Most likely…

Kane Antro Afinogenov
Kozy White Little
Pevs Reas. Army
Boulton Slates Thorsy

I have stated my case about Max, his predictable tendencies and most of all, his failure to use his speed to drive to the net the way Bure did. It hasn’t changed in 10 years. Thrashers’ fans will grow tired of his act, it’s just a matter of time.

I agree that Max should have scored as time expired, just recently. I agree that he has crazy legs, goes a million miles an hour, only to lose the puck. And I agree that I’d have preferred to have Nikki Zherdev, at $3.1 to $3.25 million, if those were the options. But I’m not livid that Waddell signed Max. And I criticize Waddell all the time. It was worth the risk. Max isn’t killing our cap, “Holik-style.” If Waddell wanted to buy him out, I guess that’s an option. It’s my least preferred option. I don’t want Max on the books next year, unless Kovy says, “I only re-sign if Max stays.” Then I’d offer him the same $800,000 and consider it “a Kovalchuk-bonus.” I doubt that I would have put Max on our top line. But I’m not John Anderson, whose job it is to have his finger on the PULSE of the team. If JA thought Max was “the right fit” for the top line, then you can criticize Anderson for that. In my view of things, Max Afinogenov is NOT a top line forward. I’m not really too comfortable with him being a “Top Six Forward,” either. But for a 4th line guy … or a 3rd line forward, I’m not all broken up about Max being here. I’m willing to have an open-mind. I’m willing to give the guy … who is in his CONTRACT YEAR … a chance. We’re eight (8) games into the season. There’s 74 more to play. If Max scores 37-points in those games, he’s earned his salary. And then some. With the caveat that this team had $10 million in cap room coming into training camp … to still go find BETTER than Afinogenov.

It is what it is. It’s beginning to look like Kane, and his $3.1 million salary cap hit, are going to stay. This is the same figure it would have cost to land Zherdev. Give or take a little. Bygones.

On some of your points, though…Max a Ford Focus? Have you ever driven a Ford Focus. Jaroslav Modry was a Ford Focus. Max is probably more of a Jag…great when running right, but highly unreliable.

Max isn’t keeping Little out of the top 6…he’s still there. JA apparently decided to put him back on the 2nd line to try to get those guys going again. And I know your being facetious intimating that #61 is to blame for losing those two games.

As for Lindy’s doghouse, as a Buffalo fan you know Max is hardly the first to end up there. But if you’ll recall, he had no problem producing in the two seasons from 05-07, then he gets pushed down the lines, and guess what…his numbers suffer. Surprise. And if you look closely at those 05-07 stats, they’re very similar to his current pace (though over fewer games).

We have griped about the ASG not opening the coffers, but they already did with Antropov and Kubina. The logic in being okay with an $800k player on the top line is that it’s great value for the “potential talent” and little risk if it doesn’t work and he’s pushed to the press box. It’s not like JA was forced to put Max on that line…he apparently thinks he belongs there, and I’m guessing he’s a far better assessor of talent and fit than either of us. As for Max, if he starts playing as badly as you think he will, then I will join you in saying that he belongs in the press box. But again thus far, that has not been the case.

We’ve all read your warnings about him and are keeping a pretty close eye on him. I just think you guys are are in a self-fulfilling prophecy situation where every mistake confirms the worst and any success is an aberration. I know you’ve watched him far more than I, but so have other Buffalo friends who say Ruff screwed it up. I don’t know what happened up there, but I do know that Max has played pretty well here, and I’d love for him really step up in the coming weeks while Kovy’s recovering.

EOB, I think you and WBF are letting your Buffalo prejudices get in the way of fairly assessing Max’s value to the Thrash. So if you lived on Long Island and said that Andy Sutton is a bad player in his first few games, turned the puck over, got caught flat footed all the time, would that mean he’s a really good player and you just have “Atlanta prejudices”? Facts are facts.

Sure, he has and will continue to turn it over a bit (and he hardly has a monopoly on that), but the man has 6 points in 8 games and has created numerous other opportunities. He will keep turning the puck over, thus he will not have any consistency and will never keep the pace of .75 points per game.

He costs less than Jimmy Slater (let that sink in), I don’t care if he’s FREE, you have a $100,000 Ferrari in Kovalchuk, a $50,000 Hummer in Antropov, you don’t put a Ford Focus with those two and say “well, it only costs $10,000 so that makes it ok.

and it’s not like he’s keeping a more talented player out of the top six. Actually he is. Let’s agree on this: Kane-Peverley-Armstrong is our 2nd line. Little was on the top line. We were 4-1-1. Max bumped Little out of the top six and we lost two in a row.

At his current rate of scoring, he’ll notch 20 goals and 40 assists over the season. I believe he’s capable of more, but even those numbers are a pretty strong value for $800k. Your keywords are “at his current rate”. My keywords are “he’s not consistent and can be a complete enigma”.

Once he made his way in Lindy’s doghouse, he was relegated to 3rd/4th line minutes, a no-win situation for a player with his skill set. Why do you think he was in Lindy’s doghouse?

Far more deserving of criticism thus far are Kozzy, White, and Little. Little had 5 assists in 6 games playing on the top line. That’s more production than Max.

Sorry for the rant, but I have seen this all before. First we signed him and that was a kick where it hurts, now we move him to the top line so it’s like a getting kicked twice, not just once. If we all b!tch and moan that the ASG doesn’t open the coffers for top free agents, why are we now saying “oh, it’s ok that we only have an $800,000 player on our top line because for what he produces is worth that kind of money”. Am I the only one who sees the bad logic in that?

Imagine you moved to Long Island about 5 years ago and you start to root for the Islanders and then they go out and sign Andy Sutton. People think he’s great. You try to tell them he is a pylon on the ice. Islanders fan say he isn’t and they see him making big hits. Each of the first few games the other team is skating circles around him. You kick the tv. That’s my world right now, and World Be Free’s for that matter.

Once he made his way in Lindy’s doghouse, he was relegated to 3rd/4th line minutes, a no-win situation for a player with his skill set.

Far more deserving of criticism thus far are Kozzy, White, and Little.