Darkhorse – Yeah, section 111 was the scene of the crime last night. I was joined by the entire Blueland Chronicle staff…complete with Mr. RazorCatchPrey’s “Crabb Dance” after Joey scored a goal…RStroz, Smoothie and his squeeze Ms. Ten and their guests, a certain “lurker” who soon de-lurk herself, Tony C. and his precious little girl along with his baby-momma, Daculafan and there was even Eileen and her daughter were also in the area. Libby and Pinhead were close by as well.

You simply must come join the frey next time.

Oh…and you are correct. Here is the new blogity-blog thingy.

Big Boris seems unable to anticipate or read plays well on defense.

Hopefully, Kubina can mentor Big Boris as Schneider mentored Bogosian last season. Boris is still a work in progress and not exactly NHL material yet.

My favorite part of the game was when Kubina retaliated on the clown that tried to take out Kovy’s knee.

1) Kane is not ready to play up here. He was tentative and average at best, and I think that’s being generous. He was also not strong on the puck. I wish he could play in the AHL, because like a lot of you, I’m not sure that another year in Juniors will give him the experience with speed and size that he needs. If he plays in Atlanta this year, even just for 9 games, I see a couple of things happening. One, we will be fielding a weaker team than we otherwise could at the start of the season and I think we are all agreed that we need to start strong. Two, Evander’s confidence may take a significant hit, and we all know how that can turn out. If this was a “rebuilding” year, then I might say yes, let’s give him a half season to come around, but it is not.

2) Afinogenov definitely gets the nod over Kane. His speed was evident and generally effective, and his stick handling was also generally superior. He also had a little time on the penalty kill, and held his own.

3) Gratton over Bolts. I hate to say it, but his superior offensive play combined with his experience as a “tough guy”, gives him the nod in my book. And it wasn’t just the fact that he scored 2 goals, but that he consistently put himself in position to score without sacrificing his game in other ways. Can you imagine how we would be raving if Boulton had scored twice. If Waddell is true to his word, (insert snickers and uproarious laughter) about ignoring contract considerations to put the best team on the ice I think Gratton gets the nod.

4) As good as Oystrick has looked at times, I think he may have played himself out of a role with the big club tonight. He misread, or misplayed the puck, pinching up. several times tonight, directly resulting in at least one goal, and didn’t assert himself offensively at all. Popovic was unremarkable offensively also tonight, but I never saw him as a liability defensively tonight.

Valabik also looked like a liability tonight, in addition to his 2 penalties. His skating is still not where it needs to be, and he seems to still be quite a ways away from knowing how to use his size in the NHL. I must say he did make one nice hip check against the board in the first period, but ended up on the ice himself. I think the Thrashers are committed to Boris for this year to see if the sleeping giant will awake, but I have not seen his size be enough of an asset to overcome his deficits. Postma looked NHL ready to me on Monday, but I think a year at Chicago will be best in the long run for both him and Kulda. They should both push hard for a seat at the main table next season.

Peverley was also a bit disappointing, but still showed his puck control skill. I am afraid though, that as in Nashville, he will flounder if he is not playing with highly skilled players. Thorburn showed some good puck control and patience with the puck and didn’t looked nearly as bad tonight on the PK as on Monday. Fritsche did not distinguish himself in my mind tonight and Stapleton looked comfortable if not outstanding, playing at this level. Even thought Crabb had a goal, (off a fantastic pass by Bogosian) I would say he did not have a great game and did not really show his speed and was not confident with his decision making.

So my opening night line-up would be:

Kovy – Antropov – Little

Kozlov – White – Afinogenov

Peverley – Reasoner – Armstrong

Gratton – Slater – Fritsche/Thorburn

Enstrom – Bogosian

Hansey – Kubina

Popovic – Salmela/Valabik

Armstrong and Hansey’s injuries do not sound like they would prevent them from playing on opening night.

Here was the quote from the ajc writer tonight……

“I thought he played really well,” Anderson said. “He’ll play more in regular-season games. It’s just the way it went tonight with so many penalties in the game [against the Thrashers]. He’s not a penalty-killer.”

Rawhide-Looks like you had quite a little gang gathered around you tonight having a great time. Did you notice that both Enstrom and Kubina were wearing A’s tonight? Is that just because the other assistant captains did not play in the game or did I miss something?

I’ll give more input on what I thought about the game tonight on the next blog I bet your working away on as we spea….er…write.

I really dont like the 37 shots. that is just looking to the past with this thrashers defense.
also 2 goals in the last 2 minutes? Reminds me of our problem last year and i dont like it