this game and Kari start tomorrow. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt us. We simply can not afford to lose tomorrow against NY, especially with the Sabres coming here Sunday. We could be in trouble if we fall these next two games. Right now we're screaming playoffs playoffs and if we had won tonight I would have said no way we would miss the playoffs, but right now, we have two tough games against two hungry NY teams and they both having nothing to lose and we have everything to lose. We must take at least one of the next two against the Rangers and Sabres.

There really is no excuse for tonight's game with all of our new guys. The Flyers are the worst team yet they've owned us all season. Tonight was no different. At least we do not have to play these guys again. How does a first place team get owned by a last place team? I guess that's just how the coin flips. I don't get it. They've owned us all season, so there's no reason tonight should be any different...but unlike the last games, we had a chance this game... many, many chances and simply could not capitalize... yet I have to give credit to Biron for having an amazing night in goal... and Kari made some great saves himself... but Biron was damn good tonight...

But man, Bobby had shitty luck tonight... and it's sad that nothing was called on that 2nd high stick... even if the refs didn't see it, they must've seen him bleeding profusely... so I dunno WTF nothing was called....

We were a hair away from having at least a point in this game... instead of shooting at the goalie, we should have shot top shelf... but no.. it looked like we just kept shooting it right at him.

We better redeem ourselves tomorrow night. I could care less about the NASCAR Night stuff and tomorrow night is also the Town Hall Metting with DW, and DW is gonna hear it with this loss to the Flyers and rightfully so.

Now the NASCAR thing. I really just don't see most NASCAR fans being hockey fans. Maybe they are trying to get them to come out and experience hockey. I'm not sure what the attempt is, but I generally don't see the two mixing. I've watched NASCAR, I've been to a race, but in all honesty, it wasn't all that great. To me, a TRUE race a is the 1/4 drag race. NASCAR is just as boring to me as watching golf or poker on TV... I'd fall asleep. If I had the money to bid on one of those green St. Patty's jerseys I would, but I gotta save for next season.

At this point all I know is that we had better not fall apart. The next two games will determine that. The Rangers are well rested waiting for us in ATL and the Thrashers are going to be playing in the 2nd of back to back games. So the Rangers already have a slight advantage. And we all know what the Thrashers record is at sell outs, which Friday night looks to be. So we have TWO things going against us. We didn't stop the streak with the Flyers, but the sellout losing streak has GOT to stop and stop tomorrow night.

But the good news even though we didn't gain any ground tonight, we are still in first place and we can still make the playoffs. But if we play the same way we did tonight against the Flyers, our chances are not so great. Granted, even with the new players we weren't going to win every single game, but against the FLYERS??!?! No excuse.

We better redeem ourselves tomorrow night.

- Rangers are rested and ready to go.
- Thrashers playing two nights in a row with our backup goalie.
- Thrashers have not won a single game in which we are sold out.
- Gotta put up with Rangers fans and NASCAR rednecks. Great.
- Won't be able to get a seat at Headlines Grill because we'll be at the Town Hall Meeting and we'll have crappy seats.

So all in all tomorrow is already starting off to look bad. I just hope we end up on the win column. We have to.

Flying High in Philly?

2007-03-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

All I know is that the Thrashers have been the Flyers bitch... and I'm hoping that we can turn that fact around tonight. With the 4-2 victory over the Craps, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to.

Now here's the deal. Kari is playing against the Flyer and Moose against the Rangers. Now, granted, we have to beat the Flyers at least once and Kari does give us the better chance of doing so. However, I think that if Moose were to start against the Flyers, it would send them a message to say "hey, we can beat you guys, we WILL beat you guys this time... with our backup goalie." I hope BH's decision is correct. It really doesn't matter as long as we win, but I just think Moose would be a lot better to go against the Flyers. Then again, if I were Kari, I'd rather have off on a Friday than a Thursday, anybody would. But at this point I don't care if they put in Goldberg from the Mighty Ducks movie as long as we keep winning!

Friday night is going to be insane. We have the Town Hall Meeting, but it's supposed to be sold out, so we won't be able to sit at Headlines Grill more than likely. So, we'll just have to make due. I'm glad it's sold out, yet we all know how the Thrashers have performed at sold out games... but that was before the new guys.

So we have two streaks to stop this week: Our record against the last-place Flyers and our record at sold out games. If these two things change I'll be happy as hell.

Gotta run!

Thrashers MIA in Miami

2007-03-12T14:22:00.000-04:00

So our trip started off well. We got a rental car from Enterprise. A brand new Mazda 5. It had all of 89 miles on it. We were the first customers to drive it. We got the 50% off weekend rate. The Mazda 5 is a crossover between an car, an SUV, and minivan. Now, with car rentals, when you get an SUV or van, you pay a lot more for it. This thing had the room of an SUV for the price of a car. It was $5-6 more dollars total to rent the middle of the road car instead of the cheapest 4 cylinder they had. And we paid the price of a car and basically got an SUV for the same price. It had more than enough room for everything.

So we drove down 12+ hours down 75 to the Florida Turnpike. About 20 dollars worth of tolls, but it does save a good amount of time versus going down 95. Anyway, we stayed at a really nice Quality Inn in South Miami. A bit far from Sunrise, but the trip from the hotel to the game wasn’t all that bad and didn’t take nearly as long we thought. So we got in to the hotel and attached to it was a nice looking seafood place… Gotta get seafood when you are on the coast, right? Well, we walked in an stood there for 10 minutes waiting for someone to greet and sit us. They didn’t give us any service. It was very casual dress place, so I don’t understand WTF happened. We walked around the corner to a Chinese joint and were served right away. It was goooooooooooood Chinese too. After that we went back to the room and watched Borat then crashed.

Saturday slept in a little and then went over to the Miami Metrozoo. There just happened to be a brochure for the zoo in our room. When I booked the room, I had NO idea that it was near the zoo. It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, if that. And only $11.50 per person to get in. It makes Zoo Atlanta look like a horrible zoo. The animals are not in cages. You are separated by a deep ditch. It makes for GREAT pictures. It was a lot of fun. After the zoo we went back to eat our leftover Chinese for lunch and then drove up to Sunrise. It was a rather short drive compared to what I was expecting.

We went to the Sawgrass Mills mall. Let me tell you this mall takes every single mall in Georgia, even the Mall of Georgia, takes it by the tail, and kicks it around. It was awesome. Even though every other store seemed to be a shore store, there were New York City-style electronics stores, video game stores, and even a diecast car cart. The guy had about $1,000 worth of cars that I wanted. I’ve been collecting them for years, and as much as I wanted to buy every single one he had, I just couldn’t. He had many of which are VERY hard to find. I always to go the AJC Auto Show every year and this guy had a better selection of cars I wanted. We also stopped in one of the video game stores – they had ONE Wii Classic Controller left. ONE. Best Buy has been out of stock for months on it. So he sold me the last one. It was only $20. Best Buy wants $25. Most on eBay will charge around $30 plus shipping. So I got one for a steal almost. The only bad part about that mall is that the food court is sad. But we had planned to eat at the game anyway, so that’s what we did.

We walked across the street from the mall to the arena. We were a bit early, so we were the first in line…go figure that! Now, being that it’s the PANTHERS we are talking about here, I didn’t expect a big crowd at all, much less 18,000+ people. It wasn’t a complete sell out, but it was damn near packed for the game. Pretty impressive for a Panthers game. Then again, it was a Saturday night… and they are a hot team right now, and playing a huge division rival. The arena itself is very dimly lit until the players come out on the ice; I guess they do that to conserve energy. But, at first, it does feel very cavernous and empty. I do like the fact that, unlike Philips, a whole ¼ of the arena is not corporate only. They have their boxes like any other arena or stadium, but the seating bowl is for everyone. I really like that. The seats on the lower level are a gross looking green. The middle seats were brown. I didn’t get the color scheme of the seats. Anyway, we went down for warmups where the Thrashers come up. I was the only Thrashers fan who had the balls to bring my mullet wig with me. Slater noticed and threw me a practice puck. As many times as we’ve been down to see warmups and as many practices as we’ve gone to, I’ve never got a puck. In fact the last puck I ever got a game was at a Knights game. Yes, a Knights game. So I got one. Finally.

Now to the game. Even though the Thrashers scored first and went up 1-0 to start the game, they came out looking flat. They simply did not play well. It looked as if we had made no trades. But the Panthers were playing really well too. This did NOT look like the same Panthers team that we had just played in Blueland a few days before. The Thrashers didn’t look at all like the same team either. We were on defense for what seemed a majority of the night.

Now, right after the 1^st ended, two guys from the Panthers came up to me. We were sitting in a row of Thrashers fans. He was asking if someone had wanted to be in their dance-off contest. Now, at first I didn’t realize they were talking to me, but they were. So I agreed to do it. I instantly became a nervous wreck. My girlfriend was there for me to calm me down and make sure I was looking ok. I asked who I was going against and I was told it was a “Dodgers fan”. Bullshit. Why the hell would there be a Dodgers fan at this game? I warned them I can’t dance. I am worse than the guy in Hitch. I am so bad. The worst. But I have never been prouder to be booed by 18,000+ people because we got to scream and yell into the camera for all of the arena to hear. I have never been prouder to be a Thrashers fan when I heard all of those boos. Our row of fans were cheer for me, but there were just WAY too many Panthers fans. Even if I could dance well, I would have automatically lost because the other guy was really a Panthers fan with a Panthers jersey on. I could’ve been Elvis with a Thrashers jersey on and still have been booed.

