Pictures from Saturday’s Game

Where Are They Now – Andy Sutton

Check out this video of a great fight in the game tonight between the New York Islanders and New York Rangers. This was the first game since last year when Chris Simon and Ryan Hollweg had a vicious fight in which Simon received a 25 game suspension for swinging his stick.

One could argue that those two were going to fight anyways. But guess who really sparked the brawl in only the first minute of play?

The tone was set 51 seconds in when Andy Sutton leveled Rangers forward Ryan Callahan with an elbow in front of the penalty box. When emotions totally spilled over midway through the second period, Hollweg and Simon fought as did goalies Rick DiPietro of the Islanders and Rangers backup Al Montoya.

Sutton received only a minor for elbowing. Then he fought Colton Orr right after his breakaway chance upon leaving the penalty box.

“To me it looked like a real deliberate elbow to the head,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “From that point on I thought to myself, ‘OK, this might be interesting.”

Hm. Andy Sutton with a questionable hit to start a brawl? Unthinkable, right?

I for one sure am not going to miss the guy.

Memories

Folks, we are but a mere two weeks until opening night. I for one really can’t wait for hockey to start back up. But before we completely turn to the new season, I wanted to relive my favorite moments from last season. I linked to all of the video clips, so watch a couple, and I guarantee you that if you weren’t already pumped for the season, you will be after.

15) Kari Lehtonen Has a New Chair
How incredible was this? And here is the video of him getting up there.

14) Garnet Exelby’s Triple Decker Against Colorado
Who can forget this? Three consecutive Avs come up to challenge Exelby, who knocks down all three.

13) The Brawl
The scene: Atlanta at Washington. The spark: an Andy Sutton hit. The result: $40,000 in fines for the coaches, and a total of 176 penalty minutes.

12) Shootout win versus Carolina
It wasn’t just the intense game at Carolina that included a Bobby Holik laser-like goal from the blue line, but the fact that Pat and I were watching at a Thrashers viewing party with other fans, and that there was something like 70 Nasty Nesters all sitting together in Raleigh that made it on TV.

11) Keith Tkachuk – Welcome to Atlanta
Soon after the trade to acquire Tkachuk in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, Marian Hossa gets run into, Ilya Kovalchuk goes to stick up for him, but Tkachuk stepped in to protect Ilya, and proceeded to destroy the Habs player. The Arena was absolutely rocking.

10) Sabres Overtime Win
Late in the season, with the usual half the Arena filled with obnoxious Sabres fans, the Thrashers won in overtime. Incredible game

9a) 5-0 Win Over Toronto
This was the first time the Thrashers beat the Leafs in seemingly forever, and it was complete domination.

9b) 5-2 Comeback Win Over Toronto
I was watching this game with my roommate who is a Leafs fan. They went up 2-0 in the first, and he started giving me grief. Left the room for dinner, and when he came back, it was 5-2 Thrashers. ‘Nough said.

Shootout Win Over The Sabres
Early in the season, at Buffalo. The Sabres have yet to lose, and are trying to tie the alltime wins streak to start a season. In my memory is correct, this was also the highest win percentage for two teams facing each other ever. Thrashers come in to a packed house, and won in a shootout.

7) Blue Hair in Blueland
Who can forget Kari Lehtonen and Andy Sutton in the blue hair?

6) Bobby Holik’s Sliding Goal
No words can describe this, just watch the clip.

5) Slater’s Game Winner
Again, can’t even begin to describe the atmosphere in the Arena for this. Just listen to the radio call for it.
–Thanks are due to Ben Wright and 680 The Fan for the clip.

4) Hossa Hurt, Scores
Marian Hossa, towards the end of the second period late in the season, slams into the boards, takes seemingly forever to get up, and immediately goes to the locker room. Flash forward to the third period. He is back on the ice, Blueland is chanting his name, and on cue, only 19 seconds in, he scores. I’ve seen lamer movies.

