Monday, June 6, 2011

Ron Hainsey FACTS (part two)

As a farewell salute to Atlanta's most awkward player, we bring you the second installment of Ron Hainsey FACTS. Part one is here.

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Ron Hainsey often hums the guitar opening of Van Halen's "Ain't talkin Bout Love" but only remembers the first few bars so he ends up just repeating them several times.

In order to save money on a home security system, Ron Hainsey built an intricate system of traps a la Home Alone.

Ron Hainsey bikes in Atlanta during rush hour and takes up half the lane so a long line of traffic gets backed up and has to pass him one at a time.

Someone once stole Ron Hainsey's identity. When they found out that it was Ron Hainsey, they gave it back.

Sometimes Ron Hainsey sniffs the air and asks his friend if they smell something. After they say no, he farts really loudly and then says "I can smell into the future."

One time when Ron Hainsey was little at Christmas the first 3 presents that he opened were clothes and he went upstairs and cried for an hour.

When Ron Hainsey hits on women he smells their hair and tries to guess what kind of conditioner they use. He is rarely wrong.

Ron Hainsey's teammates have several nicknames for him, none of which they say to his face.

Ron Hainsey drinks beer through a straw.

When someone calls Ron Hainsey on the phone and has the wrong number, he always ends up being the one apologizing.

Ron Hainsey's house doesn't have any clocks, but it has 2 very high precision barometers.

When Ron Hainsey waits in a long line to buy food, he has plenty of time to look at the menu beforehand but he somehow always manages to get up to the counter and not know what he wants yet. The people behind him get angry.

Ron Hainsey sometimes strikes up conversations in the bathroom. Even with strangers.

One time in college, Ron Hainsey saw a squirrel and was so entranced by it that he totally missed a smoking hot blond walking the other way.

When Ron Hainsey goes out to lunch with the guys, he informs them that he is vegan which really screws up their lunch plans. They have stopped inviting him to lunch.

Ron Hainsey pronounces library as "lieberry".

One time in playoffs, Ron Hainsey couldn't grow a beard but he didn't want to admit it so every game he kept pretending that he accidentally forgot and shaved that morning.

When Ron Hainsey was in grade school he always asked the teacher for extra homework.

When Ron Hainsey talks to women, his childhood stutter rears its ugly head.

When Ron Hainsey eats dinner out with a bunch of friends, he orders the most expensive thing and then tries to have the waiter split the bill among the guests evenly.

Ron Hainsey went to the Build-a-Bear workshop to get a bear for his nephew, but he thought it was so cute he kept it for himself.

Ron Hainsey has been calling guys in the locker room "Brah" lately.

Ron Hainsey likes Mellow Yellow more than Mountain Dew.

Ron Hainsey has trucknuts. On his car.

Ron Hainsey has been trying to get some of the guys excited about going to the new waffle place at Lenox, but so far no one is interested.

Ron Hainsey once went to a friend's baby shower. He was the only guy there.

During the holidays when parking is scarce at the mall, when Ron Hainsey returns to his car he buckles up, turns on the radio to find a good station, arranges a few things in his car, calls his mom to tell her he's okay, and then finally leaves his parking space oblivious that someone is waiting for it.

To get pumped before games, Ron Hainsey listens to Billy Idol's "White Wedding".

When Ron Hainsey signed with Atlanta, he thought that it was $4.5 M over 5 years. It wasn't until halfway through the first season that he realized that it was $4.5 M per year. He discovered the error while preparing to file his taxes early.

Ron Hainsey was in accounting club in high school.

Ron Hainsey likes Gardettos snack mix. But he picks out the rye chips. And the pretzels. And the breadsticks. Basically he just likes the sesame seed sticks.

One time Ron Hainsey asked Toby if he buys everything from Ikea. Toby stared at him for about 5 minutes.

When Ron Hainsey played Counter Strike, he camped T spawn with the bomb every round.

Ron Hainsey can polish off a bowl of queso from Moe's by himself.

Ron Hainsey has 3 different allergy doctors.

Ron Hainsey has been saying "It's all good in the hood" a lot lately.

Ron Hainsey is farsighted.

Ron Hainsey bought a motorcycle to look cool. He has never used it.

Ron Hainsey and Patrick Marleau are second cousins.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Atlanta IS a hockey city, example

If you're considering if Atlanta is a hockey city or not, read this post.

There are tons of NHL fans in Atlanta, the problem is, only about 25% of them are Thrashers fans. I work for a big employer, from which I have direct contact with about 150 of their employees. While its true that only 3 of them are season ticket holder Thrashers fans (myself included), I can easily count at least 9 others big NHL fans who currently support other teams but would switch over if the Thrashers did well. Plus there are about 10 others who are mildly interested in hockey and would come to a few games if they did well. What other NHL franchise could quadruple their fanbase with a couple winning seasons?

This ratio really correlates well with what you see in the broader Atlanta community outside my employer too. Take car decorations for example. For every Thrashers sticker that I see (they are rare, but I do see them) there are about 3 times as many for other teams. Mostly from teams in the Eastern conference. And where do people in Atlanta come from? I polled 60 people I work with and about 90% of them come from the Eastern time zone. The rest come from the Central time zone, and I encountered none from Rocky mountain or Pacific time zones.