Now the parts that pissed me off: At a Thrashers game, if a fan is in a contest, they NEVER go home empty handed. I just assumed I was going to get SOMETHING… a t-shirt, a gift… something to take home. I got NOTHING. And I missed 85% of the 2^nd period waiting for this to start. By the time I got back to my seat, there was only about 4 or 5 minutes left in the period. Worst of all, the entire time I was standing there waiting for this dance contest thing to start, the Panthers scored 2 goals and went up 2-1. I was not in ANY mood to dance after seeing THAT happen.

Kari made some great saves, but let two easy ones slip by. I did happen to see that 2^nd goal go in and Kari should have EASILY had that. Was he distracted because his parents went home and couldn’t stop thinking about it? Did they party a bit too much in Miami? They didn’t look at all like the Thrashers 2.0. Even though we did make it a game by making it 3-2 towards the end of the 3^rd, and I was so sure one was going to tie it up right at the end, it never did. Ed Belfour did have a great night and the Panthers did play very well. But they also had at least 10 more shots on goal than we did. We were outplayed most of the night. Let’s just say the Thrashers were MIA in Miami.

Of course this being our first ever road game, we wanted to have it go our way. However, we did have fun afterwards. We hung out with Sally and her crew… the Panthers have a promo going that if they beat a divisional rival, you get a free pizza from Papa Johns. Sally did have a few extra tickets, so after about an hour of trying to figure out where the hell the closest Papa Johns was, we went back to their hotel with them to hang out and eat pizza. Oh, and of course the Flames had to lose to the Bolts while we were sitting there eating. D’OH! But it was a lot of fun hanging out with them.

We are already talking about going to the game against Carolina on the 6^th. Thankfully it’s a LOT shorter of a drive than Miami. The hard part is that it’s the same night as the Braves Home Opener. Now, I have NEVER, EVER EVER EVER missed a Braves Home Opener. However, it is not the season opener. The Braves haven’t opened the season at home in a while. But I’ve been WAY too loyal to the Thrashers to not go. It very well may just come down to one of those two last games.

If the division comes down to the last game against Tampa, that will be almost too weird. Did the schedule makers know something? WTF? I hope it doesn’t, but it’s so close that it just may be that last game for the division. That would be the biggest regular season game so far in the history of the Atlanta Thrashers. I hope we can all watch that game with a bit more ease and comfort and hopefully by then it won’t matter, but it may. It will be hard to watch that game. I’ll have to take SOME sort of drugs to calm me down!

Anyway, I’m hoping the game against Carolina works out in a few weeks.

I’m hoping we can get back to our winning ways tonight against the Craps. There’s nom reason we shouldn’t get an easy win tonight. The Craps are down and out and we should be able to take advantage. But I do know our crowd is going to be WEAK tonight, seeing as how it is a Monday night. Funny part is that last week before I left for our vacation, I totally forgot to turn in my timesheet! So I had to return the rental car this morning and get my ass to work before the 10:30 deadline to turn in my timesheet. I normally work 12-6, and after driving for nearly 14 hours (we made a lot of stops on the way back) I was tired and I could easily still be sleeping right now. But since I had to be at work early to get my timesheet in, that means I also get to leave early, so I’ll be more than on time tonight for the game.

I’m about to go to lunch, so I’ll end this now. Yeah, I’ve already applied for the 7^th Man contest. I think I wrote a pretty good poem, so I’ll be crossing my fingers. I do know that my girlfriend would die to get a game worn jersey from Kari. I think she’d pass out. And the winner of the 7^th Man contest gets first choice. Oh, there might be a more dedicated fan who has lot more money than I do to follow the team wherever they go and sit on the glass; but you will not find anyone cares about this team more than I do. You surely won’t find anyone who is always first in line and never misses a game unless it’s a Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game. And I guarantee you will not find anyone who has never missed a Braves Home Opener to miss it and go see the Thrashers on the road. And there’s no doubt that I should be saving my money and not be spending it. But if there is one thing that I spend my money on (not counting DVDs and diecast model cars), it’s the Thrashers. I’ve already sent in my deposit for the 07-08 season. It will be my 3^rd year as a season ticket holder. Now, if I had a better job when I was younger and could have afforded season tickets from day one, I would have. But now that I can afford season tickets, I’m getting them and I don’t plan on ever stopping. My girlfriend who had never experience a hockey game before she met me is now just as obsessed, if not more, than I am.

Even when we seemed down and out a few weeks ago when we went out West, I never stopped believing. I believe from the moment the guys arrive to training camp until the last day of the season. And this year for the first time we’ll get to keep believe into post season. Now I’ve been a Braves fan since I was a little kid. I always will be. And I never, EVER thought anything else could ever overtake the Braves as my favorite team. Well, that has all changed. Of course the Braves are my favorite baseball team, but the team closest to my heart is the Thrashers. That, my friends, takes one HELL of a change to take the Braves away from being my #1 team. I’d call 12 hours there and 12 hours back driving to Miami loyalty. Add up the cost of hotel, car rental, gas, food, and other BS and that’s a good chunk of change I could’ve saved. But it was all worth it… even though we lost and I was booed by 18,000+ people. But it’s too the bad the Thrashers were MIA in Miami.

I have a feeling we’ll get it back together tonight against the Craps. It might be near empty tonight, but I don’t care as long as we win.

Oh and yes, last but surely not least, I have to thank my season ticket rep Dustin. He allowed me to write him a post-dated check. I had two options – put down a deposit for season tickets and cancel the trip or go on the trip. He let me post date a check for my next paycheck this coming Friday. So many thanks to him and his boss for letting me do that. It is much appreciated. He didn’t mention, however, that he was also going to be in Sunrise. Oh but he was there… and had just a little bit to drink. What a surprise that was!

That’s it for now. Let’s beat the crap… outta the Craps tonight!!

What Happens in Blueland, STAYS in Blueland!

2007-03-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

You’ve lost that losing feeling, cause it’s gone, gone, gone. But we haven’t lost that hockey lovein’ feeling cause it’s far from gone. 4 in a row. We stopped a hot Kity Cats team… err Panthers that is. Yes, the Thrashers are known to be a streaky team. But that was before we got our new guys. I don’t think that streakiness will continue. At least, I hope not. Why? It simply can’t. Not at the point in the season. Not with our new guys. Not when we are trying to raise the Division banner and get into the playoffs. And thanks in part to the Canucks, the Thrashers are now looking like that just may be a big possibility. I was watching the Canucks vs. Bolts game last night on Yahoo! Sports… I wish they did more games… and lets just put it this way… the Bolts had minimal shots on goal, they were trying to be way too fancy with their passing, and their goaltending also let them down. The Canucks killed them. Slaughtered them. Embarrassed them. And the Thrashers and their fans are very thankful. Thankful because, one, that puts us back where we belong – in sole possession of first place. Two, well, the lightning our are hated rival; many Thrashers fans hate Tampa more than anything, and there’s no denying we love to see them get whopped like that. Even better, Tampa is playing in back to back games with no rest. They are in a different time zone than they are used to. They have no time to prepare or rest for the Oilers tonight. The Oilers have had three days off to rest and prepare for Tampa. They have home ice advantage. And with Tampa playing back to back games, I’d assume they’d pretty much have no other choice BUT to play their backup goalie, especially after the performance Holmqvist didn’t have last night. So, yet again, Thrashers fans are temporarily being transformed into fans of another team.. so GO OILERS! I have a gut feeling that Tampa just won’t be able to cut the mustard against the Oilers. The only bad thing is that the Oilers have lost their last two games pretty badly (5-0, 4-2) but hopefully they’ll be rested and ready to get back on track and take care of the Bolts for us. It would be most appreciated!

Now, back home to the Thrashers. Montreal will prove to be a tough contender, as usual, but with Huet out of the picture, things might be a bit easier for us. We’ll see. I told myself as long as we take 2 of 3 games this week (FL, MON, and FL again) then we are in business. Seeing as how 1 of those 3 have already gone our way, I don’t see why the next two can’t. Montreal will be tough, but we can beat them. And playing the Kitty Cats again… hopefully it’ll be the same as it was last night. But that is a game I simply can’t wait for. Our first ever away Thrashers game. Win or lose the game, I can’t wait for the experience. Of course it will suck if we go to our first ever away game and we lose, but I can’t be TOO upset if we do… but at the same time, the Kitty Cats are our bitch, so I don’t see why we can’t beat ‘em again. It’ll be weird seeing the Thrashers in the white jerseys – it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen them live in that jersey. It will be weird not hearing the goal siren when we score (of which I hope will be often and plenty.) It will be weird not hearing and seeing 99% of the crowd cheering when we score. But I bet we’ll be louder than the Florida fans. I bet there might be more Thrashers fans in the building then Panthers fans… then again, it IS a Saturday night game, so it might be packed… who knows. But our plans, since we are staying in Miami, is to get up to that outlet mall across from the arena, hang out there, and then get over to the game of course early so we can get in there and see what they have to offer.

