AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April
April 2007
Socks and underwear
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, guys, we got socks and underwear for Christmas.
All the waiting, all the dreams, all the expectations. Finally get to open that big, shiny box.
Socks and underwear.
Thanks?
Talk about anti-climactic. This isn’t how I envisioned things going down. And the sad thing is, we can’t even blame it on inexperience. The inexperience was in the franchise, not in the personnel. We had seasoned veterans, Cup winners, pros.
I’m not going to pore over the details. We know the score. Hossa. Lehtonen. Hartley. We’ve dissected them to death over the past week. The team picked a poor time to come out of its shell. Too little, too late. They played well tonight, but it was too late.
I’m not going to lambaste anybody here. Nor am I going to give a too-quick sentimental ‘thanks for the memories.’ This will burn in overnight. The sudden withdrawal of playoff fever. Maybe the guys deserve a pat on the back, maybe now more than ever. But I’m just going to wait. Give ‘em a pat in a day or two.
We’ve got plenty of time to hash it out, beginning with your comments below and continuing until September. We’ll have what-ifs until the thunder stops. A bottomless cup of should-haves.
For now, I’ll just remember the old days when we used to say, “I just wish we’d make the playoffs.”
But next year, I want more than socks and underwear.
Permalink | Comments (144) | Post your comment |
In-game blog …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
END OF SECOND
Well, we had the mo’ and then we lost the mo’. This game could still go in any direction, but the Thrashers can never build on anything. Our goal was one of perseverence; Lundqvist made two great saves, but the puck popped out to de Vries, and I have no idea how he got it through all those players, but he did.
Moose should have had the Shanahan goal, but I’m not going to get down on him because he has played amazing again. A few stellar saves right before the goal kept the Thrash in it.
The Rangers do NOT want to lose this game, and I would watch for them getting a little tense if this stays close deep into the third. I know they’re in control of the series, but they DO NOT want to come back down here. It’s three days of work they’d rather not have.
I’ll say this for the Rangers, they do pass beautifully.
END OF FIRST
Well, we led for 1:19. That’s something. Friend of mine at the Garden said Thrash looked like they were standing still in the early going. The goal rejuvenated them, I think, but Lundqvist’s save on Mellanby was a bit of a deflater.
1-1 is better than 3-0. I’ll take it.
I predicted 5-2 Thrashers just to fire up my friend up there … and he responded with an IM I can’t even paraphrase here for fear of FCC violations. New Yorkers. Who needs ‘em, right?
Make sure you check out the Schultz story on Hartley.
PREGAME
Thought I’d open up a file for you guys to vent throughout the game ….Since we’re a few hours away yet, let me offer this one thought. Now, I’m not saying this is gonna happen, but sometimes … sometimes … this is what happens in a case like this: The team trailing 0-3 plays so loosely in Game 4 that it actually wins. Guys start playing for themselves, start taking some chances, play with a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude … and suddenly a few breaks go their way.
It’s happened before, that’s all I’m saying. And from the Rangers point of view, what’s the one thing they DON’T want? They don’t want to come back to Atlanta for a Game 5, so wouldn’t that be just the kind of thing that happens, the kind of ‘ugh’ moment most teams have to experience in the playoffs.
All I’m saying is: I would not be surprised to see the Thrashers win tonight.
Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these guys play in street clothes with plane tickets in their back pockets, either. …
So there you have it, my official prediction: The Thrashers may or may not win tonight.
And you can take that to the bank.
Permalink | Comments (58) | Post your comment |
Broadway beatdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those of you who thought Game 2 was an embarrassment, I give you …. Game 3.
Now, THAT’S an embarrassment.
Of course, you guys simply saw the writing on the wall. You saw the potential for embarrassment, and Bob Hartley’s boys delivered. About midway through the first period, I started chanting “Hnlicka! Hnlicka!” because for all intents and purposes, this could have been the 2000-01 Thrashers out there. Zero defense, shaky goaltending and a guessing game of an offense.
