The Gang's All Here!

I went to practice Sunday morning and all of the Thrashers Olympians were finally back home!


Olympians Toby, Pavel and Max watch the action.



Johnny is back, too! Oh is he? Yes he is! I bought a jersey in the gear store at the ice rink. They were a little cheaper than the arena and they had a bigger size I wanted (which actually turned out to be a little too big...didn't think that was possible!) so it will be my Oduya jersey by Tuesday night!



The team has been off for a while, so Coach Anderson had them doing some mountains. Moose totally kicks Pavs ass on this drill.



Moose chewing on his glove. Someone get that man a power bar!



The guys chilling after practice. Someone must have told Johnny something funny. Maybe he is just excited because he heard that someone will be rocking the first Oduya jersey soon!



Uh-oh! Looks like someone told Moose I was getting an Oduya jersey! Don't worry pumpkin, you are still my absolute favorite NHL player!


I've enjoyed the Olympics immensely, and I'm super psyched about the gold medal game today, but I can't WAIT to see the guys back at Phillips Arena this Tuesday.

Go Thrashers!

Team USA Is The Rodney Dangerfield Of The Olympics

NO RESPECT!


In an article on Puck Daddy, we found out that some members of Team USA as well as their family members were booked on flights out of Vancouver that were set to leave the morning of the Gold Medal games.

The flights were booked using pre-Olympic International Ice Hockey Federation rankings as a predictor, which had Team USA fifth behind Russia, Canada, Sweden and Finland. The NHLPA said the flights were booked just to establish a time of departure that could then be changed depending on how the team fared; so don't read it as a lack of confidence in GM Brian Burke's team.

Sure. The IIHF, The Hockey News and several other places had us ranked as 5th, behind Canada, Russia, Finland and Sweden. They expected us to come in and have a quick tournament and leave early. The guy pictured above (thank you Getty Images) had a little something to say about that. Nice job boys, way to prove them wrong. I don't want to sound already defeated and of course I want gold, but I'm pleased as punch if we walk away with a silver.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/U-S-players-flights-were-scheduled-for-morning?urn=nhl,224695

First Thrashers Olympian Arrives Home

Pavs was home this morning. He was seeing some shots from the team. He has to get back into the game after spending a week on the Czech bench handing Vokoun towels. Welcome back, Pavs!


While I was glad to see Pavs, I was disappointed because Mannino was gone already. I was going to get my picture with him.

The Thrashers Have Mad Skillz

To make sure the fans hadn't forgotten about the team and to give the team something to do, the Atlanta Thrashers had a Skills Competition. Teams were divided into 2 groups, blue and white.

Team White
Evander Kane
Zach Bogosian
Todd White
Colby Armstrong
Johan Hedberg
Christoph Schubert
Slava Kozlov
Jim Slater

Team Blue
Mark Popovic
Ron Hainsey
Bryan Little
Niclas Bergfors
Marty Reasoner
Chris Thorburn
Eric Boulton
Peter Mannino

I'd noticed in pictures of Maninno's previous masks he always had the same little character on it. For some reason at first I thought it was a Scottsman. After doing some research I found out it was this little guy, Denver Boone! He is the mascot for Peter's alma mater, University of Denver.



You can see here he has Denver Boone's head on a bird (thrasher) body. He also has little Denver Boones on his pads.



He is also proud of his Italian-American heritage.



The guys getting instructions about the skills competition. Good thing they did because it was kind of ghetto. The contest consisted of a shot accuracy contest, relay race, fastest skater competition and slap shot accuracy contest. They couldn't do the typical hardest slap shot tests because there wasn't a gun to measure the speed. For the accuracy test, they had funnels hanging in the corners of the net and sitting at the bottom of the nets. For the slap shot accuracy, the goal was to hit the post or crossbar.



Moose is wondering "are those Dixie Cups hanging from the net?"



Mannino and Slater getting ready for the competition.



Bergfors helps Team Blue pull ahead with a win in the accuracy event.



The guys watching the shots.



Thrash has a good seat.



I guess the coaches needed Thrash's input.



Bryan Little about to take off in the fastest skater contest. In this event, skaters went head-to-head in a lap around the rink. The winners of each heat advanced to a semifinal and a final decided the overall winner. The Blueland Blog says Bogosian won, but I could have sworn it was Slater.



