Free Agent Madness: The Phantom Armstrong Trade

I'm not gonna post anything until the dust settles.

COLBY DON'T GO!!!1!!!!1!!!

@kausatoday - Have it confirmed that there is NO CHANCE the Thrashers will part with Colby Armstrong in any trade. He is considered an essential piece.

False alarm.


Go about your business.

Another Moment of Silence

For Colby Armstrong/Diane Lane jokes.

Today some lucky young woman secures a place at the side of a strong, handsome and rugged hockey player....

Yes, ladies & gentlemen, Colby Armstrong gets married today.

Chris Thorburn as well has "sealed the deal" (as the kids say) last night in the fine state of Michigan. No suitably embarrassing picture of Thor could be found, so text will have to suffice.

God bless the new Mr. & Mrs. Armstrong and the new Mr. & Mrs. Thorburn. Best wishes to both couples.

Gameday Panthers & Miscellany

Yea, I'm back. Jury duty is worse than I ever could've expected. Disrupts your life in every possible way. I'd rather not talk about it. Still slowly reintroducing myself into the world.

Thrash tonight. We got the Panthers. Their entire season evidently hangs on this one game. The Thrashers (through years of practice) have developed a keen knack for dashing playoff hopes - we got this one in the bag.

All trendy detached irony aside, I'm extremely excited for next season. The Toby-Bogo pairing is probably the best young D pair in the league. The emergence of the Chicago Pipeline, the miracle that is Rich Peverley, and the wonder that is Ilya Kovalchuk all point toward (at the very least) better things next year. Add some potential FA signings, and we may just have a playoff contender.

Some points to consider:
- The best UFA option not named Hossa (to my eyes) would be Mike Cammalleri. Bruce Boudreau once said that Cammalleri is "the smartest player I’ve had the good fortune to coach. He sees the ice well. He can take a one-timer better than any player I’ve seen. He reads plays like Gretzky and Lemieux.” If Cams looks for the upper-range of his assumed asking price the Flames may have to watch him walk - a situation now somewhat eased by the aquisition of Ollie Jokinen. C'mon, tell me a power play unit that could include both Kovy (shoots right) and Cammalleri (shoots left) doesn't make you salivate. Kovy's more than willing to pass, as we've seen all year, so this duo would be pretty exciting to watch. Some concerns: Chemistry, for one. How would he fit in this dressing room, and more importantly, on the ice with Kovy. Then there's salary. Word on the street is a range of $5-8 mil for Cams, and we'd likely be paying the upper end of such a range. Would the ASG assent to something like that? What do you think?

- As a side note, imagine this headline: Maxim Afinogenov Reinvigorates Career in Atlanta. I could see that happening.

Recipe of the Week. Next time you're out at Cracker Barrel (Craker Barrel? You brought her! Ba dum bum. Thanks, Derek.), ask the waitress for an extra plate of biscuits and a little bottle of that blueberry syrup. Drop those in a to-go container, and that's half a meal right there, brother.

Betty Crocker I ain't.

A Display of Manliness That Just May End Your Will To Live. Please pay a visit to the brethren over at the Chronicle. It seems these mythological Kovy commercials do exist. And they are cooler than anything you'll ever do. That's why he is the Ruler of These Parts.

Colby Armstrong is My Second Favorite Player. I thought that deserved a bullet point.

Jeremy Heilpern is smarter than everyone. If the Thrashers don't hire this guy, I'll be... fricken... suprised. (We'll have to put in the liner notes, "during this joke, he points to the back"...)

Boston Gets the Classic. On Frozen Blog with the big-time artists' conception. I'm still holding out for Pens/Flyers in Happy Valley. I can combine a trip home with some hockey madness. But at this point, I'm not so sure I'd have a team to root for.

What's This? Yup, call me Roger Swain, cause I got me a Victory Garden.

Tomatoes, green beans, basil, chives, and sundry other green leafys. Just doin my part to support the cause.

A year-end retrospective may be in the works. Let's see how I feel about that idea tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, anyone else going to the practice?

Peath out.

Go Thrashers.

Miscellany

- I don't even wanna think about the Devils game. Except to say this: Shanahan's still got it. For a geriatric. Ooooh. Snap!

- Best thing about the Flyers game: Watching Colby Armstrong's mouth moving non-stop through the whole Boulton/Cote scrap. I would pay money to be able to hear/read whatever Army was saying.

- And was it just me, or did Cote seem to reconsider after he figured out he wasn't going to pin Boults against the glass?

- I don't agree much w/ Pierre McGuire, just on general principle, but Master P with a good quote on Hockey This Morning on the XM:

"Scott Hartnell has become the best super-pest in the league."

Yes. Just yes.

- Another great thing about the XM: reliving how Urge Overkill's loving Neil Diamond tribute 'Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" shifted entire paradigms in my 15yr old world.



