Thrashers Recaps

Ron Hainsey FACTS (part two)

2011-06-06T14:33:00.002-04:00

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

********************

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.

Atlanta IS a hockey city, example

2011-05-19T22:29:00.004-04:00

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.

Holy crap, lots of Thrashers at IIHF

2011-05-03T18:40:00.002-04:00

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

Wait... what? No Toby?

Thrashers take over Jackets in attendance

2011-03-28T11:53:00.004-04:00

# 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.

Can Thrashers take over Jackets in attendance?

2011-03-12T15:49:00.006-05:00

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

2011-03-12T15:40:00.003-05:00

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).

Hit the reset button

2011-01-21T15:26:00.003-05:00

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.

Atlanta triple win tonight?

2011-01-15T16:53:00.003-05:00

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

Thrashers New Years resolutions

2011-01-05T16:11:00.003-05:00

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

Good news, our hardest months behind us

2010-12-27T11:12:00.006-05:00

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

A call to arms for Thrashers fans

2010-12-24T16:33:00.003-05:00

Vote Big Buff into the All Star game! Let's recognize his league-leading performance and give him a reason to stay in Atlanta. Nothing would be better for the future of the Thrashers than to sign him long term. We're not the only ones voting for him, tons of people have him on their fantasy team following last year's playoff success and are enjoying the points he's racking up now.

http://vote.nhl.com

All you have to do is register a username/pass and you can vote up to 30 times a day. Get everyone you know to do the same!

Thrashers aren't moving anywhere

2010-12-08T11:30:00.003-05:00

Wyshynski gets it right in his article Why the Atlanta Thrashers aren't relocating to Canada.

If Winnipeg or Quebec city could really support a team, then the league would expanded to include them right now. If those cities are really a consistent sellout arena just waiting to happen (as Canadians assure us), then why wouldn't the NHL jump on that opportunity?

Byfuglien the hard-nose defensemen

2010-11-30T08:39:00.004-05:00

To get into the holiday spirit, here is a Christmas-themed Thrashers song:

"Byfuglien the hard-nose defensemen,
A playoff hero he arose,
Not known for defensive skill set,
Some would even say it blows.

All of the Hawks and Thrash fans,
Used to laugh and call him names,
They never let poor Byfuglien,
Join in any All Star games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Rammer came to say (ho ho ho)
"Buff-lin your shot has might,
Won't you patrol my blueline tonight?"

Then all the Thrashers fans loved him,
As they shouted out with glee (yippie!)
Byfuglien the hard-nose defensemen,
You'll go down in history!"

Ron Hainsey FACTS

2010-09-30T20:22:00.002-04:00

Rudy at Battle of California once did a great series of facts on Patrick Marleau (part one and two.) In collaboration with Mortimer at the Blueland Chronicle, we have put together our own series of facts about Ron Hainsey:

One time Ron Hainsey shoutcasted a game on Sportsouth, but he stumbled over his words and accidentally kept calling the opposition the "Wed Rings".

Ron Hainsey walks in on other peoples conversations and asks what they're talking about.

Ron Hainsey's favorite MTV personality is Carson Daly.

Ron Hainsey watches MTV.

One time someone said something funny in the locker room and Ron Hainsey laughed too loudly and it became awkward. Since then, he has intentionally laughed loud at jokes to make it seem like that is his normal laugh.

Ron Hainsey always tries to pronounce foreign words in the accent of that language.

Ron Hainsey still confuses East and West.

One time during practice coach Anderson said "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle". Ron Hainsey had never heard that phrase before and got so confused that he spent the rest of the practice trying to figure out how that was even possible.

Ron Hainsey wears a onesy to bed.

Ron Hainsey once took part in a medical study. He was the 1% that experienced nausea and vomiting.

Colton Orr once challenged Ron Hainsey to a fight, and during the arguing that ensued Hainsey pretended that he didn't understand that Orr wanted to fight and skated off to the bench.

Ron Hainsey reads books in the evenings.

Ron Hainsey likes the Olive Garden commercials.

Ron Hainsey saw the 1998 film 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain in the theater. He was 17.

Ron Hainsey claims to have invented the Ove Glove.

Ron Hainsey owns a wide collection of lufas.

Ron Hainsey has Word 2007 and accidentally saves all his files in docx format. Everyone gets mad at him because they can't open his files.

Ron Hainsey played the clarinet in high school marching band, but none of the band kids wanted to hang out with him.

When Ron Hainsey has lunch with someone, he is terrified of getting food stuck in his teeth and goes to the bathroom multiple times to check.

Ron Hainsey has recently been depantsing everyone in the locker room and proclaiming "WEEEE!!!" Several team members have repeatedly told him to stop.

Ron Hainsey claims that leap year is a conspiracy created by the calendar industry to force us to buy new calendars every year. He has given several controversial seminars on the subject.

Ron Hainsey keeps a small blue stuffed dolphin on his desk. When people ask him about it he tells them it’s his “spirit animal.”

Ron Hainsey wakes up every morning, gazes into the mirror, and says, “Remember who you are.”

Ron Hainsey rarely addresses anyone directly, but when he does he calls people “buddy,” which makes everyone feel weird.

Ron Hainsey often sits in the corner of the locker room humming songs from the first five Van Halen albums.

Ron Hainsey sometimes reminisces about how he “used to fuck ALL KINDS of fat chicks.”

Ron Hainsey has been known to sit quietly through team meetings and then suddenly exclaim, “JEEZUS, this is boring!” It can be very startling.

Ron Hainsey had a totally sweet personal shopper named Craig until the Great Recession hit.

Ron Hainsey has been known to pull out his iPhone and look at Bloomberg.com, muttering under his breath about “investments.”

Ron Hainsey was so excited when he got a Gibson Les Paul for Christmas one year.

Ron Hainsey taught himself to play “Johnny B. Goode.”

Ron Hainsey often wonders when he can finally quit this hockey gig and buy a vineyard.

Ron Hainsey has been known to make Ondrej Pavelec uncomfortable by talking about his bong and doing inept impressions of a stoner.

Ron Hainsey didn’t know whether to feel flattered or embarrassed when his hairdresser said, “You know who you look like? The little guy in Lord of the Rings? He also played Batman, right?”

Ron Hainsey was once having a conversation with Tobias Enstrom. At some point Enstrom said something Hainsey couldn’t quite make out, but he nodded along anyway and pretended to understand. It turns out Toby was asking him a question. Ron just sat there nodding and chuckling and going “Yeah, haha, yeah, I know, mhmm” while Toby waited for his answer.

Ron Hainsey once went to Kinko’s and had several “Ron Hainsey, Esq.” business cards printed.

When asked by a journalist why the Thrashers won some game one time, Ron Hainsey responded, “It’s the moon, isn’t it? It’s the moon. Yeah...” His voice trailed off into a whisper and he walked away saying “it’s the moon, it’s the moon” over and over.

Ron Hainsey keeps a mini-fridge in his locker.

For the life of him, Ron Hainsey doesn’t understand why he can’t also keep a mini-bar in his locker.

Ron Hainsey doesn’t have a pool but regularly describes “my pool” because no one on the team has ever been to his house.

Ron Hainsey regularly calls Zach Bogosian “Cliff,” even though Bogo has corrected him several times.

Kovalchuk contract damage report

2010-09-13T21:49:00.004-04:00

The league's punishment was posted today, here is what it will cost the Devils:

$3 million to the league
One 3rd round pick in 2011 draft
One 1st round pick in choice of 2011-2014 drafts
One overpaid superstar

Breakdown below. They get a good deal in the first 2 years though!

2010-11: $6 million
2011-12: $6 million
2012-13: $11 million
2013-14: $11.3 million
2014-15: $11.3 million
2015-16: $11.6 million
2016-17: $11.8 million
2017-18: $10 million
2018-19: $7 million
2020-21: $4 million
2021-22: $1 million
2022-23: $1 million
2023-24: $1 million
2024-25: $3 million
2025-26: $4 million

What is your Thrashers Mount Puckmore?

2010-08-20T11:57:00.004-04:00

Puck Daddy recently did a Mount Puckmore for the Thrashers. Given the opportunity to carve the faces of 4 Thrashers players/coaches/executives that you think define the Thrashers, who would you choose? Vote above.

