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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Playoffs a breath of fresh air for Philips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Thursday night we begin the purification. Thursday night we leave behind winless streaks and losing streaks and second-rate goalies with third-rate groins and plus-minus statistics that defy logic (Yannick Tremblay: minus-42?).
A playoff game.
By the hockey team.
In Philips Arena.
“I’m getting nervous,” said the general manager, Don Waddell, who is experiencing this for his first time in nine years (seven seasons) of employment. “It feels like opening night in first season.”
Remember that night? Patrik Stefan, the franchise’s first draft pick, sets up Kelly Buchberger, the team’s first captain, for the team’s first goal. New Jersey scored four (the game-winner: by Bobby Holik).
First game. First loss. Sixty would follow.
Breathe in.
Light a candle.
Open the chakras
They are here. The Thrashers played 82 games this season and, finally, their next appearance isn’t the front row of the draft. Thursday night, they play an 83rd game. They have won a division title. They don’t necessarily need a playoff series win over the New York Rangers to validate that. But why stop now?
This city hasn’t had any pro team in the postseason since the Braves lost the divisional playoffs to Houston in October of 2005. It has been 18 months. Last year, the Braves lost the division. The Falcons lost their heads. The Hawks just continued to lose.
The Thrashers suddenly are our crowning jewel. Who knew?
Thursday night, we cleanse, in the most unlikely of venues. Philips Arena has never hosted a playoff game, unless you count Arena League football, which we don’t. Can we assume the ghosts are gone? Does negative energy just dissipate like that?
“It can linger,” Diane Garner said.
She is an ordained minister, an “energy facilitator” and store manager of “Synchronicity” in Roswell, a sort of metaphysical boutique of books and incense.
“I’ve actually been to a few hockey games,” Garner said. “I went to a couple of Thrashers games, and once I was at a minor-league game in Omaha, Nebraska. I almost got hit by a puck. But it hit the guy behind me.”
Good karma.
So there must be something to this. Diane does cleansings. For $125 (plus mileage), she offered to drive down to Philips Arena to, as she said, “help get rid of that negative energy and allow the positive energy to enter the room.”
It should be noted that $125 was actually quite a deal, considering that’s usually the cost for a house, not a sports arena. Unfortunately, I could not get my editors or Waddell to pick up the cost.
“We’ll skip that,” Waddell said. “I believe we’ve already started our cleansing this year and it will continue with the first playoff game. There’ll will be many more to come for both franchises.” (He was alluding to also the Hawks. Either he was being a good Atlanta Spirit team player or he needs more than just a cleansing - he needs oxygen.)
Nonetheless, Carner was ready to go to work. The healing process would involve a “saging.” She would burn white sage to “cleanse the area.” Doorways are particularly important. Goal creases couldn’t hurt, either.
“You invite the positive energy to come in and remain,” she said. “You send the negative energy up to the light.”
The light?
“It’s what we call the universal source. We send the negative energy to the light and then call in all of the archangels.”
Archangels?
“Yeah. It’s sort of like that movie. You know, the baseball movie.”
Angels in the Outfield?
“That’s the one. That’s one my favorites.”
I spent $3 on some sage. For the record, I waved it in front of TurboTax Tuesday night and it didn’t help.
The Thrashers are on their own. But they are here, finally. They are here, after so many draft picks and expansion picks and free agents that nobody else really wanted.
Breathe out: eight goalies in the first three seasons. Breathe in: Kari Lehtonen and Johan Hedberg.
Breathe out: Martin Prochazka, Kamil Piros, Ed Ward. Breathe in: Marian Hossa, Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov.
At last, a trade deadline wasn’t used to help stock another playoff team. Prospects left but Alexei Zhitinik and Keith Tkachuk arrived.
Nobody has waited longer or endured more than Waddell.
“I’m a big believer that things happen for a reason,” he said. “Some things you just can’t explain. But this is what we had in mind, to be here from day one and have this dream and be able to live it out.”
A playoff game, by this team, in this arena. Let the cleansing begin.
Permalink | Comments (118) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Don’t fire Imus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
He should stay. Otherwise, how will members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team and everybody else know if Don Imus truly has repented?
Yeah, let him stay. Let him continue to do whatever it is he does on his nationally syndicated radio show that is simulcast by a cable network.
Let him demonstrate that he isn’t the same guy who once called noted African-American journalist Gwen Ifill “a cleaning lady” and former African-American Secretary of State Colin Powell “a weasel” before referring to the African-American players on the Rutgers women’s team as “nappy-headed hos.”
Let him stay, because unless you fire all of the rappers who use those same vulgar terms, you can’t fire Imus.
Just let nature take its course, which it already has with this Imus thing. Noted personalities such as Cal Ripken Jr., have canceled scheduled appearances on Imus’ show. Plus, advertisers are leaving quicker than a Rutgers’ fastbreak.
Staples, Inc.
Procter and Gamble.
Now the folks at Bigelow Tea say they’re on the verge of bolting.
Let him stay, all right, because he already has his tongue out the door.
Permalink | Comments (233) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
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