Let’s see … Our 100-point scorer hits a guy from behind (for the second time in the series) and remains stuck on, let me re-count them so I don’t get it wrong, zero points. Our former Rocket Richard Trophy winner, with one goal in the series, skates clear across the ice to fight a guy who proudly boasted in the papers that that was exactly what he wants to happen.
Our goalie? Well, I’m not saying Johan Hedberg would have stopped any of those seven goals. Maybe he wouldn’t have. But at least it would have given our coach the option of pulling him. But by screwing around with the starter the way he did, he took that option off the board. And our “franchise goalie” had to be embarrassed in the World’s Most Famous Arena.
And the coach? What more can we say? He brags in the paper about how he likes to be unpredictable, how it keeps the team sharp. Well, my friends, he crossed the line from “unpredictable” to “erratic,” and the team folded like pressed linen. And let’s see, we took three penalties while on the power play, including a too-many-men. Too many men?
Of course this is all in the past, by about 10 minutes now. Let’s look at the future, courtesy of my friend Dolie, who writes:
“So in the last six weeks we’ve traded away two first-round picks from the past few drafts (Coburn and Bourret); traded away our 2007 first-round pick; our ‘07 third; traded away our 2008 second-round pick (in what’s regarded to be the best draft ever); and totally ruined the confidence of our franchise goaltender. thrashers fever — catch it!
I don’t have neither the time nor stomach to go on. I hand the floor over to you.
Permalink | Comments (223) | Post your comment |
Four-step program to recovery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Disheartening stat of the day: Only 37 of 274 teams have come back to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first two games. That’s 13.5 percent. Of those 37, 16 have done it after losing the first two at home. That’s a 6-percent success rate.
However — and you guys know how I like silver linings — it did happen twice just last year. And one of those teams, the Carolina Hurricanes, went on to win the Stanley Cup, as I recall. (Brian, can you confirm that?) In fact, Carolina lost the first two games of the first round AT HOME to Montreal before the mo’ turned in the Hurricanes’ favor.
So, you see? We’re in like Flynn.
Maybe not. But still. Just a little positive spin on a dire situation. Let’s no forget, too, that the Thrashers typically went on some of their longer winning streaks this season immediately after some of their more demoralizing defeats. We know this team has some resilience to it.
I took the Ice Kids to the Cooler today for a few laps at free skate. The comforting swoosh of a thin metal blade gliding on the ice gave me a chance to reflect on the first two games. We had a lot of varied opinions in yesterday’s blog — some well-reasoned and intelligent. Others a little out there. Some, well, just plain sick and twisted.
Here seem to be the general principles to which the Thrashers must abide if they want to get back into this series. Nobody write in and say, “Hey, you clueless idiot, that’s what I wrote yesterday!” I know it’s what you wrote yesterday. I’m summing up the thoughts and ideas generated by you.
Here they be:
Fix the power play. We never really had a great power play this season, but we at least had a power play. This Norman Dale Offense (pass four times before you shoot) isn’t going to cut it. We’ve actually had good movement on the PP, just no shots. And when we do take shots, they’re coming from the perimeter on one-timers and slappers. Like Lance Armstrong says, It’s not about the bike … it’s about the cycle. We’ve got to get a rotation going down low and get some quality inside shots on the PP.
Find Marian Hossa’s manhood. There are whispers in Ottawa that Hossa was one of the main culprits for the Senators’ annual postseason flameouts. I, for one, would like to shut those people up. But to do that, Hossa’s gonna have to get a little more aggressive with the puck. There are few people who make that bullrush from the right side as fearsome as he does. We’ve seen him cut inside defensemen, go around defensemen and turn two defensement into each other. Remember that one time, when he bunny-hopped the defenseman’s stick and met up with the puck on the other side and scored uncontested? That’s what we need to see. He needs to play a little less calculated and with a lot more of that aggressive creativity. I’ve seen defensemen start to weep openly when they see him coming one-on-one.
Forget about Sean Avery for a few minutes. I, for one, liked the way the Thrashers tried to dole out some physical punishment. But I think you guys could be right when you say it took the Thrashers away from their normal game. Heck, even Avery said it. If the opportunity is there to put him down, do it. But the team needs to stop going out of its way for the big hit on the big distraction. That applies most directly to Ilya, whose energy needs to be directed more toward the net.