Last night the attendance was poor. But at the same time, I can understand – it’s a weekday, the kids are in school, traffic sucks, blah blah blah… wait, no I don’t understand. Your hockey team is making a huge playoff push and you don’t show up? C’mon. What is with you people who don’t come? Kids? Traffic? Can’t afford it? You can get $10 tickets and go sit in Headlines Grill. There’s just no excuse. Get your asses in the seats! Do you ever see empty seats at a hockey game in Canada? No. This might not be Canada, but we should show the same love and loyalty to our team… there should be an ass in every seat in that arena. I’m glad the seats did seem to fill up a little bit once the game started, but there were still ENTIRE sections without a single person. What a waste. I know it’s a weekday, I know there was no game giveaway, heck they didn’t even give out the hockey bam sticks. But that doesn’t matter. It’s not about the fact that it’s a weekday or weekend. It’s not about the fact that there’s a game giveaway or not. It is, however, about the fact that there’s a hockey game going on and hockey is, by far, the greatest game and sport on this planet, and you need to come experience it and come to games.

This season, I’ve missed only ONE game – and that is for the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech football game, and I will always miss a Thrashers game if one happens to fall on the same date. It’s tradition and I just can’t and will never miss that. I hate Tech too much and love Georgia too much to miss it. But that being said, other than that one game, I haven’t missed any other games this season. Normally you can find me at the very front of the line too. Call it a little obsessive, call it crazy, call it what you will, but I love the Thrashers that much. Yes, I have a job and a life. But I find a way to be there, unlike some people who didn’t last night. You’ve got to find a way. If we make the playoffs and the place looks like that, even if the game is on a week night, it will be a bigger embarrassment than when people don’t show up for Braves playoff games. So get your asses in the seats…. TV is one thing for AWAY games, but if we are at home, COME OUT!!! It’s really not THAT expensive if you take MARTA and not pay for parking. It’s worth every penny. Hockey is never boring, expect apparently last night some folks thought it was and started doing the wave. Now, I’ve been to many, many hockey games and have NEVER, EVER seen that. It was wrong in SO many ways. Those who participated in the wave should be ashamed. Doing it a Turner Field is one thing during a ballgame, but not at a hockey game! I’m glad that it did happen against the Panthers, who maybe had all of two or three fans in the building… and I hope it doesn’t end up on highlights or SportsCenter for the entire world to see. That was bad. I wanted to hide the fact I was a hockey fan, much less a Thrashers fan, after seeing the wave. I don’t know what the hell people were thinking, but people need to THINK BEFORE THE ACT and NEVER, EVER do the wave at a Thrashers game, or ANY hockey game for that matter, EVER again! You could’ve waited a few weeks for the Braves home opener to do that!

But the important thing is that we won again… and hopefully continue to do so. It’s funny… KT was on the cover of the game program, and he scored his first two goals as a Thrashers. I’m hoping Kovy will be on the next one and score 2 or 3 against Montreal!

Till next time…

Here Kitty Kitty!

2007-03-05T12:03:00.000-05:00

We were up at Headlines Grill for the Carolina game. Kari stood on his head the entire game. He said that it has something to do with is parents here in Atlanta visiting him. And I have a feeling that as silly as it might sound, it could be helping him. Remember when you were a little kid on the diving board or playing sports and your parents were watching you? You wanted to shout"Dad! Mom! Look at ME!!" You always wanted to perform better or do something special while your parents were watching. Well, Kari may not be able to scream out to his parents in the stands at the NHL level, but in the back of his mind, I bet he had that same feeling... he wanted to show his parents his best. And that he did. It was one of his best performances in goal this season so far. It was Brodeur-like. The one goal Crapolina had was a defensive mess up, otherwise it could've been a shutout. But what a game! Although they had quite a few pucks that hit the pipes, with them going 0-4 on the PP, it helped make our D look really good. It had also been a while since good 'e Kovy lit the lamp.

But when Hossa went down, I had a flash back to Blog Night. That was the night he went down hard as well... but the night he also came back out and scored in the very next period seconds in.

When Hossa went down again, it was a flash back. But the crowd roared to life with the "Hossa! Hossa!" chant as loud as you've ever heard it. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked. It's too bad this time he didn't come out and score right away again, but he nearly missed that open net hat trick goal... but it wasn't necessary. So far the new guys have made this team look like and play like an entirely new team. I'm not a big fan of the rental player thing, I think that should be changed, but there's time to discuss that during the off season. Right now they've helped us move back where we belong - in first - and help us make that push to the first ever Thrashers playoffs!

But man it wasn't even about the new guys or our all the sudden new found glory and confidence... it was all about the mullet wig.

That's right, the mullet wig.

I think the players got a kick out of it. It's too bad BH didn't throw one on for the post game press conference! Maybe it was like a rally cap. Maybe it had that magic. But man, I took MARTA back home from the game, stopping at Best Buy afterwards. I decided WTF, I have nothing to lose, so I kept my jersey on and the mullet wig. Man people had some FUNNY looking stares at me. Nothing something you expect when walking around Best Buy! Anyway, I also freaked my mom out when I met up with her later that night for dinner.

But I also knew it was going to be a good game because, well, when the Thrashers came out for warmups, the first song that was played was "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica. Fuck yeah! Metalllica! They need to play more Metallica at games. But man, you literally have to be first in line to get a spot a headlines grill. You have to haul ass up there to get a stool. But it's well worth the wait. The food there is really good. The view is great.

But there is one thing that gets to me. You know that the 400 level isn't sold out. I just don't see that happening. Even on occasions where you KNOW it's not sold out, the ticket office refuses to sell you the $10 ticket at the box office. They always say it's sold out. That is BS. They want you to have to buy the more expensive ticket. If the seats are available, SELL the damn tickets! I don't get it. Thankfully you can buy a ticket at the student rate of $15, but man, I know there are still $10 tickets left but they won't sell them.

Anyway, I'm anxious as can be four our trip to Florida this coming weekend. Thrashers vs. Panthers, the beach, Miami, South Beach, seafood... warm, (hopefully) sunny weather... can't get much better than that! Since this is our first ever away game with the Thrashers... of course I already can't wait to get back and Blog about it! I know, I know, what a dork I am! This is also my last-ever spring break, so there's no doubt we have to get away for at least a few days if nothing else... but here's my problem. The Thrashers want their 07/08 deposit already. I can either cancel our trip, and have one really disappointed Thrashers fan and a PISSED OFF girlfriend and put a deposit down, or I can go on the trip. I've e-mailed my rep and asked him if I could post-date a check for my next paydate. So I'm waiting to hear back from him. I just hope they'll let me do that, if not, I might get fucked out of playoff tickets... but I sure can't cancel our trip! Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Three in a row... can we keep it up? By default, you'd think that playing the Panthers twice in a week would be easy wins for us... but they are on a little win streak of their own and just killed Tampa, of which of course we are all very thankful for, but man, they beat TAMPA 6-2. That's not easy to do. I'm hoping we can cool them off. But this week, we should be able to gain some ground with playing the kitty cats twice and of course the Habs, who are always tough, but Huet is out for the season, so it might prove to be a bit easier of a game. If we take even 2 of 3 this week, I think we'll be in good shape.

I should get back to work. Man, I am evil. My boss left for lunch so I figured I'd better get in the blog while I can.

Oh yeah. My friends from Israel are here! They normally come for 4 - 6 weeks, but for the first time, they are only here for a week! Anyway, I've invited them to come to the game on Tuesday, so it should be a great time. Can't wait! They don't have hockey in Israel, so... it'll be an awesome experience for them. I can show them my home away from home!!

That's it for now... back to work!

Finally! We Can All Go Home HAPPY!!!

2007-03-03T13:16:00.000-05:00

It's been way too long. I don't remember the last time I went home from Philips Arena happy and in a good mood. Well that all changed, finally, last night. Thanks mostly to Belanger. We played well in the 1st and in the 3rd...but WTF was up with the 2nd period? They looked like the same team before the trades were made... sloppy passing, in the wrong place at the wrong time, sloppy everything... we seemed slow. But I think the crowd sent a message with a lot of heavy booing. I think it went to their heads during the 2nd intermission. Whatever it was, it worked, because we came out flying in the 3rd period. But that 2nd period still worries me. It looked like the same shit, different day. But we changed it.

And Sutton, with that assist... that was a thing of beauty! Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the few people that actually LIKE Andy Sutton, even though he always seems to be fucking up... the last two games, he's actually had some positive things happen, which is nice to see for a change.

After the game, we were able to catch the elevator down and I mentioned that it had been way to long since we've left this place happy and the entire elevator of fans had a good laugh... Me? Making people laugh? No way... but it was funny because it was true... so I was able to get away with it. But damn, it felt good. And so did that win. I was SO damn tired of going home feeling like shit after a game.

My brother was in town and he ended up at the game as well.. the lucky bastard got a LOW number on his Hossa statute...he got # 23 of 6,000. I attempted to try to trade him for mine, but he wouldn't.

The positives - we stopped a HOT team that had won 8 out of their last 9... at HOME. We haven't won at home since JANUARY. That's sad. But we stopped their streak and we stopped our own home losing streak... Two Ws in a row! That in itself is a good sign.

