Bird Watchers Anonymous - All PostsAn unofficial Atlanta Thrashers bloghttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/10900/bwa-fave.png2011-06-21T15:30:50-04:00http://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/rss/current/2011-06-21T15:30:50-04:002011-06-21T15:30:50-04:00A Quick Thank You To The Thrashers
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<figcaption>Bruce Bennett - Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p><br>With all of the anger, frustration, and mourning for the team over the last month or so, I just wanted to take the time today to say thanks. The <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/teams/atlanta-thrashers">Thrashers</a> officially are no longer with us, and it’s heartbreaking. The deceit, the League’s complicity in all of this has turned a lot of fans off of hockey, or at the very least the NHL. <br><br>Oddly enough, we do have something to be thankful for.<br><br>I’d like to say thank you to the Thrashers organization for giving Atlanta eleven years of the greatest sport on earth. Thank you for getting teenagers interested in it in 1999, and thank you for letting them get their own children into hockey today. Thank you for the chance to grow the game here in the South - where many feel that it doesn’t belong. It does, very much so, because hockey belongs where people who love the game are. It’s just apparent that the Atlanta Spirit Group, LLC doesn’t love the game, doesn’t understand the nuances or the rules of the sport - and doesn’t understand the community impact.<br><br>Thank you to the Thrashers for giving all of us a group of friends that are irreplaceable. Whether it’s the community here on Birdwatchers Anonymous, the Nasty Nest, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.atlantathrashersfans.org/">the Fan Club</a> (who are accepting notes to the team and your personal remembrances of hockey in Atlanta), or just the table of friends that you sat with before every home game, sipping beers from Gorin’s - all of these people have made an impact. The community here around this team is second to none. It’s a family, a fraternity, a secret society. That’s an experience that you’ll never get in a big market.<br><br>Thank you, Thrashers for eleven years of fun, frustration, elation, hope, and statistics to crunch and debate the nuances of. Thank you for always being welcoming to us, bloggers and fans alike. Thank you to guys like <span>Jim Slater</span>, <span>Chris Thorburn</span>, <span>Eric Boulton</span>, <span>Garnet Exelby</span>, <span>Johan Hedberg</span>, and all of the other hard workers in the locker room who loved this team, and who made the fans love you guys.<br><br>Thank you for the hours put in working at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Habitat for Humanity, and the food banks and numerous charitable work you’ve done. The community, even though Mayor Kasim Reed doesn’t seem to get it, will miss you very much.<br><br>As the curtain closes on the second chapter of NHL hockey in Atlanta exactly 31 years after it closed here the first time, we’re all sad. We’re all upset by the loss of our team, but at least we had them, even if for a short little bit.<br><br>And for that I’m thankful.</p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/6/21/2235598/a-quick-thank-you-to-the-thrashershildymac2011-06-03T12:53:09-04:002011-06-03T12:53:09-04:00What Now?