Kovalcontract

2010-08-10T21:24:00.005-04:00

I wonder if they're called an arbitrator because their decisions are arbitrary? Just kidding, this one had good reason to void Kovalchuk's contract but I seriously question why MacArthur's arbitrator actually valued him at $2.4 million.

Anyway, it looks like we're in for some more negotiations between Kamp Kovalchuk and the Devils, with a few rumors of other teams thrown in there to increase his value. Since Kovalchuk's agent is named Jay Grossman, I wonder if negotiations go anything like those of Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. The ball's in your court... playa.

Dudley's offseason reviewed

2010-07-28T08:05:00.003-04:00

Cory from Canes Country posted a review of Dudley's offseason moves at From the Rink saying that basically it was the busiest offseason in Thrashers history. Good read, fair, but I wonder how come a Hurricanes fan knows so much about the Thrashers moves? Is he a secret Atlanta fan?

Look forward to playing against Reasoner 6 times this season

2010-07-23T12:56:00.002-04:00

Surprisingly, the Blackhawks just traded Reasoner to the Panthers for a nobody named Jeff Taffe. Look forward to Reasoner killing several of our power plays this season :(

Kovalchuk contract damage report

2010-07-20T07:56:00.006-04:00

Age Salary
27 $6M
28 $6M
29 $11.5M
30 $11.5M
31 $11.5M
32 $11.5M
33 $11.5M
34 $10.5M
35 $8.5M
36 $6.5M
37 $3.5M
38 $0.75
39 $0.55
40 $0.55
41 $0.55
42 $0.55
43 $0.55

Its fun to see how Devils fans are reacting. Most of the 717 votes at In Lou We Trust either like or love the deal, with fans gushing about the "brilliant" move by Lou to avoid the huge cap hit and dreams of 40-50 goal seasons for years to come. But is the move really that brilliant and are those expectations of Kovy reasonable? Devils fans see the 40-50 goal history in Atlanta, but what they don't see is the goals allowed from poor defense. Fans may love the deal now, but they have only seen a handful of games of Kovalchuk in a Devils uniform. Just wait until he is under the microscope and the reality sets in. Expect the buyer's remorse to surface in a couple years.

The free market of great readers at Behind the Net estimate Kovalchuk's value to be $6.7M/season. Readers of my blog (who were more emotionally invested) put his value at about $8M/season during the negotiations with Atlanta.

It would have made the most sense for Kovy to sign a 3-4 deal for the cap max to a team that needed a power play quarterback and an identity change. That way he could brag about being the first player signed to the cap max and still be able to jump ship to another team poised for the cup. I don't think it is smart for any team to sign him long term. But a long term contract was apparently a top priority for Kovalchuk: all of his negotiations here revolved around the length of the contract and possibility of relocation and all of the negotiations with the Kings and Devils were aimed at long term deals as well.

I think the Devils got a great deal in the first two years of the contract at $6M/year. But the next 8 years of the contract are grossly overpaid -- I think he will only be earning about 60% of his salary. Devils fans can look forward to the last 7 years of the contract when Grandpa Kovalchuk's salary becomes reasonable again... if he is still around. Until then, the Devils will have an unmovable, uninspirable anchor tied to the team's budget.

Kovalchuk resigns with Devils

2010-07-19T14:31:00.002-04:00

As you probably have heard earlier today, the Kovalchuk fan hostage crisis ended as he signed a multi-year contract with the Devils. Reports vary from a 7 year to a 17(!) year deal. That second number was apparently reported by Kovy's mother... maybe she heard "seven" and thought she heard "seventeen"? Stupider things have happened.

Dollar amounts weren't immediately disclosed, so a damage report will be forthcoming.

How good is Byfuglien really?

2010-06-29T13:16:00.004-04:00

Buff celebrates after scoring yet another playoff goal. But how does he play during the regular season?

If you haven't seen my fanpost of Byfuglien over at Birdwatchers Anonymous, I urge you to check it out. I wasn't satisfied with the general statements I was hearing about Buff's play like "he scores when it matters" or "disappears for long stretches" because they don't really tell us anything about his ability. To get a more meaningful understanding of how good he really is and how he might fit into the Thrashers, I watched 4 full regular season Blackhawks games and solely watched his play. You can see the details on the link, but my overall impression is that he is a good, but not elite power forward and will be a good 2nd or 1st liner for the Thrashers. He brings energy and power that will excite Thrashers fans. Buff is like a human cannonball shot at the net, and sometimes pucks go in for that reason alone. He is also ideal for our power play (the point positions vacated by Kovalchuk and now possibly Kubina need to be filled, and lately we sometimes have used players who are too hesitant to shoot from the point). The bad part is his puckhandling skills are terrible -- when he is moving the puck he will either go straight forward or pass if an opponent is in front of him, no creative moves or finesse that I've seen.

Stanley Cup roundup, Conan style

2010-06-20T17:55:00.008-04:00

Here are some memorable quotes I've gathered from the Chicago Blackhawks after winning the cup, presented in fashionable Conan style.

Jonathan Toews mentioned that he is grateful to the city of Chicago for supporting his team this season. He only wishes that when he eats out at a restaurant now with Patrick Kane that people stop saying "Hey, its Patrick Kane and the other guy!"

During the locker room celebration, before the cup could be filled with champagne it had to be cleaned out of Marian Hossa's tears.

After winning the cup, Patrick Kane was excited that the season was over so that he could get rid of his silly haircut.

Brian Campbell's happiest moment this season was that, with the addition of Marian Hossa, he now wasn't the only one on the team with an overblown contract.

When asked how much money Duncan Keith made this season, he responded "About 6 million dollars from the Blackhawks and 7 dollars from the tooth fairy".

Dustin Byfuglien was asked what the happiest thing about the 2009 playoffs was, he responded "People actually know who I am now!"

When ex general manager Dale Tallon was asked how his team would handle the salary cap modifications next season, a confused Tallon responded "What's a salary cap?"

Congrats to the 09/10 Stanley Cup champions.

Blackhawks win cup

2010-06-10T09:23:00.001-04:00

"Hey, whose hand is that?"

So the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Apparently Hossa is good after all because we all know that winning the cup is the sole determiner of who is good and who isn't.

Roenick went all Glenn Beck on TV too. After the game, wives everywhere cheered the end of hockey for the next several months.

Best game 1 ratings in 11 years

2010-05-30T20:09:00.003-04:00

Puck Daddy reports that game 1 between Chicago and Philly had the highest TV rating for a game 1 finals in 11 years. That is great, since the NHL needs to knock the NBA out of the #3 spot for sports in America.

So, do your part, update your Facebook status and remind your friends to watch tomorrow night!

The end is near

2010-05-21T20:45:00.002-04:00

While Thrashers fans wait in the offseason, other fans are watching the exciting turn of events that unfold toward the end of yet another series.

With the main contenders knocked out, people are choosing sides. There have been many big surprises, strange results, and the ups and downs that keep us on pins and needles.

How will it all turn out? There have been many storylines, and many questions still to be answered.

Fans have been following religously, watching every move.

Yes, it is true. The end of Lost will be THIS SUNDAY!

Oh, and in other news, a hockey tournament of some sorts is also approaching its end. I heard some people are watching that.

Dudley no longer focusing on big guys

2010-05-03T09:37:00.002-04:00

From the website:

"Has your approach to being a GM changed a lot over the years?"

It does change. You have to evolve. The game has changed. I used to be a guy who liked big people. If you can have an ideal player he's big, smart, skilled and has a whole lot of character. Obviously there aren't a whole lot of 6' 5" players who have all of those things, but over the course of the new rules coming in I'd say I've changed in what I think it takes to be effective as a player. The character and hockey sense- their game understanding- is very important, as is the speed of a player. I think the need for the size component has diminished somewhat. It used to be that size was the first thing you looked at. at one point you wouldn't' even draft a player under 6' 2". Game five of the Boston/Buffalo series the best player on either team was probably Tyler Ennis, and he's no bigger than a minute, but he's a very determined young man who is very smart and he can skate. Is it an advantage to be big? Absolutely. Will we be trying to get all of those components in a big man at the draft? Yes. But is it a prerequisite? No. It's not necessarily the biggest players that win the war for you now.

This is great news in my opinion, because by my eyes I see no correlation with size and skill in NHL forwards.

