Thrashers take on Coyotes as fans deal with ‘The Morning After’
The collective moaning and groaning heard throughout town this morning was the sound of Thrashers fans rolling out of bed still feeling the effects of being kicked in the gut yesterday. It’s the feeling you might experience after a long night of consuming hot wings and washing it all down with vast quantities of adult beverages…only without the benefit of actually enjoying the wings and drinks the night before.
Yes…it’s the morning after in Thrasherville.
In case you were away from your internet-fed computer or not tuned in to AM sports talk radio, here is the story in a nutshell:
Atlanta Spirit co-owner Michael Gearon let it be know via the AJC that there was a “sense of urgency” to find additional investor or an outright buyer for the Thrashers who would be willing to keep the team in Atlanta. He stated that they were faced with that as a serious alternative if no one steps forward and indicated that it would be tough to stomach any more $20 million losses.
Later in the afternoon, he then went on 680 AM The Fan with John Kincade and indicated his statement was simply meant to inform would-be local investors that they were open to offers. Gearon stated that he has no plans to dispose of HIS part of the franchise and that he loves both the Hawks and the Thrashers. He is only speaking out at this time, he insists, because he really and for-truly wants anyone in these parts looking to buy the Thrashers to have first crack at the deal.
He then went on about how the Belkin buyout took longer than expected because of their law firm…and then proceeded to discuss at length just how well he thought the Hawks were doing.
I guess the basketball team’s recent string of successful seasons is just a little more fun to talk about for Gearon than what he and his cohorts have allowed the Thrashers to become during their reign as owners.
…shrugs…
Why did Michael Gearon deliver this bit of information and not, say, Bruce Levenson? I dunno…maybe he was too busy working on his opening dialogue in preparation for an upcoming town hall meeting with season ticket holders.
Then again, maybe flaming monkeys will fly out of my…
…ahem…
Anyway…Unfortunately, this is just another cross we in Thrasherville will have to bear until any such person or persons actually step forward. So, you may continue to discuss it if you may, or move on to…
ACTUAL REAL LIFE HOCKEY TO DISCUSS!
Thank gawd that we actually have some honest and for-goodness Thrashers hockey to discuss today. While we are dealing with the aftereffects of the “M” bomb being dropped on Thrasherville by Mr. Gearon, the Thrashers find themselves in Arizona where they’ll do battle with the Phoenix Coyotes tonight.
And just like the “sense of urgency” Gearon commented on in regards to finding new partners or owners, there is also a deep sense of urgency to actually win some games if this team is to continue to make a run at the postseason. Doing so would actually go a long way in helping place some more butts in the blue seats of Philips Arena.
Just sayin’, Mr. Gearon…
The Yotes will provide a tough test for Atlanta as they currently sit atop the Pacific Division with a record of 30-19-9 and are coming off a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals Monday night. They’ve won five straight games and are 13-6-2 since New Years.
They are led in scoring by Keith Yandle with 9 goals and 38 assists for 47 points and Ray Whitney with 11 goals and 33 assists for 44 points. Lead Phoenix in goals scored is Scottie Upshall who has potted 16 to go with 11 helpers.
In goal for the Coyotes is Ilya Bryzgalov who has played to a record of 24-14-6 with a .918 SV% and 2.56 GAA. He has 5 shutouts so far this season. He’s currently on a personal five-game winning streak in which he’s allowed only six goals and dropped two goose eggs on the scoreboard. During the streak, he’s stopped 127 of 133 shots, (.955 SV%).
Last night we got some help from New Jersey and Philadelphia as they defeated Carolina and Florida respectively. The same is true as Toronto knocked off Buffalo in regulation as well. However, that brings win allowed the Leafs to leapfrog over the Panthers into eleventh place and pulled them to within four points of the Thrashers, who now reside in tenth.
Game is at 9:00 our time…I’ll have Trixie put on a few extra pots of coffee in the morning as it’ll be pushing midnight once the festivities in the desert are over. And I think I may sample a few wings and adult beverages while viewing it.