Better decisions from the D-men. OK, that might be asking a bit much, but they have to try. Zhitnik is rock solid. XLB is what he is, and he’s playing well. And de Vries, though limited in his range of skills, usually makes the right play with the puck. But Sutton, Havelid and Hnidy are killing us with their hesitations and ill-timed passes in the defensive zone. Sometimes they need to be content with just getting the puck across the blue line and regrouping.
So those are four. Feel free to submit your own, and I’ll fax the list up to Hi Bob in NYC.
We’ll make a series of it yet.
Permalink | Comments (123) | Post your comment |
Injustice of Biblical proportions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I
After all, what kind of god would let a team play that hard and allow it to lose on a goal like that? It just makes you sick. It makes you question righteousness and piety and the ethic of hard work.
Of course, then I remember Job. And I think, perhaps this is a test. Perhaps this team just needs to keep playing hard, keep persevering and keep laying those rat bastards on their asses and keep putting the biscuit in the basket. (I don’t think the Bible put it quite like that, but it’s close enough.)
This team must be rewarded for its faith.
And now I shall handle serpents. Stand back. No, really. Farther.
OK, for real, guys. I could throw up. I could. I have never seen a team take it to another team like that and get absolutely nothing out of it. The Thrashers were dizzying with their speed and physical play, knocking bodies down left and right and never backing down from a challenge. The puck kept finding its way onto the Rangers’ sticks, kept bouncing in their favor — no more so than on a pinball goal off the sideboards from 90 feet.
Johan Hedberg played amazing. Amazing. A professional goalie. Unfortunately, so did Lundqvist, who made about four saves that require you to go frame-by-frame on the PVR to see just how he made them.
Even after the Avery goal, the Thrashers never relented. The players on this team have absolutely laid themselves out there. Even though our defensemen continue to make some hideous decsions — I’m talking to you Andy Sutton, Shane Hnidy and Nic Havelid — there isn’t a man on the bench who hasn’t fully commited to this experience.
So what’s going wrong? I think we need look no further than the power play, which is absoutely killing us in this series. One guy in my office suggested the Thrashers just start declining penalties, because their play at 5-on-5 is so superior to their power play. And that, my friends, falls on the shoulders of the coach. There’s too much talent on this team to not be able to diagram and teach an effective power play. We should be automatic with a man advantage, but something isn’t clicking.
What really bothers me is that we’re down 0-2 in this series despite both games being one-goal margins, and the second one being a game that we absolutely dominated. And yet, the smarmy ‘experts’ in the national media will simply write it as being a poor showing from a Southeast Division team, a laughing stock from Atlanta. That’s what bothers me, because this team played as fine a hockey game as you could hope to see in Game 2.
Now the task gets taller than, oh, say, something really tall. A tree. Or a building. Taller than that. A big building. We go to the Garden for two games we must have. It’ll be a zoo. It’ll be terrifying. It’ll be great.
Over? Did you say over? Nothing’s over until we say it is.
So, remember Job, my friends. He scraped Satan’s boils from his skin
Keep the faith, boys.
p.s., if any of you noticed that Scott Mellanby’s name was printed as “Craig Mellanby” in a photo caption in Saturday’s sports section …. a big mea culpa on my part. I wrote it. My only explanation was that I meshed “Scott Mellanby” and “Craig Berube” into one person in one of those inexplicable senior moments. So, no nasty e-mails to Custance. He had nothing to do with it.
Permalink | Comments (144) | Post your comment |
Ye olde switcheroo
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seems like everybody’s thrown their two cents in on this issue already today, enough money to buy myself a gray guitar and play ….
I just engaged three co-workers in a Kari-vs-Moose debate, trying to iron out exactly what I might say in written form. Because this is, after all, a complex argument.
So it went something like this:
Me: Say, what do you dudes make of the goalie switch?
Co-worker 1: Well, doesn’t it basically ….
