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