The Negatives - The entire 2nd period was horrible. We are lucky we stayed in the game. Our PP still is a joke, even with the new guys. Cmon. Way, WAY too much firepower...shit, the Thrashers are an All-Star team by themselves with Hossa, Kovy, KT, Belanger, Kozlov... we should be winning 5-0 every time... but we aren't. We can't even get the PP set up.. and when we do, it always ends up getting chucked down the ice. With a team of this caliber with this much firepower...our PP being a disaster is sad. I hope this gets fixed SOON. We should, in theory, on paper anyway, have one of the most dominating PPs in the NHL, yet we are among the very worst. WTF?

Our PK was OK, but could be better.

I'm glad they changed the game time from 12:30 to 2 on Sunday. At least you can sleep in a bit longer! Can't wait to fuckin' rock out 80's style with the mullet wigs on Sunday!!! YEAH DUDE!! RAD!!!! Speaking of Rad, Rad Racer is still the shizzle! And the best, by far, hockey video game is still none other than ICE HOCKEY for the NES. It's the first game I downloaded on my Wii, even though I have an NES and the cartridge. Even with all the fancy graphics and features, ICE HOCKEY for NES is still one of the most entertaining hockey video games, if not the all time best.

Let's hope we can get some sweet, sweet much needed ice cold revenge against Crapolina on Sunday!!!

Also, yes don't forget if you are on MySpace that I have a page created in honor of the one and only Chief, so if you are on MySpace and know, or know of, Chief.. join up!

http://www.myspace.com/Chief755

Till Sunday...

Anxiety Building

2007-03-02T14:32:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here at work... we are supposed to have a 2:30 meeting, but our meeting room is currently being used... BGCA and MLB are doing a new program for kids called the STAR program (you probably aren't supposed to hear about this yet).. anyway, they are still in our meeting room, so I have a few minutes to kill.

I'm anxious as hell right now. I can't wait for the game tonight. I can't wait to see the new players. I hope we can stop the Sens, they are a hot team right now... plus with our recent record at home, I'm nervous. But this is a new team, and a new "season" and tonight I want to leave Philips going home feeling GOOD with a win.

I don't have Center Ice, but people were keeping us up to date on the msg boards.. I can't believe the Caps / Bolts game went 10 ROUNDS in SO. WTF?!? That's insane... but of course the Bolts finally pulled it out. D'OH! So tonight is a big game for the Thrash...every game is now huge.

Ben "The Web Guy" just e-mailed me back and added me to the new Blueland Blog... which I love; it's beautiful... but might be a BIT confusing as it's on an external site...

I signed up for my own account on portspaces...and even though the account is a different account, somehow the post i made to MY blog on there also ended up making a link to the Thrashers Blueland Blog... on Casino Night... and I'm sure Ben and the Thrashers didn't want THAT... but I had NO idea it would do THAT... Anyway, I'm going to stick with Blogger it looks like for now, but I do have my blog up there in case I chose to move there eventually. I'm just to used to Blogger.

Gotta go, we have a meeting!

Uh Oh

2007-02-28T20:47:00.000-05:00

Ok it looks like the portspaces... it's weird... you can sign up for your own blog and such, but it posts entries to the Thrashers Blueland blog too.. so I deleted that.. and for now, I'll leave it alone... I thought it was like a seperate account... but it posts to a seperate blog... I don't think they'd appreciate that... I didn't know it would do that... so I don't want to have posts in the middle of Casino Night posts...why they are posting THERE is weird... Portspaces is new to me, so it may work differently... but apparently anyone can sign up and have their own blog there....

Port Spaces

2007-02-28T20:27:00.000-05:00

I figure if the Thrashers have their blog their, why not Thrashers Thrashings? So I've signed up... I'm want to figure out if there's an easy way to import from Blogger to Port Spaces...but... so far I haven't found a good utility to do so. I could get one of those Blogger programs or Word add-ons, but I don't want to sit and copy and paste everything from one site to the next... hmmm...

Back From The Dead

2007-02-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

Wow. I have to apologize. The last few weeks I haven't kept up with the blog. In all honesty, with the Thrashers poor performance over the last few weeks, I haven't had the urge to do so. But the blog is now back from the dead.... and so are the Thrashers! I've also had other things outside of the Thrashers keep me busy... yeah, I know, other stuff besides the Thrashers??!? What the hell is wrong with me? Anyway, I was checking Blueland Blog and saw the new, re-designed Blueland Blog, and it's gorgeous. So it gave me a boost of inspiration to get back into the business that is blogging the Thrashers. But the new Blueland Blog isn't the only thing that has given me inspiration. It has also been the acquisition of Belanger, KT, Zhitnik and that game against the Bruins has helped bring about a new sense of belief. This is essentially a new season... it might be a short season, but it's a new one.

As I said on the boards, with a new Blueland Blog hopefully comes a "new season" with new players... and with that every game is now a playoff game. Every game matters. Every shot, every block, every penalty, everything matters now. Moral victories are nice but worthless. This time of year, it's all about the Ws. Not to quote Metallica, but nothing else matters. But it's true. Moral victories are good at the start of the season... now the are essentially meaningless. Wins are all that matters.

And let's hope Tampa goes through the same downturn we did when we went on that west coast swing. Let's hope they get killed like we did.

The Thrashers looked like a new team against the Bruins. They were certainly not the same team that lost at home to Carolina 4-1. That was, by far, one of the worst games I've seen at Blueland... the worst losses, at least so far, have been the loss to Phoneix when we had a huge lead in the 3rd... and, of course, goes with out saying, those two home losses to the Flyers. But the only thing we can do, the only option there is, is to forget the past and consider this new homestand a new season. Problem is, the Thrashers haven't played so well at home lately. Why that is is beyond me. I hope this Friday, all that changes. It's been WAY too long since I've left Philips Arena happy... the last home win? I don't remember. But that doesn't matter. Friday night, the season starts over. Sure, we may not win ALL of the remaining games, but I'll be happy if we get at least a point in a tough game.

I want to welcome all the new guys on the Thrashers and hope they take us far, far into the playoffs. I want nothing more than to see a new banner in Philips Arena... but I'm hoping it's more than one. Not to jinx anything, but I already can not wait for that first home game of next season when those banners are raised.

Reality is you don't need my blog to find the stories on the Thrashers. Sure, I'll still post them, but I thing the point of a blog is to... well, blog... not just list articles. I'll continue to do that, but I'll start fresh after the game vs. the Senators. I have too much on my plate until then.

Also, we are going down to Florida and the end of next week... and as much as I'd love to have gone to away games, this will be my first Thrashers away game...ever. I know, that's sad, right? I live at Blueland, but I've never been to a game... even ones close to Atlanta. Ok, so I've driven by St. Pete Times Forum when I've visited Tampa before... but that was during the off-season... and, well, there's no secret I hate Tampa. I wanted to pull and Office Space and burn the place down, but I didn't feel like spending the rest of my life in jail and getting death threats from Tampa fans LOL. (I'm not being serious here!)

Anyway, I hope that in the future I'll be able to attend more away games... Florida, Tampa, Carolina... I have a friend in Boston, and of course NYC. But I'll start off with Florida and go from there. I've been to other ballparks, but never another hockey arena... and I love nothing more than experiencing other ballparks...

I'm anxious as can be to be back in Blueland on Friday night. Tonight is Casino Night. Oh how much I wish I could be there. My girlfriend is, well, younger than I am... and only a few months short of being able to get in... but next year we will be there! Besides, I suck at poker and I'd go home broke... and I need to save the money for our trip to Florida!!

Till Friday...

Live From CNN Center!

2007-02-15T19:21:00.000-05:00

I'm currently at CNN Center. Just wanted to say hi from as close to Blueland as I could. I wrote an entire post, but my computer died. And I don't feel like retyping it all. Fuck.

Can We Weather The Storm?

2007-02-14T12:47:00.000-05:00

The Thrashers have broken my heart of hockey love on Valentine’s Day.

I was hoping that when I got out of UGA Idol last night that I’d turn on XM and hear some good news… that was not to be. In all honesty, I am glad I didn’t have to hear those 3 goal sirens go off during the 1^st period. We listened to the 2^nd period on the way back to Atlanta. Thrashers get a goal and you pray, you hope they can turn it around and make a game of it… less than half a minute later, all the hope and glimmer is turned upside down and in your face with another Flames goal… right off the damn faceoff. THAT one hurt… Any possible potential we had after our goal was smacked right out of our hands with that 4^th goal… Despite the loss, the 3^rd period was decent… at least it was SOMETHING positive… we didn’t allow the Flames to score in the 3^rd… We got back in time to watch the 3^rd period on TV… praying for a miracle but knowing it more than likely was not to be. You hope, you pray, you think positive, but somewhere deep inside you just know it’s going to be another loss.

This makes next week’s games against the Canes and Tampa crucial, must win games. Whoever made this schedule must’ve known something we don’t… we play Tampa and Carolina at this point in the schedule when the standings are THIS close… we play the Canes 3 times within 12 days… if we don’t take 2 of 3 from them to give us a LITTLE more breathing room, then things will get ugly.

Let’s just hope this team can turn things around by March and keep it going… and turn red hot come April…

There’s just no excuse… I don’t know if it’s coaching, I don’t know if it’s the players, but something is missing. My girlfriend says there’s a glue that we just don’t have and I think she’s right. Do the player hate each other off the ice and don’t care about the game? Is BH not doing something right? Did the Thrashers catch Bravesitis? There is WAY too much talent on this team for these guys to be playing this bad… so something, whatever it may be, is missing. Whatever that missing piece is – it may be a trade we still need to make, it may be teamwork the team needs, it may be a slap in the face… I dunno…but they need something. This is not the right time of the season to be playing this bad. But I agree with what Web Guy says… if you had told me we’d be up by 3 points at this point in the season before the season started, that would be insane. But we WERE up by much more and have lost the nice lead we once had. I hope they start watching the scoreboard…and when they see Tampa or Carolina winning a game, they better start playing with more hockey love, more heart, more emotion…that’s what I want to see.