Me: Whatever, dude! Next!
Co-worker 2: Who’s got the better goals-against average?
Me: What’s that got to do with it, you f-in idiot?
Co-worker 3: Are you really interested in our opinions?
Me: I guess not. Thanks for your help.
So, it wasn’t quite as productive as it could have been. But here’s the best way I can sum up my opinion of this move:
I like it. I think we all wanted Kari to be the next Patrick Roy so badly that we overlooked flaws in his game because of the moments of greatness he displays. He is a very, very, very good young goalie. He can be a franchise goalie someday. But he is not yet. If he had played as good this season as we all wanted him to, this lingering sense of a goalie controversy would have died months ago.
Instead, Kari had so many letdowns over the course of the season that he almost became unreliable. He never took this team by the scruff of the neck and made it his. His grooming as the franchise goalie should have been completed by, say, February. Instead, it got to be April and we were still saying, “We think Kari can rise to the occasion.”
The time for Wishing and Hoping and Thinking is done. And Bob Hartley knows it. He made the kind of decision a serious NHL coach makes. It wasn’t on a whim. It wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to the bad goal in Game 1. It was the culmination of a season-long wait for Lehtonen to emerge as an uncontested No. 1. If anything, Kari’s Game 1 performance helped Hartley shake off his blinders, helped him snap out of the “Kari’s the franchise goalie” trance … to where he could finally say, “If we’re going to beat the Rangers in four of six games, who’s the goalie I trust more?”
The answer for a coach who historically loves veterans was easy. I support it. I think the players support it. If you read between the lines of the player quotes, they all say things like, “Well, Moose is older and has been around” and “Kari will bounce back from this.” In player-speak, those translate to: Kid’s not ready. We’re gonna live and die with experience. And I’ll repeat what I said yesterday: Dying his hair blue did NOTHING to instill confidence in his teammates. If anything, it made them question where his mind was at, and it gave Hartley the ammunition to make this move.
A common question that came up today was: Don’t the Thrashers run the risk of alienating their young goalie and ruining his confidence?
To that I say: If getting benched is going to send the kid into a four- or five- or 15-year pouting funk, then so be it. Then that would be reason enough to make the move now instead of later. It would only prove that he’s not mentally ready.
I hope it doesn’t come to that, obviously.
OK, all that said, now the puck is in Hedberg’s rink. He can make Hartley look like a genius … or he can turn this into a total fiasco.
See you at 3.
Rangers earn Game 1
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Kari Lehtonen decided to just drop that rebound in the crease, leading to the Rangers’ fourth goal, I said to myself, “Self, I hope this doesn’t end up being a one-goal loss.”
Well, sure enough, it was … although, frankly, the Rangers outplayed the Thrashers for most of the night. But that fourth goal is exactly the kind of goal that has been driving us crazy all season. The puck gets up around Kari’s chest, and instead of catching it, he acts like there’s a mosquito buzzing around his chin and swats the puck down to the ice at the side of the net. Easy rebound goal.
And that was the difference.
The Thrashers mounted a tense and furious attack in the final minute, but they spent so much time passing the puck around and then settled for a long shot from the blue line with too much traffic in front of the net. It looked like the Norman Dale offense — pass it off four times before you shoot.
The final scramble was close, but they couldn’t poke one in. And now we have to win four of six. Certainly not undoable, though not preferable. Though the Rangers pretty much controled this game, it wasn’t so dominating that we have to feel like there’s no way the Thrashers can win Game 2. If anything, the way the game played out, it showed that either team could win any game.
On the plus side, I loved Belanger’s goal … but I really loved his casual celebration, as if to say, See guys, no problem. And Dupuis showed again that he comes to play 60 minutes. I thought the physicality was adequate, there were a lot of big hits.
So we clean the ice off and prepare for Game 2. I wouldn’t even begin to suggest that this series is decided after this loss.
Thrashers more than earned it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The reason I feel such a kinship with the Thrashers is because I moved here in July of ‘99, just a few weeks before the charter team converged for training camp. I came here to be the NHL Producer at SI.com over there at CNN Center, thrilled at the idea of being able to walk out of my cubicle, down a flight of stairs, across a food court and into an NHL arena.
