AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 08
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Success: Mild, Medium Or En Fuego?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was gnawing on some wings at a local Taco Mac not too long ago with my two tax exemptions. The younger one asked me if the Thrashers were going to have a successful season this year. The older one was busy trying to act cool by trying to make it seem that the “Death Sauce” he has dipped his wings in was not affecting him in an adverse nature…emphasis on the word “trying”. There were tears coming from his eyes and his face was turning a wonderful shade of fire engine red. Still…he smiled and pushed forward…eating yet another.
Anyway…as I passed another glass of ice water over to the 16-year old, I responded to my 15-year old that I believed this team will do better than most people think, getting somewhere around 86 points…finishing at or near eleventh place in the Eastern Conference.
He quipped back…11th place? 86 points? Does that constitute “success”?
When they get older…they tend to challenge you and you can’t get away with short simple answers. So, I’ll try to ‘splain to you the way I ‘splained it to him, with the aide of some wings and sauce.
But first, let’s look at this from the vantage point of where we left off last season. The record, of course, was 34-40-8 for 76 points…landing the Thrashers in fourteenth place in the east. Those 76 points were better only than the 71 produced by Tampa Bay and Los Angeles.
By any measure, this was un-good…or in the spirit of this discussion, un-success.
Oh sure, some will point out that last year’s failures paved the way for the team to draft Zach Bogosian with the third overall pick last June. And while I happily concede that point, the fact of the matter is that any measure of an organ-I-zation’s success…at any point in its existence…begins and ends with wins and losses. To me, seeing your team’s logo on display during the lottery pick ceremony is the product of failure and should always been seen such…period.
So in my eyes, the base line to measure any success for this coming season is 76 points.
Simply meeting that number…or worse, falling short of it…is failure to the umpth-degree. I don’t care if it increases our chance to win the John Tavares sweepstakes. If we are in that position it means Thrashers fans just suffered through another horrific season. And, in the words of Chief Brody when addressing the Amity Island city council during Jaws II, “I don’t know about you…but I don’t intend to go through that hell again”!
Besides, we could play the “since we won’t win the Stanley Cup, let’s play…or tank it… for the top draft pick” game for the next several years…and what would we have to show for it? Several more years of sucking?
Thank you, but no.
There has to be a time when a team begins a solid, steady march toward respectability. This should have started a decade ago in Atlanta. Some could say it did for about 3 or four seasons consecutively just prior to, then after, the lockout. But any progress, any measurable success, was clearly thrown off the rails last season. So the time to move ahead is now… not after a few more lottery picks make their way to town.
Playing this season and not seeing some type of improvement would be like…like wings with no hot sauce. Just…yeck!
Let’s say, for grins and giggles, that the Thrasher do indeed finish somewhere in the higher range between 77 points and 86 points, (my prediction). I consider that to be a “mild” level of success. Improvement, yes…not enough to realistically contend for the playoffs but just enough, possibly, to show some hope for the future.
Another level of success… call it “medium” success… could be seen if they defy all the dire predictions coming from hockey’s panel of punditry by performing at the level of 87-91 points. This would mean that the team played far better than expected, myself included. It would mean that the Littles and Bogosians of this team proved they are NHL ready and that Hainsey, Williams and Reasoner were far better acquisitions than advertised and that the Schneider trade was as good as most believed.
Is this level of play impossible? No.
Unlikely? Maybe…but not impossible.
However, if…IF… the team were able to play to this level, then it helps the front office make its sales pitch to next summer’s crop of UFAs as well as possibly entice Williams and Reasoner…possibly Schneider… to re-up for another tour of duty in Atlanta.
Lastly, there is a level that can only be classified as “hot” success… no, not just hot…”en fuego”…the equivalent of the “Death Sauce” the older boy was trying to handle.
Some might say this level of success would not just defy expectations or the odds… it would seemingly defy all laws of nature. This level of success would see this team make the playoffs, making the Thrashers this year’s version of what the…say…Boston Bruins or Philadelphia Flyers were last season. It would make John Anderson Coach of the Year running away and cause the northeast hockey elitists… the ones who have already punched this team’s ticket to Cellar City… to gag on their Yankee bean soup.
And who wouldn’t like seeing that?
However, even with my blue-tinted glasses on, I don’t foresee that level of success. At least not this year.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, when the Thrashers open their season against the Caps Friday and continue on through the season, I will indeed be rooting and cheering… with every fiber of my being… for just that outcome. Odds and pundits be damned.
I am, after all, a fan.
But, in the end…I see this team finishing, like I said, better then last season’s 76 points…at or around 86 points and at or around 11th place in the eastern Conference. That would be “mild” success. Not hot, not en fuego…but mild success.
Normally, I would see any season in which a team fails to make the playoffs as… well… failure. But in light of where this team finished last spring…what changes were made during the summer…what players were able to be acquired, and not acquired, via free agency…that’s my realistic outlook, pending any further roster moves.
Anything less would be un-good…would be un-success.
And, in the eyes of this fan…un-acceptable.
It’d be like wings with no sauce…which is something my oldest son would tell you he wouldn’t much care for.
When he regains feeling in his tongue and he’s able to speak again, that is.