What the heck, the pain in my gut tomorrow morning won’t be any worse then the one I woke up with today.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
275 comments Add your comment
Sage of Blueland
February 17th, 2011
1:37 pm
See I am still a complete douche! I again post the same stupid inane comment about not funding this fraud. Who is the fraud? ME. BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
BOYCOTT THE SOB!
Riceowls
February 17th, 2011
1:43 pm
If the naming rights contract has been renegotiated, then the Thrashers are not long for this city. I’ve never thought so before, but I do now. Levenson’s refusal to guarantee the Thrashers would be here, only that he had no “intent” to move the team speaks volumes.
Sigh. Time to enjoy the last dozen games here in Atlanta.
Wonder what kind of weekend packages the Preds have? Always did like their sweaters.
ZAvalanche
February 17th, 2011
1:49 pm
@RH Ha! Well you tell the Blue Crew they have a big fan in CO! Tear it up tonight Thrashy!
Cahos
February 17th, 2011
1:59 pm
Screw owners’ not caring about hockey.
They destroyed the city.
Try hoping Tom Glavine (Braves Pitcher) would be willing to buy it.
Trade Oduya for a second and swap thrid round picks with the team trading to and a back up goalie.
Pair up Bogosian with Paul Postma.
Trade Hainsey and Meyer for a Defencemen and a sixth round pick.
Trade Antropov during the draft for a speed and strength defencemen.
john in PA
February 17th, 2011
2:05 pm
FU ASG
I’ve Nothing left to say
Tom
February 17th, 2011
2:17 pm
Via our old friends Craig Custance on Twitter rolliing out as we speak:
Gary Bettman on his optimism of Thrashers finding local owner: “I’m hopeful. I know they’ve been at it for awhile.”
More Bettman on Atlanta: “As we converse right now, there are no plans to do anything with that franchise.”
– Personal — Don’t forget the Bettman Show on NHL Radio today. Call and let your voice be heard. If his switchboard is full of Atlanta fans calmly discussing the failures of the ASG he may listen…
Lew 39
February 17th, 2011
2:22 pm
I think it is a shame that the fix for this fiasco is now being put on the fans A.K.A. the customer! Here we have a group of “business men” who chose to take the low road with their product. Rather than invest money in salaries to build a better product, which in turn would put cheeks in the seats and therefore produce more revenue which could/should off-set some of the $$$ losses (or maybe even create some profit); they choose to go in the opposite direction.
They invested little or no money to build a good product.This they succeed in as they created a less than acceptable product, which by any standard business sense would create the environment in which they now find themselves. If this was a public corporation these guys would fine themselves on the street. How can you not invest in the only thing that will generate a revenue flow? Now i understand why we lost Hossa dn Kovey; they weren’t stupid; we were.
Now these clowns have the nerve to say, because of their mis-management and their focus on things other than their business, we the customer have to bail them out. Clearly these “businessmen” must have realized that for them to be successful they needed a good product and in this town that product is a winning team.
I love hockey and I want to see this team stay here. I just hope and pray we get some local funding and with that funding comes with it a businessman who wants to build a winning franchise and for their investment, receive some control in making decisions.
JT from Columbus
February 17th, 2011
2:41 pm
I’ll be working, but I would be interested if you guys could listen in on Bettman’s radio show today.
Hopefully we’ll have lots of Thrasher fans calling in begging of the NHL’s help.
Parker42
February 17th, 2011
2:42 pm
Hey Rawhide…I never comment, but I’ve met you a ton of times and we have several mutual friends. What do you think about this scenario: On Fri 02/25/11 or Sat 03/05/11
– we officially make this game the ” Help us Arthur Blank” or
” Hear us Arthur Blank” game to prove to him we are here and will support him as the owner of our great team. Saturday might be better for people that live out of town…I know I could get people from Augusta to come up for the game. I know a lot of fans that can’t make weekday games, but could make a Saturday game for sure. We all take signs etc with his name on them and maybe even wear our Falcons hats with our Thrasher sweaters. He will have to at least take notice of the situation and it may even spark some interest. If nothing else hopefully he will at least comment on the subject and let us know if there is even a chance. We have nothing to lose.
