I don't.

The pain and heartache that Thrashers fans feel won’t go away any time soon, nor should it. To take the team and toss it in the bin is unfair. That was our team, and it was upsetting to watch this market get drug through the mud by Canadian news outlets as a poor one for hockey without consideration for the ownership situation. There are more reasons that the Thrashers failed here in Atlanta than just attendance, and most of them can be traced back to the offices on Marietta Street.

Sure, I hated it when some Canadians said that Atlanta didn’t deserve a team because of it’s geographical location. I’ve mentioned it before that I think being jingoistic about a sport is idiotic, especially when it’s a sport that you love so much. Spread it! Let other fan bases experience it. Stop pretending that the Sunbelt is Canada’s version of Pokemon. You really don’t have to catch them all.

 

I choose you, Phoenix!

There’s no room for elitism in this sport - just enjoy it, and let other people enjoy it. The team grubbing isn’t doing Canadians in general much good around some parts of the league’s fans, and it’s unfortunate because I know for a fact that they don’t make up the majority of Canadian hockey fans. Team grubbers are just loud. Squeaky wheel, and all of that. People who actively root for a market to fail and for teams to relocate bother me, and they bother a majority of hockey fans - American and Canadian. But you can’t associate team grubbers with an entire nation, and you can’t associate Canadians wanting a team back with them stealing one.

It’s a sentiment among some Thrashers fans (again, some, not all) that Winnipeg/Canada/Nunavut/The Kids In The Hall/Whoever stole our team! THEY TOOK OUR TEAM!

No. Our team unfortunately relocated there. Did TNSE look at weaker markets when planning to relocate a team? Duh. If the Thrashers had’ve been sold to a local buyer, they could have moved on to another city, or just waited a while for Phoenix. Does that make them evil? Not really - it makes them a business who, by all accounts, have played the game correctly. They didn’t look at Atlanta and go “oh, let’s upset a group of people and steal their team because hockey’s Canada’s sport!” They looked at it as a business deal - and in business, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The NHL and Atlanta Spirit, LLC, however... that’s where you can plunk your blame. Not Winnipeg, not Canada, not TNSE. Look in our own backyards. Look at an ownership group who wanted to sell the team from the second they bought it. Look at the group who went bare bones in every way that they possibly could, from on-ice players to off-ice personnel (for example, keeping Waddell as head coach because they were too cheap to pay Bob Hartley and a new one). They made ignorant decisions and forced the hockey ops to also make ignorant decisions. They considered a billboard on 75 South and radio ads on the station that broadcast the team anyway to be advertisement. Hell, they hired an advertising firm that based a whole season’s graphics AROUND CARDBOARD.

 

After the failed Derilique graphic set, the Philips Arena Hockey For Ants Foundation was ASG's next step.
 

Mix that in with a league who all but promised the team to TNSE, and a commissioner who honestly probably didn’t realize he ok’d a team in Atlanta let alone cared about it, and you have a perfect storm for relocation. Would it have happened without TNSE? Probably so, but not as fast. If something can happen just as well without one of the parties involved participating, then chances are good it’s not that parties’ fault.

The second part of my finger shaking admonishment goes to those who actually want teams to relocate to Atlanta at some point. My God, really? Look at what we just went through - the heartache of losing a team is not something I’d ever, ever want to wish on anyone. Sure, when the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996 my first reaction was “What? How is that supposed to work?” Heck, when they put a team in San Jose, that was my reaction, and I was 10. I had similar reactions to the Lightning, Panthers, and Ducks, but those teams have all thrived there to some degree or another. They all have fanbases, and they all have people who would be crushed if their team moved. Yes, the Panthers and Coyotes aren’t exactly the tops of the attendance draws - and have been having those issues for some time - but you can’t make an argument about why the Thrashers should have been given a chance without making that exact same one regarding those teams. To say that you don’t think that they belong in the league, or that you want them to relocate, or that you wished Phoenix’d relocated instead of us... or that you want them to relocate to Atlanta? Is that not just as bad as those in Winnipeg who wanted to the same thing of the Thrashers?

We all have ways of coping that are different. Some folks are in the anger stage, and I get that. I’m still angry and upset at ASG and the NHL for allowing this situation to happen. I probably always will be. But misplaced anger never did anyone a bit of good, nor did actively wanting others to fail. No one wants to be around that guy who goes around, laughing at other teams’ misfortunes. For heaven’s sake, Atlanta fans, don’t be that guy.