The Thrashers are going to have to weather one hell of a storm of Lightning and Hurricanes coming up… and I hate to say it but Thrashers don’t usually fly in Hurricanes or around Lightning… but I hope THESE Thrashers somehow, some way weather the upcoming storm.

The worst thing that we can do is not show up. No matter if we are in first or last, the team needs to see as many butts in the seats as possible… if they see a half-empty Philips Arena, it sends the message to them that hey, our fans know we are losing, why should we give a crap… if we show up and still show them some hockey love, that support will send them a message that we support them no matter what… and if you are true Thrashers fan, that’s what you do.

Flame On!

2007-02-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

- Not much to say after the Oilers game. We started off well going up 1-0 but we crashed and burned soon after. I think Roloson was doing just that - rolling all over the ice. He dove more than an Olympic athlete in a high diving competition - it's too bad the judges didn't call him on his splashing around.

Of course any team can win on any given night, but I just don't have a positive feeling about the Flames game with with their home record... but with both teams on losing streaks, anything is possible.

I feel bad for Moose though. Sure, he made some mistakes, but he hasn't played since God knows when... he was rusty... he looked like he hadn't played in a while and it was evident... I think Moose should've started at the last Flyers game and I think that would've made the biggest difference.

Usually I don't miss a single Thrashers game... with the exception of if a game is at the same time as the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech football game... but tonight is another rare exception... I am driving from downtown Atlanta to Athens; my brother is a coordinator for UGA Idol, which happens to be tonight... the same night as American Idol... go figure. I do NOT watch American Idol except for the first few shows with all the horrible fuckups. The rest I could care less about.
I'll be hoping for a good result when I get back on the road to Atlanta.

TSN.CA had an interesting headline in their NHL section today called "Hosting Hossa"... even though the picture isn't Hossa... I mean if you have "HOSSA" in the title, you'd THINK that it would be a picture of Hossa... but nooooooo..

Let's just hope we can put out the Flames... both teams will be hungry for a win, so let's just hope we are hungrier than the Flames.... let's just not add fuel to their fire.

And yes, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so don't expect any post-game comments tomorrow... I'll get back into the swing of posting and comments on Thursday...

Is it just me or has it already been WAY too long since the last Thrashers homegame in Blueland? TV does not help at all with hockey withdrawal.

Yes, we may have gotten killed by the Flyers...but hey... look at it on the bright side... at least we aren't the Red Wings who lost a lot worse than we did last night... 6-1. That my friends is a ass kicking... For the Flyers it's too little too late...

Let's just hope we can end this part of the road trip on a positive note...

I wonder if they do anything special at the Flames game tonight; seeing as how they were originally the Atlanta Flames...so when Atlanta comes to town; I wonder if they have anything going on... To think that their alternate-captain logo is still the old-school Atlanta Flames "A"... just a bit funny to see when they are playing the current Atlanta team... It makes me think back to a few seasons ago when it was an old-school Atlanta night... the Thrashers played the Flames and then after the game Georgia played Georgia Tech on the ice...there were fights, blood, and plenty of yelling...and that was just the fans going at it during the game! One of my friend's brothers played for the Dawgs...so it was awesome to watch them play...

- TSN.CA - "HOSTING HOSSA"

February 10th, 2007 - Video - Sutton Fucks up Tucker

2007-02-10T14:44:00.001-05:00

I love how this video has NOTHING to do with the Thrashers yet it shows Sutton hitting the shit out of Tucker and they use music from ATL's own OutKast.

February 10th, 2007 - Links

2007-02-10T14:23:00.000-05:00

TSN.CA - "Thrashers acquire Belanger and Hamel"

AJC.COM - "Thrashers get center from Predators"

AJC.COM - "No extra emotion for Hartley"

AJC.COM - "NHL raises profile online"

AJC.COM - "Thrashers will to tweak roster"

AJC.COM - "Many happy returns with win in Denver"

AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "Where's Waddell?"

It's All About the White Jersey...

2007-02-09T17:46:00.000-05:00

- Thrashers vs. Avs (2/8/07)

Last night was a thing of beauty. Hoss 'da Boss returned to form, Kozlov lit the lamp, and even though our PK still greatly concerns me, we looked like the Thrashers team we are supposed to look like. Granted, more than likely the rest of the games on the road trip won't be as easy of a game as was against the Avs, but it's a great start. I just wish the game didn't start so damn late!

There are plenty of other Thrashers blogs that you can find more in-depth post game rants and raves and comments on. There are other blogs you can get more hockey stats than you ever wanted to know. I think of it this way... stats are great, but if it's a stat that even a player or coach would never need to know, the I see no reason to read pages of stats and charts... besides, I hate math and I'd rather stay away from numbers.

There are also way too many games to be going too into depth about each game. If you saw the game, there's no need for a novel-length re-write post game summary.

After the 2 back to back Avs goals last night, I started to worry again... great, here we go, gonna blow a huge 3rd period lead...but that game glock kept ticking down and somehow we managed to prevent another disaster... (last Flyers game anyone?)

But Hossa's EN goal... then, of course, you knew the game was in hand. This was the first game in a WHILE were it wasn't another nailbiter game tied towards the end of the 3rd period going into OT or SO... The Thrashers always seem to be involved tight games, ones that can take your emotions on a pucking rollercoaster! Last night, thankfully, even with the small scare at the end, that did not happen. Oh, I'm sure that rollercoaster will be ready to leave the platform yet again on this road trip, that is for sure.

But my theory is that it wasn't the fact the team is away from home without worries or distractions, nor is it the fact they act more as a team staying in the hotel together... it was all about the jersey... the white away jersey. We need to do whatever it takes... if we have to make Philips Arena look like an away team arena, then cover up the Thrashers and Hawks logos. Don't let the fans wear jerseys or Thrashers gear. Don't even sound the goal siren when we score. Petition the NHL to let the Thrashers wear their white away jerseys at home... we gotta do what we gotta do because there are a LOT of home games in March!
Keep the players in a hotel to make the atmoshphere seem as if they are not at home... let them go home when there are larger breaks inbetween games, such as the week of the 19th, when there are 3 days in between games. But if there is only one day in between, pretend the team is on the road and keep them at the Omni Hotel. This way we can also go hang out with the players when the come down to CNN Center to get something to eat! Or we can chill with them at Jocks N Jills... but I'm telling you it's all about the white jerseys. That's what it was!

Sunday I might be heading to Athens for some UGA baseball, so I may or may not have a post-game comment from Saturday's game. Since there are games both Saturday and Sunday, I'll probably end up doing a post after both of those games... a twofer.

Till next time....

Feburary 8th, 2007

2007-02-08T18:50:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "Thrashers, Sabres suffer same slip-up"
AJC.COM - "Zamboni driver's job is cool"
AJC.COM - "Time to produce for Haydar"
AJC.COM - "Sabres shoot down Thrashers"
AJC.COM - "Coburn is the odd-defenseman-out"
AJC.COM - "Roy, Hartley think inside the box"
AJC.COM - "Hartley's work gets top marks"
AJC.COM - "Flyers: Thrashers interested in Forsberg"
AJC.COM - "A look at the Thrashers and the playoffs"
AJC.COM - "Finnish goalies get fired up"
AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "Coburn headed down to Chicago"
AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "Revenge not on Hartley's mind"
AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "No room for Vish?"
AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "Talking trade; Haydar called up"
AJC.COM (Thrashers Blog) - "Is Forsberg the answer?"
FOXSPORTS.COM - "Putting goalies on the spot"
- The view from Headlines Grill

Thrash!

Faceoff

Timeout

Limos and security gaurds / bodyguards for John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence outside CNN Center

-Thrasers vs. Sabres

Ending On a High Note

2007-02-07T00:14:00.000-05:00

- Thrashers vs. Sabres, 2/6/07

This is a fair warning: The comments you are about to read are raw and unedited for content. You have been warned.

First of all, this was nothing short of a playoff game... except it wasn't. This was one of the Thrashers best games of the season, despite the overtime loss. Even had we won in SO, both teams played so well tonight that neither really deserved to get a loss. But there are no more ties. I think the shootout, while highly entertaining, and while the Thrashers have had a 5-0 streak in shootouts, tonight it obviously didn't work out in our favor. But like I said, even had we won, it's not fair. To play 65 minutes and end up determining a win or loss on only a few shots on goal is great for the average fan, great for TV ratings, but not how I want to see a game end. I'd rather see another 15 minute OT period, then and only then if the game is still tied, then proceed to a shootout... making it a truly special thing. It's no way to lose a game... or win it.

Now, on to the refs. They were on their knees most of the night blowing calls left and right. You KNOW it's bad when on the post game show that is what half the show was about. I understand they want to let them play, especially these two teams, but there's no excuse for some of the calls that were not made. I'm not saying they were bias, but blind tonight. Sure, hockey fans will always hate on and complain about refs, but when the GAME ANNOUNCERS make a mention of how bad it was, that should give them a clue.

