AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 18
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Timing is everything
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The last couple days there’s been a lot of debate over the AJC headline after two games, “Do you believe in debacles?” Bob Hartley expressed his displeasure to the trio of AJC writers here in New York on Tuesday. He said he wasn’t sure what debacle meant, but didn’t think it was the appropriate word after two close games.
Now let’s jump ahead to this morning’s meeting with the media. Bob Hartley had just finished his scrum, when Jeff Schultz pulled Hartley aside and explained to him that Tuesday’s 7-0 loss, now that was a debacle.
Hartley laughed, and joked that he thought about calling Schultz sometime during the third period to say the same thing.
Schultz then says, ‘We should have saved that headline for Tuesday’s game.’
Bob’s answer? “It’s all about [expletive deleted because this is a family blog] timing.”
Ain’t that the truth? Timing hasn’t exactly been on the Thrashers side. Game two was a bad time to give up a flukey goal. And game three certainly wasn’t the time to play your worst collective game of the season.
To get his team ready for tonight’s game, Hartley reminded them of a couple things. First, the Red Sox beat a New York team after dropping three straight, to go to the World Series. Does anybody know if Curt Schilling can forecheck?
His other point is kind of valid - all season long, this Thrashers team has been streaky. They’d follow a few losses with a winning streak. If anybody can come back and win four straight, Hartley said this morning, it’s this team.
While everybody is counting the Thrashers out, and I’m not saying I am, but I just canceled my hotel room reservation in New York for game six, Johan Hedberg had a pretty determined look on his face this morning. He’s ready to go, and said if they can just turn things around for one game, they’re back in this thing. It might be a little late for that though.
I will say this though - for as bad as the team played on Tuesday night, the players didn’t duck the media after the game. They were accountable for their horrible play and deserve credit for that. Ilya Kovalchuk, who isn’t exactly known for hanging around long after games, stayed and answered questions for as long as he was needed. So did Marian Hossa, Tkachuk, Lehtonen, Holik, everybody. That’s a credit to the team and the PR staff.
One last thought. Sean Avery, who has clearly accomplished everything he’s set out to do so far in this playoff series, was asked after the game if he was happy to take the trade off when both he and Kovalchuk were sent to the penalty box in the third period.
Here’s what he told John Dellapina, who had this quote in today’s Daily News: “Not really, not right now, would you [take that trade-off]? he said. “I’d rather have me on the ice than him.
And that’s what this series has come to.
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