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.

Welcome to Fright Night...Sabres vs. Thrashers

This is our Halloween edition of GPD. The game Friday had tons of frightening events, costumes and some of the scariest things on the planet....BUFFALO FANS!

One (and only one) cool thing about Buffalo is Ryan Miller, I finally remembered to check him out when he's doing his little zen routine before warm up.


As is now the routine, the guys were in the red, third jerseys. It's my understanding that all Friday night games will be third jersey night.



Modine was back in the line up.



Nik looking a bit stunned.



Sandy's sign, which was right by me, on the jumbo tron. We had to make Pavelec a "homeless" sign. We didn't know in time that he would be back, so we had to make it on the fly.



Mason was debuting his new mask. It's the same design, but reverse colors. It looked good with the red jerseys, I'm thinking he might use it for away games and third jersey nights. What a fashionable dude!



Best of all, our little fainting goat, Ondrej Pavelec was back in the line up! Ondrej fainted on opening night due to hydration issues. He whacked his head on the ice and got a concussion. It was one of the scariest things I've seen at a game. We are so glad he's back.



Nik and Buff bouncing the puck.



Eric Boulton is sporting some new facial hair these days.



Love this kid! Burmie is proving that he indeed belongs in the NHL.



Andrew Ladd getting his game face on.



Nik and Anthony getting ready for some shots.



Swarming the goalie.



As has become tradition, the Thrashers had a funny Halloween video. Kerry got a picture of my favorite. Chris Thorburn said that he and Boulton were going to be the Hart Foundation.



They could totally pull that off! How awesome would that be?!?!



Oh look who's back.



Opening face off.



Niedermayer hanging out in front of Mason.



The guys having some discussions as Thrash looks on. What is disturbing though is to the left of the picture, Bryan Little is down and holding his face. He left the game and did not return. We later found out that he had a concussion and facial lacerations



Sopel and Oduya defending their zone.



AGH! Get it out of there!

In another Thrashers tradition, we finished the first period down 2-0. I did something I NEVER do. I left in the last few minutes of the first period and went and got a drink, a double margarita! That helps with the Slug fans.


Kerry pointed out that Marty St. Louis was at the game.



Sopel giving Vanek a little push to get him out of the way.



Sopel and Vanek jockey for a spot in front of the net.



Mason making an impressive save.



In the 2nd period Ladd was putting himself in front of the net and Miller lost lost his mind. I was drinking and talking, but fortunately Michelle got these pics.


You can see his confrontational stance here.



He lunges for Ladd.



His team pulls him back.



And by the time I realized what was going on and pointed the camera, you can see him barking at the ref here.


Here is the video of what happened. It looks like as Ladd spins around, he hits Ryan in the leg pad with his stick. We were hoping we were going to see a goalie fight! It starts at about 1:10



Ryan sees some more of his new friend, Andrew Ladd.



Antro up in Ryan's business.



Buff is good on D, but man I miss him in front of the net harassing goalies.



Welcome to the NHL, Alexander Burmistrov! He got his first NHL goal that night.



Thrash and his buddies were festive. Thrash was dressed as Super Thrash.

The second period belonged to the Thrashers. We went into the 3rd period tied up with the Sabres.


Opening face off.



Montador falls backwards over Miller.



I like this picture because you can see the puck on Mason's jersey.



Then he directs it off to the side.



Hainsey keeping an eye on Gaustad. Mason keeping an eye on Hainsey in order to prevent disaster.



The team sorting out the penalties while a slug sits in the box.



Ladd back in Miller's kitchen.



Buff and Toby defending the zone.



Mason comes over for a drink and tosses the towel back.



Beth and her Slayer/Slater sign are in the house!



Unfortunately so is she. Well she's definitely persistent.



The refs explaining something to Mason.



Hell yes! The Thrashers are up 3-2 and cruising to the end of the came. We've only got a few seconds left in the game. We can taste victory. Then with less than 8 seconds left, a punch in the stomach.



AGH! Over time. Even in OT Ladd is taking it to Miller.



Big Buff wins in the OT!



That's right douchebags, you lose. Go back to your burned out frozen shit hole. Fortunately we don't have to see Buffalo again this season.



Dustin Byfuglien is the #1 star of the game!