Another point, Atlanta is the anchor of the Southeast division. It's the geographic center of the division, as well as the unofficial cultural and financial capital of the Southeastern states. I know 4 teams that absolutely need the Thrashers in Atlanta, and 10 other Eastern conference teams that should fight very hard to keep them here as well.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Holy crap, lots of Thrashers at IIHF

Kane - Canada
Ladd - Canada
Pavelec - Cze
Stuart - USA
Wheeler - USA
Stapleton - USA

Wait... what? No Toby?

Monday, March 28, 2011

Thrashers take over Jackets in attendance

# 27 Thrashers 13,292
# 28 Blue Jackets 13,278

We did it folks. We proved to the world that we are better than the Blue Jackets because we bring in more fans than they do. Queue the victory parade.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Can Thrashers take over Jackets in attendance?

Wouldn't it be nice to take over the Blue Jackets for the 27th spot in attendance by the end of this season? It might help with the prospective new owners. Plus, we wouldn't have to listen to Chris Vilvamore say in every single article that the Thrashers are 28th in attendance.

Right now here is how it stands:

#26 Devils(!?!) 14,513
#27 Jackets 13,285
#28 Thrashers 13,212
#29 Coyotes 11,742
#30 Islanders 10,435

I know we're too far away to pass the Devils, but I put it on there because I find it hilarious that they're so low.

So what do we need to pull it off? We need our last 4 home games to be an average of at least 13,996 AND the Jackets not to increase their attendance average.

What home games remain for the Thrashers and my predictions?
Canucks - Friday (15,000) edit: actual 16,237
Senators - Sunday (13,000) edit: actual 16,392
Hurricanes - Friday (15,000)
Penguins - Sunday (17,000)

Which would put us over the top! That's an average of 15,000 per game. So bring your friends out to Blueland and make us less shitty than the Blue Jackets!

Evander Kanine


Evander Kanine has had a pretty good sophmore year. She's been developing her play, added some bulk, and prove that she can play with the big dogs this year. She's already beaten last year's point production and has generally stayed out of the penalty box (with the exception of one game misconduct for eating her poop).

Friday, January 21, 2011

Hit the reset button


Going into Saturday's game against the Rangers, isn't it time to hit the reset button? Hit the reset button on our lousy PK, hit the reset button on our goal scoring, hit the reset button on our losing streak. We're in competition with them for a playoff spot, so if we're going to turn things around tonight would be a good time to start.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Atlanta triple win tonight?

The last time that the Thrashers, Hawks, and Falcons all played at once we got a triple win:

Jan 2
Thrashers (4) - Canadiens (3)
Hawks (107) - Clippers (98)
Falcons (31) - Carolina Panthers (10)

Tonight will all of the stars align and Atlanta get another triple win?

Thrashers @ Stars 8:00 EST - Fox Sports South
Rockets @ Hawks 7:00 EST - Sportsouth
Packers @ Falcons 8:00 EST - Fox

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Thrashers New Years resolutions

I know its a little late, but an inside source has dug up the real New Years resolutions for the Thrashers players. Some are quite telling.

Nik Antropov: work on Jolly Green Giant impression

Niclas Bergfors: do something to get traded

Eric Boulton: resist becoming obsolete

Alexander Burmistrov: learn English

Patrice Cormier: double check records to make sure he is actually in the NHL

Ben Eager: become known for something

Evander Kane: fight someone this year

Andrew Ladd: breathe through nose

Bryan Little: get better at video games

Rich Peverley: work on that minus 10

Jim Slater: get people to stop calling him Jimmy

Anthony Stewart: become friends with Dustin Byfuglien

Chris Thorburn: get better hair than Ron Hainsey

Zach Bogosian: manage anger better

Dustin Byfuglien: make awesome new goal celebration

Toby Enstrom: get noticed by anyone outside the Thrashers organization

Ron Hainsey: have better hair than Chris Thorburn/work on self-esteem/48 other resolutions

Freddy Meyer: work on hits to the head (as in, practice them)

Johnny Oduya: get some massive dreds

Brent Sopel: become friends with Ron Hainsey

Chris Mason: even out the head/face hair ratio

Ondrej Pavelec: work on breakaways

Monday, December 27, 2010

Good news, our hardest months behind us

Looking at the schedule I evaluated each month on 3 criteria: average rank of opponents, average number of games per week, and ratio of home/away games.

The good news is that most of the hard months are behind us (except April, which is difficult but only a partial month). Plus, we only have 5 back-to-back games ahead of us, as opposed to 10 behind us. The summary is listed below, followed by more details.

Summary
Oct: hard
Nov: easy
Dec: hard
Jan: average
Feb: easy
Mar: easy
Apr: hard (partial month)

Details
Oct: 2.75 games/week, avg opponent rank 6.5 in standings, 0.36 home/away games
Nov: 3.27 games/week, avg opponent rank 7.6 in standings, 0.71 home/away games
Dec: 3.61 games/week, avg opponent rank 7.9 in standings, 0.43 home/away games
Jan: 2.48 games/week, avg opponent rank 6.5 in standings, 0.45 home/away games
Feb: 2.75 games/week, avg opponent rank 11.8 in standings, 0.54 home/away games
Mar: 3.16 games/week, avg opponent rank 11.4 in standings, 0.50 home/away games
Apr: 3.50 games/week, avg opponent rank 7.00 in standings, 0.40 home/away games