Thrashers need to market their TV audience better

2010-04-26T12:14:00.003-04:00

The Sports Media Watch recently published sports TV ratings (football excluded for some reason.) Atlanta is the #8th biggest TV market, but not for hockey:

MLB	FS South	Braves	3.52
MLB	SportSouth	Braves	3.42
NBA	SportSouth	Hawks	1.93
NBA	FS South	Hawks	1.66
NHL	SportSouth	Thrashers	0.33

Baseball ranks highest in most cities, by a large margin. I think though its because a lot old men turn on the TV and fall asleep, because that is the only thing to do during a baseball game.

In the Thrashers defense, hockey does rank at the bottom or near the bottom of each team's respective city (except for the Penguins and the Capitals). It is, however, hard to find an excuse for the Thrashers ranking #80 out of #82 of all professional sports TV ratings. The Thrashers marketing team has got some work to do.

Any ideas, bloggers?

Thrashers draft slots as of now

2010-04-24T23:22:00.002-04:00

1st round, 8th pick
1st round, ~22nd pick (from Jersey in Kovalchuk trade)

2nd round, ~22nd pick (swap Jersey 2nd round picks in Kovalchuk trade)

3rd round, (no pick due to Buffalo in MacArthur trade)
3rd round, 14th pick unless Montreal makes it to conference finals (from Montreal in Schneider trade)

4th round, (no pick due to Buffalo in MacArthur trade)
4th round 11th pick (from Dallas in Lehtonen trade)

5th round, 8th pick
5th round, ~24th pick (from Chicago)

6th round, 8th pick

7th round, 8th pick

Penalty mongers

2010-04-15T15:56:00.003-04:00

Who are the biggest penalty takers this season? We expect defensemen to take more penalties than forwards because they are forced to prevent goals. Some penalties are "necessary", but we should expect all players, defensemen and forwards alike, to play with restraint.

The graph above just shows the number of minor penalties taken minus penalties drawn. It does not account for ice time. The fact that Schubert has so many penalties with so little ice time and only half a season played is alarming. Kubina's high ratio is understandable given his huge role on the team.

Little and Kane definitely deserve kudos for having such a great penalty ratio. I was worried that I saw a lot of penalties from Kane toward the end of the season, but it still worked out favorably for him.

Just for fun, I saw what it would be like if each player played the entire game (instead of only about 17 minutes a game) and played every game of the season. Schubert is the runaway leader with a whopping 131 more penalties taken than drawn (by comparison Kubina is 82). The most responsible Thrasher? Little with -82 more penalties taken than drawn.

09/10 season forwards stats

2010-04-11T22:56:00.008-04:00

Here are some selected stats for the forwards this season. All data is even strength and is taken from behindthenet.ca.

First line minutes
Second line minutes
Third line minutes
Fourth line minutesI chose goals per 60 minutes of play rather than goals alone because it shows how much players score with the ice time that they are given. That way, we can see if someone deserves more ice time or not. The players who might deserve a line promotion are Kane, Armstrong, Slater, and Artyukhin. No one is sure if Artyukhin's scoring rate can continue (more on that later when we look at his Corsi). Kozlov and White completely underperformed this season and it shows in their goals.

This season Thorburn found himself a new use as a PKer, I'm happy he was given the shot to do that. So I can dismiss the extremely low scoring by him.

Shooting is another way we can measure a forward. I chose Corsi data relative to our own team so that the data stands out more. The top line does not shoot much, but they cash in on the shots that they do take. Peverley has been a shot-generating machine this season and continued his scoring success that he saw last season. Its nice finally having TWO great centers now. Surprisingly Kozlov has a very high Corsi, not sure why.

The 4th line Corsi is terrible, including Artyukhin's. This is an indication that he might really belong on the 4th line despite scoring some clutch goals this season. He seems like a player who might surprise you though, so we'll see if he can be used in such a way next season to make him more of a 3rd line player.

Who is given the tough shifts? In terms of faceoffs, the higher lines understandably are given more offensive faceoffs. Slater is often put out to win those critical defensive zone faceoffs due to his skill at winning them. No idea why Artyukhin's offensive zone faceoffs are so high, probably carryover from when he played with the Ducks. I haven't done a quality of competition analysis, but I'd love to see one if someone were willing to do that.

Pleasing finish

2010-04-11T08:49:00.002-04:00

Well I was quite surprised at how entertaining that last game against the Penguins was. Great efforts by many players, a shutout, and a one-punch KO from Kane on Cooke. It was like poetic justice when they brought the stretcher out for Cooke, just like for the ones he has injured on a blindside hit to the head. Karmas a bitch like that. See Birdwatchers Anonymous for a video, and the comments section for a great pic.

I saw a post recently on one of the SB nation blogs I think of a list of injuries caused by Matt Cooke, does anyone know where that is?

Remaining Thrashers games

2010-04-09T15:34:00.002-04:00

Puck Daddy chats with Maxim Afinogenov

2010-04-04T21:37:00.004-04:00

Puck Daddy chats with Max Afinogenov‏ about Kovalchuk, Atlanta's NHL future, Russia's Olympic flop and his comeback

How do top teams do at the end of the season?

2010-03-31T12:56:00.002-04:00

The Thrashers final 5 games are against top teams in the East and we need to make up points badly. Do we have any chance at facing these teams when they've let off the gas pedal and "coast" into playoffs? Do top teams play less aggressively to avoid injuries going into the playoffs when they've secured their playoff position?

To answer this question, I looked at the top 3 teams in the East and the West over the last 9 seasons, and their goals for/goals against ratio in their last 6 games of the regular season for a total of 324 data points. The results show that the top teams play with basically the same GF/GA ratio as they did in the first 76 games of the season. So no luck for the Thrashers there.

2010-03-30T10:58:00.002-04:00

Dradis contact!

2010-03-26T10:06:00.003-04:00

Dradis contact, multiple targets inbound. Another star went down yesterday from a blindside headhit, David Booth of the Panthers. Wonder if the NHL will scramble some vipers in time to end the head hits this season, or if they'll have to jump to the nearest coordinates and regroup to battle it again next season. So glad that none of our Thrashers have been injured from a nasty head hit this season. But just to be sure, set condition one throughout the ship.

Flyers revenge

2010-03-22T09:32:00.002-04:00

What's better than watching people franctially throw bananas into a cart and answer tough questions about the ingredients of household cleaners? Watching the Thrashers sweep the Flyers, of course. I hate seeing the Flyers fans cheer in our arena. I hate Scott Hartnell and his stupid man perm. I hate the evil pirate Dan Carcillo and his antics. That being said, I loved the 4-game payback we dealt them this season. Let's start our own 14 game winning streak.

Loss Therapy

2010-03-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

Where do Thrashers fans go for therapy?

Canes gameday

2010-03-07T09:23:00.003-05:00

We lost a big one against the Lightning last night... tonight is another big one against the Canes.

Based on our strength of opponents and strength of schedule, currently our playoff odds are at 45%. If we win this one they go back up to 51% (roughly where it was before we lost to the Lightning), and if we lose they go down to 34%.

First Hawks game

2010-03-04T09:51:00.002-05:00

I recently went to my first Hawks game, and in case you've never been I thought I'd share my experience with you below.

Only about 10% of the fans walking around in the food court were in jerseys (I know, crazy isn't it?) When I got in the arena it was kind of strange to see my beloved ice rink gone and in its rightful place some strange wooden surface. When the game started the crowd looked pretty typical for a Thrashers Friday night game and I thought to myself "Oh, so I guess Thrashers attendance isn't THAT bad". But then people kept coming in and by halftime it was full, looked like a sellout. During halftime they had the little kids come out and play basketball. I didn't think it could get any worse than the quick midget hockey games between periods, but believe me it can get worse. Much worse. Kids would knock someone down to get the ball, then double dribble three times in a row, then take 8 steps as they run up to the basket for a massive air ball. Repeat that 50 times and you have your halftime show.

After the half things got interesting. They played music a lot and had a dance cam, and people came PREPARED to dance. The game was really close and on every basket people cheered as if someone just scored a hockey goal, even if it was a 2 pointer or even a free throw.

I noticed that some Hawks players are pretty much like Thrashers players:

Josh Smith = '06 Hossa. Besides scoring a lot he's really aggressive on defense and sometimes plays like a one man team: steals the ball to go in for a breakaway dunk, or sometimes has the ball and makes an entire play + basket by himself.

Mike Bibby = Bryan Little. Small and underrated but streaky.

