I found this on the message boards, and thought it was too good not to pass along. Linda Cohn, an ESPN analyst, is a die hard Rangers fan and was very critical of the Thrashers in the series. She did have some good words about the fans in Blueland, though:
Congratulations to Atlanta Thrashers fans. In all my years covering sports (and there’s a lot of them), I have never heard Atlanta fans cheer as loudly for one of their pro sports teams as I did over the first two games at Philips Arena against the Rangers. Impressive, considering Atlanta pro sports fans have built an unfortunate reputation of being invisible at times.
Leave it to the hockey fans to ignite an atmosphere and institute change. No better fans in the world!
Now just imagine the place if we could actually win a game or two in the playoffs…
Atlanta GM Don Waddell in an attempt to save his job in Atlanta, simply had to make the playoffs. So he dealt a player (Glen Metropolit) plus first-, second-, and third-round choices to St. Louis for Keith.
As it turns out, the Thrashers rolled over in four games and Tkachuk had one goal in the playoffs — that all important, game-opening goal in Game 4, when your club already trails the series 3-0. So where’s the irony?
The trade that was supposed to save Waddell’s job is more likely to get him fired, if any of the suits among the Atlanta Spirit ownership group ever run into a hockey person who tells them what an absolute dog Tkachuk is as a leader. This guy has played in 85 playoff games in 15 NHL seasons. Do the math — that’s a career of first-round flame-outs. He hasn’t lead an NHL team anywhere, any time, and Tkachuk is due to play his 1,000th NHL game next season.
And Waddell gave up three picks for him? That’s called raping a franchise to protect your own gig.
‘Raping’ seems a little strong for the situation. It wasn’t the best deal ever made, but without Keith, would the Thrashers have even made the playoffs? Don’t think so.
He finishes his career with 1,431 games played, 840 points, and 2,479 penalty minutes. He also racked up quite a playoff record, with 136 games played and 53 points. Mellanby reached the Stanley Cup Finals twice, once with Philadelphia and the other with Florida.
Thrashers fans will always remember Mellanby as the Captain who led the franchise to its first ever playoff berth.
I doubt that many people will argue that his play, especially from the last few months, will be missed next year. What will be missed is his leadership on and off the ice. He also is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. I was lucky enough to get to meet him a few times and talk with him, and he really is a special person.
He has expressed interest in staying around hockey and coaching, and let’s hope Don Waddell can find a spot somewhere in the organization for the Captain.
Here’s a question worth pondering now that seven (and, soon enough, eight) teams have bowed out of the postseason race: Did the Thrashers, Islanders and Predators seriously err in unloading picks and prospects for the Forsbergs, Tkachuks and Smyths of the world at the trade deadline?
With the benefit of hindsight, the short answer is unequivocally yes. All three teams would gladly reclaim their future building blocks instead of the big-ticket unrestricted free agents who are likely to move on, but the ‘go-for-it’ mentality made sense for some teams more than others — regardless of how it all turned out.
Atlanta Thrashers – It’s hard to hold this one against GM Don Waddell: With his team in prime position for its first-ever playoff berth, the wheels started falling off in February and the long-time manager dealt big to bring in veterans Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik in the hopes of righting the ship. Their acquisitions had the desired effect — the Thrashers went 10-5-1 to close the year — but the birds laid an egg in the playoffs and were swept in what should have been an evenly matched series with the Rangers.
Waddell traded Glen Metropolit, a 2007 first- and third-round picks and a 2008 second-round pick for Tkachuk (and they’ll also forfeit a conditional 2008 first rounder if the big winger re-signs with the Thrashers). He also gave up top defensive prospect Braydon Coburn for Zhitnik, who is signed for two more years on a bloated, $3.5-million per year deal.
That’s an awful lot to unload for an extra two home dates, especially considered few Thrashers — save for perhaps netminder Kari Lehtonen — are poised to breakout next season. Waddell’s job, however, was likely on the line if the team missed the playoffs (and it still may be) and his team is due to shed six or seven key veterans as UFAs.
There are a slew of unrestricted free agents, who can sign with anyone on July 1. That list includes Tkachuk, Eric Belanger, Slava Kozlov, Andy Sutton, Pascal Dupuis, Jon Sim, Shane Hnidy, J.P. Vigier, Eric Boulton and Brad Larsen.
But Waddell did say that the roster will have a decidedly younger look next season. Besides the expected retirement of Mellanby, Waddell sees at least three to four spots on the team open to some of the younger prospects in the system.
He’s planning a trip to Chicago to see first-hand who is closest to contributing, but he mentioned players like Bryan Little, Brett Sterling and Colin Stewart as forwards he thinks might get a chance. If the team goes young on the blue line, it’ll be with players like Mark Popovic, Nathan Oystrick and Boris Valabik.
