AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 14
Friday, March 14, 2008
Who Were Those Guys In The Blue Jerseys?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who were those guys out there wearing Thrasher Blue…and just what in TAR-nation did they do with our Thrashers???
Thursday night Atlanta welcomed home the Flames, now of Calgary, and played arguably the most exciting game of the year…at least the most exciting in a long loooooooong time!
Down 2-0 after the first period and then 3-zip 2:45 into the second, thanks in part to a pair of goals by Jerome Iginla, the Thrashers put a little giddy-up in their game and worked the best 35 minutes of hockey they’ve played in many, many moons!
They skated hard, won loose pucks, strung together tape-to-tape passes, actually put actual shots on goal and put some physicalitization into their game, (yeah, it’s a new word…just came up with it). Why in the second period alone the Thrashers out-shot the Flames…sit down for this…15-8. Yes, fifteen shots on goal in just one period!
Ilya Kovalchuk put on his Superman cape and performed a hat-trick in Philips. His first goal put the Thrashers on the board, after falling behind by three, and it was followed up just 19 seconds later by a Colby Armstrong tally to pull them to within one.
After falling behind 4-2, Superchuk then continued his night’s work with a second goal. Halfway though the third Chris Thorburn then muscled his way toward the Flame goal and pulled the team even at four!
From there, Bobby Holik took a Kovy pass and nailed the eventual game winner with 3:47 left in the game and Blueland was a-bouncin’!!
Ilya sent hats flying to the ice with 61 seconds left, taking advantage of a goal-mouth that had been vacated by Calgary keeper Curtis Joseph!
That’s right folks…A real-life, honest-to-goodness, USDA Grade-A, top-choice regulation-style win! The first since a 2-0 victory in Washington on February 2, (yes of this year)…and the first in Atlanta since a 4-1 plastering of Pittsburgh on January 30, (YES of this year)!
It was a great effort by the home team of today over the home team of yester-year! Nicely done Thrashers!!!
Levenson Speaks
Bruce Levenson was interviewed by 680-The Fan’s John Kincade Thursday afternoon, (and, no, he didn’t call him a smart-a~~). Here is a quick run-down of some of the discussion topics:
Levenson corrected his “misstatement” regarding the Thrashers having the lowest ticket prices. Instead, he said the team had “among” the lowest in the league…bottom eight or so…and their goal was to build it up to be somewhere near the middle of the pack.
When asked, “What went wrong” with the season he said it was a “team effort”…front office, team, Don, himself. I don’t think anyone would argue that fact.
But the one thing I found most interesting was his denial that Brad McCrimmon was offered the head coaching gig earlier in the season. Instead he disclosed that Don talked him into staying behind the bench even though the original plan was to have Waddell coach 15 or so games then hire a new head coach. He indicated that he wished he would have over-ruled him, saying that “coach and GM should not be the same person”. - (DUH5).
And Finally
It was awesome to meet Tony C. and Nix last night along with the handful of “lurkers”…you know who you are.