Zaza Pachulia = Nik Antropov. He's from Georgia (THAT Georgia) which is not far from where Nik is from, and he's a big dude who takes up space and likes to start a play and then pass it off rather than shoot.

Next game: Panthers

2010-03-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

Nathan Horton looks like the kid you went to school with who, despite only being in 5th grade, was already in anger management. Not really a bully per se, but just really freaking unstable. And the kids used to pick on him but then one day you find out that his dad beat on him so you felt sorry for him but too chicken to go talk to him because he was, well, unstable.

Tomorrow we play the Panthers and Nathan Horton is supposedly going to be out according to the Panthers site (he's allegedly serving an in school suspension for shooting spitwads.) He skated before practice Sunday morning. Will be nice for the Thrashers to face the Panthers without their #2 scoring leader both in points and goals. Should build some confidence.

USA!

2010-02-19T11:53:00.001-05:00

Something to remember

2010-02-15T11:04:00.002-05:00

About this time a year ago the Penguins were a couple positions out of a playoff spot with 60 points in 58 games. The Thrashers are currently in pretty much the same situation, with a very similar record (62 points in 60 games.) The difference though, was that the Penguins still had stars, depth, and solid goaltending. It would be difficult to make that same statement about the Thrashers in any one of those categories right now. The anticipated trades after the Olympics will surely affect things. Here's to hoping we go on a streak after the break.

Blackhawks

2010-02-13T23:06:00.003-05:00

Kinda surprised to see the Thrashers be so competitive throughout that whole game. Too bad it had to go to a shootout with Pavelec in goal. I think Reasoner saved a couple scoring opportunities with his penalty kill clears. I wonder if anyone tracks those stats, because its certainly valuable and over time probably saves several goals against. Pavelec was still outstanding that third period though.

Now then. If 87 points are needed to make playoffs, the Thrashers will need to go 12-9-1 (or point equivalent record) the remainder of the season to get in. Time to watch some Olympic hockey now.

Wild

2010-02-12T22:55:00.002-05:00

So Evander Kanine had a massive dingleberry during tonight's game. So big, in fact, that it required gloves, a wet paper towel, and scissors. I nearly missed Bergfors' goal because of it. Oh, and the real Kane scored too. What a game. Now to play a very rested and very healthy Blackhawks team on the road, ugh. That's gonna be worse than a dingleberry.

Draft pick percentages

2010-02-10T08:45:00.002-05:00

Since we seem to be acquiring draft picks, I thought this post would be perfect right about now. Cory Lavalette at From the Rink posted the current NHL makeup based on round selection. The results:

1st round: 34.5%
Undrafted: 18.8%
2nd round: 14%
3rd round: 9.3%
4th round: 6.7%
5th round: 5%
6th round: 5.8%
7th round: 5.8%

New dog's name

2010-02-09T13:29:00.003-05:00

It looks like Evander Kanine got the most votes, and I like that one too so I'll go with it. Niclas Barkfors and Mark Poopoovic also got high tallies as well. Looks like me and ~~Kovalpup~~ Evander Kanine will be watching the run for playoffs in March.

New name vote

2010-02-07T15:50:00.010-05:00

Is the super bowl tonight? Pro football is kind of a big hazy whirl to me. Their teams have stupid names like the Sharts and the Buckos (the Sharts logo would be a big brown streak across a white background, and the Buckos mascot would be a cowboy in assless chaps). Anyway, there is a pressing issue that must be addressed now. What should my dog's new name be?

The aftermath

2010-02-05T22:59:00.004-05:00

So apparently Kovy turned down Waddell's offer of 100 million Kovalbucks.

I guess its a good thing because management could have easily gotten nervous and pulled the trigger on a contract that extremely overpays him. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be paying Grandpa Kovalchuk 10 million a year at age 36 because most forwards crash in their early 30's and all of them crash by their mid 30's. Unfortunately Kovalchuk's crash could come even sooner than that because his game relies more on speed and breakaways than good playmaking. I'd rather have guys that we can use for a few years than 3 good years with Kovalchuk and then 7 questionable years while still paying him top dollar.

I wish Kovy well though, I don't hate him for not signing and I certainly don't think its the end of the Thrashers.

An organization without Kovalchuk will be the Great Experiment for the Thrashers. We will see whether the assumptions people made about him being the most important player on the team and the face of the franchise were true. I have a feeling though that a new kind of team will rise from the ashes and ultimately be better. We have 7 years of data to go off of that tell us that 1 scoring forward and a lousy defense do not make a cup contender. Will Waddell and Dudley learn from their mistakes and construct a winning team?

As per usual

2010-02-03T09:56:00.002-05:00

Last night raised more questions than answers. Confusion, inconsistency, and all the other hallmarks of a regular episode were there. For years we've all watched this madness and are well familiar with it, yet we keep coming back. I hope this story ends well, but I'm starting to feel like it won't.

I, of course, am talking about the season premiere of Lost last night. Oh, and there was a hockey game too. I managed to catch most of both. The game-winning goal was scored on a clean giveaway by Kovalchuk, then he pouted down the ice as usual, and when it was time to pick up the wide open St. Louis he circled, turning his back to the play and toward his "breakaway" position. Bad night to be Kovalchuk. Or an organization completely over-invested in him.

Comeback time

2010-02-02T10:11:00.002-05:00

I missed the road trip (I know, I know, I'm such a turd) so I have to rely on written word and digital images of what happened there. I watched the jumbotron feed online, and yes I saw the creepy man playing the keyboard.

Ever get tired of hearing Matt McConnell talk about making another comeback like the 5-goals-in-one-period game against Carolina? Me too. But I could really go for a season comeback right now. Too bad we didn't get those points in Nashville. A win tonight would put 3 points between us and Tampa and end the horrible losing streak to Niittymaki.

The headless goalie

2010-01-28T21:40:00.005-05:00

Hedberg's pokecheck was hilarious because he looked like Beavis with the jersey over his head. The amazing flying pokecheck is one reason that makes Hedberg so fun to watch. And the fact that sometimes he steals games. Just watched the Thrashers beat a quality team on the road, and starting our own winning streak against the Flyers. How about 10 more wins against them now?

If we need 90 points to get into the playoffs, 17-12-0 or a point equivalent record is needed from here on out.

Kovalpup

2010-01-22T15:46:00.007-05:00

Thrashers fans, I bring you... KOVALPUP!

During last night's game she logged a season high 23:42 of play time, recorded one poop (her 12th of the season) and one pee (her 28th of the season) and was sent to the penalty crate once (2 minutes for growling).

Sweet Jeebus nice win

2010-01-19T22:40:00.002-05:00

Beating the Leafs is always fun, and those come from behind wins are especially sweet. Kane finally got one of those wrap around goals like he has been trying for like the last 20 games, that was great.

So where do the Thrashers stand? It looks like it will take about 89 points to get a playoff spot in the East this season, which means that the Thrashers will need to go 19-14-0 (or point equivalent) the rest of the season. We have 18 home games and 15 road games left.

Thrashers 5, Hurricanes 3

2010-01-18T12:33:00.002-05:00

My Christmas present was to go to the game in Carolina this weekend. I wanted to see if Canes fans were as annoying in their arena as they are here, but they were not. I sat next to some nice fans who were not optimistic about a late season comeback. They were surprised to hear that so many Canes fans came to our games in Philips. Parking at the RBC center was so easy, you drive right up to it like its freaking Six Flags or something. A few Thrashers fans shouted Knights during the national anthem, probably confusing everyone in the arena. The best part about the game was the non-call on Kubina's cross check during the 5-on-3; the roof about came off with the booing and shouting, which evolved into a "REF YOU SUCK!" chant that sustained for a good minute. I wonder if that could be heard on TV. That was hilarious. We won, end of the story.

Oh, and do you think they can fit a few more Bojangles in North Carolina?

Contract talks

2010-01-14T09:04:00.005-05:00

The Kovy contract talks are getting more awkward than an episode of Dr. Oz. You know, one with a lot of inappropriate touching and unsightly arm hair? And then as if that's not enough, Dr. Oz always decides to crank up the awkwardness with some dancing.

So will he? Won't he? At the beginning of the season everyone was sure that they knew the answer, whether they thought he was or wasn't. Then everyone was sure that we'd know by the new year. Then everyone was sure we'd know by Casino Night. Now everyone admits that they don't know when or how it will turn out. But I'll bet Dr. Oz knows.