Marty yelling on some encouragement.



Whew! Bryan is wiped out.



Moose yucking it up with Whitey.



The next event was a 3 on 3 scrimmage. Opening face off consisted of Hainsey vs Bogosian. Funny stuff!



The next event was of course my favorite because it's all about the goalies, Shoot Out!!



Moose and Mannino getting the 4-1-1.



Moose: My #1 fan is here.
Mannino: She seems cool, she takes a lot of pictures.
Moose: She has a blog.
Mannino: Eh, any asshole can have a blog.
Moose: No, hers is really good. Her haircut looks really cute, too.



Moose says "NO."



This is one of the few good shots I got of Moose's new mask. I'm not in love with it, kind of plain. I do love the Moose peeking over the side of it though.



Mannino juggling the puck.



He's gonna poke check you, Slava!



After Moose made the save, he came barreling out of the net and spun Slava around and started play fighting. Moose was a big ham last night.



Colby couldn't get it past the Moose, so he tried to scoop it in with his hand.



Every time Moose and Mannino would change spots, they would tag in and out like they were a wrestling tag team.



Team White dominated!


This was a ton of fun and I would love to see them do more events like this. At the end Coach Anderson thanked us for coming and told us to be sure and come to the March For the Playoffs.

You can read a full review of the event (and see picture that I took *SQUEAL* ) here:
http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=519157&navid=DL|ATL|home

Chasing Peter Mannino

As most have probably heard, the Thrashers called up Peter Mannino from the Chicago Wolves this week. With the Olympics winding down, Thrashers practice has kicked back up. I wanted to see Mannino and I was ready to see my Thrashers again, so I headed up to Duluth.


Peter was taking some shots and doing some drills when I came in.



I turned to chat with some friends and didn't even realize...that's Moose! I noticed when he did that thing where he snaps his mask back down. His new mask is done and from a distance, it is similar to Mannino's, so he fooled me! I didn't get any good shots of the mask, hopefully I can soon. I do see the little Moose on the side.



So I walked back down to the other side to watch Mannino do some drills with the coach. Then he moved BACK down to the other side, and I followed.



Mannino has some kind of little Scottsman snowman on the side of his mask with a bird body for the Thrashers.



So I got to see Mannino face some more shots. Peter has been tearing it up in the AHL and is ranked #2 in the league. He has a SV% of .934 and a GAA of 1.97.


I guess with Pavs coming back to town, Mannino will be going back to Chicago, but who knows. Hope to see everyone at the Thrashers Skills Competition tonight!

Olympic Dreams Over For The Thrashers

Yesterday was an exciting day of hockey in which all of the teams with Thrashers battled to get to the Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics...FAIL!


First up was Russia. In a game that many thought would be the gold medal game for the season, Team Russian faced the Canadians. Unlike this picture, Max was one of the few players not laying down on the job. Russia totally shit the bed and Canada pounced. Nabakov was a million miles away, or at least he wished he was. He let in 4 goals in the first period. Everyone thought for sure that Bryzgalov would start in the second period, but oh no, Nabby was back in net. Early in the second period, Nabby allowed 2 goals to be scored on him within less than a minute. They finally sent Bryzie in to try and stop the bleeding. Too late. Ovechkin who??? Malkin who?? A true disgrace. The wheels just fell off. I was so disappointed. Max did score one of the goals, congrats on that. Sergei Gonchar and Dmitri Kalinin scored the other two. Final score was 7-3. Do Svidaniya, Russia.



Next up, The Czech Republic vs Finland. This was a great game and the results were heartbreaking for Thrashers fans. I usually like Finland, I love Teemu Selane and even though he's a Thrasher Killer, Niittymaki. I was pulling for the Czechs though because they had 2 Thrashers and because I didn't want USA to have to face the tough Finns in the next round. As expected, it was a battle of the goalies, Kiprusoff vs Vokoun. Both teams were held scoreless through the first, second and part of the third periods. Then in a sad turn of events, Pavel's helmet was damaged and slid back. For those that don't know, in IIHF rules which the Olympics follow, if you lose your helmet you must immediately leave the ice or get a penalty. Pavel went to the bench giving Finland's Niklas Hagman a rare moment of freedom which he capitalized on and scored. Devastation. The Czechs never recovered and Finland scored an empty net goal in the final few seconds of the game to make the final score 2-0.