3) Andy Sutton’s Shorthanded Goal
I never would have thought that Andy Sutton would have been in my top 5 memories. But here he is. Late in the third, down by two goals, Eric Boulton scores, the place goes crazy. Hold it, no goal, double minor, Thrashers are still down by two, and are now down a man for four minutes, basically ending the game. Maybe some of the loudest booing I have ever heard. Andy Sutton scores a shorthanded goal during one of the penalties. The Thrashers did not win the game, but just watch the excitement in Andy’s face after the goal. Still gives me shivers.

2) Rangers Beat Leafs, Thrashers Clinch
It’s a shame the Thrashers could not have clinched their playoff berth with a win at home in front of the fans. But on the night of April Fool’s Day, the New York Rangers beat the Leafs. I was listening on the radio to the game, and it was such an incredible feeling hearing the clock tick down to 0.

1) Playoffs
Of course this is the top spot. The entire city talking about it. The entire Arena packed during warmups and chanting “Lets Go Thrashers” 30 minutes before game time. Yes, we didn’t win a game, but it was still an experience I will never forget.
Videos: Intro – New York, New York

Oh, and don’t forget to watch the Fan Appreciation Video. Did I forget any others?

Now who is ready for a new season?

Frozen Moment, Pulled Groin

Well, the Thrashers made the NHL Frozen Moment for the day. That is Karel Pilar fighting for the puck down low. I see those jerseys in action, and only one thing comes to mind: how incredibly hard it’s going to be to watch the Thrashers playing the Lightning in Florida. They will have their black on white jerseys, and we will have the white on might-as-well-be-black. Oh well. They do look cool though.

If by chance you are one of the very few people that surf the web while standing up, you might need to sit down. I’m going to quote Craig Custance directly because I do not want to portray it wrong:

Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen is sidelined with a groin injury, an ailment that forced him to miss serious time early on in his career.

“It’s the same story,” Thrashers head coach Bob Hartley said after Friday’s practice. “Hopefully he can skate tommorow with the second group as a third goalie.

Despite missing practice this week, Lehtonen has continued to work out and teammates have remarked that he is in the best shape of his career. But it wasn’t enough to prevent the return of the old injury.

Acknowledging the setback, Hartley is optimistic the injury won’t impede on the regular season.

“Last year he did very well, hopefully this year will go as well as last year,” Hartley said.

Uh, words are escaping me. I mean, I guess Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec are a step up from Mike Dunham, Michael Garnett, Steve Shields, and Adam Berkhoel. But let’s just all hope that Kari’s condition is nothing serious, and nothing more than precautionary.

The Ice is Down

From the Blueland Blog, workers put down the first thin layer of ice in Philips Arena today, and then got to work painting the center ice design, sponsor logos, and hockey lines. The center design looks incredible and I can’t wait to see it in person, and there is a new Taco Mac logo. Head over there to check it out.

Thrashers’ Roster gets shorter

Today the Thrashers announced that 11 players were being sent back down to the Chicago Wolves and 2 to the Juniors. Here is the press release:

The Atlanta Thrashers have assigned forwards Joey Crabb, Andre Deveaux, Colton Fretter, Mike Hamilton, Chad Painchaud, Tomas Pospisil, Jesse Schultz and Myles Stoesz, and defensemen Chad Denny, Brian Fahey, and Scott Lehman to the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Don Waddell. The Thrashers also assigned forwards Riley Holzapfel (Moose Jaw) and Spencer Machacek (Vancouver) to their respective Western Hockey League teams. Atlanta now has 37 active players on its training camp roster (see attached), including 20 forwards, 12 defensemen and five goaltenders. Center Steve Rucchin remains on injured reserve. (more…)

Thorburn’s Return Home

NHL.com’s Evan Grossman talks to Chris Thorburn about getting the chance to play back where he started his whole career…

NORTH BAY, Ontario – Chris Thorburn never thought he’d play another game
back here again, not to mention dressing for a real NHL contest back in the old barn where he played his junior hockey.

“Not at all,” Thorburn told NHL.com, standing in the same hallway he occupied as an 18-year old junior player. “I haven’t been back here since I played. It’s been six years.”

