What you don't realise...

Sure they lost, but the Thrashers held the #1 in the Eastern Conference lightining-hot Bruins to ONE GOAL until 6:05 of the 3rd period.

YES the Bruins just played 19 hours ago, but the team actually PLAYED tonight. All three periods I believe. Fernandez and Hnidy were the only two players who did NOT play last night, and that was pretty clear in Manny's handling of the Thrashers shots, many of which produced highlight-reel saves.

We can not expect perfection in a matter of days, or weeks, and maybe not even months. But visible progress is something to be proud of, and this was damned progressive for this team.

Good game, Thrashers.

Photos (+16) and videos v Boston

Photos courtesy Getty and ModSquad. All resize to 1024x.

12.12.08 in Atlanta

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12.13.08 in Boston

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Videos
12.12 Atlanta



12.13 - Boston

If only I'd'a.....

done a series preview - which is just not my thing anymore, sorry, but probably should've been in this instance since the only other team I really love and follow is the B's (sorry Buffaloes, you fell off the radar) - I would've told you exactly who will be trouble for us: Kess, Savvy, Krejci, Lucic, and Ryder. I did not see that Valabik/Chara fight coming, and that was pretty cool, that Valabik got to fight a famed countryman. When I say "got to fight" I hope you know that's a euphemism for "praying to god Chara didn't pound his nose down his throat." But he held his own, and he didn't kiss the ice, which is always a good way to end a fight. As for the rest of the game, there were moments of goodness. One or two of greatness (Oyster, I'm looking at you). But there were also moments when I thought, if there is any hope in hell of this team winning a game again any time soon, Kari needs to come back ASAP. Despite whatever flaws the public at large may perceive with him, he is used to playing for this team. Ondrej does not know yet how to fend for himself, and Moose is clearly easily rattled these days. First shot on him after the crowd started singing to him, and he let the goal in. Nice. But c'mon. Let's be honest here. They played the Bruins. They're #1 in the East. I believe the Thrashers are #30 in the NHL. This was not the weekend for that blind squirrel to find his nut.



And you know, while possibly not yet ready to be hung out to dry and having to work his ass off for 60:00 straight, I'm hoping to hear Kari's in Chicago by Wednesday. And I hope to see the slow train into town from Chicago, which seems to be dropping off a kid a day. I like how this is happening. Are players going missing? Mysteriously landing on IR? Being shipped out on the midnight bus to Flagstaff or Crooked Stick? Wherever man. Keep bringing the kids. Whatever is going on, the team is starting to get its collective shit together.

On that note and tying in with an earlier parenthetical comment, well played, Oyster. You got moves, kid. And I'd like to congratulate the team on going down 3-0, and not collapsing. That's progress guys. Baby steps, okay?

And to finish on a more personal note - can ANYONE tell me why I can't just buy the chex cereal with the chex mix spices on it? I don't LIKE the bagel chips and the pretzels and the.... beady cracker looking things. I buy a 15 oz bag of Chex Mix and wind up with like a cup of just the chex cereal thingies and that is just BULLSHIT.

Oh, almost finished. I'm starting a pool for when Kari'll start playing again. As mentioned earlier, I'll make the first pick of "Wednesday, Chicago." You give me the +/- and the location. The winner gets THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING OUR FRANCHISE GOALIE IS COMING BACK TO US HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE THE LORD, CAN I GET AN AMEN?!

Ooh, look! "A Christmas Story" is on!

Good job, Joey!

OH QUICK PRE-CONTENT NOTE: Word on the intertubes is, Kari is "expected" to be back playing in 10-14 days!!!!1!1!1!!ONE!1!1!! Now back to your regularly scheduled sunshine post:

Well, on the plus side, Joey Crabs got his first NHL point tonight! And also, Jimmy Slater survived his 2nd fight this year (and got another point)! Against a guy I'm assuming is related to Brad Winchester, because that's who I thought it was, but he's apparently a J, not a B. And um. Pony faced less than 40 shots this time! And the Thrash won 51% of the faceoffs overall. Also if you count missed shots and blocked shots, Kovy had a whopping total of 11 shots tonight. It seems the reins of the team have been handed over to Hainsey, Kovy and Enstrom, who had 26, 26 and 28 shifts, respectively, blowing everyone else out of the water.

Listen I can spin most anything to sound good, but the fact of the matter is, I vote to keep about 6-8 current players, trade or waive the rest, and bring up the kids from Chicago. I mean, really, how much worse can they do? At least they come to play.

Photos v Preds & Blues (+ 18)

Mostly from Getty. Couple from ModSquad. In semi-chronological order.

 

Joey Crabb!

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Seriously?

I honestly don't know what to say anymore. How can you be an NHL player, one of the alleged best in the world, and just half-ass it every game? I mean what the fuck? What happened to the cans of Winning? Dude, even Redbull gives you wings, for fuck's sake. And even if they mean Red Wings, then whatever because that's a style of winning I would enjoy in my team.

 

The one next to the redline doesn't count against Pavelec, since he wasn't in the net, but nonetheless. How do you allow 47 shots in one game? Regularly? Is there a special prize for having the most SOG of any team? What is this prize? Is there money involved? Perhaps a banner or shiny trophy for the trophy case? Oh right, first pick in 09 is at stake! My bad, how could I forget. Hey did any one tell Anderson that is the plan? To win the Tavares lottery, not the Stanley Cup? Because clearly he's unaware that's the path the team is walking: "We stopped competing." Welcome to Blueland, Coach!

You know I want to be Miss Mary Sunshine and I want to find positives to point to, but why? Why find reasons to compliment something that has no business receiving any compliments? They leave Kari out to dry on a pretty regular basis, then the fanbase and media bitch and complain that Kari's not getting the job done, bring up Pavelec. And Pavelec comes up and he gets hung out to dry, also pretty regularly, and then they realise, huh, maybe it's the team that's a bunch of slackers? Good detective work there, Lou. And look, I know that there are guys on the team that play their hearts out game in and game out. But 1, 2, 6 guys can't carry a 23-man team. Which is why blame can't be laid on Kari, and it can't be laid on Pavelec. They've both got winning backgrounds prior to playing in Atlanta. One guy can't be the saviour of a unit. This isn't literally war, people. One man is not going to hold off the enemy for the duration.

Aah, fuck it. If I find some interesting photos I'll post them. Oh and keep sending your entries for the JA photoshop contest!

Photos: 11/26/08 (+4), more irresponsible journalism

First, when and why did NHL Network stop covering, or even mentioning, fights? Dom Moore and Jason Smith fought in the 2nd period of the TOR/OTT game (not that I would know, since I was watching that trainwreck the Thrash put on). I'm not sure if that's like, a fantasy come to life, or horrifyingly mis-matched, and thank god for the YouTubes, because NHL Network didn't even MENTION it. Not only did they not show clips, but they glossed right over it as if it never happened. When did this start happening? Dominic Moore drops his gloves and takes on Jason Smith and that's not worth mentioning? Even casually as an aside, perhaps? Dumb dickheads.

There weren't a lot of great photos for this game. Clearly the photographer(s) was a homer, because there's a lot of photos of Caps.

Photos: 11.20.08 v Penguins (+11)

From ModSquad, Reuters, and AP. All resize onClick.

Yeah, I have a goalie bias! It's not news! Just grow some patience, damn!

Pens fans only