I’m on my way to the morning skate over at Philips Arena where I’ll try to get some thoughts on the new line combinations, if the combinations they used in practice yesterday are the same as the ones they use today.
If you’re looking for stuff to read while I’m at the rink there are plenty of options listed in this Kovalchuk link roundup from Spector. A lot of them are the same types of stories that we’ve seen over and over again recently- light on quotes and heavy on opinion- but Mike Brophy from Sportsnet goes against the flow and takes the stance that the Thrashers might be better of without the captain. What do you think?
Warning- all of the aforementioned articles take shots at Atlanta as a hockey market, but I think we’re all used to that by now, aren’t we?
I like the line combinations… there’s been too much finesse lately and not enough grit. It’s time to pound the puck into the net, not kiss it into the net.
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Mike Brophy is spot on… I agree with every word, even his market evaluation.
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FINALLY Anderson breaks up the Kozlov-White-Little line… that line has got to be the worst line in hockey. Kozlov has been playing like a player that should be playing for the Gwinnett Gladiators, not an NHL club. Time to sit Kozlov. Here’s what I’d like to see tonight:
Kovy-Antropov-Armstrong
Kane-Slater-Afinoginov
Peverly-Reasoner-Little
Boulton-White-Thorburn
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i agree with brophy. and boston is who we want to trade with.
heres what i think waddell should try to pull: trade kovy and one other player (white maybe) to boston for their first round pick, torontos first round pick (which could end up being really high), blake wheeler and david krejci. wheeler and krejci are good young players and we do a massive rebuild getting young talent with the draft. Then we have one more year of being lousy but after that we steadily rise for the next 5 eventually becoming another pittsburgh and chicago with a plethora of young talent. atlanta has put up with mediocre teams in the past hopefully we can put up with another year or two and then really come on strong. this would be best for the long run.
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I have slowly turned into a fan of letting Kovy go. We have nothing to show during our time in the NHL, and there are two common factors, Kovy and Waddell. Since this is a Kovy discussion, I’ll keep it there.
Let him go. Wish him the best of luck and get the best possible deal we can. Prferably not to another southeast team. I’m anxious to have the focus on having a a good team that works well together. Not one superstar that we have to build lines around.
I would not want to be in D Wadd’s shoes right now. Do we cave to Kovy’s demands? Do we trade him at the deadline, or do we hold onto him for the postseason and get a much lower return? As long as we get a good result for whatever decision he makes, I’ll back D Wadd. If we re-sign, great, Kovy better make it worth the money. If we trade, fine, but we better get something good. If we hold onto him for post season (assuming we make it), we better make it to conference finals.
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Unfortunately Brophy is just about spot on with his take on the situation. Of course I do not want to see Kovy leave. I still believe if we sign him this team can truly be a contender in the next few years. Although I do see the appeal of trading him as well. If we do indeed trade him we need to see some real value.
As for a ” Hockey ” town I want to take it one step further. This simply is not a sports town to begin with. Look at the dominance the Braves had in the 90′s and fans did not flock to games there either. In fact, when David Justice, who by the way was correct in his assessment, called out the fans during the 95 WS, they nearly booed him out of town instead of answering his call to be more enthusiastic about the support of the team. After he produced the ONLY run in game six, which also turned out to be the title winner and the ONLY one that Atlanta could lay claim to during that run, Mr. Justice was soon thereafter traded for a guy who could not hit a cut-off man if he were standing 20 feet away from him. I myself attended a playoff game in 2004 and there were nearly 15,000 empty seats!!!
In any case this could very well be a Hockey Town if the ownership would first relaize that you have to spend money to make it. Winning is what people want and with all of the displaced northerns that now make up about 70% of the population in Atlanta who hail primarily from Chicago, Buffalo, Philly, Boston and New York, you already have a population that is prime for the marketing. I would bet that if the ownership built a winning team most of the aforementioned would adopt this team as their own and you would see a tremendous growth in attendance.
If you build it, they will come…
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Nashville has similar attendence to us and they’ve never had a superstar,we’ve had three (Kovy, Hossa, and Heatley). Shea Webber is close, but he doesn’t sell tickets. The only difference is Nashville has been able to win because they have a coach who knows what he’s doing and a GM who is smart when it comes to veteran free agents.
Atlanta has a more talented roster than 80% of the league, they just can’t find a way to win because they’re so poorly run. Anderson isnt cutting it and D. Wadd has been a complete disaster. This means a complete overhaul. An overhaul that includes geting rid of Coach Anderson, Don, and yes even Kovy. I’m tired of being dissapointed.
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