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!

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

My friend Kerry was nice enough to take some pictures of us while Marissa and I were on the Jumbo Tron playing the Match Game. He was right behind us so he had a good view.




Chatting with JBird.





On the big screen.





I'm trying to look like I'm listening to JBird and not drunk.





Wings!





Adorable Toby agrees.





I don't even remember taking this picture, but here is me and my new Enstrom Jersey!

Focus On A Thrasher: Tobias Enstrom

I really enjoy doing this blog and the thought of a long summer with no posting left me sad. Not to mention I've got like 8000 (literally) pictures from this season. So to keep myself amused, I've decided to do some weekly features using my pics.

One I wanted to do was Focus On A Thrasher and have a different player each week. I was thinking it would be a good way to show my pics, learn more about each player and keep myself busy this summer.

Who better to start with than our little D-Man, Toby Enstrom. Toby has been representing Sweden in the IIHF World Championships. In a game against Latvia, that ended real quick when Karsums slammed Toby's face into the board. You can see the video here. It IS hard to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAyrL-RXZ48

Toby lost some teeth and had some facial fractures. They performed surgery on him and he is resting at his home in Sweden. The Official Atlanta Thrashers Fanclub has a page you can add your good thoughts for Toby on. You can sign it here, you do NOT have to be a member to wish Toby well. http://www.atlantathrashersfans.org/Toby_Enstrom_Well_Wishes.html

So the basics:

Toby is 24, he was born in Nordingra, Sweden on November 5, 1984. He has three siblings according to Wikipedia. His brothers' names are Tommy and Thomas...interesting. All of the data I could find does show that they are 2 different people. He also has a sister named Tina. All three of his siblings have played hockey or are still playing hockey for various teams within the MODO organization. His sister was part of the Swedish national women's ice hockey team which won the bronze medal at the 2007 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba.






Toby played for MODO from 2000 until 2006-2007
In 2003, Toby won Elitserien Rookie of the Year.






Toby has competed on the international level, too. He has competed with the World Juniors in 2002(U18), 2003 and 2004 (U20). He's also played for Tre Kronor in the World Championships in 2007.






Achievments

* J20 SuperElit Champion
* Elitserien Rookie of the Year
* Elitserien Champion
* NHL rookie of the month
* NHL YoungStars Game
* NHL All-Rookie Team





Toby was drafted the Atlanta Thrashers in 2003 in the 8th round 239th over all. Toby was invited to join the Atlanta Thrashers in 2006, but wanted to stay in Sweden another year. In 2007 he was signed to a contract with the Atlanta Thrashers. In 2008 he signed a four year contract extension.






Toby is a highly-skilled defenseman who fell some spots in the draft due to his size. He skates well, has good passing ability, vision and shot. He passes a lot. I find myself at the games yelling "SHOOT IT TOBY" a lot. What do I know though?






One of the few weaknesses that "experts" point out is Toby's size. At 5'10'', he's no Valabik. This is thought to limit his 5-on-5 time as he can get lost in the corners. Toby's a tough player though. I call him the Ice Chihuahua because he doesn't seem to know he's 5'10''.

Toby earned 19 points (4 goals and 15 assists) in his last 21 games of this season.

This year Toby played 82 games and scored 5 goals and 27 assists.

He finished the season a +14.

He also had 52 penalty minutes. Toby in the penalty box? What could he do, he's so little??

He also had 1 game winning goal this season.





So that's all of the number and important stuff, how about some fun stuff!

During warm ups, Toby usually stands over by Hainsey and for some reason has his tongue hanging out a lot.

Again with the tongue.

If he moves from there, he goes over by the bench and looks up a lot.







Toby wears #39 because the current captain of MODO is Per Svartvadet. He played for the Thrashers back in the early years and wore #39. He told Toby he should wear it.

When Toby first came to Atlanta, he lived with Moose for a while.

Swedes of a feather...the guys say on the road that the Swedes usually stick together. Tongue hanging out AGAIN.

Capitals vs Thrashers

I hate posting my pics of a great game when a crappy game came in the middle. The Pens game was awful. Moose had a terrible night. He is not terrible though, I still love him...Mooooooose. We had to lose sometime, not terribly concerned. What did concern me though is our baby super star, Zach Bogosian, taking a monster hit (possibly dirty) from Cooke. Also Valabik injured his shoulder in a fight with Godard. That means we had Kovy, Slater, Hainsey, Bobo and Bogo injured.



This afternoon we learned that Bogo is planning on practicing tomorrow and is listed as "probable" in Friday night's game against the Wings. Ilya is listed as "probable," too. Bobo is planning on practicing, but listed as "questionable." He was spotted today at the practice rink today and wasn't wearing a sling. Keep your fingers crossed!



Okay, it's a photoblog, on to the photos.



The Capitals rolled into to town this week to face the Thrashers who were on a hot streak. A win Monday night would mean a new franchise record of 6 back-to-back wins. We had a tough road ahead of us though. Standing in our way was our divisional rivals and current division leader, the Washington Capitals, and of course everyone's favorite goal celebrating Russian, Alexander Ovechkin.



Apparently Ovie and the big man upstairs (God, not Ted Leonsis) had a conversation and God wanted him to score his 50th season goal in Atlanta. Ovy also said that the Atlanta Thrashers were 40%-50%

Erin Go Bragh! I have no idea why St. Patrick's Day is so popular for hockey stuff, but it is. I guess any way to excite the fans. I had a good luck sign for my Moose and a Welcome sign for Anssi.

For this game, the Thrashers were wearing special green St. Patrick's Day Jerseys during warm ups. The jerseys were then autographed then (silent) auctioned off for charity. The highest bid on a Jersey was Zack Bogosian and it went for $2,000. I chickened out on bidding. I wish I had. Moose's would have been out of my range, but I bet I could have picked up Stuart or Anssi's pretty cheap.