JMT21
February 17th, 2011
2:43 pm
I live in Winnipeg and I’m not as confident the NHL is coming back as some of you seem to be.
A couple of your reporters Mr. Schultz and Chris V. seem to believe it but I don’t. Chris was guest on a local talk show here in Winnipeg just this morning and all but intimated that he believed that Thrashers were coming to Winnipeg.
Gary Bettman has made many positive statements about wanting the see the NHL back in Winnipeg but most of the time he only does that as leverage to get the NHL cities in question to “act”.
He’s done it over and over too us with the Coyotes and each time the group down in Glendale thinks they’ll lose their team they thrown more money at Matt Hulzsizer. Lately to tune of 200 million.
100 million of which is the CoG buying their own parking lot at Jobbing arena so Hulsizer can charge fans $20.00 to park their cars at Coyotes games and give it back to the CoG. In case anyone cares parking for coyotes games is currently FREE.
Bettman has stated he won’t deal with the Thrasher issue until the Coyotes issue is resolved. Barring new ownership the Thrashers will need to hope Bettman tries to save them as he may very well have done with the coyotes.
As I Winnipeg fan longing for the NHL to return……. I’m not holding my breath anytime soon.
SomaAtl95
February 17th, 2011
2:48 pm
JMT21 – Thank you for being polite and not dropping a big rude steamer on us as your countrymen often do when they stop by here. We in Atlanta would love it if the Peg got Hockey back, just not at our expense. I’d love a couple of more teams pop up through expansion.
Parker42 – Good to finally see you posting here!
EA
February 17th, 2011
3:00 pm
JMT21, thank you for your good manners and information. I cannot understand why some of your fellow citizens like to add insult to injury regarding possibly losing our team.
puckhead
February 17th, 2011
3:03 pm
You can email the comish at nhlhour@nhl.com
Rawhide
February 17th, 2011
3:04 pm
Parker42 – I would think any such support would be much appreciated. Now, as for this whole “Arthur Balnk will save us” thinking…I really don’t know if there is anything to support such a dream. Certainly I would love to see someone like Blank step up and take over this franchise…he’s a class act and a quality guy. But I just don’t recall any time he has said anyting remotely close to saying he has any interest whatsoever in adding the Thrashers to his pro sports franchise collection.
Is it worth trying to get his attention, though…sure.
JMT21 – I’ll echo what my friend SomaAtl95 said, it’s always good to hear from people up there who can discuss the situation in a mature fashion.
World Be Free
February 17th, 2011
3:05 pm
Aren’t we all having a “Brutally Good Time” today?
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
3:10 pm
Thanks again, JTM21. Everyone else, please back down off the ledge.
Then come explain to me why its not more likely to be the Islanders, who have drawn 125,000 fewer fans to their games this year than the Thrashers, moving to Winnipeg. Bettman isn’t surrendering a major TV market in moving the Isles, nor is he gutting regional rivalries like he would be by allowing Les Thrash to move.
I know there are some Pittsburgh folks who lurk or post here. Please tell us about all the brinkmanship about moving the Pens to KC back a few years ago to chill all these folks out.
Or that Bettman is merely trying to placate furious Canadians who hate his American butt for blocking a move from Phoenix?
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
3:12 pm
Ignore the last line of the last comment – thought I deleted that and its a little out of context…
JMT21
February 17th, 2011
3:30 pm
Charles Wang (owner of the Islanders) can’t re-locate the team until his lease with NCC expires in 2015. As for the Pens – KC thing….. the name Jim Basille should get you started.
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
3:42 pm
JMT, ask a good lawyer what “can’t” means. Throw money at a “can’t” and suddenly you can.
We all know plenty about Mr. Balsillie. I remember it – I just want Pens fans to speak to the level of panic they experienced. The Pens were in more dire straits than the Thrashers are now.
