God Bless the Circus - Thrashers Win

Editor's Note: We here at the Outsider believe in things like recycling, compost piles, and other tree-hugging crap like that. In that spirit, we present (in it's entirety) the post we wrote yesterday and accidentally clicked 'Save Now' instead of 'Publish Post'. As an added bonus, we give you some new useless meanderings as well. Remember kids: Give A Hoot - don't throw your crap on the side of the road. That creepy indian guy will find you. And you'll feel awful.

Old Crap, From Yesterday

I can imagine the thought process behind the Avs canceling their morning skate:

"The circus? No ice yet? Meh, we don't need to drive all the way out to the 'burbs to skate... besides, it's only the Thrashers; we'll use the first period as our gameday skate..."

Redemption, Thy Name Is Peverly



And with that, the Dispenser returns to his point-per-game pace since The Pickup.

Numbers That Make Me Happy:

- 4 The number of years on the extention signed by one Tobias Enstrom in September of 2008. (Quick Trivia: What's Enstrom's first name? According to his Wikipedia page, Ulf. I'd go with Toby too, if it were me).

- 61% Our faceoff win percentage last night. Now if only that could somehow translate into more shots...

- 3-1-1 Our record over the last five games.

- ~52 1/2 The number of minutes per game our team has played solid hockey over that span.

- 8 The number of days we have left to put up with annoying Canadiocentric hockey media speculating where Kovy might go on deadline day.


Numbers That Make Me Sad

- -5 Our current shots/game differential. That's just bad.

- 8 The number of days my gut tells me we have left to spend with Marty Reasoner Nic Havelid before they're headed to a contender. But the good news is, according to the Falconer, Toby plays just fine without Havs.

- 5-7-1 Our record since the All-Star break. Not much to get excited about, yet I'm excited that the team is playing better.


All New Crap From Today

- Welcome Back Marty!

I'm sorry, Brodeur fat jokes never get old.

- As The Blueline Turns... Whitney's out and Kunitz & Tangradi are in for the Pens. Poor Whits... comes back from injury, and now he has to move.

Some Linkage

Craig is Back to Blogging. The dear and (nearly) departed Craig Custance is blogging again for The Sporting News. Wouldn't ya know, his first blog back was about some Thrashers }ahem{ flying the coop at the trade deadline. I'm fully aware that of all the rumors flying, only about .05% of them will end up playing out - but all the talk of losing Army bugs me. I'd like to see him stick around and build a solid career here. It's not often you can get a holt of a player who's phyiscal, can score 20 goals and has personality to spare, n'at.* Nic Havelid, on the other hand, he can go. I think he deserves a team that playes his style of hockey, and he's pretty valuable right now - like a 3rd rounder & a prospect valuable, in the right situation. Also, if you look hard enough, you'll find a Hossa post that'll stomp all over your sense of team spirit and general sportsmanship just by mentioning the name of Ritch Winter. That's always fun.

*Some yinzer-talk thrown in for old times sake.


More A$G Trial Info. Atlanta Business Chronicle's BallBiz Blog is heavy on the local litigation. Authored by one John Manasso, this should be a great place for info. The Feb 19th post did a good job clearing up (for me, anyway) exactly what each side was seeking; a little tidbit of knowledge that I had yet to grasp.


The First of the BIG DEALS. This one involving Comrie, Campoli, McAmmond and a very well-traveled first round pick.

A/V Squad

Easing back into the process here...

Re: Jason Williams shootout magic



He's found a home. Good for him.


Re: NHL.com's Top 10 Goals of the Year

Thus far, anyway. The usual stuff: The Flying Zednik, a couple of snowplows from the 'Vetch. I would've futzed with the order a bit, but hey....



Tremendous effort by the team on this west coast swing. They look like they're having fun. The Lits-to-Kovy tying marker in the third looks very nice.

Re: Attention Movie People

A little off-topic goodness....

Nothing to do tomorrow? For the 2nd year in a row, AMC Theatres are holding a Best Picture Showcase - a marathon showing of all five Best Picture nominees back-to-back-to-back-to... you get it. Last year's showcase was tremendous. Movie watching for movie people: no talking, texting, people leaving at unfortunate points of plot development... $30 gets you a reserved seat & all the popcorn & beverage your big ole American self can consume. I'll be at the participating AMC Theatre here in Upper Gwinnettia, but other events will be held at Phipps, and that crazy restaurant/theatre conflagration in Buckhead.

My Long National Nightmare is Over

After a couple of weeks of computer nightmares at work (and seriously toying with the idea of becoming a total Luddite), I am prepared to resume blogging. I'm certain you've all missed me and have found a serious hole in your life without the regular verbal meanderings of your trusty Outsider.



Right then.



According to Mr. Ben Wright, one Slava Kozlov is 5 for 5 in shootouts this year. That's pretty astounding. As is the Thrash's 4-1 record in the shootout as a team. What's the team's overall record in the shootout since it's inception? Who've been the key shootout performers? Maybe some statistical analysis is in order...


Right after I go catch up on my LOLcats.

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.