Joe Friday looking for just the facts on Thrasherville beat
Today we have the privilege of being treated to a blog written by the 2010 Rawhide Blog Comment of the year winner, Joe Friday, (formerly known to us as “Bob”). He has been a regular contributor to this forum for quite some time now… before even I began hosting it in the fall of 2007. Over the past several I have come to appreciate and value his keen insight and knowledge in regards to the Thrashers, NHL hockey and sports in general. And this past season I had the distinct honor of finally meeting him in person prior to a Thrashers game.
So, without any further ado, I yield the floor to Joe Friday/Bob…
Unleash Joe Friday!
So this past Weds. night I was relaxing in my rose colored world, watching some stout NHL playoff action (great games so far, but the cream is rising to the top in these series), and feeling relieved in my delusion that we’re out from under the Master of Disaster, the Architect of Doom, the Fomenter of Futility, one Don Waddell, on the hockey personnel decisions for our beloved Thrashers, when I clicked on my Twitterific to see Jeff Marek from HNIC tweet:
“Atlanta GM…whoops…President Don Waddell in Barrie for the Colts game vs. Mississauga tonight.”
Riddle me this, Thrasherville: Which job duty as Team President in charge of business only was Don Waddell fulfilling in Barrie Ontario while taking in an OHL game on Weds. night?
Was he schmoozing Molson Brewing Co. to talk them into shipping the high gravity bottles into Phillips to ease our collective pain while watching his club? Was he signing up Bowlerama Barrie to be our 2010-11 sponsor of intermission human bowling?!?
So, is there truly a new Sheriff in town, or is it simply the more things change, the more they stay the same? I think I’ll hold off on re-signing up for season tickets there for a bit, Mr. Spirit Sales team.
Fool me 9 times, shame on you . . .
Time to grab the reins and fix this mess ourselves!
What you have to understand is that myself and thousands of other former season ticket holders have all come to the conclusion that we’re all passing in the wind until Don Waddell is gone from making the hockey personnel decisions. I mean, what further proof do you need? 10 years of futility? 5 year plans come and gone? No free agent worth his salt wants to re-sign under Waddell? One playoff appearance only to be swept? Never having a true #1 goalie? A list of defenders that make Bobby Orr weep?
Many of us have known from the early years that Don was a nice guy, a solid good man . . . with little to no ability to build a successful hockey club. With him in place, it’s just the same old thing year after year. The names on the back of the sweater change, but the results don’t differ (golfing in April every year while 1/2 of the rest of the league is embarking upon the real season). And now he’s still working with Dudley (per Dudley) to find our next coach and he’s at the OHL playoffs this week scouting kids that he and Dudley, assumingly, will be targeting in draft day trades?
Time to fix this mess, guys and gals, so I’d like to reiterate my plan to get the Thrash headed in the right direction and into the real season come April 2011:
1)Sign Nabokov to a 2year $5m per contract
2)Take my asst. GM’s, Badger Bob’s, advice and trade NJ’s #1 and “pick your favorite off our prospect list not named Patrice Cormier” for Patrick Sharp and take his $4.15m per that he’s owed for the next 2 years off the ‘Hawks hands
3)Sign Alexander Frolov to a 4 year $4m per year deal
4)Re-sign Kubina to a 3 year $5m per year deal
Trade Tobias Enstrom to the highest bidder, move Todd White to whoever will have him.
Sign Bryan Little’s to a 4 year $1.75m per year. Ditto with Bergfors. Let MacArthrur walk. We’ll re-sign Slater and Arthukin as UFAs to 2 year deals, making the same amount they made this year.
We’ll be closely watching who gets the coaching axe at the conclusion of this year’s campaign and pickup the best available candidate. Moose Hedberg will be offered the position of goalie/bench asst. for your Atlanta Thrashers.
