It’s opening night: Time to unwrap this season’s Thrashers

Oct 10 2008

Published by bud006 at 7:13 am under Uncategorized Edit This

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Well, it’s time to rip off the wrapping paper, throw away the bow and ribbon, and open the box.

It’s opening night for the Atlanta Thrashers, tonight at Philips Arena with a great matchup: Southeast Division champion Washington and the league’s reigning MVP, Alexander Ovechkin, come rolling into Blueland for the first of 82 games that will carry us until early April, and hopefully will carry the Thrashers back from the depths of the Eastern Conference.

Nothing like a run-on sentence to start the season, eh? Well, if you grinded your way through that attachment of clauses in the previous paragraph, congratulations. You’ll need that type of patience and persistence at times this season in watching Le Thrash.

It’s going to be a long climb back to the postseason. We all know that. Nobody I’ve talked to in the past five months expects a 95-point season, or a division title, or even a playoff berth.

But enough about that. How dare I try to douse the flames of opening night with reality, right? Let’s put on our jerseys, our caps, head to Philips – or flip on the tube – and see what this team’s got for us in the opener.

A win would be nice. Actually, a win in any of the first six games would have to be viewed as progress, after last year’s Thrashers started 0-6, fired Bob Hartley and moved Don Waddell behind the bench. It only set the tone for the slow and painful plunge that followed.

A win would energize the fan base. It would make the flight to South Florida for Saturday night’s road opener with the Panthers much more pleasant. It would be a great thing for new head coach John Anderson, for newcomers such as Ron Hainsey, Jason Williams, Mathieu Schneider and Zach Bogosian.

It would be a great thing for the key holdovers who survived the purgatory of last season, guys like Ilya Kovalchuk, Tobias Enstrom, Kari Lehtonen, Slava Kozlov and Nic Havelid.

Mostly, it would be a sign that maybe, just maybe, this team is going to be pretty good. I don’t think it will be, but we’re about to find out.

The offseason is over. Finally, hockey is here. Let’s drop the puck and see what happens.