Off season's hard... not too much happens with the Blues generally, and considering that my other team's dead so I can't mock their off-season moves like I used to, well... there shan't be a ton of off-kilter, "can't post these anywhere else!" posts. It's just not that entertaining to be a Blues fan in the off-season.

The Blues signed former five million goal scorer Jonathan Cheechoo yesterday in the ultimate of reclimation projects. Either he makes the team, does meh, and goes to the AHL - or he makes the team and scores 20 goals. Role the dice... everything's a crapshoot with this team anyway.

Who is this Jonathan Cheechoo, you might ask? Why not a brief introductory video?

 


Not nearly informational enough? Maybe Mr. CheechooRulz can help you out a bit more; here in this one he touches on Cheechoo's tenure as an Ottawa Senator:




I, for one, am eagerly anticipating part three. And then a return smackdown from the other Cheechoo guy. CHEECHOO FIGHT!

Literally about 15 minutes after I posted yesterday whining about how the Blues' free agent moves, while ok, weren't groundbreaking, the team goes and signs Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner. Think the Blues're excited?

 
Naah.

Anywho, I'm very happy with Arnott's acquisition. It's been a bit since he's played a full season, but he's still more than capable of scoring. Also, he's a big center who, when given the right linemates, can set up a goal or 20. He's veteran leadership that this teams' been lacking since Keith Tkachuk retired, but with 99% less pudding/doughnut jokes.

Langenbrunner's better known for his locker-room antics last year in New Jersey than anything he did on the ice in 2010-2011. It's no secret that the situation to start the year for the Devils was generally terrible, but it's been rumored that Langenbrunner, as their captain, might have added to some toxicity. Hopefully he'll find the situation in St. Louis more to his liking (the team's significantly less inept than the Devils were last season), because we don't need any bad attitude rubbing off on the kids.

I wrote this as a response to a post that Brad made over on St. Louis Game Time that basically perfectly summarized the Blues' off-season: cheap. I figured it was such a good (and long) comment that hey, why not post here, too? That, and it's summer and the off-season isn't giving me much motivation to write.

While I totally expected this from the Blues, and aren’t pissed off by any of the signings (ok, Brian Elliott bothered me initially), none of them are difference makers. None of them’ll give this team that depth or oomph to get over the hump when half of the team goes down with injury.

And we all know that’ll happen, because it always does.

Every single guy Brad mentioned would have helped the team, and wouldn’t’ve been a huge miss. Most of the guys I mentioned in my SBNSTL preview of the forwards are gone. Hell, I even mentioned Marty Reasoner, since he was a big part of the reason FLA’s penalty kill was outstanding last year, along with Mike Weaver. We need face-off help, and Reasoner could provide it. Where’d he wind up? Long Island. Eric Belanger would have been useful. Where does he go? Edmonton.

We didn’t get (not saying didn’t make a play for) the better depth guys who would have actually helped this team. When you have Doug Armstrong focused on a reunion with Jamie Langenbrunner, and THAT could be your big signing of the off-season, there’s an issue. I’d rather have Jason Arnott, because at least while his numbers are falling off due to age he still has heart. Langenbrunner didn’t make road trips with the Devils for a few games last year while he was captain because he was too busy bitching about playing time.

Sure, there are still guys to get, but the Blues have 11 forwards on one-way contracts right now. You can’t tell me they won’t plug those last three available forward spots with AHL guys like Brett Sterling and Ryan Reaves.

I love this team, and they’re doing exactly what I expected them to do, but good lord. Exceeding expectations sure would be swell once in a while.

I'm a big fan of political cartoons. More so when they involve sports. Mr. Gary Finkler's started up his own personal website, 7th Inning Sketch, with some pretty solid stuff up there from all sports - not just baseball. He whipped up this one on the Winnipeg/Atlanta situation, and I think it's pretty accurate.



If he could do something on the backroom deals between the NHL and ASG, that'd be awesome too. I'd be remiss in not saying that I fully expect the next panel of that cartoon to involve some big French Canadian fur-trapper standing over the Coyote. Maybe next season. 

(Also, I'm eagerly awaiting his assessment of Albert.) 

