Good afternoon and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! For the citizens of Thrasherville, "Thrash-a-Turkey Day" was an extra special one as the T-birds blitzed the visiting Detroit Red Wings with their special brand of aggressive, attacking hockey in a 5 to 1 pre-holiday rout of the Wings on Thanksgiving Eve. Led by their Czech-born cage protector, Ondrej Pavelec, who stopped all but one of the 33 shots slung towards his net, the Thrashers sent a resounding message to the several thousands -- and by several, I mean 7,000 or so -- of Red Wings supporters in attendance at Philips Arena.
Sparked by the tenacious play of the "Greek gods" line, who tallied the first marker of the game just 2 minutes and 39 seconds in, the Thrashers put on an exhibition of the type of hockey that Coach Craig Ramsay has been demanding since day one of his tenure as head coach. Hard skating, dogged determination on the forecheck and active stick-work are all hallmarks of Ramsay's philosophy, and for the 2nd time in less than a week, the Thrashers schooled a league-leading team at Ramsay's Institute of Basic Hockey Tenets & Applied Hockey Theory. On Wed nite, Professor Ramsay was surely extolling the work of several star pupils including Bryan Little (1 G, 1 A and a relentless puck-hounding effort), Andrew Ladd (1 SHG, 1 A and flawless application of the Ramsay principles), Chris Thorburn (who opened the scoring but seemed to be skating with a renewed vigor) and Dustin Byfuglien (who's late 3rd period PP tally punctuated a complete and methodical "how 'bout dem apples?" kind of performance).
After such a "statement game" -- apologies for the trite, overused cliche -- Thrashers fans are surely giddy about the prospect of their team gelling into a bona fide playoffs contender. Afterall, 5 of their 10 wins have come against the likes of Detroit, Washington (twice), San Jose and the normally stingy Minnesota Wild, who were treated to the first taste of how relentless and suffocating the Thrasher attack could be. But alas, we've seen a similar script play out before us with a sobering and disappointing series of tragic acts. Last year, the Thrashers found themselves sitting pretty at the end of November with a 14 - 7 - 3 record only to implode from within during a dismal December in which they dropped 9 of their next 14 games in regulation. So please be advised of this cautionary tale before letting your expectations run away to dizzying heights. I would hate for us all to end up totally deflated from another fall from such a lofty perch.
Anyhoo, it's already 5:45 -- I started typing this way too late for anyone to read it before the game! -- and I've got to get my shit together to head down to the Bulb pour le match du hockey avec les Habitants. I was hoping to blog in grandiose fashion about the good, the bad and the ugly of this season thus far. Or as I like to call it during the T'giving holiday season: the Hamtastic, the Medi-Okra and the Cran-cid-berry. I introduced the Turkey Day themed series last fall and I hope to keep the tradition going as long as my fingers can still blog it up. So please come back tomorrow when you will hopefully find a link to my new blog over at the Hockey Independent website, where I will sling ham and rancid cranberry sauce all over the page! Have a good nite and let's freakin' go Thrashers!! Beat los French!!
Sparked by the tenacious play of the "Greek gods" line, who tallied the first marker of the game just 2 minutes and 39 seconds in, the Thrashers put on an exhibition of the type of hockey that Coach Craig Ramsay has been demanding since day one of his tenure as head coach. Hard skating, dogged determination on the forecheck and active stick-work are all hallmarks of Ramsay's philosophy, and for the 2nd time in less than a week, the Thrashers schooled a league-leading team at Ramsay's Institute of Basic Hockey Tenets & Applied Hockey Theory. On Wed nite, Professor Ramsay was surely extolling the work of several star pupils including Bryan Little (1 G, 1 A and a relentless puck-hounding effort), Andrew Ladd (1 SHG, 1 A and flawless application of the Ramsay principles), Chris Thorburn (who opened the scoring but seemed to be skating with a renewed vigor) and Dustin Byfuglien (who's late 3rd period PP tally punctuated a complete and methodical "how 'bout dem apples?" kind of performance).
After such a "statement game" -- apologies for the trite, overused cliche -- Thrashers fans are surely giddy about the prospect of their team gelling into a bona fide playoffs contender. Afterall, 5 of their 10 wins have come against the likes of Detroit, Washington (twice), San Jose and the normally stingy Minnesota Wild, who were treated to the first taste of how relentless and suffocating the Thrasher attack could be. But alas, we've seen a similar script play out before us with a sobering and disappointing series of tragic acts. Last year, the Thrashers found themselves sitting pretty at the end of November with a 14 - 7 - 3 record only to implode from within during a dismal December in which they dropped 9 of their next 14 games in regulation. So please be advised of this cautionary tale before letting your expectations run away to dizzying heights. I would hate for us all to end up totally deflated from another fall from such a lofty perch.
Anyhoo, it's already 5:45 -- I started typing this way too late for anyone to read it before the game! -- and I've got to get my shit together to head down to the Bulb pour le match du hockey avec les Habitants. I was hoping to blog in grandiose fashion about the good, the bad and the ugly of this season thus far. Or as I like to call it during the T'giving holiday season: the Hamtastic, the Medi-Okra and the Cran-cid-berry. I introduced the Turkey Day themed series last fall and I hope to keep the tradition going as long as my fingers can still blog it up. So please come back tomorrow when you will hopefully find a link to my new blog over at the Hockey Independent website, where I will sling ham and rancid cranberry sauce all over the page! Have a good nite and let's freakin' go Thrashers!! Beat los French!!
2 comments:
After watching the game last night contre les Habitants, the thought occurred that never before in my life have I seen a team turn it around so completely and so quickly.
My guess is that it has to do with great coaching and a cast of bright, under-rated players who are hungry for a chance.
I am amazed. And thrilled.
Si senor! Indeed Bob.
I was starting to lose faith in the current team, not so much the coaches, thinking that there was too great a lack of talent, a diminished confidence too great to overcome and too many poor habits formed over the last couple of seasons to break completely, but the injection of positive attitude and cocky swagger, compliments of the Blackhawks, have really made a difference for this bunch. But in addition to that, the young kids like Kaner, Little, Burmy and Ondrej have lead by their example as well as their quiet confidence and hard work have rubbed off on many of their teammates.
Good things man, good things!
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