Ass, Cash or Gas, Nobody Rides For Free

Not even NHL goalies! Friend of the Blog, Sandy (Nuts for Boults) took her adorable daughter to practice last week. She also brought some friends, one of which is pictured below wearing his brand new Ondrej Pavelec jersey that Santa brought him. He must have been a very good boy!


You might notice in the back behind Pavelec some guys messing with Pavs' beautiful white Porsche. Who knew, but apparently even cars that cost $50k and up also run on gasoline. Sandy reported that Pavs came squealing into practice late. When practice was over, the fans went outside by the parking lot to wait for their favorite player to come out. The young man pictured below wanted to get his photo with Pavs, so Sandy and the kids waited. Pavs pulls out of the parking area and maneuvers the car towards the opening and then...nothing. The car went dead. Sandy said it was like a standard car when you let off of the clutch and it goes dead..except this was an automatic. It wouldn't turn over or anything. So some of the Duluth Ice Forum staff had to come over and help. From what I understand the NHL starting goalie got a ride from one of the staff up to the gas station, holding the gas can in his lap. I picture Pavs sitting in like a 2004 Corolla. They got back and were putting the gas in Pavs car. Sandy asked if when he was finished, if Pavs would mind taking a picture with this little guy who doesn't get to go to practice as much. Pavs said "sure." He left the guys with the gas and came over to take this picture. You can see the guys in the background putting gas in the car.



For the next game, Sandy made Pavs this sign.

New Years and New Ideas

Happy New Year everyone! I hope the fat man brought you what you wanted for Christmas.


I’m kind of in a blog conundrum. I want to keep it fresh, interesting and entertaining and I’m looking for ways to improve. My pictures aren’t the best. I came to an understanding with myself long ago that given my training, equipment and seating, this was the best I could do. Now that there is another Thrashers photoblog just like mine with better pictures I need to step things up or change it. There are so many Atlanta blogs that do things well, I want to stand out and not be lost in the pack. I am open to your suggestions.


I’ve also considered just stopping. All good things must come to ane end. This isn’t a “I’m going to threaten to stop so maybe people will tell me they like me” kind of PVM (please validate me) bullshit post. I’ve been kicking the idea around for a while. I mean I haven’t been to game without a camera since 2007. To watch a game NOT through the lens might be nice…although on the occasions I’ve had a dead battery or something else I felt naked without my camera. The idea of just walking through the doors and not having a full cavity search on me and my camera bag sounds good. It would be nice to not worry about where you are sitting. “Is the view good?” “How is the lighting?” “Is anyone blocking me?” Just go in and enjoy a game! I can't even imagine.


Just ideas I’m kicking around for the new year. Would you want better game recaps? More info? More prospect info? Less prospect info? I’m pretty pleased with my summer programming, but hoping to tweak the season posts.

Why You Should Give A Shit About the World Juniors

Officially it is called the World U20 Championships, but most people call it the World Juniors. It is the place for young NHL bound stars to shine and make a name for themselves. Past participants in the World Juniors include Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Kane, Jarome Iginla and both Sedins.

Besides being some kick ass hockey to watch, we Americans have a vested interest, we are defending champs. The USA won last year and hopefully we will defend our gold medal.

As Thrashers fans we have two reason to care and they are both Swedish.

First off, one of our newest babies from the 2010 draft, Fredrik Petersson-Wentzel is playing. He has played in one game. Fredrik lead his country to a 7-1 victory over Norway. Fredrik faced 11 shots, making 10 saves.

One of the goal scorers from that game is another reason for Thrasher fans to be excited about the World Juniors Carl Klingberg is also representing Sweden. Carl has played in 2 games during this year's tournament.

Lycka till, mina herrar!

Thrashers Kryptonite: Tampa Bay vs Atlanta

Twas the night after Christmas and all through the rink.
fans wanted a win so that we wouldn't sink
farther down the division standings of the south east,
But Vinny scored 2 and proved to be a beast.
Stamkos was there and St. Louis was too,Even though there were rumors that he had the flu.


More importantly, Johnny shaved!



Mason warming up. Mason and my friend Randy have this "bond." Mason always gives him a stick tap and a wave. I made DOZENS of little moose posters, as me how many waves Johan gave me. The winks were nice though.



Something has caught Kaner and Eager's attention.



Big Buff.