First half stats

2010-01-02T12:57:00.008-05:00

I know its a game early, but I had time today to do it so here is data from the first 40 games. The data was taken from Hawerchuk's www.behindthenet.ca which is a great location for a lot of stats. Click on the images to make them larger.

Its important to taken into account the role given to a player when considering his stats, so I've broken them down into the important stats that a player generally contributes to while on the ice (scoring, shots, and penalty dicipline) arranged by forwards and defense. Its also important to remember that some things aspects of their game are determined for them by their coach and also affect their play: the opposition line they are paired against, the teammates they are put with, and what proportion of offesive/defensive zone faceoffs they are given.

You can draw your own conclusions, but it looks to me like coach Anderson is playing our 2nd line (Kozlov, White, Little) against the toughest opposing line instead of the 3rd liners (Kane, Peverley, Armstrong) like he used to. He's also splitting the tough faceoffs with the 2nd line and 4th line. So this may help explain the poor performance we've seen from Kozlov, White, and Little this season. In my opinion though that is a lot of salary to use up in a defensive role like that, and cheaper defensive forwards could be found elsewhere.

For defense, I can't really tell what kind of strategy Anderson is using, but was surprised to see that Salmela and Valabik have the toughest opposition, yet does not give them defensive zone starts.

The invisible man: Bryan Little

2009-12-31T14:15:00.004-05:00

Bryan Little has been playing terrible hockey this entire season. He has lost his offensive power, can't win a battle on the boards, fans on shots (about 15 this season I believe), can't hit an opponent with the puck, and gets tossed around like a ragdoll when he has the puck. I want you to watch Little's play next game. I wish they could have an iso cam on him so we could really see how many bad plays he makes.

What needs to happen? He really needs to work with one of the coaches about how to get into the play better. Here is a SAMPLING of particularly bad plays by him. Go watch the highlights if you are so inclined.

12/28 vs NJD, 16:18 1st, a pass comes to Little along the boards, but he falls down and the puck goes to the Devils who get a good shot on goal.

16:35 1st, in the same shift, Little loses the puck on the boards, Devils shoot and score.

1:58 2nd, Little gives away the puck behind the net.

12/26 vs TBL, 16:18 2nd, Little get a shot off the left circle but when the goalie stacks the pads Little just sits there and watches. The puck goes way up into the air after hitting the goalie's pads, where a motivated player would have been able to knock it in.

12/21 vs MTL, 12:58 1st, rebound in front of the goal and Little has a chance to score as the goalie was going post to post to cover Little's shot, Little hits post.

12/17 vs FLA, 18:39 3rd, Little was puckwatching as there was a battle on the boards, his man gets starts streaking toward the goal, Little looks over his shoulder and realizes it, tries to catch up with him but falls, then his man gets a pass and scores. This was the game winning goal for the Panthers with 1:21 left in the game.

12/14 vs NYR, 16:10 2nd, Kovy and Antropov set up a great tic tac toe on a rush to the net, but when its given to Little to pull the trigger he couldn't elevate the puck and the goalie saves it.

12/12 vs MTL, 11:44 2nd. Antropov goes behind the net and passes to Hainsey who is coming into the slot, but Hainsey gets hit and the free puck is within Little's reach but he misses it and it goes passed him.

12/7 vs TOR 18:51 2nd. Little gives it away along the boards, Leafs have posession and score on the rush.

Suspension

2009-12-29T09:08:00.004-05:00

Remember the opening scene in Cliffhanger when the girl was about to fall and Sylvester Stalone was holding on to her hand as it slowly slipped away? That's basically what watching the Thrashers is like now, except what we're watching slip away is our playoffs chances and likelihood of a Kovy contract. Its time to do the ol' dramatic other-hand-grab like they always do and pull them up to safety. Who is going to be the player to do that? Peverley? Pavelec? Afinogenov?

Kostitsyn can burn

2009-12-21T23:34:00.003-05:00

I was pretty pissed at Kostitsyn, or "Teets" as I call him, when he stole the Thrashers lead with that power play goal. But I guess that's what happens when they bring the puck to the corner to peel away one of the defenders, and then plant someone on the crease for a pass. The the other defender has to spin around to try to stop the shot, and that's how they scored. I like that kind of cycling down low that we used to do on the PP with lots of close shots, what ever happened to that? In my opinion that should be your dominant PP strategy, with cross ice one-timers to try to catch them off guard. That's because the latter are more dangerous to be picked off (which happens to us a lot) or just blocked (which also happens to us a lot).

Anyway, back to my story. I was excited for revenge when Teets went to the box for slashing in the 3rd hoping that conversion would bury the lead, but nothing happened. The rest of the game was Montreal and scoring opportunity city. Another OT loss for the books.

Canadiens

2009-12-20T10:57:00.003-05:00

I'm not too upset about losing to the Devils. If we only lose by 1 goal to the league's best team then we should be playing comfortably above 500 against the rest of the league.

Monday night's game against the Canadiens is the last home game before a monster 7 game road trip and 5 of those 7 games are against quality opponents (including NJ and PIT). So bring your friends out and take part in the Lets Go Thrashers chant because this may be the last game that is statistically in our favor for quite a while.

Pevs for Prez

2009-12-18T14:24:00.003-05:00

2 goals: one shorthanded, one the game winner in OT. First star of the game. 3 point game for Pevs, and first home win against Dallas ever. 2 more points in the standings for the Thrashers. At least two more seasons with this guy at a great price. How much better can you get than this?

Thrashers doing what they do the best

2009-12-14T22:26:00.002-05:00

These last two games really showcase the strong points of the Thrashers. Against the Canadiens, Kovy scored in overtime by waltzing in from the circle with a high wrister... against the Rangers Kozlov scored from his patented point, against the Rangers Armstrong scored on the PK with his incredibly consistent effort... Hedberg blanked two shots in the shootout as he always does... Kozlov scored the game winner in the shootout... all of these things are the things we know the Thrashers are capable of. And lately they've been doing them with regularity. March on to that playoffs spot, gentlemen.

2009-12-11T17:40:00.004-05:00

Recently The Falconer posted an analysis on our 3rd D pairing and which of the 3 rotating players most deserved the spot. I think this is a great analysis to do periodically (for all positions) because the young guys we choose now might be guys getting top minutes later. The decision to keep them or dump them is of big importance before they hit free agency.

The Falconer seemed to favor Salmela and Schubert and showed that Popovic was underperforming in many aspects. I am inclined to agree, but one of the big things I look at especially for defensemen is the number of non-fighting penalties. Looking at the penalty minutes you see that Schubert is a big liability. He's a great hitter and we need that, but unfortunately I think that often he plays the body when he could have played the puck and as a result puts the Thrashers on the PK.

Not mentioned by the Falconer or by me is Valabik. If I were to throw his PIM up there from last year it would be a little higher than Schubert. I've seen several questionable calls made on Valabik and so have others, which may be referee bias because of his size and reputation. Fair or not, Valabik is a liability too.

In the end, I like Salmela and Schubert the best, then Valabik then Popovic.

Armstrong's lone goal

2009-12-10T18:17:00.002-05:00

You put pucks on net and you crash the crease, and sometimes these two things alone will score you goals. Peverley put one on the net and Armstrong crashed the crease and scored. Even though Peverley's shot was weak and Armstrong even missed the rebound with his stick, it put one up on the board nontheless.

The Thrashers spent the entire rest of the game trying cross ice passes and netted no goals. How much longer will this pass-fest continue until they realize that they need to go back to the basics?

Thrashers entertain 19,000 Toronto fans

2009-12-08T08:57:00.004-05:00

Thrashers did a great job at making the drive, pay, parking and overpriced beer worth the while for 19,000 fans in Toronto last night. The spectacular scoring spree in the 2nd period like that is enough to make anyone want to come back to see their home team play again.

If you noticed, all 5 of Toronto's goals were scored with 2 Leafs in the crease or slot (3 of the 5 goals had a third guy crashing the crease or slot too!). Hawerchuk at Behind the Net did a great post on shooting percentage as a function of distance from the goal.

I'd like to see a similar chart for scoring percentage as I'd assume the graph looks the same. As the Thrashers found out tonight, when several guys crash the crease or slot there's not much you can do.

Wow

2009-12-03T12:21:00.005-05:00

I was planning to do a "did you know" stats post this week, but then I saw that Ben Wright did the exact same thing, so crap. But then I saw that he didn't do any that I had planned, sweet!