In an olive branch to everyone from Winnipeg, I am now going to mock the state that I live in. See? I'm EQUAL OPPORTUNITY (although I still maintain that I've never made fun of Winnipeg, ever. You must have me lumped in with my editor at SBNATL).

Walton County: Where We Haven't Done Anything, But The Guy We're Named After Did!

In an op-ed from the Walton Tribune (who, NYT alert, have stolen your logo/typeface in an attempt to be "journalistic"), a Mr. Brian Arrington goes on and on about how no one cares that the Thrashers are gone, how he never sees children playing ice hockey around him, and how much better things were when he was growing up in Buffalo.

Ok, I'm not going to pick on him because he's from Buffalo - despite some of my personal experiences here in Philips with drunken Buffalo fans, most of the ones I've talked to on-line have been very supportive of us in what's gone on here. I will, however, mock his county.

I had to Google the county to find it. I (probably because I'm an evil Northern carpetbagger myself, or something) try very, very hard not to leave the metro Atlanta area unless I'm driving to Florida. Why? Two - thirds of the state's population lives in the metro area. South of that all you have are strippers and truckers. North of ATL is beautiful country, but I really don't have a reason to go there. The population of these areas aren't exactly "hockey inclined." Or "basketball inclined." Or "Falcons inclined." They're more or less "UGA football" and "local high school football" inclined. Maybe possibly "Braves inclined," though that tends to be when they're winning. 

Of course no one in Walton County cares that the Thrashers are leaving. They're more concerned with 14 year olds playing football and if Mark Richt is a good coach (he's not) to care. The highlight of the op-ed was this:

Another reason I never thought hockey would last here is because it was an oddity. There are no outside hockey rinks like in the North, where kids of all ages could don skates and imitate Sidney Crosby or Tim Thomas.

Every day before school growing up outside of Buffalo, I used to play hockey with my friends on a frozen pool of ice in a field near our houses. A number of times I came to school with lumps on my head after falling on the ice skating after a frozen tennis ball.

I have never, ever, seen a child playing ice hockey here, or in the street for that matter. If you can’t get kids to like hockey in Atlanta, there really isn’t much potential for fanbase growth, is there?

Hockey's not an oddity in Metro Atlanta. You know, where the people are. Youth hockey has an enrollment of 2000 kids, making it one of the fastest growing in the nation. Hockey has to be played on rinks, because in the winter time it doesn't get cold enough for lakes and ponds to freeze here. At the very least they'll form a thin layer of ice and then some dingus (usually a Northerner, actually) has to go out and be all "Wooo! I'm on ICE!" for two seconds before he falls through. Find a tax base in your county that's half the size of the county seat of mine, and build a damn public skate rink. See what happens. 

Or, better yet, go mention to your Walton County compatriots (who apparently have nothng doing in their own county since most of your paper covers Athens) that UGA has an ice hockey team and they they play Georgia Tech. Watch the tailgaters come out in droves for that one. 

Get ready to look a hell of a lot more pooped, Teej.

Happy NHL Schedule Day, everyone! I (unlike everyone else in the NHL, apparently) am going to ignore when St. Louis plays the Winnipeg NHL (no, really, that's what they're called on the schedule) and look at the actual Blues' schedule. The Blues' site has it posted, with downloadable versions coming shortly. A few things stick out.

1. Only three home games in October. They start off playing Nashville on the 8th, play the Flames on the 10th, and then play the Canes on the 21st. That's it.

2. They play the Blackhawks and Red Wings at home earlier this year than last, but don't go to Chicago until February and Detroit until December. The customary New Year's Eve game against the Red Wings is back, though.

3. December and January seem really heavy on the home games, so I suppose that's a good trade off for October.

4. February seems like a holy nightmare. March is even worse.

5. The longest break the team has between games is five days, over Christmas. After that, the longest break they have is three days. These guys better have some serious staminia. Is it just me, or are most of the games just two days apart?

Finally, why is it that it always seems like the Blues' season gets harder down the stretch? Not whining here, because they're professional athletes who should be able to cope with this, but good God, NHL. We're a team with a bunch of young marketable talent. Wouldn't you like to see the Blues make the playoffs and not promptly get swept? Imagine the money you could make by exposing Oshie and Backes to the entire universe.