Vote for the 2010 Blog Comment of the Year

So how are your playoff predictions coming along? Me…well, so far not so hot.

Wednesday night saw three road teams…Ottawa, Colorado and Philly…beat higher-seeded teams…Pittsburgh, San Jose and New Jersey.  The one home team that won was the Coyotes over Detroit.

Last night, we saw Montreal down top-seeded Washington 3-2 in OT, Buffalo hold off the Bruins 2-1 behind Ryan Miller’s 38 saves and then Vancouver worked the late shift to finally do away with L.A. in overtime.

Oh, and that “Sedin to Sedin back to Sedin” goal that made it 2-1 Vancouver in the second period…nice.

All this means of course, is that after seven games played six teams I predicted to eventually advance to round-two are down 1 game to zip early on. Good thing I didn’t predict any sweeps, eh?

Derek Morris' third period goal helped get the Coyotes past Detroit Wednesday night (AP Photo/Pat Shannahan - The Arizona Republic)

Regarless… if these first seven games are any indication of what’s to come, we should be in for some really great hockey viewing in the days ahead. Each one has been decided by a one-goal margin with two going beyond 60 minutes.

Tonight, Nashville and Chicago kick off their series while those who played Wednesday evening play their game twos.

Now… while we continue discussing the playoffs and Wednesday morning’s “Shakeup in Thrasherville”… let me take this opportunity to post up the 2010 Rawhide Blog Comment of the Year finalists and allow you to vote for the winner.

We have five comments to select from, each nominated as the season progressed. I’ve  attach a link to the comment so that you can review them, refresh your memories and view them in the context they were meant.

The one netting the most of your votes will see it’s author win the ability to write their own blog that I’ll post here. That, plus I will reach deep down into the deep pockets of the expense account afforded me by the AJC and by the winner a cold beverage of their choice at a Thrashers game next season.

I know…I know…please try to govern your enthusiasm and conduct yourselves accordingly.

I will keep the ballot box open until 11:00 pm Sunday night April 18, 2010…this way the voting will take place as we enjoy what promises to be a fun weekend of hockey viewing.

And so, without any further ado…the nominees for you to vote on are as follows:

“Contract Rage” by World Be Free: This is a prime example of the quick wit and poingnet commentary that frequesnts this blog. It was posted by WBF last winter in response to a comment posted by Nikita.

Nikita-people are raging against Kovy and White for a variety of reasons. Kovy cause he doesn’t have a contract, White cause he does have a contract.

“Play Until It Hurts” by B. Thenet: This was posted just after the 8-1 pounding at the hands of the Washington Capitals and points to why certain players might not be motivated to play “until it hurts” in a very concise mannor.

The problems with the Thrashers are from the top down.

I cannot blame the coaches or players for being bad, they have been set up to fail with the poor job Don Waddell and his staff has done in assembling the team.

When your ownership sends the message they do not care about winning, by continuing to employ a management team that is on its 2nd attempt to build the team from the bottom up….and looks to be approaching attempt #3 once Kovalchuk is traded by Don Waddell for a handful of magic beans.

How as a player can you commit to playing until it hurts, when you know at the end of the day the organization does not reward hard work….but instead rewards failure and shoddy work ethics?

They say a good team plays for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back of it. Our best players play for the name on the back of their jerseys, because the name of the organization on the front is not worthy of the effort.

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“Lindsey Vonn” by Brendan: Uh…umm…I think this one just speaks for itself.

Here’s your Lindsey Vonn link: 

You can thank me later.

“Unleash the Futility” by Bob: This beauty was “unleashed” on us just after the 4-0 thumping at the paws of the Bruins which spelled the beginning of the end to the Thrashers’ playoff hopes. (BTW: “Bob” now goes by the handle “Joe Friday”).

“its time to start thinking about what the team needs to do to improve itself on the limited budget the owners are willing to lay out. What moves should be made?”

1)Get us a real GM. Until then we’re just fooling ourselves getting psyched up about this club. Unleash The Futility is more like it if they leave Waddell making the decisions

assuming they finally do the right thing and we get a good GM, there’s plenty of even self imposed cap space available to:

2)Sign a quality experienced UFA goalie or trade for one. No more projects learning on the job, no more head cases, no more trying to fit Moose into something he’s not (a day to day #1 goalie)

3)Sign a top line UFA LW (who’s available this summer?)

4)Sign a top line UFA RW (who’s available this summer?)

5)Re-sign Kubina

6)Bring in a good experienced NHL coach, Anderson has lost me (never really had me to begin with, from the first games I saw his rinky dink system, I never thought it was NHL material)

“The Sad Merry-Go-Round” by MB: Our final nominee penned this clever observation earlier in the month after Atlanta lost in Washington 2-1. (What is it about the Thrashers getting beat that brings out the high-quality comments?).

As you guys are twirling around the merry-go-round of potential line combinations, all that came to mind is how very sad it is that this is where we find our team after ten seasons and twelve first-round draft picks.

Like every other season, we STILL do not have enough talent among our forward corps, we STILL do not have a true (dependable) #1 goalie, and we apparently don’t have players in the pipeline able to take minutes away from the likes of Todd White and Chris Chelios (at 48 years old).

And our big hope is to back into the playoffs. Like I said, sad.

Happy voting and good luck to each of our nominees.