Oysters was one of my three favorite non-goalie players. Colin Stuart is gone, now Nathan, all I have left is Bobo :( What can I say, I guess I like the non-big superstars.
Good luck Nathan. You will be missed in Atlanta! Hopefully we'll see you soon.
Here is a nice little video the marketing folks have come up with to get us excited about the new season. In the beginning is some locker room footage.
Enjoy
Nothing like a good Sunday afternoon game! It's a preseason game and the Falcons were playing on the TV, so it was a light crowd, but far larger than any of the other preseason games.
Before the game, we had the first meeting of the Atlanta Thrashers Fan Club. We got our membership cards and a goodie bag. In addition, we had some eye candy! They dragged poor Zack Bogosian out to discuss sunshine and rainbows.
Blah blah new pieces blah blah good season blah blah thank you blah blah
The kid is good at this, and judging by the reactions of some of the ladies I was sitting with, some fans think he might be good at a variety of things.
Don telling us about fantastical unicorns, trying to work out something with Manny, magic beans and Ilya re-signing.
The meeting went well and it seems like the Thrashers are excited and behind the fan club. I think that we will be able to do a lot of good in the community with the money we raise, and selfishly, I think there will be a lot of cool Thrasher involved things for the fans to do. If you haven't joined, you can do so online here http://www.atlantathrashersfans.org/
After the fan club meeting I hustled on down to the class...at the opposing side. Yes enemy territory. Actually I hustled my fat ass over to the Wetzel Pretzel stand and got a cinnamon pretzel. It was gross though, too much cinnamon and I only ate half. Then out of the boards near the glass a roach crawled out and I was disgusted and threw the pretzel away. Phillips, only the finest! ANYWAY...I usually head to the enemy side for a goalie. Only once last season did I go to the enemy side for someone other than a goalie and he was on Tampa Bay as well, it was Ryan Malone. Today I was hunting something much larger and much younger.
6'6" of Swedish goodness, #2 overall draft pick, Victor Hedman!
What surprised me most was his baby face. It's usually the other way around. I'm expecting a baby and get a grown man. He is HUGE. It was fun to see him by St. Louis. He is a cutie. I think he has green eyes. Notice the large portwine birthmark on his face? He says when he was younger kids teased him about it. Then he got bigger. They stopped.
Skating with the puck.
Shooting the puck
Biting his lip looking like a kid that got lost in Target.
My old buddy Ryan Malone was there, too. Still as hot as ever. He spent more time in the net during warm ups than either Smith or Nitty. I was beginning to wonder if he was gonna guard the crease for Tampa. Hell, if he's good, can we use him?
Mike Smith, a god between the pipes (a god, not THE God). He did the most amazing save I've ever seen in person. He did this spin/flip thing that was breathtaking. People were clapping. When I came home I couldn't describe it to my husband, I had to use my Marty Brodeur McFarlane figure to do a play-by-play reenactment.
Don't worry Vinny, I haven't forgotten you!
Our old Thrasher killing friend, Nittymaki. I was surprised he didn't get the start.
Mike Smith warming his bad ass up in the net. Ryan Malone still lurking behind him.
Uh oh, Mike must have skated away, look who is back.
A Tampa Bay game just wouldn't be the same without the Heatmeiser taunting St. Louis.
Smith: What's up Moose, you look worried.
Moose: My girl is over there taking pictures of the opposing team again.
Smith: I hear she thinks I'm quite a bad ass.
Moose: No way.
Smith: Way.
Moose: She does like goalies.
Smith: Just wait until she sees my special spin/flip move tonight.
Moose: Hmph.
I love an aggressive puck-handling goalie. Now if he would just go nuts a few times like he did last season, I'd be in love.
Vinny looking very handsome. According to Thrash (he's my facebook friend because I'm cool like that) someone saw Vinny and St. Louis having dinner at Twist in Buckhead.
Maybe Malone thinks he'll have an easier time getting Nitty out of the net.
Swarming the goalie.
Tampa's two babies headed right for me!
First period!
Opening face off.
Pavs in his crease.
Face off with Stampkos and Reasoner.
I was sitting in 108 (though my ticket said 411)with fellow minor-media star Wazzupwityou, of http://wazzupwitchu.blogspot.com/ fame. As usual, it was a light crowd. Every moron in the world had a ticket in our row and despite the gazilion of empty (better closer) seats in front of us, had to sit in our row. Of course like good Atlanta fans, the game was already 12 minutes in progress. So I said, no problem guys, you fight over these seats (they were trying to figure things out) and I will go and sit in these BETTER seats.
Slater Face off.
I'm pretty sure this is a goal, but I can't seem to find the puck in our net. Pavs can't seem to find them before they end up there, either.
One of many fights. I love that the ref is holding Hedman back. "No, you stay out, you are just a baby."
Then baby falls down and goes boom!
Not a problem. The baby gets up.
The baby needs someone to play with, so he goes after our baby, Bogo.
Yet another fight near the bench.
More fights! This time Boultsie and Thor are squaring off. Preseason my ass!
Second Period!
Now in front of me, the amazing Mike Smith.
Afinegenov and Downie after the face off.
Another face off.
Thrash is a tough looking mascott.
Man I love Ryan Malone. They put him up on the kisscam and he plays along by hugging Stamper. I love it when they play along! Everyone cheered.
Third Period!
Sometimes you just don't realize how small St. Louis is. 5'9'' my ass.
Yet another discussion.
Pavs: Dear God, please let them release Manny. Please don't let them notice how I have been playing lately. Please don't let them know I pushed Kari down the stairs. Amen.
No wonder we had 10 penalties. The best thing about this fight is that it's St. Louis and Little. You can't even see them.
A fight between Little and St. Louis would look like this
The #4 overall draft pick and the #2 overall draft pick.
Opening night is against the same guys. Our last game of the season back in April was against Tampa, too. Ugh. We better have a better showing than we did last night!
She's only 11 and she is playing for the varsity high school team. She IS a big 11 year old though. You go, girl!
*swoon* It's just good to see Pretty Ricky again. I'm pulling for you, Rick! Note the giant shiny new wedding band on his hand. Another one bites the dust.
Not a huge fan of either Patrick Kane or Eric Staal, but you can't help but love this video
Exelby falls down and gives way to a 2 on 0 breakaway on Toronto goalie Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson. No sweat.
Last season saw some pretty dismal times. The one thing we always had going for us was Bryan Little. Who? Yeah, learn this kid's name if you don't know it. On "NHL Live" EJ Hradek called him "Byron Young." (WTF??) This started a little meme on the Thrashers web boards and even a few people brought signs for Byron Young. Little was one of our studs last season and when the team finally started buying into Anderson's system and the Thrashers made that strong finish at the end of the 2008-09 season, Little was fantastic.
You have to be pretty good for our marketing team to make you a video!
Bryan Little was born on November 12, 1987 in Edmonton, Alberta. He was raised in Cambridge, Ontario.
In 2002, Bryan started his career playing Junior B hockey for the Cambridge Winterhawks of the MWJBHL (Mid-Western Junior B Hockey League). Bryan played 40 games and tallied 35 Points. Around this time, Bryan began to think for the first time he might be able to make a career out of hockey.
Probably around my junior B year, which was also my OHL draft year. When I was playing there, more and more scouts were coming to the arena and I was on the OHL rankings for their draft. I would say that that was about the time I gave it some serious thought.
According to one local columnist, "He didn’t play much, and he was playing out of position, but the biggest thing was that he fit right in ... he played like he’d been there all season."
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