We’ll be jettisoning the Blueland campaign and associated pansy blue uniforms. Phillips Arena will now be known simply as Our House. You come into our house, you better keep your heads up, we are playing hockey, old style. Every shift, every period, we’re going to lead the league in clean hard checks. Our new home unis will be Black and Blue. All marketing will show our colors, we are black and blue and we send our opponents off the same way, win or lose.
Your starting lineup for the 2010-2011 Atlanta Thrashers:
Frolov-Antropov-Sharp
Peverley-Little-Bergfors
Kane-Slater-MacArthur
Boulton-Reasoner-Thorburn
Kubina-Hainsey
Bogosian-Oduya
Kulda-Valabik
Nabokov (Pavelec backup)
$78 ticket in the lower bowl is now $70 per game (similar drops for every seat in the place) and there’s going to be two and only two season ticket holder plans:
1)Full season ticket holders buy that seat for every regular season game at 25% off the listed price, receive complimentary preseason tickets, and get exclusive meet and greets with the players as well as the option to buy additional seats on a game by game basis at $25 per seat as available. Only full season ticket holders will receive game day giveaways, bobbleheads, etc. Full season ticket holders will have access to the new season ticket holder pavilion for exclusive food and drink discounts.
2)1/2 season ticket holder plan geared toward weekends receive 15% off the listed price and also get the exclusive meet and greets with the players
The cheerleaders go. There’s no cheerleaders in hockey. The girls cleaning the ice during timeouts will stay but they’re going to be decently clothed. Thrash will go back to being the old Thrash who can actually dance and rappel down a rope from the ceiling. The jumbotron will be replaced with an actual high def screen that isn’t covered with screen burns. AC/DC will be prominently played pushing our Black and Blue theme. An actual organ will play music in Our House, a real pipe organ, played by someone that has a clue on how to get a crowd rev’d up. And we’re going to hire our award winning in-game producer back away from the Crapitals.
All weekday start times are 7:30pm, Saturday 7pm, Sunday at 5pm.
Drop the puck.
Time to head to the summer home in the Riviera, Ilya?
Ilya Kovalchuk and the Devils will now begin their offseason after losing to the Flyers in round-one of the playoffs (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philly, sans Carter and Gagne, just knocked the Devils out in 5 games. You think Sweet Lou is even considering calling Jay Grossman? Fuhgeddaboudit. Lou tried to use Kovy to inject some much needed offense into his club, but Kovy was oil and water on that club.
LA will be Kovy’s home next season, and I say good riddance to a one way player.
He’ll never be a great one like Crosby and Ovechkin (who are showing this playoff season, once again, what true all around great hockey players they are). Bob Hartley tried to save Kovy’s career and turn him into a hockey player, but Ilya wants none of it.
I will not miss him; we need to turn this club into one that has 3 lines that can all score. Kovy, it was nice knowing ya, stop by once in a while, but До скорого!
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157 comments Add your comment
J-man
April 24th, 2010
8:56 am
All I can say Ice Man is that I’m glad you’re not the GM. And I’m sure you’re going to be wrong about Cormier and a few years from now you’re going to say “Why did we ever believe that guy was going to amount to anything?”
Kenny
April 24th, 2010
10:17 am
What about Afinogenov?
he was tied for goals and second highest in points this season, and i think that the change of teams for him was exactly what he needed, and he even said that he liked it here and wanted to stay. I think we can replace white with Max, and if Little doesn’t go back to putting up the same numbers then I highly recommend re-signing Max to like a 2-year deal to see how well he’ll do.
World Be Free
April 24th, 2010
11:12 am
LAC-man, I admire your persistence.
He can scout all he wants, as long as he doesn’t select.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
11:46 am
WBF, don’t you mean, “As long as Waddell isn’t part of the BY COMMITTEE approach?” I cannot rightly tell you who has final ’say-so’ on personnel decision-making. In most cases around the league, I’d say it’s the GM. But I don’t know if Dudley, as the named GM of the team, does have final ’say-so.’ I wish that he does. Does wishing count?