Yet again we had so many close chances to go up in the game and win in regulation, but so did the Sabres. I just wish we had played with even 3/4 of the heart we played with tonight when we played the Flyers and Islanders.... we may had had a closer game with the Islanders, but we would have easily beat the Flyers. That's what is so frustrating ... we play on par with the best team in the Eastern Conference, yet we can't beat bottom feeders like the Flyers... but nonetheless, we ended the homestand on a very positive note, there's not a thing the Thrashers should feel down about after tonight's game. I'm glad we got a point, I'm glad we ended on a very positive note, Kari played incredibly well and made some highlight reel saves.

But Sabres fans.... whoa. What a breed. They show about as much class as a snowy day in Georgia - None. (Get it, no class?). The prime example was the Sabres fan on the big screen who decided to flick everyone off on the screen. Now, I've seen kids and young teens do this before at games... but a grown man? The Sabres, their fans, and especially the fuck face who flicked off the screen got booed... I might expect that out of a kid, but not a grown up adult. He made ALL Sabres fans look bad tonight, he is a disgrace, and from what I observed tonight... this is not an opinion, this is a FACT: Sabres fans are no better than Mets fans. They win a game and act like they just won the Stanley Cup. When the Mets beat the Braves, they act like they just won the World Series. Most of what I observed tonight was incredibly unclassy, obnoxious, rude, and downright disgusting. I don't want to stereotype Sabres fans, and I've seen the Thrashers play pretty much every team in the NHL over the years ... I've never seen them as bad as Sabres fans.... but there is one thing they truly are, they are bandwagon. If they weren't leading their division and the conference, they would have never packed Philips Arena like they did tonight. Never in a million years. There's proof as well: If you every thought Thrashers fans were bad about yelling "shoot!" "shoot!" when it's the dumbest thing you can say, there were plenty of Sabres "fans" screaming "shoot!" "shoot!" when it was quite obviously the WRONG time... and they kept saying and and saying it. You'd think for a team that's been around a long time... you'd think their fans would know better. Now, there's a logical reason to determine that they are, in fact, a load of bandwagon fans: When the Chicago Cubs come to town, Turner Field turns into Wrigley Field South, no matter how the Cubs are doing - if they are playing well or having a crappy season, they still turn out in droves. However, we've played the Sabres in previous season when they WEREN'T that good; they never turned out in packs like they did tonight. Yes, Atlanta is a city full of transplants, but they all came out of the woodwork tonight... But I've met fans from so many NHL teams, and most of them have been nice, classy, and easy to talk to, but these guys.... are from another planet. You'd think that since many of them are transplants, while they've been in Atlanta, you'd THINK they'd learn at least a LITTLE good 'ole Southern Hospitality, but apparently not. C'mon now, a GROWN MAN giving the bird on the screen? What was he thinking? I'm just glad they are gone for now. They are no better than Mets fans, and well, we all know what Southerners think of Mets fans.

The Thrashers need to go in with the mindset that if we can play THAT well against the Sabres, we can play that well and beat any team at any time. I'd like to see Moose get a start or two on the road trip; Kari is going to need a break, especially with the odd start times that the Thrashers have not had to face yet this season.

Rewind a little bit, to before the game... I walked up to the ticket windows to get my girlfriend a ticket; I asked for $10 ticket, yet the man told me they were sold out... I'm sure there was ONE $10 ticket left... so I had to end up buying a student ticket, which is fine with me...but another $5 I hate to spend... Anyway, as I'm waling back down the sidewalk, 4 or 5 cops on bikes pull up and behind them are several black limos and SUVs. They all pulled up incredibly fast in a very TV or movie like way... there was a huge group of what looked like mostly girls waiting... I thought maybe it was a government official or famous athlete, possibly coming to see the game. Not even close. It was JOHN fucking TRAVOLTA and TIM ALLEN and others walking in to the CNN Center and very quickly into the CNN entrance. I didn't catch a but a very small glimpse of Tim Allen, but I did get a better glimpse of John Travolta. Now, I didn't have my camera with me to prove this, but the image I have in my mind is that he stopped to shake the person's had at the desk at the entrance to CNN. It was all too easy to see that it was in fact Travolta. So, after the crazniess, I went back to where School of Music at GSU where my girlfriend works to give her the ticket... I had left my camera in her car and she happened to have it with her, so I took the camera and snapped a photo of the limos, drivers, and bodyguards. Right after I took the photo, one of the guys was waving at me and yelling at me angerly to not take any photos... well, I left my camera in the car tonight, but I'll certainly post the picture the next chance I get. My girlfriend, her boss, and my mom were highly jealous, to say the least LOL. It was only a very short moment, but I mean, it was fucking John Travolta!

Here's an article from AccessAtlanta.com John Travolta, William H. Macy, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence were in town to promote their new film and motorcycle safety.

The refs were a ultra bad tonight, Sabres fans were assholes, but the Thrashers played an amazing game, picked up a point, and ended the homestand on a high note... Usually when we lose in SO, it's a downer, but tonight I didn't have most of the crappy feelings after the game; it was way too good of a game to feel like crap, win or lose... I wonder what the hell Kovlov was thinking in the SO, that was a weird move, but he and Hossa have been SO good lately, they were bound to eventually not get SO goals.

Well, that's it for now. Because many of the games on the road trip have odd start times, don't expect a post game blog; expect posts to be made the day after or even a day or two after the game; just have to see how it goes. I haven't posted any links to articles in the last few days, so I'll be sure to get back on track with that starting tomorrow...errr. well make that later today...

Don't despair just yet, Thrashers fans... the season isn't over yet... we seem to have a lot of fans that are hard on our team... I guess here in Atlanta we expect the very best... the Braves have only been making the playoffs since 1991.... except last season, but still... if we play like we did tonight, we have a great chance to not only make the playoffs, but go deep into the playoffs. It's not over till the fat lady sings... we just need to make the playoffs and that I am confident we can do. Stay positive as you can, I can understand the frustration and how hard it is to stay positive, especially when we failed against the Flyers twice... but even so, that's the magic of sports...the worst teams can beat the best, the best can beat the worst on any given night. That's how it goes.

Let's go Thrashers!!!!!

Philly's Bitch

2007-02-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

I don't even know where to begin or what to say. The night started off so well... we were first in line at the doors. Now, to the right there are a set of doors that on rare occasions Philips Arena secuirty opens up for larger crowds... well, last night, they opened the doors, but it was only for a special group attending the game; they didn't put up the barriers like they normally do when the open the door for the general public. Well, they let the special group in, and behind them regular fans started lining up. The special group was allowed in, but fans that thought they were opening it for a line were sadly mistaken. They bitched, the complained, and it pissed me off because we'd been there for hours and hours waiting... but they made it clear that it was not a normal line. Oh, they were steaming mad, but the secuirty guys did the RIGHT THING and closed the entrance after the special group was let in. Those folks had to go all the way to the back of the line. I told the security guys later that it was great they did the RIGHT thing. Then, for some reason, they thought they could just cut in line in front over others by forming a line off to the side of ours...but the line went all the way back way the hell into CNN Center...so I'm not sure who those folks though they were, but that was incredibly ignorant and stupid. A few kids complained to the security guards, but there was nothing they could do. Nonetheless, Sam and I were first in as we seem to always be... we grabbed our Kovy statues, ran up to Spin N Win, and low and behold I won free Thrashers tickets. Anyway after Spin N Win, we went over to Headlines Grill. I had tickets in 305 row P, but this view was much better. We were lucky as hell to get a spot right up on the stools to watch the game. If you aren't in the arena first and basically haul ass there, you won't ever get a spot. Anyway, we had a great view from Headlines Grill. Some lawyers tried to ask us for our seats, but it was obvious to me they were not there as Thrashers fans or even to enjoy hockey... they were there to socialize and talk lawyer bullshit. There was no way we were moving.

Tied 1-1 after the first.... no big deal...
Leading 2-1 after the 2nd... things were looking good, we played well during the 2nd period...
The third period, however, was a totally different story. We imploded. We self-destructed. I have nothing nice to say about it. I am incredibly numb... I just sat there in a trance... I could not believe what was going on...The first place Thrashers losing to a team with HALF the amount of points we have is playing TWICE as good as we were, at least in the third period. The Thrashers are the Flyers bitch.... apparently everyone else in the NHL can beat them...except us. Losing to a last place team in front of a huge, sold out crowd on a Saturday night sure does not hold well with your casual fan; they sure aren't going to want to come back after seeing that.

And by the way, that goal that was reviewed for a long time... since we were behind the goal... from the looks of it, yes, it was played with a hick stick... it looked to me like there was no doubt it was above the cross bar of the goal...but they called it a goal.

The goal that the Thrashers had that was not counted because the net became dislodged.... that was some pure bullshit right there. It was a goal in every way... so the Thrashers did get fucked twice by some bad calls, but even that is no reason or excuse for us to play that way.

Now, if we come out Tuesday and somehow, someway get a W against the Sabres... then I'll feel a lot better. I have a feeling though that the game won't be heavily attended on a Tuesday night, especially after last night's horrible disaster.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Thrashers more than life itself... I know, I know its a sick obsession, but hey, it's better than crack... when you like something so much and they fail right in front of your eyes, it's hard to take. As much as I believe and want to believe and in my heart I still believe, and we're still in 1st, Tampa is slowly but surely crawling back up there... I want to believe, but after losing twice to the Flyers... at home... to a last place team... at least at the moment, it is hard to believe, as much as I want to... it just takes it out of you. If we get a W on Tuesday, that all might change, but at the moment I'm trying to pretend I was never there.