Just tryin’ to give some perspective to those who see no future for NHL in ATL.
Dan
February 17th, 2011
3:53 pm
What can I say ? Is Hockey a natural fit for Atlanta ? I don’t think so. Just look at the overwhelming coverage of other sports on AJC. Just from the “roll down” menu of sports on your site, the Trashers are listed behind “High school” and “Peach Tree Road Race”…
I’ve been scanning the headlines of the newspapers from Quebec city and Winnipeg for the last two months and the Trashers are routinely appearing on their FRONT PAGE (again this morning http://pdf.cyberpresse.ca/lesoleil/grande.jpg ). Those cities breath hockey and both cities have deep pockets would-be owners sitting in Daly’s and Bettman’s offices on a daily basis. Both cities could welcome the Trashers (and Coyotes) this september. Winnipeg has its arena and Quebec city can welcome a team in the old 16000 seats Colisee while they’re building the new arena next door. Heck, their junior hockey team, the Remparts already have an average of around 13 000 fans each game with a whole bunch of sellouts… Remember, Denver put the Avalanche in a 14000 seat arena for 4 years while they were building a new venue…
I say, let the Trashers go and let’s concentrate on our other “natural” sports…
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
3:54 pm
Count on Machacek and Postma to be dressed in Edmonton in front of tons of family. Sets the stage for Spencer’s first goal and Paul’s first point!
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
4:00 pm
Ok, Dan, you let the Thrashers go. I, along with the throng of other northern transplants living in the Atlanta area, will concentrate on our natural sport – hockey. Come to a game some time – I promise you’ll like it better than any of the other sports played ’round here.
By the way, pretty much all those same conditions you list for QC and Winterpeg existed two decades ago… and we all know what happened to their teams.
Eileen
February 17th, 2011
4:04 pm
Isn’t is possible that Winnepeg is being promised a team through expansion?
SomaAtl95
February 17th, 2011
4:07 pm
Funny Dan – Except for college sports Atlanta HAD ZERO PROFESSIONAL TEAMS TILL THE 60’s!
You want hockey to go then I say lets ship out the Braves, Falcons and Hawks because they aren’t “Natural” to Atlanta either. You seem WAY too knowledgeable about hockey to be from Atlanta, using your logic, so chances are you are one of the many from Canada trying to tell us to “Gently let go”
ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
steve
February 17th, 2011
4:09 pm
Shultz is right on the money. I have been in Atlanta since 1969 and I have suffered through the goods and bads of every Atlanta sports team. I have never been on skates but I got hooked on hockey when I was in highschool and my dad took me to see ” da Flames” as boomer would say. Seeing Lysiak, Clement and Plett skate in person was great and when they left, I was really bummed. When the Thrashers came back, I was excited and I have gone to 3 to 4 games a year since they have been here including the one and only playoff loss to the Rangers. The reality is that the ownership let a lot of talent go and never made a financial commitment to this franchise. Hockey is not cheap and I am discerning with my discretionary funds and times are tough. I can’t blame the players or the coachs. The effort looks like it is there, although you could definetly see Kovy dogging it before the trade. Hockey is a great game but I am not spending my money when I don’t see the commitment on the part of the ownership to bring a Cup to Atlanta. They can say whatever they want but the difference between ASG and Arthur Blank is like night and day. Atlanta suffered through Rankin Smith and then Blank came along and you can see the difference.
Rawhide
February 17th, 2011
4:15 pm
What can I say ? Is Hockey a natural fit for Atlanta ? I don’t think so. Just look at the overwhelming coverage of other sports on AJC. Just from the “roll down” menu of sports on your site, the Trashers are listed behind “High school” and “Peach Tree Road Race”…
Dan – That might have to do with the fact that they are listed in alphabetical order. You’ll notice that UGA is list under the Thrashers. Now I may not be the best authority on college sports, but I think I heard somewhere that University of Georgia athletics are pretty big deal in these parts.