Johnny blowing kisses? I'm over here, Johnny!!



Swarming the goalie.



I SWEAR Johnny has more facial hair now than he did 6 minutes ago. He'll have a playoff bead by the end of the game.



Burmi taking his post warm up shots.



Pavs picks up an extra stick on the ice. Hey, you never know when you might need another!



Tampa having a huddle, probably talking about how even with Dan Ellis in net, they are dominating us.



Dan looking like he's checking his watch. Got a date? Maybe he's set to meet with his financial advisor to discuss how he barely makes enough money to live.



USA! USA! We had a large group of soldiers from Ft. Bragg in for the game. The best part was they were on that Home Depot game. They won and got some prizes, one of which was this ridiculous lawn ornament/snowman. I was like "wtf are they going to do with that?" When it was time to get the crowd pumped up with the music/flags/make some noise signs etc they'd put these guys on the jumbo tron and there was a guy waving the snowman. It cracked me up every time.



Damn you Ryan Malone! Ryan Malone is my all time favorite kiss cam participant. Last season he put his arm around Stamkos. No such entertainment this time.



Some chaos at the other end.



Meet Glenn Beck. No, it's not the real Glenn Beck, this guy never actually cried. I just thought he looked like Beck from the back. He was a super obnoxious Lightning fan, but apparently too much of a pussy to wear a Lightning jersey. He's holding up four fingers because Toby got a penalty and he wanted to make sure the refs knew it should be four minutes.



Looks like Glenn has some friends with him. Sit down, douchebags.



Fake Glenn Beck was a perv, too. He was taking pics of the girls bending over and squatting.



Malone all up in Pavelec's Kool Aid.



Sopes trying to get him out of there.



Pavs slides across to try and make a save.



Booo. Lightning scores. Fake Glenn Beck is happy. Come on Pamela (usher) can't you toss him for being obnoxious?!?



Pavelec managed to steal us a point, but the Lighting win in OT.


Very late in the 3rd period when it was very apparent that we were heading to OT Buff very stupidly boarded Randy Jones, putting us a man down in OT. This is the NINTH straight game the Thrashers have dropped to the Lightning. The last game we won was the opening night game of the 2009-10 season.

Blues Christmas: Atlanta vs St. Louis

The St. Louis Blues came to town on the Tuesday before Christmas hoping to make everyone Blue. They succeeded.


I should have known it was going to be a bad night when I realized that Nik Antropov was having a bad hair day.



Not even Sopes new haircut could help. (Me likey by the way)



Toby staring at my "Merry Christmas Thrashers" sign. He's probably making sure his name was on the list Santa is holding.



Yes Bryan, you are on Santa's "nice" list.



Again, Nik with the hair! His wings are usually so well coiffed.



Brent is on Santa's "nice" list, too.



Anthony, I felt the same way after the game.



Dustin waiting to take some shots.



Swarming the goalie. Ondrej was so good this year he was on Santa's "nice" list TWICE..ooops. I left off Ron Hainsey. Ron was good! Don't worry Ron, I added you on there.



This is becoming a routine. After they swarm the goalie and most of the guys leave, Burmistrov lines up a few pucks to the left of the goal and takes some shots.



Brent trying to that nasty Backes out of the way.



He's "Backes" in the way and apparently doing some kind of dance.



Unleash the Buff!



Pevs hoping to get a pass from Buff.



Work for it Buff!



Modin hustles in front of the net. Meanwhile behind the net, Jackman jacks up Timmy.



Mason keeping an eye on the puck.



Conks making a nice stop.



Mason hugging the post. Notice the new white pads. They were like blinding white.



Apparently Mason nor his shiny new pads were any match for the Blues, Blues win 4-2. Maybe the Blues knew their old buddy Mason was weak on his glove side.

Fear Not, I Have Not Forsaken You

Happy Holidays, Puck Heads! I know I have greatly neglected the blog lately. I know I am two games behind. I have very good reasons though, look at those little faces! Those are my nephews and niece in Mobile, Alabama. Future hockey fans if I can help it.


I plan on getting caught up in the next few days. Until then, I leave you with this thing of beauty. Our very own Gwinnett Gladiators in a line brawl that includes a....GOALIE FIGHT!! Yes Virginia, there is a Santa!!!


EDIT:
And because youtube/blogger is being a dick, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXYpxXryJqs&feature=player_embedded