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
11:50 am
Rawhide, if we assembled 20 people in a room, we couldn’t get them all to agree that ‘water is wet.’ “In what way?” “How so?” “Well, how do you define ‘moisture,’ and so forth. “Is orange juice as wet as blood?” I mean … this is what happens when we start arguing with idiots. It drags both (and all parties) down in the process.
ben
April 24th, 2010
2:47 pm
what I am about to say about those cheerleaders I say as a single heterosexual male:
Get them off the ice or put clothes on them! Had I children old enough to see what the hub-bub was about I would certainly be squeamish about the messages that would send. As for IK17, look I’m a huge fan of his, I am. But the the guy will not defend! He can do it, he just doesn’t want to. It boggles the mind why Atlanta or the next team he sticks w/ doesn’t get a couple of swift-skating D-men and make them his linemates.
Waddell never could evalute NHL level talent. We / the entire NHL knows that. Maybe it’s just a vicious e-rumor. I remember a whole bunch of years ago, there was a while where the whole gorsh-danged hockey playing world was up and down about a pre-suck Eric Lindros playing here. We all remember those “gentlemen” on HNIC staring the world in the face and swearing Kovy was staying.in The City of Trees!
Side note:
If Kovy had of stayed how many current Kovy-bashers would right now be happy as clams? I’ll tell you right now, it will be a loooooooong time before before his offense is replaced, and while that contract might have been a distraction which caused the team to tank, I think the overall lack of player development was the real reason.
LAC
April 24th, 2010
3:57 pm
I say get Raitis Ivanans and Derek Boogaard, both UFA’s, would come rather cheap, but WOULD maintain ORDER against Anyone out there like cindy chrotcby and his lowlife pals !
There would NO more pushing us around Period ! They will score little, if any, but knowing those two TOUGH guys are out there would keep other teams from trying anything against our younger players ! We need a TOUGH GUY UPGRADE BAD ! Here is the chance and it would not be costly.
Go Get Them New GM !
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
4:14 pm
Kenny, I have no objection to Finny returning next year for Atlanta. I just don’t want to overpay him. When Max screws up as a $800,000-a-year paid player, we shrug, point to his statistics and say, “it’s still pretty great.” If he’s paid $3.5 million for those same screw ups, not so much. Max is a hot-n-cold type of player. I think he showed he can still play in the NHL. Let’s see what his demands are. I don’t want to go long with him. Honestly, I don’t want to go more than two years with the guy. He tends to get complacent, with a longterm contract in hand.
It’s 2-1, Chicago, after one period, against Nashville. Entertaining period. Go Preds!!! (Please know that, if Chicago wins, I’ll likely be rooting for them in latter rounds. I just prefer the Preds. Truthfully, I do hope Chicago wins a Cup soon. They are “officially” on the clock, at 1961.)
Slater23
April 24th, 2010
4:20 pm
Agree with everything on here except keep Tobias Enstrom and sign Marty Turco instead of Nabakov, Nabakov can’t do anything beyond the regular season.
Sage of Bluesland
April 24th, 2010
4:35 pm
Laughing at World-Be-Lapdog–as he actually thinks that Don Waddell has nothing to do with the selection of talent…How much clearer can it be? What will convince you?!
What’s that old saying, “Fool me once…”; Simply reaffirms that sheep learn quite a bit slower than average…
Wow.
Maybe you actually believe that half of ownership’s emails are “ultimatums” from season-ticket holders saying that they will leave if Don is fired???
Wow.
Oh well, some just want to bewieve SSSSOOOO badly–that they’ll actually let logic and fact-patterns get in the way of silly emotion…
Savannah Blueland Fan
April 24th, 2010
5:57 pm
Hossa is clearly cursed! I’m pulling for Chicago (the “big city” to where I grew up), but a 5 minute boarding penalty with less than 2 minutes and an empty net? The man is a jinx! Better to toss black cats out onto the ice.
