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DEL.ICIO.USWaddell’s long wait is over
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The last regular-season game of last season found Don Waddell in the corridor of an arena in Sunrise, Fla., gently kicking the wall as he conducted a mournful post-mortem. His Thrashers had been eliminated from playoff contention the night before, this after the general manager himself had guaranteed they’d get in.
“This has been the toughest year,” Waddell said that night. “There was so much pressure to make the playoffs. This is tough to swallow.”
The last regular-season game of this season found the same man giving how-we-did-it interviews from the press level atop Philips Arena. Downstairs vendors were selling T-shirts bearing the word “champions,” and the only GM this franchise has known was looking ahead to the sort of week this franchise has never known — a playoff week, with Games 1 and 2 to be played here.
The Thrashers clinched a playoff berth a week ago. They clinched the Southeast Division on Friday night in Raleigh.
The latter, Waddell said, was bigger. “It means our first playoff game ever is going to be here. The fans have waited seven years for this.” So, it must be said, has Waddell.
When you sign on to oversee an expansion team, there’s no guarantee you’ll be around when success arrives, assuming it ever does. (Curt Fraser, the Thrashers’ first coach, has been gone since Dec. 26, 2002.) Waddell took no small amount of heat for not building a playoff team sooner, but on this triumphant night he noted proudly: “We’re the first team of that last expansion group [which includes Nashville, Minnesota and Columbus] to win a division.”
And they wouldn’t have done it without two bold moves by Waddell, who was criticized last season for not moving boldly enough. He acquired Alexei Zhitnik and Keith Tkachuk ahead of the trading deadline, and their arrival turned a slumping team into a band of believers. “Zhitnik was big,” Waddell said, “but there’s an air about Tkachuk, just from the way he carries himself. Our guys started to think, ‘Management went out and got us this guy.’ “
This might sound like bragging, but it really isn’t. If anything, Waddell has been humbled in nine years on the job. His franchise still hasn’t ingrained itself in Atlanta’s famously fickle consciousness. (There’s a core audience for hockey locally, yes, but still only a core.) He has seen ownership change and the new owners sue one another, and even in this season of arrival the Thrashers’ public profile hasn’t approached that of the Braves in 1991 or the Falcons in 1998 or even the Hawks in 1987.
That said, a prime opportunity is at hand. “Look at this crowd tonight,” said Waddell, speaking of the sellout for what turned out to be a glorified exhibition against Tampa Bay. “We were sold out Wednesday night, and we haven’t sold out many Wednesdays. There’s a good buzz around this team for the right reasons.”
The best guess, however, is that the masses won’t really pay attention until the Thrashers take a series. “If we win a round,” Waddell said, “we’re going to catch on.”
And that would be something to see.
The Thrashers were long past due to play beyond the 82nd game, and now they believe they can play deep into May. “You feel like you’ve been in the playoffs for two years,” Waddell said, “and that could help us. We’ve played so many high-pressure games. … And we’re playing good, and we’ve got a great young goaltender [Kari Lehtonen].”
Whatever happens next, Don Waddell has done his job. He has, finally and mercifully, lifted his expansion team into the postseason. “In my mind,” he said Saturday, “it’s a big sigh of relief.” And then this: “I love this franchise.”
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Mark Bradley, Thrashers / NHL
Comments
By nate
April 8, 2007 8:06 PM | Link to this
HEY, GO THRASHERS. I don’t follow hockey much but I’ll start watching the playoffs since our city is in it. should be fun to watch. still trying to learn the rules. All I understand is, HE SCORES!!!
By John
April 8, 2007 9:38 PM | Link to this
Lets pack the house Thursday and Saturday with Thrashers fans, not NY fans!! Come on Atlanta!!
By Brendan
April 8, 2007 11:06 PM | Link to this
Many good things are going the Thrashers way, Mark Bradley. They’re realtively healthy. They’ve got two (2) 40-goal scorers (Hossa and Kovalchuk). High 20 goal scores in Kozlov and Tkachuk. And guys like Sim and Belanger can certainly score, too. On defense, it’s not just Nic Havelid anyone. The addition of Alexei Zhitnik is a big one. Sutton is playing better now, and Exelby has really poured it on since suffering a bout of mononucleosis. Let’s not forget that Shane Hnidy, $600,000, went from a healthy scratch, to the 3rd pairing, to the top pairing in the span of seven months. Atlanta has “spares” on the blueline, too, in the form of Steve McCarthy and Mark Popovic (Chicago-AHL).
In net, is a solid tandem of Lehtonen and Johan Hedberg. It was “Moose” who was in net in Raleigh when the Thrashers clinched the division. He’s a very capable backup, should Kari falter in any way.
Hartley is a former Stanley Cup winning coach. Don’s got his ring as an assistant GM in Detroit, back in ‘98. Most of Don’s successes have come at the minor league level. He was in Detroit just that one year, I believe. And let’s face it, the Red Wings are a hockey MONSTER. One that was hardly built by Waddell.
But I digress, with other trade deadline acquisitions, like Pascal Dupuis and Eric Belanger, the Thrashers are a much better team now than they were at the end of January. This is cause for optimism. Even more than that. “It’s time to believe in Blueland!”
By Mark
April 9, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
Waddell deserves kudos for reaching this plateau. This team really needs to get after the Rangers.
Funny, the last NHL playoff game played in Atlanta was April 12 1980. Thursday is April 12. The opponent in that 1980 series? The NY Rangers. Time to exorcise some demons…
By Scott
April 9, 2007 2:49 PM | Link to this
All of you bandwagon fans need to stay home. Only the real Thrasher fans need to be in the arena come Thursday night. Seven years of patience is finally going to pay off.
Go Thrashers!