Atlanta Thrashers

All-Star Memories

January 30th, 2008 by gmlane

What an unbelievable weekend. My favorite memories, in no particular order…

The Junior All-Star Tournament. Everything about it, from getting to know so many great coaches to hanging out with the kids at both the rinks and at the ASG events. One particularly great memory was after one game, there was some extra time, so both teams agreed to do a shootout. All of the players on both teams got the chance to do their best shootout move. Everyone had a blast.

Red carpet. How can this not be on the list? For a few hours, it felt like I was in Las Angeles on an award night. I could not believe how many people were there, and it felt for a short while like Atlanta was a great hockey town.

Interviews. Part of my duties this weekend was to talk to some NHL alumni (yes, I was forced to). I had the chance to talk to Brad McCrimmon, Darren Eliot, Peter Laviolette, and Rod Gilbert, among others.

The Russian Superstar Showcase. How could you not love the show put on by Ovechkin and Kovalchuk? It started on Saturday night, with Ovechkin’s “batter’s up” move and Kovalchuk dropping to his knees to shoot and bribing the officials. It carried on into Sunday with Ovechkin’s two goals, and Kovalchuk’s flop and stick throw, playing to the crowd after being robbed by Nabokov. The best play I have seen Kovalchuk make in a long time though was setting up Staal on the game tying goal. You could see how badly he wanted a goal, and when he got the puck, every single person in the building thought he was going to shoot. Instead, he passed to Staal, and the game was tied.

The applause for Marc Savard. I loved having Savard in a Thrashers uniform. He is a great guy, and great player, and I always cringe when he gets booed in Blueland. On Sunday, the entire building was cheering for him after he scored the game winner.

Fans from out of town. It was very unique to be able to see all of the jerseys and car flags from other teams.

The crowd. The crowd on Sunday was great. Every single seat filled, it was loud, and the writers took notice of the Kovy chants and the goalie harassments. It came across well, and looked great to everyone watching.

The reactions to the weekend. After three days of reading reactions about the weekend, I still can not find one thing negative about Atlanta, it’s fans, or anything to do with the event. The only negative comments were about non-hitting hockey, or an overall lack of TV interest. Everything else was positive, from the crowd on Sunday to the hosting job done by Atlanta. Hell, the words “hockey” and “town” and “Atlanta” even appeared together in a few sentences.

Getting my picture taken with the Cup. I have seen it multiple times, but had the opportunity to have my picture taken with it on Sunday for the first time.

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All-Star Game Reactions

January 27th, 2008 by gmlane

What a weekend we had in Atlanta. I have yet to fully appreciate how awesome it was, and will tell some good stories and memories later on this week.

In the meantime, I would love to hear some of your reactions to the game and the surrounding events. How was it watching on TV? Did anyone come for the weekend? If so, how was your experience?

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Hectic Weekend in Atlanta

January 25th, 2008 by gmlane

This weekend is going to be awesome, but there is so much going on to wrap my head around.

I was asked to cover the Junior All-Star tournament for AtlantaThrashers.com. The coverage can be seen here.

Today was the first real day of action. I spent all day at the Marietta Ice Center watching Pee-Wee level competition between the Junior Thrashers, Capitals, Predators, Lightning, and Hurricanes.

Hall of Famer Tony Esposito was present, guest coaching the Washington Capitals. I had the opportunity to meet him, and he was incredibly nice and giving with his time.

If you get the chance over the next few days, check out the blog I linked to above. The kids in the tournament get to do some incredible things, and it will be interesting to hear about their experiences.

At the end of the weekend, or early next week, I’ll try and share some of the stories from what is shaping out to be an amazing weekend.

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Worst Loss in Franchise History

January 19th, 2008 by gmlane

Last night’s game in Buffalo was set up to a rough one. Buffalo had lost ten straight, but played most of those close and competitively. They were ready to break out. The Thrashers had played the night before in a loss to Montreal, and came into Buffalo with a record of 1-7-1 in the second games of back-to-backs this season.

The Thrashers started the game slow, and the Sabres didn’t. 6 minutes in, and the home team had a 3-0 lead while the visiting squad had yet to register a shot. Game over.

The Bright Spots

Any time a team gives up 10 goals, you can expect to see some pitiful plus/minus ratings, and we did: Klee, Zhitnik, and Kovalchuk all registered -4. But a few Thrashers put up surprising numbers. Rookie Tobias Enstrom and Niclas Havelid both registered PLUS ratings of +1. Enstrom played over 20 minutes, and Havelid played 13 minutes. And they had plus ratings? Incredible.

The other bright spot of the game was rookie Colin Stuart, who scored a shorthanded goal and had an even rating.

The Negatives

Everything else was bad. Every aspect of the game was pathetic and embarrassing, so I won’t even begin to discuss it.

Notables

Kovalchuk is on a three game goalless streak, his longest of the year.
The 10 goals were the most goals ever allowed in franchise history.
The Thrashers are 0-2 at HSBC Arena this year, being outshot 77-44 and outscored 16-1.

Inconsistency

How can a team beat the best team in the league in the Red Wings on the road by a score of 5-1, and then lose to a team on a ten game losing streak by a score of 10-1? Your guess is as good as mine. The Thrashers have played inconsistently all season long, and it is a problem that needs to be fixed, and quickly, for any hope of making the playoffs.

The Bottom Line

Carolina beat Edmonton 7-2 last night to retake the division lead. The same Oilers team comes into Blueland tomorrow for a battle of the recently-demolished. Should be interesting. Can the Thrashers come out fired up and ready to play?

Quote of the Day

“When it’s going like that, the last thing you want is them running up the score on your team and taking cheap shots. I saw them laughing at us. They really wanted to score that tenth goal. I think everyone in this room should be embarrassed.”
– Garnet Exelby

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Welcome

January 17th, 2008 by gmlane

Welcome folks. My name is George Lane, and David Johnson asked me to be the resident blogger covering the Atlanta Thrashers. It is a great opportunity, and I am excited to be a part of this site.

About Me

I currently am a student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I go to just about every game, and have so since the lockout. I followed the Thrashers and the NHL before the 04-05 season, but not with the passion (insanity?) that I do today.

I believe that I bring a somewhat different perspective to the hockey blogging world because I am younger than most hockey writers and because I was bred in the south (yes, there are some hockey fans down here).

Beliefs

I believe in Blueland, and in Kari Lehtonen. I believe that Ilya Kovalchuk is by far the best goal scorer in the league, and has been for a few years. I believe that hockey is the best game on Earth, and I believe that if anyone has the chance to go to a game live, they will be hooked. I believe that seeing a Thrashers game with 18,545 of my closest friends in Philips Arena is an incredible way to spend an evening.

And last but not least, I believe that Lord Stanley’s Cup will spend a warm summer (or two, or three, etc…) in Atlanta sometime in my lifetime (hopefully sooner rather than later).

Blogging Experience

My first dip into the writing world is just about at its first birthday. A friend and I started up Talking Thrash last January after debating about it for a long, long time (I blame the name – we just couldn’t agree on one).

It definitely was a great decision, as I have come to meet a lot of awesome people both in Thrasher nation and around the NHL because of it.

I am looking forward to writing here, and hope you enjoy my work.

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