Rawhide
April 24th, 2010
6:09 pm
Holy Cow…talk about redeeming one’s self. Marian Hossa with the OT game winner!
Nashville had a one-goal lead…Hossa in the box for a 5-minute boarding call…and seconds left in the 3rd. They allow the tying goal w/ 13-ish seconds left, failed to score with 4 minutes of PP time in the extra period then Hossa’s heroics give the Blackhawks a 3-2 edge in the series.
WOW!
Savannah Blueland Fan
April 24th, 2010
6:14 pm
Clearly, I spoke too soon!!! Unbelievable!!
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
6:22 pm
What an unbelievable choke by the Preds. C’mon, Nashville. You’re on a PP, to end the game, and you can’t kill the final 15 seconds or so?!! Trotz does bear some of the blame. His guys were not prepared. And then, to not convert on the PP, on a fresh sheet of ice, to begin OT, is rough. The Preds could be coming home, with a 3-2 lead, to wrap it up. Instead, they’re the ones facing elimination.
Preds fans, please don’t take this as me dumping on your chances. I’m rooting for the Preds. I’m angry that they didn’t hold this lead. Nashville fans, this still isn’t over yet. Win Game Six, then we’ll talk about about possibilities in Game Seven. But this is very disappointing. Those who read my posts regularly know … I’m not one for ’sugarcoating’ things. You guys blew this game, big time. But, you deserve credit for coming back, with three straight goals, from down 3-1, too. That was a display of character. Down 3-1, late in the 2nd period, another team would have been shutdown in the 3rd. The Preds got two big third period goals, to take the lead, 4-3. Amazing.
Chicago Blackhawk fans … there’s cause for some concern with Niemi. In Game One, in the third period, he got “rattled” by a bouncing puck “flip in” type goal by Erat, I believe. And the collapse was on, resulting in a loss. Today, this afternoon, I saw Niemi “psyching himself up,” skating in circles, having mental moments. The results? Two third period goals against that very well could have cost the Hawks the game. He’s got to keep the SAME FOCUS ALL GAME LONG. It doesn’t change in the third period, where he needs to “re-energize” himself. It’s the same, steady focus all game, not just the first 40 minutes. I see Niemi as a goaltender who may be having some mental breakdown moments. I won’t compare it to Kari Lehtonen. But watch for it. I think Niemi’s a very good goalie. He’s just got to maintain focus and not get caught up in “situational play.”
R. Stroz
April 24th, 2010
6:27 pm
Kovy sent his choking virus to the Preds.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
6:48 pm
Savannah in Blueland Fan, no worries. We’re not the sort of blog that will go do a COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW of months and months and months worth of posts … just to try to discredit you. At least, those of us who aren’t “deeply affected” by dissenting opinions, don’t and won’t.
I think Hossa was mostly a “no-show” for this game. And near the end of regulation, he “whiffed” on a very nice scoring opportunity, before taking a 4:00 boarding penalty. Hey, I harbor no grudges with Hossa. Remember, Hossa said, “If it were only about the money, I would have (re) signed in Atlanta.” But people conveniently forget that quote, when they want to paint players as “greedy, money grubbing ho’s.”
Get The Puck Out
April 24th, 2010
7:14 pm
A really loud pipe organ playing in phillips would be awesome.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
7:21 pm
Get The Puck Out, especially if he were wearing a helmet.
Never Play Lady of Spain Again
April 24th, 2010
7:22 pm
Attention organist: Don’t say you weren’t warned.
kracker
April 24th, 2010
9:02 pm
Sens close to evening the series, maybe. Leading Pens 3-1 after two periods.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
9:36 pm
Pittsburgh just tied it on a goal by Matt Cooke, the resident “evil” of the National Hockey League. Pittsburgh last overcame a 3 goal deficit to win on this very date in history, vs. Philadelphia.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
9:39 pm
Is it wrong that I want this series to go seven? I picked Pittsburgh in six. If it does go seven games, does this mean a “monkey” is better at predicting than I am?
