Thrashers.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Seventy-one days until hockey season starts, and for anybody who’s watched the Braves as much as I have this season, lemme tell you the Thrashers’ season opener can’t get here soon enough.

Granted, you may say given what the Thrashers put us through last season, this winter might be an extension of the misery Atlanta’s baseball team has put me through.

Who’s to say? For now, I remain optimistic the Thrashers will turn things around and rebound. And nothing fuels the optimism of the offseason quite like the release of the regular-season schedule.

If you’re wondering what dates you might want to check out the Thrashers this season – be it at Philips Arena or on the tube – here’s a primer to some of the biggest dates on the Thrashers’ schedule. Today, we look at five must-see games in October and November:

Oct. 10, Capitals at Thrashers: Not only is it opening night and John Anderson’s debut as head coach, you’ve got the defending Southeast Division champions in town. Oh, did we mention last season’s top two goal scorers in the league – Alexander Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk – will be in the house?

Oct. 11, Thrashers at Panthers: Winning games in the division take on more importance this season because, well, there aren’t as many chances to beat the folks in your own neighborhood. The NHL has cut the number of games against teams within your division from eight to six. The Thrashers won just 15 road games last season, a number that has to get better. No better place to start than Florida, who finished nine points ahead of the Thrashers last season in the Southeast.

Oct. 21, Thrashers at Lightning: Two years ago, they dueled to the wire for the division title. Last season, they occupied the bottom two spots in the Eastern Conference. The easy-to-hate John Tortorella no longer stands from the Tampa bench, replaced by the just as easy-to-hate Barry Melrose. Big chance for the Thrashers to deliver an early-season statement.

Nov. 20, Penguins at Thrashers: Sid the Kid brings the defending conference champions to town. Wherever Sidney Crosby – the NHL’s darling child – goes, the spotlight shines. Don’t think Kovy doesn’t realize that. Beyond the star factor, this game will be a good measuring stick for the revamped Thrashers’ defense against the third-highest scoring team from a year ago.

Nov. 28, Predators at Thrashers: Fewer games within your division mean more games against teams from the other conference, and that’s a good thing for the Thrashers. Only separated by a four-hour ride on Interstates 75 and 24, Atlanta and Nashville are in separate conferences. This first meeting of the season between the geographic – if not conference – rivals should be a good one.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – I remember the summer day back in 1997 when the National Hockey League announced it was returning to Atlanta.

A colleague of mine at the newspaper where I worked wrote a column opining how this time, big-league hockey would succeed in the capital city of the Deep South. This time, my buddy wrote, the team wouldn’t pack its bags and moved to Canada, as the Flames did some 17 years earlier, bolting for Calgary after eight seasons playing at the old Omni.

He didn’t need to convince me, though. I already had seen hockey thrive in Atlanta.

As sports editor of my college newspaper, part of my duties included covering the old Atlanta Knights of the International Hockey League in the mid 1990s. The Knights played in front of lively crowds that often numbered more than 10,000. They won the Turner Cup – the IHL’s version of Lord Stanley’s Cup – in 1994.

More importantly to me, being around those teams for parts of three seasons gave me an up-close and on-the-fly introduction to a sport that is, in a word, breathtaking.

Can hockey fly in Atlanta? Seems like a nonsensical question when you consider this is a city that shuts its doors for two days upon the sight of two snowflakes fluttering in the January breeze. But look closer. Of the more than 5 million people who call Atlanta home, many of them hail from north of the Mason-Dixon line.

They know hockey. They love hockey.

And those of us who are from here – yes, I am a native – already are programmed to love the sport, even if we can’t ice our driveways, stand upright on skates or own a Wayne Gretzky jersey.

You see, football is king in the south. And hockey incorporates some of the same addictive traits of the pigskin game. Brutally physical. Stunning speed. Immense talent. And the occasional site of blood.

No, I’m not suggesting hockey ever will uproot football – or baseball, or basketball, or NASCAR, for that matter – on the list of Atlanta sports fans’ favorite pursuits. But I can tell you this: When I stood inside Philips Arena for Game 2 of last spring’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Rangers, the building shook.

Nobody was thinking about whether or not Atlanta could support an NHL team on that day.

The Atlanta Thrashers begin a very important season in two months. After winning the Southeast Division and reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2006-07, the Thrashers’ season came off the rails at the very beginning last October. Coach Bob Hartley was canned six games into the season, winger Marian Hossa was dealt to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline, and general manager Don Waddell (who served as interim coach for the final 76 games) bore the brunt of public heat. The brilliance of Ilya Kovalchuk and the emergence of Tobias Enstrom wasn’t nearly enough to blunt the blow of a fall into the ranks of the NHL’s worst franchises.

Certainly, as the Thrashers lace them up and get ready for the 2008-09 campaign, there is plenty on the line. But the future of hockey in Atlanta – debated on blogs and in the media across North America – will be just fine. All it takes is the one thing it takes to turn on Atlanta’s fickle fan base:

A winner.

Win or lose, we’ll be here to chronicle it every day, starting today. Welcome to Thrashers.Today.Com, where you’ll find daily blogs, game recaps and analysis, news and commentary. It’s my goal to bring you the season from a fan’s perspective. It’ll be blunt, honest and sometimes, you won’t agree with my take. Very well then. Comments always are welcome.

I don’t know if the Thrashers will skate back into the playoffs this season. I’m curious to see what John Anderson does with his first NHL coaching opportunity. I’m excited to watch the development of Bryan Little and Brett Sterling. I’m honored to write about Kovalchuk, perhaps the most talented athlete playing in Atlanta right now.

Whatever unfolds this season, I know this much:

Hockey is in Atlanta to stay.

Welcome aboard.

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