I had spent the past two seasons covering the NHL for ESPN.com out of Seattle, which meant a drive to Vancouver just to get a little face time at an actual game. That the Thrashers and I arrived here at the same time brought about an instant relationship. Even though that hodgepodge of leftovers and never-beens was clearly a train wreck, I could tell that the personalties involved were going to make this a nice experience. Kelly Buchberger, Ray Ferraro, Gord Murphy … none of them were going to make an impact in the NHL anymore, but they were good guys to have around. Solid citizens who would never embarrass the team.
I remember driving up to Duluth for one of the first practices. Everybody had different gear bags from their old teams; I remember a Red Wings frame around the license plate on Norm Maracle’s car. I asked Curt Fraser about it, and he said, “Yeah we’re gonna have a big bonfire tonight. All that stuff’s gotta go.”
One of the first exhibition games here was against the Rangers, and it couldn’t have been more surreal. At the morning skate, I remember leaning up against the glass where the Zamboni comes out, watching Brian Leetch and Theo Fleury and Mike Richter skating in Atlanta. It was very, very weird. I interviewed Neil Smith, Fleury and Richter, and Manny Malhotra, whom I really thought was going to be a star for them. We talked about how he had played on a line with Wayne Gretzky the previous season and how it felt weird to have Gretzky be retired now.
Opening night against the Devils was equally surreal, watching Martin Brodeur lead the team onto the ice. And when the Thrashers came out to Little Feat’s “Oh, Atlanta,” I got chills. That song is on my iPod to this day.
The other game that stands out from that year was an early game against Buffalo, which was coming off its bitter defeat in the Stanley Cup finals to Dallas. Patrik Stefan scored twice on Dominik Hasek and we all thought he was going straight to the Hall of Fame. He told me after the game that he had never met Hasek before, which I thought was odd, since Hasek is like a god in the Czech Republic and Stefan was one of the country’s top young stars. “Well, he probably knows you now,” I said, and Stefan laughed. Sadly, that was about the high point here for Stefan, who played a nice game of hockey but was hardly the impact player we thought he’d be.
I went to the All-Star Game in Toronto that season, too. Two words: Petr Buzek. He was our All-Star.
Then the years kind of rolled on by. Every fall, I’d say, this is the year. I like this team. And my friend Dolie would scoff at me and look disdainfully at the roster. The team stayed away from big-name free agents, and a parade of marginal NHL players masquaraded as our marquee players: Andrew Brunette, Donald Audette .. guys like that. Nice players, but not anybody who was going to lead the franchise to greatness.
Then came 15 and 17, like thunderbolts from Zeus’ hands landing on the Philips Arena ice. Suddenly, we saw what NHL hockey could be. From the moment they arrived, they were superstars. And they would have been anywhere, not just in a Southern expansion city. With 15 and 17, there was an air of legitimacy right away.
17 dominated the YoungStars game one year; 15 ruled the All-Star Game the next.
Then the setbacks. Then the tragedy. Goalie troubles like I’ve never seen. Then the lockout. We lose the All-Star Game, but we gain a top-shelf goalie prospect. The the trade, disrupting our imagined future. Then Lehtonen gets hurt, more goalie problems … and we miss the playoffs by two points in what should have been a coming out year.
Which brings us to this moment. And here come the Rangers again. The last team to play a playoff game against the Atlanta Flames will be the first team to play a playoff game against the Atlanta Thrashers. It will again be surreal to see those famous jerseys out there. But it won’t be intimidating. This time, we belong on the ice with them.
Though it be this team’s first playoff game, it has been taking its lumps and paying its dues for seven long, grueling seasons. This team is ready. I’m more than ready.
What are your memories of the early years?
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.
A banner night
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What a great night. A franchise-record for wins, a division championship (if Florida can hold this 6-0 lead) and a smiling Ilya Kovalchuk lighting the lamp.