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
9:41 pm
There’s 5:00 left in regulation, just in case anyone’s online during this terrible storm outside.
Rawhide
April 24th, 2010
9:47 pm
kracker & Brendan – I’m with ya dudes…working on tomorrow’s blo about the Thrashers’ goaltending situtaion.
I’m enjoyin’ the heck outa this Pens/Sens games…going to OT tied at 3. Playoff hockey at it’s finest. And this after the hum-dinger in Chi-town this afternoon.
Do we dare hope for a third straight game like this when the Avs and Sharks go at it later?
kracker
April 24th, 2010
9:48 pm
Gaa…OT!
kracker
April 24th, 2010
9:51 pm
I didn’t know a goalie could use a broken stick. It looked broken enough to be non-effective…tough break for LeClaire.
kracker
April 24th, 2010
10:00 pm
My goaltending idea (maybe hair-brained) is sign Moose as coach-player and play him sparingly and a lot in practice. Pavs is #1 and sign a cheap backup goalie. Or maybe Carrozzi is ready. Anyway, this means carrying three goalies so they have to be cheap. I’m not sold on signing an aging Nabakov for $5M. Maybe a Price if we can move the NJ 1st for him.
Rawhide
April 24th, 2010
10:02 pm
kracker – ah, ah,ah…..save your good ideas for that blog tomorrow
I’ve spent a good deal of time on it and Trixie is proof-reading it right now.
kracker
April 24th, 2010
10:11 pm
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:13 pm
My goaltending idea is to the sign the BEST AVAILABLE UFA netminder “actually willing” to sign with Atlanta. And I don’t particularly care if we OVERPAY to get him. Maybe that’s Nabakov. Maybe it’s Roloson or Biron. Maybe we get a #1 guy via trade? I’m not opposed that, provided that the goalie traded here wants to play here, and had remaining years on his contract. I don’t someone in mind, when I mention that.
There are some surplus goalies. I see Niemi, not Huet, in the Chicago net. I see Tuukka Rask, not Tim Thomas, in the Boston net. I see Varlamov, not Theodore, in the Capitals net. I see Halak, not Carey Price, in the Habs net. I doubt Ottawa would move Elliott. And in the cases of Elliot and Carey, or even Halak, are they bonafide #1’s? Maybe in Elliot’s case, the answer is yes.
What about Deslauriers, in Edmonton? Not exactly firmly established, either, maybe worth taking a long hard look-see. Deslauriers went immediately after Jim Slater in the 2002 draft, 31st overall, the first pick of the 2nd round. Deslaurier is 6′4, 200 pounds, catches right. He’ll be 26 years old on May 14th. I hear ya … “late bloomer?” Well, if we do get him, at least didn’t invest the years developing him. We can thank the Oilers for that.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:16 pm
Nikita, your “useless” Pascal Dupuis just scored the Series Clinching Overtime winner for Pittsburgh. What dopes for signing him, eh?
stendek
April 24th, 2010
10:17 pm
Hope Maryann Hossebag is carried off the ice on a stretcher. WITH SERIOUS INJURIES! Damn cheap shot artist is a cowardly thug who should be exiled from National Hockey League forevermore. No justification for his scumbag actions! Chicago Chicken Hawks just zoomed to top of my professional sports hate list. Sorry New Jersey Pitchforks! Who scored overtime winner? Justice in sports? BULLSHET! Referees should be suspended immediately then fired after playoffs end. Black eye for entire league! Mad as Hell right now. Tuxedo overtime victory only adds fuel to fire! More cheap shot hooligans. Darn! Just darn.
Rawhide
April 24th, 2010
10:17 pm
WOW! Two games today…two game winning goals in OT scored by former Thrashers. Earlier it was Hossa for Chicago and now Pascal Dupris just did same for Pittsburgh, eliminating the Senators.