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<figcaption>Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>We're all still coping with the loss of our team, but it got me thinking... what am I going to do now? Like many of you, I developed a love for the sport of hockey, not just the Thrashers. The Thrashers are gone, but I'd like to keep thinking about - and writing about - hockey.</p>
<p>The failure of the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/teams/atlanta-thrashers">Atlanta Thrashers</a> underscores the difficulties that hockey faces in sunbelt markets, but hockey itself is about more than the NHL.</p>
<p>I began to think that there's an interesting story here, one worth continuing to write about: hockey in the south. I thought it would be interesting to have a community focused on the unique issues, failures, and successes of our non-traditional market. It wouldn't be focused on a specific team or a specific league, it would be focused on a specific region.</p>
<p>I've chatted with a few people about it and there is some interest. I think I can put together enough writers to have a real blog. My question is: are you guys interested? If so, what type of content would you like to see? We'd cover teams in the area, prospects who developed in south, perhaps some college and amateur hockey... but what else?</p>
<p>I don't know if I can continue to use this blog or SB Nation to do this, but if there's interest, I'll find a way to make it happen. Vote in the poll and leave your comments below.</p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/6/3/2204890/what-nowtimmyf2011-05-31T15:05:54-04:002011-05-31T15:05:54-04:00The Thrashers Chapter Comes to a Close
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<figcaption>Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>If I were to sit down and write out the story of my life, the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/teams/atlanta-thrashers">Atlanta Thrashers</a> would occupy many many pages in my autobiography. So today marks a genuine transition point in my life (and probably the lives of many other fans whom I know). </p>
<p>I grew up in a cold part of the country but nobody in my family knew anything about hockey. When I was 15 our pond froze and sister and I received skates for Christmas. After learning to skate forward and backwards we became bored with doing laps. I made a crude goal out of left over 2x4 lumber and my father constructed some equally crude hockey sticks by ripping a 2x4s lengthwise. We quickly busted these home-made sticks and bought some real (wooden) hockey sticks. My love affair with hockey was off and running.</p>
<p>Soon I started listening to <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.wingingitinmotown.com/">Red Wings</a> games on the radio (we couldn't get the games on our TV in rural Michigan). Sometimes I'd be listening to the crackling AM radio as the sound quality would wax and wane hanging on every word to see if my team would manage to win or not. I adored the team's young captain and who had an oddly spelled name (Yzerman). For my high school graduation I received a Wings jersey and as my friends were offering their appreciation my two grandmothers were completely befuddled as to what the big deal was all about.</p>
<p>Two years later I joined my first indoor hockey league (in Jackson, MI) and I discovered this thing they call "the boards" which did not exist on my pond. To this day I still hate passing off the boards and my strong preference for trying to force tape-to-tape passes up the middle has been termed "the Matt pass" in my local league. I was the worst skater on my team, played wing, scored 4 goals. We won the Thursday Night League Championship. I was a very raw player but it was a great beginning.</p>
<p>I moved to Washington DC for several years and played for the Mt. Vernon Seals, we won our league championship my final year there in overtime (I scored two goals at D in the semi-final game!). Washington was my first chance to really attend NHL games. Tickets were affordable even on my meager salary at that time. I was so excited to buy my first 10 game NHL ticket package. I had terrific seats behind Jim Carey and Kolzig as Lindros, Jagr and Lafontaine bore down on a rookie <span>Sergei Gonchar</span>.</p>
<p>When I relocated to Atlanta for graduate school, it was tough no longer having the NHL where I lived, but the Thrashers franchise was awarded almost as soon as I arrived. I looked forward to the new team taking shape and poured over the players available in the Expansion Draft. I watched the very first game in team history at sports bar that doesn't even exist anymore (Jocks and Jills midtown). Kelly Buchberger and Patrik Stefan were on the top line. I was watching when they got their first win on the road against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.lighthousehockey.com/">Islanders</a> and I was in the stands at Philips Arena when they got their first home win against <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.matchsticksandgasoline.com/">Calgary Flames</a>. I remember being woken to the news of the Heately car crash and teared up when Dan Snyder died.</p>
