Let's Meet Our New Thrashers!

Kovy is gone and that is sad. We will miss him. We have some new guys though, so let's meet them.


First we have Nicklas Bergfors. Nicklas was born in Södertälje, Sweden in 1987. The 22 year old right winger was the first round draft pick for the New Jersey Devils in 2005, chosen 23rd over all. He also represented Sweden in 2006 in the World Junior Championship. This year, Nicklas has played in 54 games for the Devils and has scored 13 goals and 14 assists.

Hockey's Future said this about Nicklas:

Bergfors is a well rounded player, and is more than willing to compete hard at both ends of the rink, a trait that is quite important for a player that gets drafted into the Devils organization. Bergfors sees the ice very well, possessing above average hockey sense that keeps him one step ahead of everyone else. He is a responsible defensive player and is not afraid to play physical style of game. His overall offensive skill set is impressive as Bergfors has great speed, agility and stick handling ability. Add in the fact that he is tough to knock off the puck and you have a player that is able to create a lot for his teammates and for himself in the offensive zone. Bergfors is equally adept at setting up as he is finishing as he has a good shooting arsenal and touch around the goal.

You can read more here:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/niklas_bergfors





What I am most excited about is Johnny Oduya...or as I sometimes refer to him, Swedish Hot Chocolate. Yum! I became a big fan of his 2 years ago when I couldn't hear his name without laughing. What a great last name. Plus, he wears my favorite number, 29.
Johnny is also Swedish (his dad is Kenyan), he was born in Stockholm in 1981. The 28 year old defenseman was drafted in the 7th round of the NHL draft, 221st overall by the Washington Capitals. According to Hockeydraft.ca:

At 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, Oduya is an aggressive, puck-moving defenseman who displays strong offensive skills. On the other hand, he needs to avoid making defensive mistakes and make better offensive decisions if he wants to thrive as a top six defenseman.

Johnny has struggled this season with the Devils. He has played 40 games with the Devils this season so far and has 2 goals, 2 assists and is a +2. Compare this to last season when in 82 games he had 7 goals, 22 assists and finished the season at a +21! Maybe Johnny can get his groove back in Atlanta!





Another great thing about Johnny...he grows a great play off beard!


The third player we received for Kovalchuk is prospect Patrice Cormier


You might remember Patrice from the World Juniors this year when he put a nasty elbow on Anton Rodin of Team Sweden while going to the bench.


What he's really become known for lately is this savage hit on Mikael Tam of the Quebec Remparts. This little infraction got him suspended for the rest of the season from the QMJHL.


I wonder what we can do with Cormier at the moment. He's too young to go to the AHL.

We also received a first round draft pick from the New Jersey Devils. With the way they are playing this year, that will be like 30th overall.

So there are our news guys, make them feel welcome!

The Alexander Ovechkin show comes to town...Thrashers vs Caps

I was excited that Washington was coming to town, I had yet to take pictures of them. Our first game was against them, but I couldn't be in enemy territory on opening night! They were here March 16, but I had a special St. Patrick's Day Moose sign and wouldn't miss being in the Thrashers end for warm ups. So finally, I'm down in the Caps' side for warm ups.




I was most excited to see Mike Green, the NHL's leading scoring defensemen. I saw him on NHL Network's Day In the Life and had been crushing on him ever since. He wasn't here in March either.






Mike Green rocking the mohawk.

Getting ready to shoot some pucks.

More warm ups.

Looking a bit like a mouth-breather.

Down fall of tracking Mike Green???? I missed Steckel. I really wanted to get some pictures of him because he's HOT! I was too caught up in the Mike Green show and this was all I got :(

Of course there is no doubt who most people were here to see, some Russian guy named Alexander.












Oh wait, no not THAT Russian guy named Alexander. So they have this dude and he's supposed to be pretty good. Maybe you've heard of him. He does really bad commercials.
http://thrashers.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=656&id=39118






Supah-stah








Ovie doing a skate by.






Stretching











Waiting for the puck in warm ups.







In addition to making bad commercials, Ovy can't seem to keep his tongue in his mouth. I wonder if that is his "hot stick" he's using.








It's a well documented fact that Shauna loves Russians. I call her Mother Russia. Mother Russia is in heaven here. V. Kozlov, Ovechkin and Semin all at her feet.










Boys are yucky. Ovechkin proves here he's just a yucky boy. Mother Russia approves.











Ovie cleaned himself up for a respectable picture with Mother Russia.










I see you seeing me, Moose. Don't worry, it's just for the pictures. I'm still your #1fan and not in a creepy "Misery" way. No need to be jealous.











Hi. I'm Jose Theodore and I'm smoking hot.






In addition to starting goal tender Jose Theodore, Washington brought along Simeon Varlamov to mind their net. Simeon has been getting a lot of praise lately and is thought by many to be a possible bright spot in Washington's goal tender woes.

Our starting goalie, Kari Lehtonen is out with an injury. My Moose has been playing and has done a great job. They thought it would be a good time to bring up Ondrej Pavelic and see what he could do. The Kari vs Ondrej vs Moose debate has split fans in to various camps the last few seasons. Pavs was up earlier in the season while Kari was out for injury (unrelated to current reason). Pavs wasn't stellar, but neither was the team in front of him. With the Thrashers playing better, maybe Pavs would have a better time.