Pavs did a good job of handing Vokoun towels from the bench.



The final game of the night was Sweden vs Slovkia. Sweden won gold in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Most of my favorite players are Swedes and Team Sweden has 2 Thrashers so of course I was pulling for Sweden.


The game was scoreless after the first period. Coming into the 2nd period, Henrik Lundqvist stet a record for a goalie going the longest without being scored on. Unfortunately once someone got one in, 37 seconds later they got another one in and the score was 2-0 Slovakia. In an even more bizarre turn of events, the next two goals scored by Sweden were also 37 seconds apart. Toby got an assist on one of those goals! Unfortunately a few minutes later Toby got a tripping penalty and while he was in the box, Pavol Demitra scored another goal for the Slovakians in the last few minutes of the 2nd period. Toby had a good Olympics over all. He played in all 4 games and saw 48 minutes and 44 seconds of ice time. When you are a defenseman on a team with Nick Lidstrom and Mattias Ohlund, that's pretty good. Toby was a +3 and had 2 points during the tournament. Good job, Toby!



Johnny didn't see as much ice time, only 36 minutes and 10 seconds. He didn't score a goal or an assist but he did manage to finish the games at an even zero. So hey, you didn't f*ck anything up. Good job :)


Welcome home guys! You were missed and I'm still very proud of you all!

Ryan Miller the Canada Killer!

If you missed last night's game between Team USA and Team Canada, your life sucks! It was seriously one of the best hockey games I've ever seen. Ryan Miller was an absolute machine. It's so nice to be able to cheer for Miller! I hate Buffalo and rarely get the chance. Ryan made 42 saves in the US's 5-3 win.



Another superstar for USA was Brian Rafalski! He got two goals and for a few minutes, most thought he got a hat trick, but it turned out to be an assist.

Also scoring for the USA was the captain, Jamie Langenbruner, Chris Drury and Ryan Kesler.


The big discussion for Canada now is do they leave Marty in net? He let in 2 goals on 5 shots, not the best night for Brodeur. How do you feel about Lu stepping in, Marty?


Last night was magical!

Totally Awesome Video!

Not only is this a great video because it's hysterical...if you look at the last few seconds of the video, those pictures of Pevs and Max...I TOOK THEM! WOO HOO! I took those pictures for the Atlanta Thrashers Fan Club when they awarded them the Players of The Month Award!







When I saw this in the arena I lost my mind!

March To The Playoffs

So what are the Thrashers who aren't in Vancouver doing? Some probably went home, some on vacations, but a few stuck around long enough to make some funny videos for the March To The Playoffs campaign. And, God knows I love a funny video.

The first one:



Second:
This one is my favorite!


Third:


Keep up the goo work, guys!

Thrashers Olympians Off To Good Start

All of our Thrashers Olympians were on winning teams this week!


Max and his Russian buddies got things started on February 16 (Tuesday) against Latvia.
Max was on the ice for almost 14 minutes and was on the ice for Kovalchuk's goal and got a secondary assist on Malkin's goal. Way to go, Max! The Russians defeated the Latvians 8-2.



Team Sweden was victorious over Germany on February 17.
Johnny Oduya got a fair amount of ice time, with almost 12 minutes. Unfortunately he also had about the same number of penalty minutes. He got a 2 minute penalty for checking from behind, and a 10 minute game misconduct! Simma down na' Johnny! I'm sure he'll be back on his game when they face Belarus.



Toby was a star for the Thrashers! He had almost 14 minutes of ice time and assisted on Mattias Ohlund's goal! Good job, Toby! The Swedes went on to shut the Germans out, 2-0.



Last night (Wednesday) the Czechs took on the Slovakians. I found this game to be one of the more enjoyable, evenly matched game....Chara, Gaborik and the Hossa's vs Jagr, Elias and Erat. Good times! The Czechs beat the Slovakians 3-1.


Pavel saw over 15 minutes on the ice for this game. He was a +1 too as he was on the ice for Elias' goal.



Ondrej warmed the bench nicely and passed towels to Vokoun. No shame in that. When you are backing up Thomas Vokoun, you probably won't see a lot of ice time. We are still proud of you, Pavs!


Good luck in the next round, guys!