Tuesday's Thoughts

by Jes

Let's start off with the Photo of the Day. Ryan Kesler has Patrick Sharp in a very ... precarious position.

"Get up, you big baby!"


Get your captions in!

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Wow, the Canucks BARELY managed to not get swept in the season series by the Los Angeles Kings. Of course, it took a 2-1 overtime win to give the Canucks one frickin victory against Marc Crawford's poorly coached squad.

I totally love the Alex Burrows/Ryan Kesler combo. Sure, we don't expect them to score every night, but we love the effort and defensive ability. I'd match up Kesler/Burrows to the other great checking duos, like the ones in Detroit, Anaheim, and New Jersey.

Markus Naslund should take notes on how to deliver an honest effort. Why is it the Canucks captain gets a free pass? Vigneault ought to make Naslund a healthy scratch to sink in a message.

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Wayne's World - Some thoughts from our Southern-fried correspondant.

The Avalanche are playing the Thrashers tonight, and Thrasherw marketing has designated tonight as one of those "White Out" games where the first 10,000 in attendance get a white T-shirt.

Ooooooooh...Is that supposed to scare the opposition?

These so-called "White Out" games are getting so ubiquitous in sports that even college basketball teams are doing it these days...And the T-birds are scheduling it against the same team that started this trend...

In reality, Atlanta Spirit (GOOOOOOO Team!) should give away 10,000 carving forks, as in, "This team is done; stick a fork in 'em".

Agreed. For the Coyotes/Jets, it's good. For everyone else, it's sad.

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From IIHF correspondant Joeri Loonen, a cool article about Slovakia's hockey factory: Trencin.

Hockey is a religion in Slovakia, especially in Trencin. When talking with players from the city, dropping the name brings a twinkle into their eyes. Trencin has embraced its NHL stars, but the players embrace the city as well. A good example is a prestigious project that Marian Gaborik supported. To create more ice time for local children, he funded a new sports complex called the MG Arena. Situated in the city centre, the complex offers more than just an ice-rink. It also includes two gyms, a small hotel and several shops. Gaborik’s father takes care of the day-to-day operations while his brother Branko (a scout for the Minnesota Wild) was also involved in the project.

If only the rest of Slovakia was as good as producing talent, the Slovaks wouldn't be stuck behind the usual Top 6 countries :(

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Author Joe Pelletier is also a rabid reader, and decided to do a list of the books he considers best in the realm of hockey.

HockeyBookReviews.com has a special feature today. Book reviewer Joe
Pelletier names the top five most important hockey books of all time:

Unlike other sports, baseball in particular, hockey does not tend to
transcend the literary world very often.

I'm not sure why that is. Is it because the game does not translate
onto paper that well? I don't think so. Is it because hockey attracts
few great writers? Not at all. Perhaps it is there are just fewer
hockey books out there, and therefore fewer classics?.

Well, can you really name basketball and football books that are popular and considered classics?

The Hockey Sweater gets my #1 vote, since it's a story that most any Canadian kid was exposed to, and the exlusion/wanting-to-fit-in story line can pretty much hit the heart of anyone who reads it.

Sabres Thrash Thrashers 10-1

by Jes

So, I'm checking out the boxscores from last night, as I was out and didn't see any NHL action last night.

Pretty standard stuff until I hit the Buffalo-Atlanta game

Buffalo 10
Atlanta 1

Is that right? Now, this was 6:30am and my eyes were a bit fuzzy. I figure I had a spare eye crusty blocking my vision and this wasn't right. Well, eye crusty was quickly wiped away, the Pet Shop boys were singing away in my headphones, and the 10 remained. Yoikes!

So, I loaded up the boxscore in anticipation and just imagined how Thrashers fans felt this morning after their team was pwned by a Sabres squad that hadn't won a game in its past 10. Since Greg is probably drowning himself in a case of Budvar, I had to look to Ben Wright over at The Blueland Blog.