We have only lost by more than 1 goal twice this season. Islanders 3-6, Senators 2-4, and even those were close.

46% of our goals have been scored by our forwards have been by players who make up only 9% of our forwards salary. If you were to throw in defensemen this would make it even more pronounced because of Bogo and Enstrom's goals and the big contacts on some defensive defensemen like Hainsey and Kubina, but I'm not one to pad stats so I won't do that.

Last season I showed that we had the most secondary scoring than in franchise history, by far. If we keep up the current pace, we will break that record again and set several others: most points in a season, most goals in a season, least goals allowed in a season, and most awesomest season ever.

Kubina is ranked #5 "defensive defensemen" in the league by James Mirtle (Around the Rink blog).

#6 on PP

#4 on PK

2009-11-29T14:23:00.005-05:00

As you probably have heard, Tiger Woods wrecked his car but is okay. Normally I wouldn't care, but I am reminded of something he said after game 5 in the Penguins/Red Wings final:

I don't think anyone really watches hockey anymore
-Tiger Woods, June 2 2008.

Oh really, Tiger? A person who plays a retired person's vacation activity as a sport is suggesting that hockey is not interesting? Oh Tiger, you make it too easy. Here are some jokes that I thought of, in Conan-style:

"Yesterday Tiger Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and then into a tree. Golf fans everywhere have been heard to say 'Finally, something happened in our off-season!'"

"Tiger Woods suffered minor cuts from the accident. When asked if he thought it would interfere with his career, he replied no, he did not think it would not impact his ability to advertise non-golf products and merchandise."

"In the last decade Tiger Woods has demonstrated tremendous athletic achievements. But despite winning multiple trophies, Tiger Woods is still only a par-3 on getting out of his own driveway."

Intensity

2009-11-28T21:41:00.002-05:00

You didn't just watch a game against the Flyers. You watched an epic battle for honor. That game had the intensity of a playoff game. The Thrashers used their speed to go up and down the ice against the Flyers the whole night. Kind of a crappy 3rd period in terms of posession, but Hedberg was awesome and Pavs came out to congratulate him after the game too. At one time on the PK I thought I saw Kane streaking down the ice for a shorthanded attempt, but lo and behold it was KOZLOV skating with the speed of an 18 year old! Awesome stuff guys. 3 in a row, 2 of them shutouts.

2009-11-26T10:02:00.002-05:00

You would have laughed last season if someone would have told you that we'd shut out the Red Wings this season. You'd laugh even harder if they would have told you it was at the hands of Ondrej Pavelec. And you'd say "You're killing me!" as you wiped a tear from your eye if they had added the first goal was by a free agent that we had locked in at a decent price for 4 years and was play a point-per-game as a Thrasher. But that was then, and this is now. We really benefited from the injuries and cold streak from the Red Wings, but their play was right where it should be: I saw lots of effort from the forwards on the backcheck to turn over the puck and lots of heads looking up when defensemen got the puck and skating/passing it out rather than clearing the puck the instant they got the puck. Nice game by every player, for the whole game.

I didn't see anyone with a tin foil Stanley Cup at the Penguins game like I had expected, but I did hear lots of slurred-speech calls for a flying V by people in Penguins shirts who I'm guessing was their first hockey game.

2009-11-21T15:33:00.004-05:00

The Penguins come to Philips tonight. Light the beacons, motherfuckers. For funsies, you should snap a picture of some idiot with a tin foil Stanley Cup and photoshop a dinosaur head onto him or something like that. Post it to your blog or email it to me, funniest one wins.

Have you seen Walt?

2009-11-09T08:22:00.004-05:00

I didn't see Walt at the game but I don't see him on the ESPN injury page. Maybe the black smoke monster got him? I was really surprised and pleased to see the crowd really getting into that game. I noticed LOTS of kids taking part in the Lets Go Thrashers chant.

Thrashers play full 60 minutes

2009-11-04T09:27:00.004-05:00

Wow, so this is what the Thrashers can do without Kovy or Hainsey. Amazing win. I watched a free feed online and listened to Dan Kamal and they happened to sync up nicely. I know that people will say Peverley gave up that goal but the defense was changing and he was all alone in our zone, so I can forgive him for that. Plus a goal and 2 assists more than makes up for it (one of the assists was really a goal in my opinion but whose counting?)

I think Armstrong and Peverley are two of the best young (non-draft) additions we've made recently. The management has scored a grand slam with both of them. Both guys nearly always create a play when they bring the puck into the zone, which is a lot to say because some (many?) forwards in the league simply bring the puck into the zone and can't finish with a play.

Thrashers attendance most improved in the league

2009-10-27T09:10:00.003-04:00

From the rink just posted the early attendance numbers for every team in the NHL. Guess who is the most improved from last season to this?

1 Atlanta +934
2 St. Louis +596
3 New Jersey +324

That's quite a lead we have. The bottom 15 teams are all negative, including many "traditional" hockey markets of Detroit, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota and Ottawa. Let's keep this up, bring a friend whose never seen a hockey game to Philips on Thursday!

Sharks

2009-10-25T09:40:00.002-04:00

Glad to see that the bloggers are getting some love from the organization. Hopefully this is a sign that they want to make a more fan based organization.

Strange thing in goal last night, like the opposite of the Washington game. One guy I'm really rooting for right now is Kozlov, he's still waiting to score his first goal this season and I think he really can have another big season this year. I want him to have a few more great seasons, retire as a Thrasher, and we all watch number 13 be raised in the rafters together.

Already thinking about Thursday's game. If you didn't see, there's a special price on Thursday night games, $15 in the upper bowl.

Caps forecheck

2009-10-23T14:01:00.002-04:00

Did the Caps use 3 men on the forecheck last night? Every time the Thrashers tried to bring it out I thought I saw 3 Caps in our zone, especially along the boards. It reminds me of other teams that we've gotten dominated by recently with an intense forecheck (Rangers, Penguins) and how we never figured out how to get out of that stranglehold. Most teams can adjust and skate the puck out and pass up the middle when there's an opening, but the Thrashers just refuse to and end up passing to a guy who is covered and turn over the puck. So while puck possession and turnover rate are usually blamed/credited to defensemen, I think its a strategy thing in this case.

Sean Avery not thinking? No!

2009-10-22T16:39:00.001-04:00

Funny quote from Ian White, who took a puck to the face and had to get stitches because Sean Avery deflected a puck into it.

"Avery tipped it, I don't know where he was trying to score or where he thought the net was, but it wasn't anywhere near it. I don't know what he was thinking, but maybe he wasn't at all."

Pavelecs

2009-10-20T22:34:00.004-04:00

Edit: on the last shootout shot it looked like Pavelec was going for a poke check and spun the glove and pad up to try to block the shot in case the poke didn't work. Not a bad try. He should learn from the poke check master Hedberg, if he can learn that then his value will dramatically increase.

If you have the Center Ice preview then you probably suffered though tonight's game with Pierre's commentating. I swear when Pierre is not there they probably replace him with a loop that repeats "big body presence" and complaints about cheap hits and how they need to take fighting out of hockey. Pavelec played a great game and made saves without the defense bailing him out, all despite being called "Pavelecs" by both commentators all night. Not sure what he was doing though on that last shootout shot, I'll have to look at the replay on that one. But still, not unhappy with the rest of his performance tonight.

How about that Armstrong, eh? Some nice hits and of course a goal. Loved Antropov's open ice hit, too. And Todd White with the faceoff domination. Not a bad team, folks.

So a pretty good run for 5 of 6 games away. Finally, we'll be heading back to Philips for some home ice advantage.

Penalties

2009-10-14T11:48:00.002-04:00

Behind the net posted a great piece on why Lehtonen might see more shots (about 3 per game) than Hedberg. I was looking over penalties trying to see if that contributed to the difference, but the penalties for/against for Lehtonen and Hedberg were about the same.

But I did notice that we get a few more power play opportunities at home than on the road. I wanted to see if that was true for all teams, so I looked at 500 random games around the league last season and saw that the home team had on average 0.39 more power play opportunities than the visiting team. Probably because the other team is playing from behind, psychological effects, etc. So, when you go to see your team at home, you'll see on average 0.39 more power play chances!