The boat. Is key.

Kari Topples The King: Thrashers Win

Snuck little listens to the game last night, even though I promised myself I wouldn't. My thoughts:

- God bless Adam Graves. As a younger pup, I watched Ranger games on my dad's new-fangled cable-equipped TV. Even then, I could tell some players were different. Gravey might not have been the flashiest, he might not have been the most prolific scorer (though he was no slouch), but you knew to keep your eyes on him. If you could bottle whatever it is that he's got, let me be the first to order each Thrasher a case. As a matter of fact, I move to make Adam Graves an assistant coach, pronto. Classy move with the 9's on all the jerseys, Rags.

- Oyster man read him his Reitz. Yea, that's all I got on that.

- Motzoh ball. The Motzko goal was good old-fashioned hard work. More, please. More.

- Put Army back on the big line. Please. For us.

- Kari = Teh Hotness. He is straight gas over the last two games. But with Sunday come the Flyers. At home. Let's hold off 'till then.

- The Watch Is On. Knobes @ the Atlanta Junk/Crap is getting all Geico'd out with the Scout Watch.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Part 2

Continuing the theme, I give you tonight's top line, left to right:

17 LW Ilya Kovalchuck (C)

Pros: 500 points in 500 games; unbelievable slapshot; even more amazing wrist shot; the celebrations:


Cons: Tends to cheat a little defensively.

Verdict: Stay.
Please, please, please for the love of hockey in this town, Stay.


47 C Rich Peverley

Pros: Almost a point-per-game in 4 years in the AHL; rated among the top 20 Preds prospects by HockeysFuture.com (great interview with the magnificent Holly Gunning to be found here); all stats point to a possible top scoring forward

Cons: "Knock, knock"
"Who's there?"
"Rich Peverley"
"Ummm.... who?"

Other than lack of name recognition, Peverley looks like a keeper. An RFA with a cap hit this year of $244,000, and 2 more years at roughly $500,00 each, Pevs looks like a forward who cold find space on not only this roster, but some others as well (ooooh, trade bait!).

Verdict: Stay.

20 LW Colby Armstrong

Pros: Great locker room guy; fan favorite (rumor has it, some Pens fans cried when they learned of Army's trade); has at least 20g/20a potential; pretty chippy, likes to agitate, but in a good way; massive hits; just a ton of fun to watch.

Cons: Still prone to making "young guy" mistakes; hasn't had a consistent enough role to establish an identity.

A hard hitter, a point-producer, fan-favorite, and locker room glue. As long as he likes Atlanta, I'll have him.

Verdict: Stay.

Tonights game v. Sens: The team we love to hate, the only team in the league more depressing to watch (c'mon, those preseason expectations were at least a little higher than 34pts at the midpoint). We can leapfrog 'em with a regulation win, boys. All eyes on Pevs. And Little. And Bogo. All hands on deck, full speed ahead.

Go Thrashers.

W-I-N

Shame on me.

Remember this: the most important part of the clip happens at the end. There are guys remembering what it's like to play together. And to win together.

Big Time Play: Toby Enstrom's positioning on Army's first goal, shoving the puck back into the zone. Huge.

Kari's performance is a big step toward regaining confidence & form. Yeah, I know, it was the Devils. But there have been nights when we couldn't stop anything thrown at us. Let's take it to Florida and build some more.

Feels good to win, doesn't it?

Leafs Get Blown Away

Just a couple of things:

- I like watching Army score. Is it just me, or did he look like a kid at Christmas?
- Did it also look like Kovy was breathing a big HUGE sigh of relief after that goal?
- Ian White = 'Stache Bum. And what was with that joke charging penalty?

From the ajc:

White called Kovalchuk “selfish” for going after him and taking a double-minor that could have hurt Atlanta. Kovalchuk said he was just finishing what White started.

White’s version: “I finished my check off. Clean hit. And then he took a run at me on the far blue [line]. So I followed him up the ice, I was saying something to him, and he stopped, and I wasn’t expecting that, obviously. I was protecting myself. That’s the ugly part of the game. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”

Yea. Right. You pulled a crap move, and got jacked by a "sniper." Deal.

Kovy with the last laugh:

“Whatever he wants to say. The score on the board, we win. We get two points [in the standings]. We’ve got three games [left] against them, so if he’s got something he wants to say, I’m always ready to answer.”

12.22.08.
- Mathieu "off the" Schneid-er. You knew it was coming.
- Hungry Mongoose rocked it.
- Go read the Puck Daddy account of the Kovy/White debacle. Bomb the comments. Show them there are, in fact, hockey fans in Atlanta.
- Dan Kamal was aces on HTM yesterday.
- Hainsey was fun as always with Espo & Rossi.
- That Kahlua Line is freakin magic.
- EJ Hradek is still talking... and still not making much sense.