There's nothing you can do to explain, justify or rationalize a debacle like last night's 10-1 loss in Buffalo. The Sabres played well and the Thrashers played about as badly as I've ever seen them play. Everyone that was on or behind the bench has to take some responsibility, with the possible exceptions of Nic Havelid, Tobias Enstrom and Colin Stuart. Stuart scored the lone goal for the Thrashers (short-handed) and finished the night even. Havelid and Enstrom, by some minor miracle, weren't on the ice for a any of Buffalo's seven even strength goals and they both finished +1. They were out there for Buffalo's first power play goal though- the one that came 19 seconds in the penalty.

It was about as ugly as a loss could be, but thankfully nobody got hurt and you can only give up two points in the standings. A loss is a loss and the bad ones don't count any differently than the close ones IF you can find a way to move on.

Exactly, IF the Thrashers can move on. It's just one game of 82 in the standings, but getting smoked so badly can either crush a team or motivate them not to suck like that ever again.

The South(l)East Division still remains tighter than a ... err... I can't think of anything NOT dirty ... moving on, then *ahem*

Carolina 50GP 50 PTS -10 Goal differential
Atlanta 49GP 49PTS -27(!) GD
Florida 48GP 46PTS -16GD
Washington 46GP 45PTS -12GD
Tampa Bay 47GP 41PTS -22GD

With Nylander out for about a month, the Caps will likely lose the momentum they were gaining. The smart money is still on the Hurricanes, as they have the most talent and don't seem as fragile as the boom/bost Thrashers.

It'll be close ...

Slava Kozlov Reaches #1000, Makes Blogger Feel Old

by Jes

There are many things that make me feel older, such as seeing Salt N Pepa with their own reality show and realizing how long its been since they put out anything good, looking over the Vancouver Giants roster and seeing that I'm over a decade older than most of those kids, and certain NHL milestones.

You can add Slava "Biatch-a-slap" Kozlov reaching 1000 NHL games, which he achieved vs. his old buddy Sergei Fedorov and the Columbus Dinner Jackets.

I think it's very special. One thousand games, not everybody can make it, and I'm really happy I'm playing my 1,000th game against my old teammate Sergei Fedorov," Kozlov said. "We played a lot of years in Detroit together."

The stats:
1000 Games Played
315 Goals
416 Assists
731 Points
+129

Now, I know Kozzy has been in the league for ages, but when a player reaches 1000 games (over 12 full seasons worth of matches), it pretty much hits like you a lead hammer that "Damn, this guy has been around a long time.". When it's a guy like Kozlov, who kinda sneaks up on you, it makes you feel even older than you already do.

Now, I'll acknowledge Kozlov's skill and the playmaking abilities he brings to the Thrashers, but I'm not still not a big fan of Slava and his wonky evil eye.

I'll forever remember the trade to Buffalo, and the sulking Slava took to afterwards. Instead of utilizing the chance to break free of Fedorov's shadow, Kozlov simply sulked about being traded to a team that wasn't l33t.

Well, I don't hate him as much as some Sabres fans (the below yanked from a message board), but I'm not pleased with him for making me feel older.

Enjoy This rant

But let's face some facts: (1) Hasek allowed you to be traded here because you were useless to the Wings. (He was right.) (2) You completely cowered out. Instead of "manning up" and helping to turn the Sabres into something, you wanted to get away. (3) As a result, you play for a freaking hockey team IN ATLANTA. I don't care if they pull off the next seven Cups, you're still behind college football, baseball, pro football, college basketball, NASCAR, pro basketball, Democrat bashing, women's pro basketball, tennis, golf, water polo, tobacco spitting, Walmart shopping, rodeo, women's rodeo, Kozlov rodeo, frisbee golf, hacky-sack, and about every other sport or somewhat-organized activity down there in East Alabama. Here, if you had shown some sack, you'd be the toast of the town.

You could have stayed here and have become something. Instead, you pulled up your skirt and took what looked at the time to be the easy way out. And damn, you demanded it, didn't you? A trip to that hockey hotbed, Atlanta, Georgia. (Did they tell you then that this is their second team? Or were they too sick of your whining to care?) How were the playoffs last year? Oh, I forgot--you and the rest of the Atlanta squad "flamed out"--pun intended--and didn't make it. Hey, at least you were on the team, right? Not like that Russian Olympic team that you somehow didn't make for about the fourth try.