Thrashers’ line name checks out

Jake Depuydt wants to make one thing perfectly clear. When he named the Thrashers’ checking line the Greek Gods, he wasn’t talking about their classically sculpted muscles. Really.

The body builder image may be why Eric Boulton, Jim Slater and Chris Thorburn embraced the name. It may be why some Thrashers fan have used Photoshop to place the heads of Boulton, Slater and Thorburn atop some chiseled torsos. It may even be the reason the Greek Gods moniker has stuck, a season after radio play-by-play man Dan Kamal first used it on the air.

But there was no man crush at work. Here’s how one of the most popular trios of Thrashers players got their name.

Depuydt, an engineer by day, hockey fan by night, was watching an NHL game in the basement of his neighbor Kamal’s house, “Manland,” they call it, their own private version of Philips Arena’s “Blueland.” What the Thrashers need, Depuydt told his neighbor, is a line with an identity.

Ottawa has the high-scoring Pizza Line, so named because fans get a free slice of pizza when the Senators score six goals in a home victory. Detroit had the Production Line of Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel and Gordie Howe, who finished 1-2-3 in the NHL in scoring in 1949-50.

Depuydt brainstormed about the Thrashers. Thorburn’s nickname is “Thor,” as in the Germanic god of thunder. Boulton’s nickname is “Bolts.”

“The idea was it’s lightning on one side and thunder on the other,” Depuydt said. “The ‘Mythological Line’ is where it started.”

There was one problem with that. Try saying the name while talking as fast as a hockey announcer. By the time you squeeze the word “mythological” out of your mouth the line’s shift is over.

So Kamal tweaked the name, and the Greek Gods were born.

“None of us are Greek,” Thorburn said. “I might look Greek. I also look Jewish, Italian, Indian. … We just say if you want to play on our line, you’ve got to have a pretty chiseled body. We’ve taken it the full nine miles. We’re just having fun with it.”

So are their teammates.

“The Geek Gods. The Geek Squad,” said Garnet Exelby, who as a defenseman doesn’t get to play on a line, named or not.

The Greek Gods don’t get to play as much as their teammates. They’re the fourth line, not the offensive stars. But they hold their own in the approximately seven minutes a game they skate together.

Opponents haven’t scored a goal this season with Thorburn on the ice, and Thorburn, Boulton and Slater have delivered some crushing hits. Some of those hits have been punches; Boulton and Thorburn once again lead the team in fighting.

Their role is to shut down the opposition, do some enforcing and create some energy for their team.

“I like the way they play, the way they go out there and give it everything they’ve got. I really enjoy their work ethic,” said Depuydt, a season ticketholder in the “tea and crumpet section” of Philips, otherwise known as the lower level.

Thrashers coach John Anderson said he is pleased with the way they’ve played, too. But he’s not sold on the nickname Greek Gods.

“They wish,” Anderson said.

They do wish, in fact. They like the attention. They’re playing along.

“Start selling the T-shirts,” Slater said.

And save one for Jake Depuydt.