SomaAtl95
February 17th, 2011
4:19 pm
Rawhide – That would take someone who is actually from Georgia to understand. Its always easy for someone to try and justify when they covet something instead of going back to the first grade and remembering their ABC’s.
The “Hockey isn’t natural to Atlanta” comments piss me off highly. Atlanta had no professional teams till the sixties, none of them have been “Natural” and all of them have had HORRIBLE ownership.
Of course anyone from here, living here or anyone who possesses the ability of rational thought would know what this town has gone through WITH EVERY SPORTS TEAM.
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
4:21 pm
Dan, you bad Canadian troll, you got me…
SomaAtl95
February 17th, 2011
4:29 pm
Bob – if he were from Atlanta (or bothered to do ANY research) then he would have posted “Peachtree” and not “Peach Tree”. He probably things we have a race around trees, not knowing that its named after a street in Atlanta…. another clue was the lack of the first H in THRASHERS
A clue to any further Canuckleheads – if you are going to post like you are from here and want us to let the THRASHERS go, at least make an effort to sound like you are from here.
ThrasherTim
February 17th, 2011
4:37 pm
One can only hope that Postma scores 2 goals on Sat. so Rawhide can blog: “The Postma Always Scores Twice”.
LAC
February 17th, 2011
4:58 pm
Go Sage Go !!!! I agree 1000%, Why would ANYONE in their right mind give these LIARS money.
You are correct, too bad this “smoothie” can’t see it, But would you buy a product or service from a KNOWN LIAR ? NO, sports team or what, These Liars deserve to be dead broke when this is over, I just wish we the fans could SUE THEM !
Parker42
February 17th, 2011
4:58 pm
Nope…I can’t find anything on Blank saying anything about the Thrashers. I think it’s time we brought it to his attention. Since you are our voice Rawhide…we need you to promote the” Hear us Arthur Blank” night. Can you make it an official blog? I’ll promote it to as many fans as i can and I think I could get help from Al and Heatmiser as well as other Thrasher/Falcons fans on the Falcons boards. Every single Falcons fan I’ve dragged to a Thrashers game fell in love with the sport and has continued to go to games on their own.
LAC
February 17th, 2011
5:01 pm
Hey “smoothie” let’s meet and settle our differences ? Got Game ?
moriler
February 17th, 2011
5:05 pm
The Islanders will never be permitted to move because of those four Stanley Cups in a row between 1980 and 1983 — they’re part of hockey history now. Same with Edmonton — no matter how bad that franchise gets, it having been the Home of Gretzky ensures that it will never suffer Winnipeg’s or Quebec City’s fate.
glovesave29
February 17th, 2011
5:17 pm
Not so sure it’s not the Isles. The Madoff scandal caused the cancellation of the proposed new arena in Queens. Then Wang’s “Lighthouse Project” was voted down by the city counsel. Their arena is DECREPIT. Contract on the NCC? Pshaw…sure a deep pocketed owner would gladly pay any fine for breaking it. The New York area has one team that draws and two that do not. Not saying that we are not in serious danger of losing our team, but personally I think we are third in line after PHX and NYI.
ZAvalanche
February 17th, 2011
5:29 pm
Dan, Dan, Dan…… Common buddy, they are listed alphabetically – like pretty much every other online newspaper does under the tabs. Critical thinking and pattern recognition is a pretty big deal……and the ABC’s are fairly rudimentary….
And OH! Smoothie and LAC ‘gonna roll!? I wanna see this!
Red Light
February 17th, 2011
5:30 pm
It makes no sense to consider moving the Thrashers to Winnipeg, if, the Coyotes deal isn’t fully consummated in Glendale. Why move a team with no history to the place where the other franchise first vacated? I don’t think it does.
Secondly, the True North people know hockey. Quite frankly, it’s not about the money for them, and they already offered $165 million to the NHL for the Coyotes. While they wouldn’t have to pay that for the Thrashers, if you look at the two organizations in their current state, which one has the better hockey operations staff, which team made the playoffs most recently, and which team has a better relationship with their AHL club? (The Coyotes operate the San Antonio Rampage).