“I think we have an opportunity next year. Let’s face it, we haven’t had a lot of young guys ready to compete for jobs,” Waddell said. “We think we’ll have positions for those guys. We also have a couple European players who are ready to compete for jobs here. I think there are going to be opportunities and availability. It’ll be up to those players to take advantage of it.”
And the quote of the day, coming from Bob Hartley:
“So many of the young guys, were almost asking for another chance,” Hartley said. “It went so quick.”
Soccer has a very successful tournament in which the top club teams face off against each other. Hockey is looking to do the same. From TSN:
The International Ice Hockey Federation is proposing a Champions League format which would pit the top club teams in Europe against each other in a tournament similar to soccer’s Champions League.
The goal is to get the Champions Hockey League off the ground in 2008-09, which coincides with the IIHF’s 100th anniversary.
Under the proposed format, a qualification round will determine six teams which will advance to the 12-team group stage which includes the national champions from the top six European leagues. The teams would then play a double round-robin schedule with the four group winners advancing to the semi-final.
The semi-finalists will play a two games, home and away, with the winners advancing on aggregate to the final where another two game, home and away, series will determine the champion.
Well, I guess it wasn’t in the stars for us. I really thought we had this game today–we were doing everything right. We had a lead, we were outshooting the opposing team, we had strong goaltending…we just couldn’t make it happen. The Rangers were able to adjust to the game and really, in the end, outplayed us. They deserve to advance to the next round. And though it will be tough to get over it, I hope they go far (only so we can say we got swept by the champs. It eases the pain just a little bit.).
I’m proud of our guys–they rebounded and played a tough game tonight. They played smart hockey, didn’t get goaded into taking stupid penalties, but sometimes it is just the luck of the draw. I could be all negative and say the effin refs didn’t help us out…certain defensemen could have kept the puck in the zone with an empty net…but hey, I choose to focus on the positive. “Glass half full” and all that jazz…
We had a good run. We will not soon forget this season or the guys who got us here. The fact is this is the last time we will see some of these guys in a Thrasher uniform. Some of them will go on to play another day with another team. Others might be hanging up the skates. Take a moment to reflect on the joy and the pain of this season…and remember…preseason starts before you know it.
I’m sad, as I’m sure many of you are. But we played hard out there. It would have been nice to see them at Phillips one more time, but it was not to be. This is the agony and the ecstasy of being a fan, especially being a fan of a team who is still struggling to make a mark. We have not heard the last from this franchise, and I for one think we will go far in the coming years.
I hope all of you can put this season in its perspective, and resist the urge to get too angry or despondent. At the end of the day, it is only a game, and we will live to play another day.I enjoyed getting to “know” many of you this season… I had fun, and I’ll never forget this historic season. There will be many more playoffs, but this was the first, and that is special.
Good luck to the Rangers and the other advancing teams. These should be exciting playoffs. (Though I refuse to root for the Lightning )!
As always, this is only my two cents. I could be wrong.
General manager Don Waddell said before Wednesday’s game against the New York Rangers that his coach definitely will be back next season despite the disappointment of this post-season.
“Oh, 100 percent he’s back,” Waddell said. “At least he is in my mind.”
Rumors have swirled recently that Hartley could be in trouble, especially given the Thrashers’ abysmal showing in a 7-0 loss Tuesday night in Game 3 of the series at Madison Square Garden. Also complicating matters is the fact that Hartley said Wednesday he doesn’t have a contract for next season, although Waddell left open the possibility that an option clause might have been triggered.
“We’ll get through these playoffs and then we’ll announce everything,” Waddell said. “I’m confident he’ll be our coach next year.”
Well, what can you really say about that? Not too much to say. We came out flat and gave up after 8 seconds. We had no offense to speak of, we got frustrated and let that little punk get under our skin. While there was a tiny part of me that was glad to see the beat downs, it wasn’t the most classy moves I’ve ever seen (from either team). Our offense was absent, our D collapsed…and Kari….well….he had a rough game on top of the fact that he was hung out to dry by our defense. Hard to fault some of those goals, but he definitely wasn’t the Kari who got us to the playoffs. I doubt we’ll see him again this season, no matter what happens.
I know people have brought up the 04 Sox. I am a born and bred Red Sox fan–people are overlooking that in 04 they were the first team to do it, ever, in any major sport. EDIT: I was wrong. First baseball team to do it. It HAS happened in the NHL. I feel similarly right now as I felt after that 15 run drubbing that the Yanks gave us. My game plan was to just “make it respectable.” No one wants to be swept–the guys don’t, we don’t, this team doesn’t and the city surely doesn’t.
So we go out tonight, we shake last night off, and we play a smart disciplined game. We get on the board…we finish our checks but worry about playing the puck more than the body…and dangit, we make it respectable. This fan base deserves at least one more home game, to let our guys know how proud we are about this season.
Not much else to say about game 3, except that we just have to forget about it and focus. We can beat this team. They are not the Yankees.