I do want to thank Philips Security, however, for doing the RIGHT thing and making those fans go back into their line. It's a big fuck you to the fans who've been waiting for hours and hours all afternoon and then open up another set of doors to let people who haven't been waiting NEARLY as long in the building and get in the front of a line. It's morally and ethically wrong; but they did the RIGHT thing and closed the doors backup. I told them thanks and I know they appreciated the thanks, especially with all the bullshit they probably put up with from those complaining about it. I don't know why people think they are better than everyone else or why they think they have some special privilege to just be let in when others ahead of them have been waiting much, much longer.

I'm glad we don't have to play the Flyers any more or deal with their obnoxious fans. There was a group in front of us in the seats with stickers called "Mens Night Out"... I'm guessing it was some sort of wedding party or something... but every time someone scored, they ALL got up, and were exchanging money in some sort of betting thing... but they would NOT sit down... but those of at the Headlines Grill bad wouldn't have, we told them to sit the fuck down and finally they did... but man, they were just to ignorant and worried about their stupid betting to sit down so others could see the game.

There should be mandatory class for those who've never or rarely been to an arena called area etiquette 101: When to sit, when to stand.

That's all for now. I'm to sick to my stomach after the game to rant and rave and single out players right now. I just want to pretend it never happened and hope for the best on Tuesday.

I'll get back to posting articles during the week; I'm in no mood at the moment...but I had to vent about the game. Let's just pretend it never happened.

Feburary 2nd, 2007

2007-02-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

Thrashers vs. Islanders 1/1/07

I'm still numb from tonight's loss. Granted it was a much better game than the final score indicated, but man. Another Carolina loss, another chance to gain ground... gone. We tied the game 2-2 and then gave up the lead only moments later. Ouch. Kovy seemed to try to do too much.
But the night didn't star off well. My girlfriend's dad got 4 tickets to the club side of the arena tonight, 105 rows B and C. Talk about some nice seats. Well, they had four tickets and they were all there. I was thinking they could just bring a ticket out to me, but little to my knowledge, they mark the tickets and apparently stamp your hand. There's really no way around it. I didn't think it'd be that hard to sneak over there, but I was wrong. But I can't get mad a Philips for doing that; it's in their own best interest. But there's no denying that I was quite disappointed to say the least; I didn't get to spend time with my girlfriend and her family not to mention experience the finer side of Philips Arena. Oh well. I did however manage to (you never heard this from me) sneak down and sit with my friend Jordan about 3 rows up close to the right side of the Islanders bench... so I did get to sit in a nice location tonight, but I still felt left out... and it bummed me out the entire night.

I guess Dunham came into the game with one mindset: to beat his old team. And he did. I think had Hossa made that penalty shot the momentum of the game would have been totally different and probably gone our way. But that's hockey... it can be the worlds most frustrating game... and we had our chances, we just didn't capitalize. In the playoffs we simply cannot afford to play this way.

There's no doubt that Saturday night is a pretty much a must-win for the Thrashers. We have to beat the last place Flyers. If we don't... I'm not sure it can get worse than that.

We better turn things around Saturday night. Tuesday will be our biggest test this homestand against the Sabres. We'll see. But tonight the boys looked tired. And speaking of tired, so am I.

I gave my girlfriend my camera tonight to take pictures from her seats... here are a few good ones.

Doing A Good Deed - Buying Hockey Tickets? Autsim Awarness Night

2007-01-31T23:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right. As I'm sure... or at least hope so... Thrashers fans know that our Team Captain Scott Mellanby is part of a group called Athletes Against Autism. Even though it doesn't seem to be marketed heavily or widely known, this Saturday night against the Flyers... again... is Autism Awareness Night. Proceeds from these tickets sold go go the Athletes Against Autism foundation and are available at a DISCOUNT. Keep in mind this game is nearing sell out capacity already, there will be standing room only, more than likely. However, the tickets ARE discounted and I'd like to do all I can to help the Thrashers promote this meaningful event. Even though I'm a season ticket holder, it's usually never too hard to find two seats next to each other, but at sellouts its impossible, and I didn't want to have to search for two seats, so I do have my single season ticket for sale if anyone is interested.

DISCOUNTED Tickets prices are:

$86 seats for $79
$55 seats for $48
$28 seats for $21

So you get a good deal and it goes to a good cause... not to mention the Thrashers are going to want revenge badly against the bottom-feeder Flyers... and of course it's also Kovy player statue night... so get there EARLY if you want one.

There aren't many tickets left, so get them while you can...

Thrashers Annual Autism Awareness Night brochure / order form (.PDF)
"Join the Thrashers for Autism Awareness Night on Feb. 3rd"

Note: In regards to my posting about Chief, I still plan to do so but I will hold off on that until this weekend; I want to do it right and have time to think it out... but I will post it this weekend.

January 31st, 2007

2007-01-31T22:50:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "Limelight hides grinders' burises"
AJC.COM - "Big homestand continues"
Yahoo! Sports -"Rare bird reserves Atlanta's fortunes"
Yahoo! Sports - "Inside Dish"

Thrashers Thrashings - Seen under "News" on the Thrashers homepage!!

2007-01-31T01:23:00.000-05:00

- Thrashers Thrashings was used on Thrashers home page under the "News" section as the second item. As you can see, the image used was none other than a tiny screen shot of Thrashers Thrashings! This is the actual image from the homepage itself.

SCREENSHOT - Thrashers Thrashings used on Thrashers homepage!!

January 31st, 2007

2007-01-30T23:47:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! Sports - "The South Has Risen"
AJC.COM - "Coburn still sits"
AJC.COM - "Power play, Lehtonen down Devils"
AJC.COM - "Thrashers Horde Points by Beating Devils"
TSN.CA - "Thrashers edge Devils in a shootout"
ESPN.COM - "Hossa, Thrashers win battle of division leaders"
FOXSPORTS.COM - "Kovalchuk's pair lifts Thrashers"
SCREENSHOT - ESPN.COM - "Thrash Money"

Thrashers vs. Devils 1/30

I'll start off by saying I have a special affinity with the New Jersey Devils. I once "dated" a Jersey girl. She was and still is a huge Devils fan. Well, every time the Thrashers get a W against the Devils, I like to stick it in her face, usually by making sure she sees a picture of the final score. I try to make it subtle but I do it good fun. But it always feels a little bit extra special when the Thrashers win over the Devils. Tonight was no different. It was good to see Sutton back on the ice; our D looked a lot better. Kovy nearly had a hat trick but I'll take two goals from Kovy any night! These are also my favorite kind of Thrashers games - weekday games where the crowd is smaller and you can always find a pair of good seats to sneak into.

I still don't know how that puck went over the line in the SO past Brodeur. But I'll take it - whatever works! Despite my hatred of the Devils, I do respect and am a big fan of Brodeur, so a little piece of me always feels bad for him when something like that happens. Neither ESPN's or TSN's video highlights have the video of that part of the SO, so I'm hoping to see it in the Thrashers video highlights when they come online in the morning.

But tonight was good. I look back at the Flyers game and realized that had we beat them, and we should have, we would have been up TEN points tonight rather than 8. But somehow, some way Toronto... yes the Maple Leafs... beat up on Carolina 4-1. I don't know how nor do I care... I'm glad they lost and we won and were able to gain a bit more comfort room in the standings.

But the story of the night was having Sutton back. It was a big confidence booster for the team and I hope it just gets better.

On a side note, in regards to the Thrashers Blog Night, there is a posting on the Thrashers main homepage and a posting in Blueland Blog from both Ben the Web Guy and also from the Fan Correspondent, so we're all over the place. Since I'm in the photo, you can see me on both pages too. I feel special being on the Thrashers home page... it's an honor to say the least. I hope another Blog Night is already being planned!

Now you know putting Kovy in the SO wasn't the best idea. He never scores in the SO... granted he hasn't had a chance in the SO in quite a while so I don't blame Hartley for giving him the rare chance... but you just knew he wasn't going to score. But he is excused, so to speak, with his two goals tonight.

Tomorrow...well make that later today.... look for a post about Chief. Anybody who is a Thrashers fan should know Chief... yes, the same Chief that will be honored this year by the Braves for attending 755 games. He's just as loyal to the Thrashers. I'd like to honor Chief myself with a post about him. It's a rarity that we don't talk up some hockey and other sports before Thrashers games. I could go on and on about Chief, but he'll get his own write up sometime later today.

Lastly, and as a kick in the ass to the state of New Jersey, tonight during the Family Feud game with J-Bird, which was being done directly behind us, I yelled and yelled "the smell" as one of the things most popular about Jersey... and, yes, it was right up there in the top of the popular things about NJ. It was all too funny.... yet sad but true.

What's with this schedule...we don't see certain teams all year but we see the Islanders twice in a period of six days? Where's the guy that made the NHL schedule? He needs a good kick in the rear.