Didn’t we just know he’d score a goal tonight? And 3:31 into the game … it just proves that the dude can basically score at will. He just needs to find that will a little more often in the very near future.
Folks, this team earned this division title. As a franchise, it suffered through a rough infancy and some unseen setbacks. We had the All-Star Game pulled out from under our feet in the lost season of ‘04-05 and the playoffs jerked away at the last minute last season.
And this grueling stretch run has tested their mental fortitude.
But the rewards are rich. The playoffs will begin right here in Atlanta. The road to the Stanley Cup originates here.
Now for the tough question: Who’s your goalie? I’ll be honest. I could argue it either way. Lehtonen is the franchise goalie. Hedberg has been a supremely clutch player in some of the biggest games of the year.
You might think it’s a no-brainer. But some of you might think it’s a no-brainer for one guy and some of you might think it’s a no-brainer for the other. (I think I know where stendec stands.)
I’ll withhold my opinion. For now.
Showdown at the I.K. corral?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you haven’t see it yet, check out the quote from Ilya in Craig’s story from practice today!
Holy cow! Believe me, that “this year” is intentional. I know Ilya is not a native speaker, but he knows what he’s saying. And, to me, that’s a clear challenge to Monsieur Hartley. Wow. Big-time talk. Hartley praises the OTHER team’s Russian star, and our Russian star responds with, “He’s the coach … THIS YEAR.”
That’s back-page tabloid material in a lot of places. Kovalchuk: Me or him!
Let’s hope this doesn’t fester too long here, because it could be disastrous.
On the other hand, Ilya has a long and well-documented history of coming back from insults with big performances. In fact, knowing hockey coaches as I do, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hartley came INTO the game thinking he’d do something to prod Ilya a little bit just in time for the postseason. Mike Keenan made a science of it, but believe me, most coaches understand the value of pushing the buttons of your temperamental superstar.
So let’s see how this plays out over the next few days … and maybe into the offseason.
Down to the wire
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I guess we’re not surprised, right?
This division race between Atlanta and Tampa Bay will come down to the very last day, on the line is home-ice advantage in a series that just very well might be between those very two teams.
And that would be huge. The fourth game at home could be the difference in the series.
It’s funny, when we looked at the playoff picture a week ago, the general consensus among you guys was that we’d pick up all the points we’d need against Florida and Washington …. and they’re the only teams we haven’t beaten since.
OK, it’s not that funny. In fact, it’s not funny at all.
Wish I had time to write more, but we’ve got Thrash, Braves and Hawks stories all coming in here at the same time.
Let’s hear what you have to say.
No clinching tomorrow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, friends, Tampa Bay is making a race of it, winning Tuesday night against Carolina. Had they lost, Thrashers could have been playing for a banner Wednesday night against Washington.
Looks like this one will come down to the last game of the season.
And I don’t think you’d want it any other way at this point. We’re in the playoffs, and that was the No. 1 goal. Winning the division would be huge and we want it, and now the last game of the season looks to be something of a dogfight. And that’s just what you want going into the playoffs. It’ll be good for the boys to be playing with an edge right to the end.
But I’ll tell ya, that ‘Atlanta-x’ looks awfully nice in the standings, doesn’t it? Think I’ll clip it out of the paper and put it on my computer, inbetween the pictures of Ilya and Goldie Goldthorpe.
The real question is: When are you guys starting your beards? I haven’t shaved in about a week, but I don’t think this is the official playoff beard yet. I need to pick a strategic day, maybe shaving minutes after the game on Sunday … or maybe the day before the playoff opener. The Ice Kid hates it when I’m stubbly, always insisting I shave before she’ll give me kisses. But it’s a bluff, she’ll give me kisses anyway.
But I worry about our guys. We have a lot of baby faces on this team. I can’t picture Ilya looking like Erik Cole a few seasons ago. Exelby has been working on his facial hair all season, but his little moustache makes him look like Adam Morrison’s little brother.
Dupuis and Belanger look like they could get a serious beard going, as could Mellanby (gray, of course). ….
Let’s just hope they’re around long enough to see.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
