AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 07
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Touching moments and a great finale
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m about as manly as it gets. Ladies? Am I right? I’m so manly I sweat Old Spice. I shave with a pair of rusty scissors and wash my face with gravel. I have an old, faded poster of Charles Bronson on the wall behind my table saw in the work room.
But, my friends, I’ll tell you this: I was about two seconds away from sobbing like a 14-year-old girl on the last day of summer camp during the shirt giveaway after the game tonight. I can’t think of a sweeter, more genuine end-of-season ritual … which began with a woman who gave her kidney to a fellow fan requesting the jersey of the longest-tenured player in the Thrashers organization. Her kidney, guys. Peter Forsberg only coughed up his spleen for the game. A kidney is like twice as important as a spleen.
But that’s just how the night was. The fact that we were coming in as division champs just took all the pressure off the game. And these two teams who have been scrapping tooth-and-nail all season just went at it for 65 minutes and several rounds of shootout. It couldn’t have been scripted any better. The overtime was about the most exciting five minutes I’ve seen in a long time. I was standing in my TV room behind the couch, making little squealing noises like a guinea pig trapped behind the oven. And the shootout was match-for-match, Ilya gets clutch, Tampa ties it … Simmer in his cage having perhaps his biggest moment of the season … How good was this stuff. Lehtonen made a diving save with his blocker in the OT which probably ranks in his top five of the season.
And we won. Did I mention that? That was the best part. We won. We beat Tampa as if to say, it’s been a great season and a great season series and a great game between us tonight, but you know what? We’re the division champs, you’re not … and you’re not even going to get the satisfaction of playing us in the first round. Now go. We’re through with you.
Now bring on the Rangers.
Having grown up in NY, I am pumped for this series. We had great success against this team this season, but they are among the hottest teams in the league going into the postseason. It’s going to take an all-out effort to get past them. And as crazy as Philips will be for Games 1 and 2, Madison Square Garden will be an absolute asylum for Games 3 Jaromir Jagr can win whole series by himself, and Shanahan is virtual carbon copy of Tkachuk down low. Their goalie, Lundqvist, is amazing. Kari is going to have stare that kid down from across the ice and say, I’m the future of the league, guy.
What a season. What an experience about to arrive. We’ll have a few days to hash it all out. For now, let’s just exhale and shave for the last time for, oh, say, six weeks or so.
