Ladies Night, oh what a night! Thrash win.

3 - 2 (S/O)
You're picturing Jon Lovitz from Wedding Singer now aren't you? You better be cause that image has been stuck in my head since I found out it was Ladies Night tonight at Blueland. Of course, I have no idea what that means. Was it free drinks for the laaaadies? If so, I'm bummed out I couldn't go!

So the Pens came in riding a hot streak where apparently Sid "Bing" Crosby could do no wrong, and Ty "Conkblock" Conklin couldn't lose if he tried. And if you read this blog fairly regularly, you know I love me some Pens. So this was a strange game for me to watch. But I'm pleased to report I found myself cheering for the Thrash at every turn.

Obviously the highlights of the game were Kari's all-star performance, including shutting down Bing and Genya in the shootout, and Rex scoring against his old team. Now who out there wants to tell me why Kovy was named 1st star? Yeah, league leading 37^th goal, awesome and all, but I don't think his in-game performance was better than Kari's. Yeah, yeah, biased. Shocker, right?

Here's your photos from the evening.

Sydor displays his curling skills

Bing makes it look easy

Stuart and the guy whose name I thought was said like Taffy. I was wrong.

Thaaaaat's a goal. (Damned watermarks)

And thaaaat's goal-love.

Remember, just say NO to Staal. Even when he's trying to catch Kovy.


Sydor riding dirty on Rex. Note Syd's not looking at the puck.


Tonight's forecast: Light snow showers and NO GOAL.

Kari talks post game:


Pens Thrashed in Atlanta

Kari speaks (to Craig)! And an ETA

Lehtonen: We’re extremely lucky

By Craig Custance | Friday, January 4, 2008, 12:43 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Packed house this morning with first-place Carolina in town. Don Waddell took one look at all the video cameras at his morning presser, and cracked, “Is college football over with?” But we’re hitting the second half and the Thrashers are in position to make a run at it. First the lineup changes for tonight: Kari Lehtonen is in goal, like he said he’d be yesterday. I talked to him for awhile on Thursday, then didn’t use any of it in today’s coverage. Let me look real quick and see if he said anything you might be interested in… Yeah, there’s some pretty good stuff here.

Lehtonen on the home stand: “It’s huge. We’re extremely lucky, I would say. The way we’ve been playing to be in a situation where we still have a great chance to be on top of our division. Of course it’s good to have a home stretch now, I really hope we can make it the same kind of home stand we did last time. We played very well.”

Lehtonen on the Thrashers inconsistency: “It shouldn’t be like that. When we do things great, it kind of slips away from us. We start trying to make it all pretty and we get into trouble. I think we’re all playing better lately and that’s a good sign.”

Lehtonen on the goalie rotation for the second half: “As a goalie, we have to make it easy for the coaches to decide. That means we have to play well and that’s the biggest thing. I know if I play well, I’m going to play a lot. It’s just up to me to produce and do it. It’s a fair game, I would say.”

Alright, enough Kari out-takes. The only changes in the lines will be Kevin Doell centering the fourth line with Chris Thorburn and Brad Larsen. The team is optimistic that Eric Boulton’s sprained knee will only keep him out a week. He’s been around the team, and seems to be walking alright, so that’s a positive. Haven’t seen Jim Slater however, as his illness is keeping him out of the loop. They’re keeping a tight lid on Slates’ situation, other than saying it’s day to day.

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ETA: New best friend pkwaldrop reports that the Canes dropped the hammer on surfer boy Johnny Grahame, and sent him packing to... Albany? Amherst? Somewhere up north that begins with an A and has no surfing. My heart breaks for the guy. But that means it'll be Kari v Cam. Prodigy v Prodigy. This could bode well. I better not get held at work with all these deadlines because if I miss puck drop, I might cry.