<p>The hockey varied been bad and terrible most of the time, but we were watching the NHL! It seemed that if we fans just stayed patient the high draft picks would result in superstar talent that was unobtainable in the free agent marketplace. The superstar talent arrived in 2002, I remember the first pre-season game when rookies Heately and Kovalchuk scored two goals apiece. It seemed that the future was very bright and the losing had been worth the wait.</p>
<p>After the lockout I became frustrated by the lack of coverage of the Thrashers. My friend Rich encouraged me to blog about the team and so I kicked off "Thrashers Talons" in 2006. It was unpolished and inconsistent but also fun and surprising. I remember being very excited when I broke 200 readers in single day! "Who are these people?" I thought. But more and more people found the site and I was cajoled by Jame Mirtle to jump over to SB Nation (which required re-naming the blog to BWA).</p>
<p>Writing really opened up some exciting doors. It turned out that I wasn't the only one hungry to read more on the Thrashers. NHL players and management read the blog and occasionally would drop me little nuggets of information. As a kid I dreamed of just being a season ticket holder, and here I was a STH, a writer and a few NHL people even talked to me--it was more than I could have ever imagined.</p>
<p>SB Nation opened the door for me to attend the NHL Draft in 2009 and 2010. In Montreal six of us team bloggers were sitting at an Italian restaurant. We happened to pick the exact place where the Thrashers were having their team pre-draft dinner upstairs. As the Atlanta management started to file out and GM Don Waddell came over to our blogger table to say "hello" to me--and the other bloggers' jaws all dropped that he even knew my name. One of the greatest things about the Thrashers being in Atlanta was that an ordinary person like myself could get involved with the franchise. It made living in Atlanta special.</p>
<p>But the promise of a bright future never arrived. The Thrashers defense remained porous the entire eleven years of their existence. Ownership basically spent the minimum in 9 of the 11 years and the roster was usually very thin on quality hockey players. Fans who were initially jazzed about the return of the NHL market took their wallets and went home, tired of paying thousands of dollars to watch a NHL team that didn't seem close to making the playoffs most years.</p>
<p>Hockey was the centerpiece of my social life. I attended nearly every single home game and watched all the road games on TV. I played on one team and then two in the local rec leagues. I became captain of first one team and then two. My spouse started playing hockey. Many of my best friends were either NHL hockey fans or local rec league players. These friendships were perhaps the best part of my hockey life.</p>
<p>And now the franchise is departing after 12 years and 11 seasons. It will leave a big hole in the lives of many fans. I have an entire room filled with Thrashers bobble heads, autographed pictures, media guides and signed sticks. It will be tough to look at that stuff come October.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/626242/Mobile6-1_189.JPG"><img alt="Mobile6-1_189_medium" src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/626242/Mobile6-1_189_medium.JPG" class="photo"></a></p>
<p>I'd like to make some brave declaration about how we NHL fans will stick together in some grand fellowship of the dispossessed--but that will not happen. We will all scatter and put our time and energy into other things--such is the nature of life. For myself this last year has marked a major transition point. The Thrashers era has come to a close. My marriage came to an end. I finally finished my Ph.D. at Emory after all this time. What is ahead is unknowable, but at least I have some other exciting career and personal opportunities to focus upon.</p>
<p>I'm not so sure about me and the NHL. Right now the NHL has left me for another city and I'm feeling a bit abandoned. One part of me wants to move to another NHL city right away, while another part thinks we need some time apart. While I may feel ambivalent about the NHL, I will always love hockey. I will still play on two or three teams simultaneously--as I have done for years now. I will keep on recruiting new people to the game and offer whatever encouragement I can offer. Life will go on, hockey will go on, but hockey in Atlanta will not be as special as it once was.</p>
<p>The Thrashers chapter has come to a close and other chapters await to be written. May each of you write boldly and write well.Thank you for reading over the years.</p>
<p>--Matthew Gunning (no longer anonymous!)</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/625972/Mobile4-15_004.JPG"><img alt="Mobile4-15_004_medium" src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/625972/Mobile4-15_004_medium.JPG" class="photo"></a></p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/31/2199199/the-thrashers-chapter-comes-to-a-closeThe Falconer2011-05-31T09:51:29-04:002011-05-31T09:51:29-04:00Press Conference To Announce Sale Of Thrashers
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<figcaption>Marianne Helm - Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p><br>Finally, the plug has been pulled. After weeks of confirmation of a sale to no confirmation to "80% done" to "we have local interest!" to "you don't know what the NHL has tried to do for Atlanta," <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-thrashers/thrashers-deal-to-be-962820.html">the Thrashers are finally going to be sold to True North Sports and Entertainment. </a></p>