So we had Battle of the baby goalies!!!



Simeon Varlamov
6'1''
183lbs
Age: 20






Ondrej Pavelic
6'2''
200lbs
Age: 21







I was in the Capitals end for warm up, so I have more pictures of Simeon.
Varlamov facing some shots.











Minding the net.










I'm not sure if it was because Moose had the night off or what, but he looks like he is up to something here. It was very funny. First he is shooting the puck like normal. Then he starts to wince, then he has that "oh shit" look on his face. Maybe he hit someone.






Peverley: Is that your girl over there in the Washington zone?
Moose: Yes.
Peverley: Why is she over ther.
Moose: She just likes to take pictures of the different teams.
Peverley: Seems if she was such a big fan, she'd always want to be over here.
Moose: Shut up.

Ex: Is that your girl over there?

Moose: Yes.

Ex: Why is she over there?

Moose: To get a better shot of me.

Ex: Oh...cool. That's not what Pevs said.

Moose: Shut up.

So the warm ups are over. That is the fastest 16 minutes in the history of the world. I'm lucky enough to have my company's corporate seats. Not only are they great seats, you get to eat the premium food! I head over to the Buckhead Life Restraunt's Nava, an upper scale southwestern place. My favorite is the smoked chicken nachos. How I will miss you in the off season!

We are getting ready for the National Anthem and the youth hockey player for the game comes out. He is so teeny tiny he can barely skate. The ref guides him out and props him up next to Colby Armstrong. The little guy can barely stay up. Colby helps him the whole time and then guides him off the ice. In the last picture he is practically carrying him by the shirt. SO cute.

Face off

Pavs waiting for some action

A shot of Hainsey, Bogo and Bobo in the box.

Funniest sign EVER! Our Thorburn has grown quite the fro lately and I've been wondering if he's trying to give Scotty Hartnell a run for his money.

Pavs taking a break between play.

Capitals taking some action to our end.

For our first intermission, we had a group of kids who were doing sled hockey for the first time. Instructing them was a member of the Bronze Medal Team USA. Very cool!

Varlamov waiting for the action. We were great in the 2nd period and we would actually make him work.

Action

Dear God, please let me get a goal.

Hainsey doing his third period stretch. Same time, same place every single game.

Pavs is back on this end.

Slava Kozlov

So we are down 4 to 2 and we try the last ditch effort of pulling the goalie. Pavs and Moose are watching the team scramble to try and score.

Moose: See Pavs, after a few seasons, the pain starts to numb.

Pavs: I see now.

So Thrashers lose 4-2. Battle of the baby goalies didn't go so well for Pavs. He had a very awkward first period, but seemed to warm up. I thought it was a little unfair to "see what he could do" in front of Alexander Ovechkin and Mike Green along with the rest of the Washington Capitals, one of the best teams in the east. Hopefully Pavs will shake it off and live up to our hopes.

Varlamov was great. He seemed very confident and made some key saves.

Go Thrashers!

Thrashers vs Sabres....SERIES SWEEP!!

It's commonly known, not only in Atlanta but in all of the league, that Buffalo fans are the worst visiting fans. At the last game beer was dumped on kids, fights broke out, and they were just generally miserable human beings. Fortunately, we beat them. That USUALLY shuts them up. The guy behind me was such a miserable bastard I swore I'd never go to another game when they came to Phillips.

Well, I can't abandon my guys like that so of COURSE I came to the next game.

And of course the fans were there. Kerry Outen luckily was quick enough to snap a picture of these assclowns. Thanks for letting me use the pic!

Sign FAIL!





OMG what is that guy doing to that buffalo??








At first we thought this sign said "You can take the girls out of Buffalo but you can't take the Sabers out of the girls." It was a lot funnier when I thought it said that. The chick on the left and I would meet again later.










After being in Nashville, Jersey and Philly...I was homesick! It was good to be back in my home arena and see all the fans that I know and am used to seeing.










I'm a goalie dork and one of the things I was most excited about was seeing our ginourmous (6'5'') Chicago Wolves back up goalie, Dan Turple. We usually only see him at prospect camps. I love his last name. It rhymes with Purple and it reminds me of a Pokemon. "Turple" sounds like a cute little Pokemon. I usually refer to him as Turple Turple.








Welcome back to Atlanta Turple Turple!

Turple: Hey man! I'm Dan Turple
Tellqvist:
Turple: I'm so excited to be here. This is great, isn't it?
Tellqvist:
Turple: Okay, catch you later.

"Wow, I thought this was a home game for the Thrashers. What's that guy doing to that buffalo?"

Moose had no time for winks and smiles, he's all business. With Kari down due to an injury, Moose has been our starter and he's been fantastic.

Moose took a shot to the head, you can see the ding in his paint job in the front.







Extreme Moose-up

Toby skating up to take a shot

Samela waiting for his turn.

It's coming right for ya, Moose!

Oysters winding up for a shot at the net.