A lesson in ass-kicking

2009-10-13T15:48:00.002-04:00

The team to watch this season is the Chicago Blackhawks. Not because of what free agents they do or don't have, but because of their system. They're 3-1-1 so far and from what I can tell are doing well because they play 5 men back on defense. I've only seen one full game and the highlights of the others, but it looks like they're playing their forwards closer in on defense so its effectively a 5-on-3 (their 5 players on the other team's 3 forwards).

They came back from a 0-5 deficit IN THE FIRST PERIOD last night against Calgary, winning 6-5 in overtime. If the Thrashers were losing 0-5 in the first period I think half the people would leave, and they would have missed the most amazing comeback they'd ever see in person. Go watch the highlights, you'll grow chest hair just from watching it.

Sens

2009-10-09T13:39:00.003-04:00

I think we all knew Kovy would net his 300th last night, it was just a question of when. I thought about photoshopping a picture of the movie 300 but then decided that probably 80 other people would be doing the same and posting it the next day, but alas, no one did.

Here's the probable lineup we're facing tomorrow against the Senators

Michalek - Spezza - Foligno
Kovalev - Fisher - Alfredsson
Cheechoo - Regin - Neil
Ruutu - Kelly - Donovan

Phillips - Volchenkov
Campoli - Karlsson
Picard - Carkner

Leclaire
Elliott

How Thrashers spend their salary

2009-10-08T13:21:00.003-04:00

James Mirtle made a great post showing how the top 5 NHL teams spend their salary. I thought I'd compare it to how the Thrashers are currently spending their salary.

(click for larger image)

Not too different. I suspect they spend more on their top six due to free agency. I used Lehtonen's salary for our starting G since he is paid the most.

@ Blues tomorrow

2009-10-07T09:18:00.003-04:00

Did anyone see how well the Blues have started? They beat the Wings once in Stockholm and once in Detroit and they did pretty well in preseason too. And they signed Darryl Sydor. And they have Chris Mason. Be scared.

10/3/09 highlight video

2009-10-05T14:36:00.002-04:00

Ben Wright at the blueland blog posted a highlight video of the amazing season opener. Share it with someone special!

New season hooray

2009-10-02T13:33:00.002-04:00

I'm excited about the next season starting for us tomorrow, for all the reasons I'm sure every other Thrashers fan is. Unfortunately though I didn't go to the face off event (I know, I'm such a turd). In preparation for this season, I was looking through my list of Thrashers blogs and counted 17 plus mine. I keep them listed on my blog so that I can see which ones have updated so I don't have to go clicking on all 17 links on my favorites list. Are there any that I missed?

Thrash Talk
http://thrashtalk.wordpress.com/

24/7 HOCKEY
http://247hockey.blogspot.com/

A Yankee Whistles in Dixie
http://yankeewhistles.blogspot.com/

Bird Watchers Anonymous
http://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/

Blueland Blog: The Official Blog Of The Atlanta...
http://bluelandblog.wordpress.com/

Chi-town Thrash
http://chicagothrash.surrendered.org/

Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons?
http://thrasherstalons.blogspot.com/

FanThrashtic
http://fanthrashtic.blogspot.com/

Fire Wagon Hockey
http://firewagonhockey.blogspot.com/

foocow
http://foocow.blogspot.com/

Getting Pucks Deep
http://gettingpucksdeep.blogspot.com/

nhLOL
http://nhlol.blogspot.com/

Slightly Off-Topic
http://slightlyoff-topic.blogspot.com/

The Blueland Chronicle
http://bluelandchronicle.blogspot.com/

The Thrashers 411
http://thethrashers411.blogspot.com/

TheRussianOne13
http://therussianone13.wordpress.com/

Thrashing About
http://www.timmyf.com/thrashers

Five Guys Burgers and Lies

2009-09-29T15:15:00.013-04:00

(some picture I stole, but you get the idea)

The pregame dinner is an important ritual to me. When it comes to fast food I have to say that I'm pretty opinionated (arrogant and smug, if I'm being perfectly honest with myself) about what is and what is not good. I've heard great things about this Five Guys restaurant, so when I tried the one out near the Lenox station I thought that I was in for a treat. But I didn't really like it, and mine was only made by 2 guys (3 if you count the bus boy). Instead, I'd say its barely better than Backyard Burgers. The peanuts were nice though. I guess for a $10 meal I was expecting it to act out epic battle scenes from Lord of the Rings or do my taxes or something. And I thought I'd see some cute little story about 5 brothers from the Bronx making their way by opening their first burger joint in 1801 or some crap like that. I'm putting Five Guys on waivers.

They took 'er jobs!

2009-08-11T14:23:00.010-04:00

A while ago the Falconer pointed out that hockey fans, like population, move southward and supported the observation with census data. The conclusion being that this is a long term migration that is unlikely to end. I was surprised to see that Wikipedia even had a little entry on this frost belt to sunbelt migratory shift. Since the future of the NHL is tied to where consumers live, it is worth taking a look at where the jobs are headed.

I found this picture in Time and added these 5 teams to illustrate a point: the teams that are often ridiculed for having a small fanbase are sitting in the nation's best region for job growth outlook in the next 10 years. Where are the traditional markets of the Red Wings, Rangers and Flyers? Well, those are in the white areas above with the smallest projected job growth.

CNN also recently did a story on the top 25 counties for job growth. Of them, only 3 were in the northeast; most of the rest were in the south and southwest where the expansion teams are. Even better, 2 of them (Cherokee and Henry county) are in Georgia and within driving distance of Philips arena!

I have no idea of how the job outlook in the US compares to Canada... but I would love to hear "THEY TOOK 'ER JOBS!" in a Canadian accent.

Edit: If that phrase doesn't make any sense to you then the following is mandatory viewing:

Note: thanks to the Blueland Chronicle for the inspiration behind the new profile image.

2009-08-10T15:00:00.003-04:00

Image credit to someone named Hoot at Calgarypuck.

I'm sure the twitters have been ringing or buzzing or whatever they do all day today over this story. There's a video on TSN of the cab driver. One thing that originally drew me to hockey over other sports was the lack of crap like this off the ice. The players seem relatively normal. You don't see dog fighting bullshit and other PR bombs like that often. I wonder if EA Sports is gonna take him off their cover now.

Where does Antropov fit in the team?

2009-07-19T21:32:00.004-04:00

We can safely say that Antropov was acquired to help please Kovalchuk, and probably play on the same line as him... which made me wonder if this is the best spot for him, and if not what role would he best be suited for? To answer this question I looked at his last 82 goals scored not counting an empty netter to see in what situations he scores (thanks nhl.tv archives!) and also watched 2 full games (one as a Maple Leaf and one as a Ranger) solely watching his positioning (thanks hockeywebcast archives!)

For his last 82 goals scored I will look at the 51 even strength goals and 31 power play goals separately and mention how they were scored and where he was when he scored them.

Last 51 even strength goals
Crease: 26
Slot: 16
Wing: 9

One-timer: 17
Rebound/tip-in/jam-in: 15
Deke/unassisted: 13
Deflection: 6

Quite a few goals from down low which is great to see. Kind of would like to see more goals scored from making a deke or unassisted and less rebound goals, but kind of a consequence of where he plays most of the game.

Last 31 power play goals:
Crease: 21
Slot: 5
Wing: 5
Point: 0

Deflection: 11
Rebound/tip-in/jam-in: 10
One-timer: 7
Deke/unassisted: 3

Holy crap, look at all those crease goals. Definitely a plus for the Thrashers who don't really have anyone to play the crease well during the power play. And I love to see all the deflection goals.

As for the 2 games where I watched his positioning, at even strength he goes to the net quite often. Usuaully as soon as the puck was safely in the zone and the two defenders were in position he would go to the crease and screen. When the opposition is breaking out he's not afraid to pursue and forecheck. He's an average speed skater, which is good because I was afraid that at 6'6" he might be a big oaf but he's definitely not. He's not the first to be back on defense, but he plays the neutral zone pretty well because of his long reach and ability to hit. He's more of an offensive weapon though in my opinion. Good passing.

My analysis: he would be great for Kovy at even strength because Kovy likes room and Antropov makes room. Kovy also likes to float in the wings while Antropov rarely goes there (only 14 of 82 goals were scored there.) I think they would also be good on the same power play line since Kovy plays the slot and Antropov plays the crease. Kovy's bomb + Antropov's screen = holy crap. But if these two are paired there could also be some possibly fallbacks. Since these two players are kind of one-way players you must be very careful who is placed in the remaining spot. I think that it needs to be someone who is great at defense with a good +/-.