<p>Is a move a done deal? Of course not. Is it a forgone conclusion? Probably. Next step is the Board of Governors meeting on June 21st, where the issue has to be voted upon. Is <a target="_blank" href="http://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-thrashers/2011/5/26/2190276/atlanta-thrashers-sale-nhl-bylaws-news">there some way that they can read the by-laws the same way that I did and keep the team here in Atlanta</a>? Of course. Is it financially in their best interest to find competent ownership and keep the team here versus moving them to Winnipeg? Duh.</p>
<p>For those of you who want to watch the kicking out of the stool, NHL.com will be broadcasting the presser live. Me, personally, I don't think that I can watch it. I can barely find the words to write this.</p>
<p>To the NHL, I hope you're happy with the way that you treated a small-market fanbase. Dear God, don't let this be a sign of things to come with other struggling teams. To Winnipeg, congrats. You got your team back, though at the expense of another city. At least you got a chance to say goodbye to your team before they were moved to Phoenix. We won't. We won't be able to go to one last game at Philips Arena and give them the standing ovation they deserved.</p>
<p>At least the league and the owners of the Jets decided to respect you as fans, because we've had none of that at all.</p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/31/2198712/noon-press-conference-scheduled-in-winnipeg-to-announce-sale-ofhildymac2011-05-30T19:48:52-04:002011-05-30T19:48:52-04:00Rutherford Seydel: Passionate Hockey Fan
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<figcaption>Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>There are no words for this. Just watch, then comment.</p>
<p>Also, feel free to either laugh your asses off or throw things. Your choice!</p>
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https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/30/2198019/rutherford-sydel-passionate-hockey-fanhildymac2011-05-27T12:54:15-04:002011-05-27T12:54:15-04:00On the Canadian Media
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<p>The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. The Canadian media cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the NHL's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed us off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser team could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/teams/atlanta-thrashers" class="sbn-auto-link">Thrashers</a>, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimated by the hockey elite and are ready to take on the challenges southern hockey faces.</p>
<p>[If you don't get it, see <a href="http://gawker.com/5803213/newt-gingrichs-spokesman-releases-greatest-statement-ever" target="_blank">here</a>.]</p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/27/2193455/on-the-canadian-mediatimmyf2011-05-26T12:35:09-04:002011-05-26T12:35:09-04:00Rocket Science
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<p>No, really, it's rocket science:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/622019/Rocket_Science.PNG" target="_blank"><img class="photo" src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/622019/Rocket_Science_medium.PNG" alt="Rocket_science_medium"></a> <br id="1306427383769"></p>
<p>Other than a first season outlier, when the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/teams/atlanta-thrashers" class="sbn-auto-link">Thrashers</a> win more, attendance goes up. When they lose, it goes down. Gosh. Once the excitement of having a team subsided, you can clearly see (through 06-07) a rise in both winning percentage and attendance percentage. After that, the team became mediocre and attendance fell as well.</p>
<p>What's interesting seems to be this: attendance rises when the team improves but falls if the team stagnates. I'm curious to see if this would have the same effect if the stagnation was at 90 points/season rather than the high 70s.</p>
<p>For Thrashers fans, this is a big "duh." For the rest of you, this is why our attendance sucked. It's not rocket science.</p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/26/2191640/rocket-sciencetimmyf2011-05-22T17:15:49-04:002011-05-22T17:15:49-04:00Open Thread: Post Your Tailgate Photos/Comments Here!
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<p><br>Call it a tailgate, call it a tailwake, call it a rally... whatever you call it, you have to admit that yesterday was a blast. It was an emotional afternoon, with us knowing probably what's in the future, but it was still fun to see everyone and catch up. Beer flowed a little too freely, petitions were signed to get local businesses to step up, things were lit on fire (of course) and everyone appreciated Thrash's implicit support when he showed up at the rally after <span>Chris Thorburn</span>'s meet and greet.</p>
<p>If you guys got any film or photos of the event, here's the place to put them. Go crazy, folks. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.174600042595131.54594.119889791399490" target="_blank">I'll start it off with my album over at Facebook.</a></p>
https://www.birdwatchersanonymous.com/2011/5/22/2184599/open-thread-post-your-tailgate-photos-comments-herehildymac