But Monday night, Thorburn was back as the former North Bay Centennial made his homecoming in an Atlanta Thrashers jersey for an exhibition game against the New York Islanders. It was also the first time his mother got to see him play live, in an NHL uniform. (more…)

An NHL Article About the Braves?

It’s not too often you go to NHL.com and see an article about the Braves. But interestingly enough, that is what I saw today, when the website ran a story about the Braves own Pete Orr. I know my fellow poster Michael is a huge Orr fan, and so I am sure he will love seeing this.

He wears No. 4. His name is Orr. He has great defensive ability.

One might think you were talking about the legendary Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Robert Gordon Orr.

Not exactly.

Instead, the player being described is Peterson Thomas Gordon Orr, better known as Pete Orr. This Orr is an infielder for the Atlanta Braves. Playing in his third season in the Major Leagues, all with the Braves, and his eighth in professional baseball, Orr admits that it isn’t a coincidence that he wears the No. 4.

“In my heart I’m still rooting for the Leafs,” said Orr, who played for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic in 2006. “But since I’ve been living in Atlanta for the past three years, I’ve become a Thrashers fan as much as possible. It was exciting to see the Thrashers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time this year. And the city will be hosting the NHL All-Star game, which will be a huge plus for Atlanta when that happens.

Jerseys Unveiled- Mike’s Review as Well as a Suprise From Sportsnet

The jerseys were released and no doubt the whites look better than the blues. The rest of the NHL as well as many of our own fans already make fun of us for looking like a bunch of smurfs, and what do the Thrashers do, they go and make sure the new jerseys have more of that lovely smurf blue. There is one positive about the blue jerseys; at least they arent the Sharks new jerseys. The Sharks went from having one of the best looking jerseys in the NHL, and they completely destroyed it.

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Now to the important issue. Sportsnet, the second biggest sports network in Canada next to TSN has released an interesting article titled “Introducing the Hamilton Thrashers.” Read it for yourself.

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie’s next crack at NHL ownership could begin in Atlanta.

As reported in Friday’s Toronto Star, the next best option for Balsillie may be the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Thrashers aren’t going anywhere as things now stand. But that’s largely because the team’s eight owners are in court fighting for control of the NHL franchise and its basketball cousin, the NBA’s Hawks.
Sports finance experts say whoever emerges with the team may well look to sell and/or move the Thrashers.

While it may be a frightening scenario, dont bother yourselves with it. Being a Canadian I know exactly what this is. Canadians are starving for anything hockey and this kind of speculation is everything they want. It is completely wishful thinking on their part after having lost the Penguins, and especially the Predators who were on their way to Hamilton before Gary Bettman emailed the Preds owner telling him not to sell to Balsillie and sell the team to a Nashville based group for 10 million less. That is another issue that I won’t get into.

Enjoy the new unis and dont pay any attention to Canadian wishful thinking.

Update: More wishful thinking. Here are some quotes from the Toronto Star article mentioned above:

Sports finance experts say whoever emerges with the team may well look to sell and/or move the Thrashers.

That’s because Atlanta has failed to impress as an NHL market. “Forget about hockey,” one sports business source says.

“The Braves have fielded arguably the best team over the past decade but haven’t attracted an average of 40,000 fans a season since 1999. It’s just not a strong pro sports market.”

Ouch. How about we get Philips booked all season and show them up. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Jerseys Unveiled – George’s Review

Well, the jerseys are out. You can see a photo gallery of them here.

What do I think? I think the whites are awesome, and the blues are “safe.” Why do I say safe? I’ve seen a lot of other teams come out with their jerseys to absolute horrible reviews from the public. The Atlanta Spirit obviously work very hard not to have that, and ended up with almost a boring jersey. In previous years I would never have even thought about buying a road jersey over the home one, but with these designs, I might just have to. But doesn’t that kill whole “Blueland” idea if people want to buy the road whites?

So my final review is this: A for the road whites, B- for the home blues. I would have liked to have a little more piping on the jersey, or some little more navy blue to accent the light. But hey, it really isn’t that bad. At least we don’t have Dallas’s new home jersey.