Moose loved my sign. I was in the spot where he stands most of the time and he skated right up to me an WINKED.

*swoon*

*faint*

*vomit*

It was the highlight of my week....month....SEASON.

Extreme Moose-up in.....



3

2

1!!!! This is moments before the wink.




Kari is stretching it out and getting ready for an unforgettable night.

Tervetuola Anssi! Welcome to Atlanta. Anssi got his first NHL goal tonight! It was so cool because they interviewed him and he said his brother had come from Finland to watch him play. In the interview, he almost smiled!! He didn't look nearly as mean as he does in his roster mug shot. He skated by my sign and glanced at it, then did a double take. I don't think he realized it was for him at first.

Familiar pose, different clothes.

Bobo looks good in green...oh wait :p

Hainsey being a disgusting boy and spitting.




Okay, yeah I take a lot of Moose shots...but it's Moose! He winked at me and he's wearing a different jersey!



Good job Perrin. Crawl on your hands and knees back into my favor. He's on his way back into my good graces. Flipping that pass to Reasoner in Edmonton, charging the guy in Buffalo over a team mate and scoring a goal tonight definitely help. He kind of looks like I did when I tried to ice skate.




Even tough boy Boultsie has his green jersey on.





Same shit different shirt.

It's hard to look tough with giant shamrocks on your back. They make it look good though!

Moose warming up in the crease.

You can never have enough Moose.

Capitals probably planning a victory celebration for Ovie's 50th goal.

Oh a wee leprechaun has stopped by the arena to share his pot of gol....oh wait, that's just Toby Enstrom.

I love me some Kari. I love it when he looks at you through the mask. He looks like a naughty little kid who has done something wrong that you haven't found out about yet. He looks very mischievous and guilty.

If Enstrom is a leprechaun, I guess Bobo is the Jolly Green Giant. OR maybe Toby could be Sprout.

Go Whitey go!

Bryan Little

Kari doing a cruise by

Slava! Why so serious, Slava?

Oh how did yet ANOTHER pic of Bobo get on here?

Hainsey looking hot...wearing a green jersey

Photo 15 of 256,695 of Moose

*Sigh*

Hiya handsome!

Rich Peverley's jersey fetched the 3rd highest amount. What a great story. Rich's wife is dropping him off at the airport to go back down to the Nashville's minor league when Atlanta calls him. Now he is our super stud and his jersey is one of the most popular in the auction. Way to go, Pevs!

Awwww, cutie pie Colby. In a recent Q&A Colby was asked if he could pick any Hollywood starlet to do a love scene in a movie with, who would it be? Maybe Jessica Alba? She's usually mentioned. Jessica Biel? Scarlett Johanson? Oh no. Colby said Diane Lane. You know what that means.....

That's right....Colby is cougar bait!!!! He likes older women.

Awwww, who's that sad Russian on the bench? It's Kaptain Kovy looking very disappointed he can't play with his buddy Ovechkin.

Congrats Baby Bogo, your jersey raised lots of money!

On to the game! I was in One Oh Douche again. Great seats, awful pics.

This would be a fantastic picture of a goal...if there weren't a pole in the way. Look in the bottom right hand corner of the net, the puck just went in. That was our first goal of the night.

It just wasn't poor Jose's night, between the pipes or with the Ice Girls. Show her your tatts Jose, maybe that will impress her.

(for you Shauna)

Ovechkin: Did you see the Purple Haired Girl?

Bradley: Who?

Backstrom: You mean Mother Russia is here?

Ovechkin: Yeah, she's sitting over there by Moose's girl.

Backstrom: I hear she likes Swedes.

Ovechkin: Uh, yeah, whatever...back to the Purple haired girl...she's even hotter than I've heard about.

Face off

Jose trying to look like he knows what he's doing. Poor Jose :( He did not have a good night.

Some more action blocked by poles

2nd period and Kari is on our end. I don't know what was going on, but he kept fidgeting with something in his pads.

Hainsey in the face off. Shortly after this he would leave the game with the dreaded "lower body injury."

Jose, don't be silly you barely know her. Of course she won't marry you. Try flashing the tatts again.

Ovie looking befuddled. He must have misheard God about scoring in Atlanta.

Poor Jose finally got pulled :(

Welcome to the game.....who? It's not Johnson. It's not Neuvirth. Hell, it's not even Leonhart. This poor guy wasn't even listed on the roster.

Welcome to the game Simeon Varlamov!






Ah the kiss cam with an Irish touch. I love it when the people or team members from the other team play along or are cool with it. MAJOR props to Ovie and Viktor Kozlov for laughing and playing along. Good sports you guys!

Oh God...yes...please! Stupid ref broke up Bobo and Ovy.

Varlamov tracking the puck.

Moose: So...I hear my girl made you a sign.

Anssi: Yes. It was nice. I wasn't expecting it. She is a good fan.

Moose: Yes, she is. She is my #1 fan. MY #1 fan.

Anssi: Uh, yeah okay.

Moose: She is nice and welcomes everyone to the arena, but she mostly makes me signs.

Bobo: I bet she'll make him one congratulating him on his first NHL goal.

Moose: Shut up.

Anssi: I'm out of here.

Moose: Good.

Toby: Good grief.

I see you Moose. I know you are just trying to make me jealous because you are jealous that I take so many pictures of Bobo and make signs for everyone. Thank you Candace for pointing out Moose's motivation to me.






"Dear God: I thought you wanted me to score in Atlanta?"

Thrashers win 5-1! We set a new franchise record. Kari faced an unbelievable 50 shots and was 1:15 seconds from a shut out. Go Thrashers!