Desbiens was the longshot “or else” in my opinion, but his skills didn’t keep up with his fists and he wasn’t re-signed. Now I’m not sure WHO is capable of fighting well at the minor league level (fighting well and fighting often are two different things, mind you).

Christy — I would agree, losing Hainsey has a much more drastic impact on the immediate health of the defense as a whole than losing Oystrick or Valabik would/does. Hainsey logs enough minutes to support your theory, in my opinion. He’s out there in all circumstances, so it’s completely plausible that his loss helped the Capitals look like they controlled the game in the third. I’d say it was a compounding effect, with Boudreau’s likely butt-chewing due to them losing to the 28th place team (at the time).

To the “Tank for a pick crowd” — You now have three reasons to be ecstatic about the next few games…Kovalchuk, Bogosian, and Hainsey are all injured. Without them the losses wont be hard to achieve. Now we can only hope the injuries are not going to have lasting effects (especially Bogosian’s).

But moreover, our wheels sort of fell off after the end of the first period. I was hoping we’d have more energy than that.

Admittedly, I turned it off after the Pens scored their sixth. Took a shower and hit the hay, you know. Friday vs. Detroit should be a good matchup.

Anne, welcome to the blog! Hope to see you around these parts more often. And yes, Go Thrashers!

GO THRASHERS!

But I don’t care, SOMEBODY should have planted Cooke.

This is why the instigator rule sucks. I don’t like the whole “hey you hit our guy hard, now you gotta fight” vibe we’ve seen growing in the league for the past decade or so, but damn, you can’t let guys take liberties with your skill guys/youngsters. Ever wonder why McSorley got traded to LAK along with #99? Because you don’t go after Wayne when Marty’s around. Or else.

Le Thrash still don’t have an effective “Or else.”

Nobody goes after Cooke.

They let the Pens walk all over them for almost an entire period physically before they actually have the stones to fight back….only after more cheap hits by the Pens after a puck stoppage.

At this point, I could care about the loss. The Pens are a very good hockey team when they want to be. The way they behaved after the Bogo hit, very disturbing.

Now…go in peace, my child.

They run at our guys and nothing is done, come on Boris, line Crotchby
at the blueline and cross-check that little stinking PUNK A$$ in the throat. To let them hurt our guys is WRONG, Time to INJURE Crotchby
ONCE AND FOR ALL !

I agree Hedburg has had it….