AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 10
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Longest Day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today…Friday October 10th…will be the longest day. You know what I’m talkin’ about? Like back in our school days…no, not college…but elementary or middle school days. Back then, of course, the longest day of the year was the last day of school.
You remember, don’t you? That one day that separated the drudgery of another arduous school year that seemed like it would never end… and the wonderment that was summer vacation.
Ah, yes…summer vacation…3 months of chasing girls, playing ball, going on trips, chasing girls, going to the beach, hangin’ with friends, chasing girls, sleeping in…and did I mention chasing girls?
You know…everything that you wanted to do…everything that was fun…everything that made life worth living, (at least in the world seen through the eyes of a kid), was just one…painfully long…painfully slow…day away.
A day filled with fidgeting with our pencils…staring at the clock…turning in stupid, stupid “What I Will Do This Summer” essays that never were graded…tossing erasers at the friend who was nodding off…gathering phone numbers from girls we didn’t have the nerve to ask for during the previous 179 school days, only to find out when actually called, they had “accidentally” provided the number to the local bowling alley, movie theater or library…
That day was an eternity. It… just… would… not…end!
JUST RING THE FREAKIN’ BELL ALREADY!!
ahem…pardon me.
Anyway, that day was not unlike today…the day we have to get through in order to make it to tonight…opening night…and another season of Thrashers hockey.
Tonight, the John Anderson era officially begins, against his good pal Bruce Boudreau…head coach of the Washington Capitals. I would really like to know what the wager is between the two of ‘em.
Tonight, the memory of last season disappears over the horizon, the offseason and preseason are put officially behind us and a new chapter of the Atlanta Thrashers begins to be written before our eyes.
Tonight, we get a first-hand look at how the newly acquired Thrashers… Schneider, Williams, Reasoner and Hainsey…and to that matter, Armstrong and Christensen who were brought in at the trade deadline last February…fit in with the likes of Kovy, Enstrom, Havelid, Kozzy, XLB, White, Perrin, Boulton, Slater, Thorburn, et. al.
Tonight, we begin the process of finding out if Bogosian and Little are indeed NHL ready and able to be the assets to this team that most agree they will be.
Tonight, we once again get to again experience the skating skills, the hard shots, the lightning-quick glove saves and the open-ice hits that make OUR teeth rattle!
Tonight, the players and coaches of the Thrashers begin their quest to prove wrong so many of the pundits and their dire predictions of a last place finish for this team.
And tonight, we fans get to again congregate in the comfy confines of Philips Arena and experience…no, be a part of… the greatest, hippest, coolest, most fantastic, most entertaining, most exhilarating sport on the planet!
Maybe some of you won’t be there tonight, but you will be next week or sometime after that as the schedule progresses. Great…see ya then!
But first…today.
Today the clock will slow to a crawl as the morning grudgingly gives way to afternoon and we try to get through these last few hours that separates the long days of the offseason from the time of year we look forward the most…a new hockey season in Atlanta.
Then…the afternoon will finally proceed to the time we depart from the office or home and make our way enthusiastically to Philips…The Flat Screen…The Bulb…Blueland…where we will take our seats and partake of the pre-game festivities.
Then, at or shortly after 7:30… after we’ve gone through the traditional introduction of the entire team and coaching staff…and we sing our National Anthem…the two teams will place on the ice their starting lineups… the ref will move in toward the center circle…puck in hand…the two centers will glide in to meet him…they will assume the face off positions…the ref will hold out the puck over the center dot…and then, just for a brief second, he’ll hold it there…
The second will seem to last as long as the day we just endured… an eternity…
JUST DROP THE FREAKIN’ PUCK ALREADY!!!
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