Kaptain Kovalchuk.

Moose doing his "Moose Cruise." He does this bent over cruise around the ice a lot.

Stuart and Hainsey.

Baby Bogo has become a beast! His quote from the AJC:

"You’ve got to play nasty and put guys on their back. If he doesn’t like that style, I don’t know, too bad for him.”

Bogo manhandled one of the Sabres down to the ice and just stood over him glaring. AWESOME!









Boultsie: God Buffalo fans suck.

Hainsey: Yeah, at least there aren't as many Buffalo fans as there were Wings fans.

Boultsie: True dat. Did you see what that guy was doing to that buffalo??
Hainsey: What, where?

Rich Peverley. We talked to a few fans while we were in Nashville and found out they were super upset about losing Pevs. Good for us!

On to the game!

We set in Section 119, Row E. 5 seats from the glass, NICE! Fun for watching, too many posts for good picture taking.

Behind us were the most obnoxious fans on the face of the earth. They showed up completely and ridiculously intoxicated. They sounded like rednecks straight from the trailer park, but were wearing Buffalo shirts. The drunker of the two said it was his first hockey game. The other guy had the loudest voice I'd ever heard. I didn't think it was humanly possible to be that loud. He seemed to have a basic understanding of what was going on and about the only thing he could yell over and over was "CLEAR IT" and "MILLER." The drunker of the two kept standing up in the middle of the game and we were yelling "sit down, puck in play." AWFUL!

I was on the end where the Thrashers attack twice so that means I got lots of shots of everyone's favorite emo-looking photography loving goalie, Ryan Miller. I like Miller, too bad he's on the Sabres. I love his commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7iJEmXvLr4

Yes Ryan, your hair looks fine.

Getting his mask on

Boultsie giving Butler a little face wash.

Butler didn't appreciate it much so they have a conversation.







Face off







I know Ryan, it does suck you have to have such awful fans.

2nd period! That means I have Moose on my side.

Johan is a thirsty little Moose and I took about 292,841 pics of him drinking. Instead of trying to choose my favorites, I decided to just use them all and make a montage.

Moose tracking the puck.

More Moose action shots.

Good job Moose, get that nasty puck out of there.






Our newest Thrasher, Anssi Samela went down. Fortunately he was back on the ice later, but has missed two games now due to the dreaded "upper body injury."

Moose working hard.

During stopages of play, Moose skates intenselyback and forth on the blue line.

No time for ice girls today! He's in the zone.





Moose stopping the action.

For the ladies!

In addition to being thirsty, goalies get HOT! They are on the ice the whole game, working hard and wearing all that equipment. Sometimes they have cool themselves off.

Again, I couldn't pick a favorite, so I made a montage. I find it helps the spirit of the montage to have this playing in the background when you watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18TLHhhHZCA

3rd period! Ryan Miller is back. What did you say about my momma??





Toby and Jochen Hecht waiting for the face off.

Face off.

Thrashers win 3-2 in overtime! With this win the Thrashers won all 5 games of the series this year. We have a 12-3-3 home record against them, not to shabby. Bring on Philly! We are gonna beat that streak next season, I can feel it.

We win, no road trip that means...GUEST! I think Boultsie just likes stopping buy to get out of the house. He's been there as a guest twice and just hanging out once.

Now that the Thrashers are winning, the post game show is crowded. It used to be me and the same 10-15 dedicated fans there, even on a weekend. Now it's the middle of the week and place is slammed pack. Welcome to the season assholes. ANYWAY. We come in and the front is pretty full so we snag a table in the back. I can go up to the front to take pics. Shauna and Paula go out to smoke and me and Serge wait. Two girls ask if they can share the table, sure. The post game show has several Buffalo fans there, too...you know how hard it is to get rid of roaches. One guy comes in waiving a flag yelling about how Buffalo has the greatest fans in the world. I yell to go back to his burned out shit hole. He yells then leaves.

Remember our friend with the Buffalo sign? She can be seen here looking at Hainsey's ass and looking obscene.

She comes in Taco Mac waiving her sign and yelling about how awesome the Sabres are. My new friend Brittney that asked to sit at my table yells "Buffalo Sucks!" Trashy fan leans over me and proceeds to yell:

Trashy Fan: How many times have you been in the play offs? How many times have you been to the play offs?

Brittney: "How many times are you going this year?"

Trashy Fan: "Do you want to take this outside?"

Brittney: "Sure."

Trashy's friend drags her off but not before she starts yelling "have another doughnut. Why don't you eat another doughnut, fat ass" at Brittney. I yelled "Stay classy, Buffalo."


So fortunately no blood was spilled and we got to see Boulton.

Boultsie talking to Darren Elliot. I've had requests for more Darren pics. I'm MORE than happy to oblige.

Boultsie getting his headset ready.

Boultsie looking like he is thinking "Flash that shit in my eyes ONE MORE TIME."

Funniest thing about Buffalo fans...what big assholes they become when trying to defend themselves when you tell them they are assholes.

My husband's favorite Buffalo joke:

What is Buffalo's biggest export?

Answer: Assholes!

GO THRASHERS!