As glovesave29 said, the NHL has more than just one worry about franchise solvency. Phoenix, Atlanta, the Islanders and possibly Florida all have issues. But, if it comes down to Phoenix or Atlanta, it makes more sense for them to make up with an old girlfriend then to start dating someone they don’t know or care about.
glovesave29
February 17th, 2011
5:38 pm
According to TSN, second rate film maker Stephen Rollins has investors lined up and has talked to Bettman about buying the Thrashers. In other news, I have been named Flight Commander for the next space shuttle mission.
Rhythmnpenguin
February 17th, 2011
5:41 pm
With Daws and Postma being brought up, there could be a trade on the way. Who do y’all think are the most likely to be traded? Pick a d-man and a forward and/or rank a few players.
I think Bergforce is the #1 forward on the trading block and Hainsey or Sopel for d-men.
Rhythmnpenguin
February 17th, 2011
5:42 pm
O yeah, for got to mention Boga and Mason.
Red Light
February 17th, 2011
5:48 pm
Injuries to Burmistrov, Meyer and Modin. Deal should be coming soon but the two aren’t necessarily related.
glovesave29
February 17th, 2011
5:49 pm
“Heck, their junior hockey team, the Remparts already have an average of around 13 000 fans each game”
Actually, it’s 10,692. For the Q, that is EXCELLENT attendance. But not 13K. Just keep the facts straight…
SomaAtl95
February 17th, 2011
5:54 pm
GS29 – Numbers can be tricky, you gotta figure the exchange rate between countries. 13,000 loonies = 10,692 real people.
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
6:02 pm
Safe flight, gs
So with RL’s astute assessment of Winnipeg/Phoenix, the Isles lease expiring the same year as the QC Colisseum being ready (perhaps), and even Le Soliel homeboy columnist Richard Labbe (thanks to troll Dan for the link) seeing more roadblocks than likelihoods for “le relocation du les Thrashers”, can we all take a breath?
Let’s go Thrashers!
Fff..orget the Owners!
glovesave29
February 17th, 2011
6:11 pm
Soma – HA!
Let’s ask ourselves this. If two, supposedly well attended teams fled hockey-mad Canada in the 1990’s – what has changed in the decade since to now make these markets more viable?
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
6:20 pm
Before the Canatrolls answer, I’ll give you their response. The exchange rate. Back then, the Loonie was worth just 0.65 USD, so the Canadian clubs were dying with their revenues in CDN and their salaries in USD. But that does highlight that even “hockey mad Canada” is not immune to market and financial realities. The NHL is wise not to rush blindly in to those vulnerable markets.
Iron League 13
February 17th, 2011
6:22 pm
http://wikibin.org/articles/stephen-rollins.html
This is spreading, BUT IT’S NOT NEW NEWS. I stumbled upon this I don’t know how long ago now, but I smell total BS and am wondring how the AP and the AJC doesn’t. Have any of this guys hockey playing cred, film success or talks with the league been confirmed? Seriously how could this guy buy the team? Better question, when the Hell was this guy in the IHL? I definitely don’t remember him playing with the Knights.
Badger Bob
February 17th, 2011
6:25 pm
Iron League, I think Glovesave has a seat on that shuttle mission saved for you.
Iron League 13
February 17th, 2011
6:37 pm
AH HA HA!!! Sorry, Glovesave beat me to it on this blog. Glad we’re on the same page this is total and utter BS. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!
glovesave29
February 17th, 2011
6:40 pm
BB – exchange rate was .88, not .65 – but the rest of the comment is spot on, and yes, I will save a seat for IL. We’ve been thru this before….
Ive brought this up before, the Canadian economy is really light on heavy industry and services. The likelihood of a return to a weaker exchange rate is great. That’s what I meant by nothing changing since the teams left. They could not overcome the obstacles despite a rabid fan base…