We are supposed to have tickets on the suites side of the arena for Thursday's game - it's been a long time since I've sat there... my dad, may he rest in peace, used to always get us tickets there, but that was years and years ago. We are supposedly sitting in row B and C...right near were Lil John and other celebs usually sit. I'm hoping that maybe the one time Lil John attends a game that it will be Thursday... I have no idea if he'll be there, but he'll be all too close to not try to say hello if he's there. I'll have my camera ready either way! BRING ON THE ISLANDERS!!!!..... again.....

January 30th, 2007

2007-01-30T14:16:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "Thrashers' specialists founder"
AJC.COM - "League news that impacts the Thrashers"
ESPN.COM - "Foppa can still help a team, so will your fav land him?"

SCREENSHOT: Thrashers Blog Night on Thrashers homepage:

SCREENSHOT: Thrashers Blog Night on Blueland Blog

SCREENSHOT: (NHL.COM) Frozen Moment from Thrashers vs. Flyers

Frozen Moment from NHL.COM

January 29th - Links

2007-01-29T17:29:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "Bettman confident Thrashers are stable"
AJC.COM - "Special-teams woes pile up in tough loss"
AJC.COM - "Sutton's healthy, but is the power play?"
ESPN.COM - "All-Star Game draws measly 0.7 rating on Versus"
ESPN.COM - "Teams will be looking for defense, depth at center"
Thrashers vs. Flyers 1/28

Instead of just posting links, photos, and videos, since I am at every game and season ticket holder, and since this is a blog, I will try my best to now incorporate my original idea for this blog as well as continuing to post links, photos, and videos.

What an extremely frustrating game. Bettman in the house, on national TV, against a last place bottom feeder, in front of a sold out crowd, not to mention it was Thrash's birthday with a billion kids in the house. This certainly did not give these kids any good Thrashers memories other than the local area mascots on hand for entertainment. Heck, even the Gladiator's mascot Maximus came to give me a hug and watch my spin at the Spin N' Win. That was perhaps the most exciting moment of the game... or perhaps it was the sweet posters we were given by our "Hockey Mom" from several seasons ago.

Maybe the Flyers were bound to finally get a win... but not at the expense of the Thrashers, not at sold out "nationally" televised game! Say it isn't so! Perhaps their goalie was just having a good night... we did have a million opportunities and just could not convert on a damn thing. The Flyers were trying to GIVE us goals with as many penalties as they took, including one 5 on 3 situation, which is usually an automatic gimme goal... but no, the Thrashers couldn't come up with one even on a two man 'vatage. Talk about wanting to bang your head against the wall! To top it off, Carolina had lost and lost bad the previous night 7-3 and it was the PERFECT opportunity for the Thrashers to pick up another 2 points on the lead... against the last place Flyers...but no. And of course, when it comes to the Thrashers losing, it always seems to be heartbreakers. The last normal loss was that game against Montreal. But it seems like every loss comes at the last moments of the game... in a nail biter. The Flyers scored with little more than a minute left. Ouch! We hit the post, we had plenty of chances, but we don't crash the net. No one is there to bring it home. I knew who ever scored the next goal was going to win and I just had a bad feeling it wasn't going to be us... and man, I was right. But at least we didn't lose any ground.

It was cool to see the new All-Star logo and see Bettman in the house, but we embarrassed ourself in front of the Commish! Lose to a last place team in front of the NHL Commissioner, a billion little kids, a national TV audience, and against a last place team! Could you get any worse? It's Monday and it still stings. But I'll get over it.

Hopefully we'll get back to Ws this week... if nothing else, there is lots of hockey to look forward to this week... games Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at Blueland. And Saturday is the Kovy player statute giveaway, you better bet I'll be there extra early to get in line for them.

All for now.

January 27th - Links I

2007-01-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "A to-do list for Bettman"
SCREENSHOT: NHL.COM - (Thrashers vs. Islanders 1/26)"Thrashers edge the Islanders in OT"
SCREENSHOT: SI.COM - (Thrashers vs. Islanders 1/26) "Bouncing Back"
Thrashers Blog Night Group

January 27th - Blog Night Articles, Photos, and Press Conference Video

2007-01-27T02:00:00.000-05:00

AJC.COM - "Metropolit leads breakaway life"
AJC.COM - "Hossa won't be stopped by leg injury"
AJC.COM - "Coburn sits as McCarthy returns"
AJC.COM - "Lineup changes after the break"
AJC.COM - "Thrashers realize goal's still far away"
THRASHERS BLOG NIGHT PHOTO ALBUM
(NOTE: Be sure to click on each photo for the full size image)
THRASHERS BLOG NIGHT POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO
This says it all: Kovy, Hossa, and Havelid celebrate Kovy's OT winner

Thrashers Blog Night: The Recap

2007-01-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Towards the end of the 3rd period, with the scored tied, the game was way too intense... as I had predicted, another nail biter... the game went into OT and the Thrashers were rescued by Kovalchuk in OT with a huge shot past former Thrashers goalie Mike Dunham.

The hardest part of the entire night was the fact that being in the press / media box, you aren't supposed to cheer, yell, or jump up. That was near impossible. It's a natural reaction - as natural as breathing air. You just do it.

However, the biggest surprise of the night wasn't Kovalchuks goal. The biggest surprise was the fact that Hossa came back out to play in the 3rd period. He went down and went down hard after slamming into the boards. He was down for quite a while. The trainer went out to help... but Blueland cheered him on with the HOSSA! HOSSA! cheer and the crowd erupted when he got up. I thought man, this is devestating, he might be out for a month if not more... it looked bad. But no, he comes back in the game in the third and on top of that scores 19 seconds into the 3rd period. I told my fellow Blog Night Bloggers that, win or lose, the best thing that happened tonight was Hossa coming back out. Win or lose, that was the best news of the night.

So, to recap the night - We met outside the Philips Arena security entrance. We were given media credentials for the game... an all too cool token / souvenir for the experience. We were taken up to the 9th floor, which is where all of the TV, radio and print media are. We were taken to the upper area of the media seats... which might be high up, but have one HELL of a view. Remember when you used to play NES Hockey (still, by far, the best hockey video game ever made... you know it's true!) how you had an overhead view? The view from the press box area is as close to that as you can get. You can see plays develop... you can tell how plays will go before they even happen... not to mention awesome picture opportunities. You are about as high up as the highest seats in the building, but you are much closer to the ice than the seats.

During the first intermission, I had to use the restroom. I don't know if you call it luck, weird, or... well I'm not sure how you describe it... but I had the honor and privilege of taking a leak next to Mr. Billy Jaffee, former Thrashers play by play announcer, now commentating for the Islanders. With the Thrashers up 3-1, he didn't sound to pleased, but did mention (eerily) something along the lines of the Islanders being able to come back... and come back they did.

After the OT, we were taken down to the post game press conference. It's quite small press conference room... come playoff time, they'll need to make it about 10 times the size! The back drop is something I'd like to hang up in my room. Who needs wallpaper or posters when you can have a Thrashers / NHL backdrop? You can pretend to be in your own Thrashers post game press conference every single day!

After the short but sweet press conference (I took video and I will have it uploaded on YouTube shortly....)

After the press conference, we were taken into the locker room. Note there is a dressing room and a locker room. The dressing room door was open, and I noted that it "might be a bit intense for the females"... most of them turned their heads to see the glimpse of the Thrashers players getting changed out of their game gear. They were humorously told to close the door. We were able to take pictures of the locker room and a few players came in and out while we were there...but Kari did not make an appearance - I was hoping he would because my girlfriend has a SLIGHT obsession with him... which is all good with me.

The entire night went by so fast, it was such an experience, an experience I hope that they will soon again have. It all went by so fast. I've never been to a game where it all seemed to go by so fast.

I want to thank Ben, the Thrashers Web Guy, for inviting us all and taking us around tonight. It was something I'll never forget. It was also really cool to meet all the other bloggers. If I could do that every night, I would. If I could do that for a living, you'd bet I'd be there every night.

No other sport lets you get that close or have these kind of opportunities. It's too difficult to put the experience into words. Right now it all seems like a blur.

I couldn't have asked for a better night... Ok, well, after the Islanders tied it up after being up 3-0, it was a bit heart wrenching and an emotional drain after being on a 3-0 "high". But a win is a win, as a I heard at least a few of the players say.

If the Thrashers had Blog Night every night, I'd be there. I don't think most bloggers were trying to do a play by play, blogging live sort of thing... it was way more difficult to do that I thought... if someone is able to blog / write a play by play as it happens while watching the game and typing at the same time... you'd have to be superman... so if you read the actual postings of the game, good luck making most of it out... to be honest, there was no really good way to prepare for it. It's too hard to pay attention to the game and blog... you can't turn your head for a second or you'll miss something!

But this is a prime example of what makes blogging what it is and why it's become the biggest thing since the TV... ok, maybe not, but close enough to it! If this was a hockey city up north, there'd be a line wrapped around the building for even a CHANCE to experience something like this... so I'm thankful as can be to take part in this sort of experience.

Thanks again to the Thrashers for letting us do this and especially to Ben, the Web Guy, for being our guide.

Pictures and video of the post game conference are coming next!

To the Press Conference!

2007-01-26T21:58:00.001-05:00

We are now headed down to the post game press conference, I'll report back from home...

End of the Third Period...

2007-01-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

It's all come down to this with the score tied 4-4 and 4:43 left in the game....

too intense now to blog the rest of the game, ill report the final after this last 4 mintues... still tied..