What’s next tonight…Dany Heatley scoring in overtime for the Sharks?
kracker
April 24th, 2010
10:18 pm
arrrrgh! Pens move on. -sigh- But maybe that will help our chances of landing Volchenkov if the Sens don’t resign him.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:19 pm
Rawhide, sorry for jumping the gun on the goaltending blog. You can delete that post, if you want.
Rawhide
April 24th, 2010
10:20 pm
B-Man – Nah, just copy/paste it in tomorrow.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:21 pm
Rawhide, bite your tongue!!! I certainly do NOT want to see Heatley scoring any OT goals. Go Avs!!!
kracker
April 24th, 2010
10:23 pm
Nice series, tho for the Sens. I’d love for the Thrashers to battle back in a PO series like they did….Next season….except they win lol
Yeah, RH, too bad Dupris didn’t want to stay here.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:31 pm
Are there any Senators fans up in this house? Condolences to you. I know it must really stink right now to know your season is over. Especially, when you held a 3-0 lead, in an elimination game. What do I always say? “No pity points in the playoffs. It’s either (1) you win or (2) you don’t.” I know the wound is fresh, and the sting will last a while longer, but I sincerely, genuinely hope every Ottawa Senator fan will realize that almost nobody had them even being in the playoffs, during Preseason-Analysis. Your GM did a great job moving Heatley. Sorry Cheechoo didn’t work out so well. But Michalek isn’t too bad. And now, post-Heatley, the team is better. Great salvage! Look Sens fans, the Penguins might repeat as Cup Champions this year. It’s no sin to have lost to them. And you gave them a good run. Several OT games … pushed ‘em to six games … gained valuable experience for some players, etc. Next year, your future looks bright in Canada’s capital city. I wish you Sens fans nothing but good luck at the draft and during the Frenzy. Few teams draft better than the Sens. They always seem to find players late in the 1st round or in latter rounds.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:34 pm
Kracker, in 2007, the Penguins signed Pascal Dupuis to a 3-year deal. Unless they renewed him early, I think he hits the open market this year. Someone better double-check that. It may well have been 2008 that Dupuis inked that 3-year deal, in which case, Dupuis would be under contract until 2011. I’m actually leaning more towards that, since Dupuis was part of the Hossa trade in 2008. So, forget what I said about him being a UFA this summer.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:41 pm
140 comments, in a post-season blog where the Thrashers are nowhere to be found. Well, that’s what “free speech” can do for a blog.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:42 pm
San Jose is up, 1-0, over Colorado, as the 1st period comes to a close. I didn’t catch the goal scorer. Maybe it happened during the Pens-Sens overtime?
kracker
April 24th, 2010
10:46 pm
Oh, you’re right, Brendan, Dupuis was part of the Hossa trade, wans’t he? Thanks for the correction. Anyway, I hated to lose him, he plays hard.
Brendan
April 24th, 2010
10:54 pm
I AGREE with you completely, Kracker. I wanted to keep Dupuis, too. Trouble is, it’s Dupuis’ call, as a UFA, where he plays. And, well. We all know the story all too well, there.
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:05 am
Colorado just scored to make it, 2-1, in favor of the Avalanche. San Jose led this game, 1-0. There’s 14:00 left in regulation time.
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:15 am
You blink, and it’s 3-2, Sharks. Pavelski has just given the Sharks the lead! And SJ keeps comin’. San Jose would be the first team out West to move on, with a win.
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:17 am
Marek Svatos just missed!!! Ugggh! Thought we had a tie game! But no!!! Overtime is just wishful thinking on my part, at this point.
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:26 am
3:52 left in the Avs season, unless they can tie it up. Let’s go Avs!
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:28 am
And the 1st round monkey is off San Jose’s back?
Brendan
April 25th, 2010
12:34 am
SJ adds two empty-netters to lock up the series. SJ advances! And breathes a sigh of relief. Now, they wait for an opponent. I’d bet they’re hoping for Nashville (7), whom they’ve defeated twice in previous playoffs.