Do you agree? Who should be paired with them?

Kane

2009-07-15T09:16:00.004-04:00

First off I'd like to thank all the Thrashers writers and bloggers from refraining from making horrible puns when talking about where Kane will fit into the team.

"Kane he do it?"

"Is Kane Able?"

"I think I Kane, I think I Kane"

You see shit like that all the time in print news when they're trying to be cute. I've been waiting to hear from people who went to the prospect camp to tell us what they think though. A great post I saw was from timmyf here http://www.timmyf.com/thrashers/?p=57 where he talks about Peverley's influence but also goes into the placement of Kane. I say why not aim high and throw him on the 3rd line with Peverley. Maybe they can PK together and be amazing forever and ever and make friendship bracelets and bring the Thrashers out of the bottom PK list. That's probably just a pipe dream though, I don't know anything about his PK ability. Can someone fill me in?

Offseason moves

2009-07-02T12:02:00.008-04:00

Thrashers checklist:
Improve front office
Draft well
Top 6 forward
Top 4 defenseman
Sign Kovy

Thanks to the Thrashers bloggers who have been covering this very well. I have been watching but too busy to post anything.

Fans and Kovy have been asking for some major changes to improve the team. It now appears like these prayers have been answered. I won't want to jump to conclusions, but look at what has happened so far:

Hired Anderson, a great coach and had a pretty good year considering the state of the team when he arrived
Hired Dudley, who has a lot of experience and success with putting together great teams
Drafted well this year. Thrashers were one of the teams that did better than average in the draft, securing our desired 1st rounder and catching 2 others in the second round that we expected to be first rounders.
Signed some awesome free agents. Kubina and Tim Stapleton for Ex and Stuart was an amazing trade. As a fan I love Exelby, but as a statistician I hate him. So I have to go with my head on this one. He was exciting to watch, but in reality he was a 7th rounder who we payed for 6 years to play like a 7th rounder. Kubina, on the other hand, is a great player and scorer, perfect for Anderson's system. Tim Stapleton is only a prospect but in 4 games with Toronto he scored one in regulation and scored a game-winning shootout goal. In the minors he was just over a point per game. While Stuart was great on the PK, I don't think his future was as bright as Stapleton's. Antropov for 4 years was an amazing signing. Could he play right wing for Kovy? He said he wanted some good linemates, I think we have found one.
Thor returning with a multi-year deal is also sweet because our 4th line with him was awesome. Kovy said he thought it was one of the best in the league.

FromTheRink is probably going to be pissed about us ransacking their free agents. I have gotten the feeling that they don't think low income teams will ever improve and shouldn't be in the NHL. Well guess who is eating their lunch.

2009-06-21T09:41:00.001-04:00

Rick Dudley

2009-06-19T09:19:00.004-04:00

I know the success or failure of a team doesn't depend on the GM, but out of all individuals both on and off the ice they carry more of the weight. So lets look at Rick Dudley's stats.

NHL coaching record: 98-87-43
Overall coaching record: 592-321-62

Here is how the his stood before and after Dudley appeared as GM or assistant GM

Tampa: before 26th/26, after 28th/30 (but 8th the next season and Stanley Cup winners the year after that)

Florida: before 12th, after 12th

Chicago: before 9th, after 3rd

So I think that his coaching record was good and he was a huge positive for Tampa and Chicago with little effect on Florida. In my opinion quite a good deal for the Thrashers.

Stanley Cup Roundup

2009-06-17T10:11:00.002-04:00

Today I'll be summing up the Stanley Cup win and celebration, Conan O'Brien style.

After their devastating 5-0 loss in game 5, Mario Lemieux sent a positive text message to each of the team member's cell phones to lift their spirits. When asked what he thought of the message Bill Guerin replied, "What's a cell phone?"

During the celebration following game 7, as with tradition, many of the players drank champagne from the cup itself. It could not be passed to Sidney Crosby however because a sippy-cup attachment could not be found.

Each player got a few minutes to hold the cup for photos after the win. When it was Tyler Kennedy's turn, he tried to play the Cup like a guitar with a horrible rendition of a Metallica song. "EEEEEEXIIIIIIIIT LIIIIIGH- no wait, EEEEEEXIIIIIIIIIT LIIIIIIGH- no wait, hang on..."

When asked what made him the happiest about wining the Stanley Cup, Jordan Staal replied, "Hopefully now I won't be locked in the tool shed anymore."

When asked if he was relieved that the playoffs were over, Evgeni Malkin replied, "Yes, now I can finally shave off this itchy playoff beard."

Seriously now, congrats to the new champions the Pittsburgh Penguins. Its amazing how they turned around their franchise several years ago with some smart moves in their office. Almost gives you hope about the Thrashers.

Hossa requests to be traded to Pittsburgh

2009-06-13T10:24:00.006-04:00

Saturday, June 13
DETROIT - Less than 24 hours after losing the Stanley Cup championship, Marian Hossa has requested to be traded -- again. In a statement released to media earlier this afternoon, Hossa's agent has made it clear that he intends to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"We are prepared to take any offer from the Penguins at this point. He doesn't want to lose another Cup", said agent Ritch Winter.

Last year Hossa was in nearly the same situation: he and the Penguins lost in the final round of the championship. Despite boos and ridicule of fans, Hossa opted to take a salary decrease and sign a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings. Last night Hossa and the Red Wings lost, ironically, to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hossa told media that he understands that there will be some repercussions. "I know I'm going to receive a pretty severe towel-whipping from Tyler Kennedy for this" he added.

The Red Wings general manager, Ken Holland, says the franchise will be glad to be rid of him.

"We're done with this rent-a-player. The Penguins can have him" said Holland.

The Penguins head coach, Dan Bylsma expressed some concern over the ordeal.

"I'm not sure if we'll want him back" Bylsma said. "We're not sure if the new arena is rated to sustain the number of boos that will surely result."

The preceding story was 100% made up.

Detroit stops turning over the puck

2009-06-07T19:45:00.003-04:00

When the Detroit embarassed the Penguins last night, it was due to a lot of things. Undiciplined penalties on the part of the Penguins, Datsyuk back, Osgood was on, etc. But theres something that I've noticed in the play that struck me. In the first 4 games of the series the Penguins dominated in the neutral zone. With their 2 man forechecking pressure they turned over the puck numerous times. How much more? Well the giveaways/takeaways stats show that they did so about twice as much as the Red Wings. Thats huge. In the first 4 games the Penguins had 36 takeaways and 36 giveaways while the Red Wings had only 23 takeaways and 45 takeaways. In the 5-0 blowout the Red Wings reversed this trend. I think that giveaways and takeaways are a big part of the game because they result in more puck possession and therefore more shots on goal plus forcing fatigue on the opposition.

There is a problem with these stats in that it is up to interpretation what constitutes a giveaway and a takeaway. If you look at the league wide stats the Islanders have some of the highest takeaways, unlikely for the last ranked team. But in this case using the stats is valuable because we're comparing two teams from 2 home games each. If they standardized this statistic I think it could be a really good metric to compare individual players for potential trades and aquisitions since they don't rely on team efforts like zone shift, shots, and even goals do. Someone who makes a great individual effort to steal a puck would likely be able to do so on any squad.

Hossa and the Red Wings

2009-05-24T21:12:00.004-04:00

I have a great idea. Let's put a bunch of cheesy dance moves together, build an entire industry around it, and call it Bollywood. Oh wait, thats already been done. Let's talk about the likely Red Wings/Penguins Stanley Cup rematch. Yeah, that sounds better.

Each team is one win away from advancing to the finals and by the way they are playing its pretty safe to say they'll do it. The Penguins look really good this year but I think they are one star away from being a Stanley Cup champion team. And worse yet, that star is playing for the Red Wings now. Its funny the reaction of the Penguins fans when Hossa defected to the Red Wings, all the crying and sobbing and crap. They had him for like what, 12 games and a playoff run? A far cry from the 3 full seasons he helped the Thrashers in building a decent offense. I hope that Hossa and the Red Wings crush the Penguins.

2009-05-21T16:12:00.003-04:00

The Staal vs. Staal references and montages are catching on faster than forearm tattoos among female fast food workers. Here is something to clear your mind before tonight's game:

2009-05-17T18:20:00.001-04:00

1:20, lol