The Thrasher Caveat

I'll admit it:  There's a large part of me that wants the Thrashers to move to Winnipeg.  After all, if the team isn't widely appreciated in Atlanta, why shouldn't they move somewhere they would be celebrated?  It seems logical, kind even.  Winnipeg gets a team back and Atlanta...gets to stay Atlanta.

But that's not the whole story.  Not by a long shot.  It would be if the Thrashers had no one cheering for them at all, but they do (albeit a small fraction of Atlanta's population).  And those people are about to lose all of it.

By next season, there may never be hockey in Atlanta again.

What gets me more than anything is the hypocrisy of it all.  How long has the NHL fought to keep the Coyotes, who are one rung below Atlanta in attendance, in Phoenix?  And for what?  Have Coyotes fans really come out in droves to support their PLAYOFF-CALIBER team?  Not really.  And to me, that is much more telling than Atlanta's attendance issues, as the Thrashers have only made the playoffs once in ten seasons.  In that same time frame, the Coyotes have gone four times. 

And yet, Phoenix is saved while Atlanta is likely Winnipeg-bound.  It could have been either team but it's ultimately the less successful one, the one with fewer opportunities to cultivate a fanbase through its successes.  Who's to say the Thrashers weren't all that far off from a few playoff runs?  And who's to say a few playoff runs couldn't have changed things, even just a little bit?

Now we'll likely never know (although to be fair, the Thrashers would make the second team Atlanta has lost, third if you count the Knights.  Hockey has been in Atlanta before...and failed.)

The photo above could not be more telling.  The fight is there...unless the opportunity for a clean sale overpowers it.

"Because we fight hard for every city [except Atlanta] and our fans need to know that we don't just run out [unless we can make a clean break]"

I'm really sorry, Thrashers fans.

-Shaela

Winnipeg...Thrashers

Breaking, although not entirely shocking, news out of Atlanta today.  According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Spirit LCC, the group that owns the Atlanta Thrashers, is in negotiations with True North in regards to the sale and relocation of the team.  After all the talk about selling the Phoenix Coyotes and sending them up to Winnipeg, it appears as though Atlanta is now the much more likely candidate.

It hasn't been easy to be a Thrashers fan.  Since their first season in 1999-2000, the Atlanta Thrashers have been in the playoffs once and were swept by the NY Rangers.  Many of Atlanta's superstars have gone on to play for other teams and, despite the Thrashers' slow growing group of solid players, it's difficult to say whether anyone will really ever consider Atlanta to be a viable piece of the hockey world.

I personally liked where Atlanta was heading.  They did well during free agency to bring in some very decent players and were, at one point this season, in sight of another playoff berth.  In my opinion, they won the Ilya Kovalchuk deal and had some good things to look forward to in the coming years.  But it's not about what the Atlanta Thrashers did.  It's about what the fans did not do and plainly, they did not show up.  To the tune of 28th in attendance...

It's difficult to blame them.  When the product on the ice is so poor for so long, you really can't expect people to budget for tickets.  At the same time, is it crazy to believe owners would be more inclined to spend on talent if tickets were selling like crazy?  Doubled edged sword to say the least...

As an Avalanche fan, I feel extremely lucky to have been gifted such a talented team from day one.  Colorado benefited mightily from Quebec's failures and it is not outside of the realm of possibility that if we hadn't, the Avs would be in the running for Winnipeg as well.  Though that statement is disappointing, it is not far from the truth.  Attendance in Denver has been dipping significantly over the last few seasons...right along with the Avs' success (or lack their of).  In a few years, if things don't turn around, who's to say the Avs won't be the next Thrashers or Coyotes.

You really have to feel for the fans in Atlanta.  There are probably some who live and breathe the Thrashers just as much as I live and breathe the Avalanche.  But it's just not enough.  You can't hemorrhage $20 million a year and just keep things as they are.

All of this really makes you appreciate those other franchises who, despite extremely lackluster performances season after season, continue to sell out their stadiums and rally support for their team (Toronto Maple Leafs...I'm looking at you).  It also makes you question other franchises who succeed year after year and rarely ever fill their arena (WTF Devils fans...).

What does it take to draw fans exactly?  Is it success?  Simply starting in the right market?  A superstar or two?  A storied history?  A hockey culture?  All of the above?

Maybe in October, Winnipeg will get a chance to tell us...

-Shaela

"I Hate Winnipeg" by the Weakerthans

The Detroit Red Wings Are History

This sums it all up nicely..

Peace out, Detroit!

-Shaela

To Detroit, With Love: Game 7 - - From: San Jose

Dear Sharks,

Now you've done it:  You've seriously, SERIOUSLY screwed yourselves.

Words cannot adequately portray just how big this "Detroit Problem" is right at this very moment.  Catastrophe doesn't quite cover it.  Crisis doesn't either.

I will grant there has been some very close games this series and moments in which I felt there was a legitimate chance for a Round 3 in your future...but the point is, after 60 minutes, you've been the loser three of the past three games.  And the glaring issue is that it would have only taken one push, one flurry, one huge shift...and this series could have been over with you advancing to play Vancouver on Saturday.

You haven't had that push, that flurry, that shift.  But Detroit has.  They've found their stride.  And that is why we're now possibly on the verge of witnessing a second 0-3 comeback in two years.

Fanfuckingtastic.

What the hell is wrong with you, San Jose?  How can SO much talent play that poorly together as a team?  I just don't get it.  And what is the deal with your big stars?  Why do they disappear in big games, like this game tonight?  Or maybe, the truth of the matter is, you don't have any big stars because big stars get it done, like Detroit did.  Big stars push it to seven, make something out of nothing, fight back from failure and succeed.  Like Detroit did.

Three game lead?  Gone.  So gone you've now put yourself into a winner takes all death match situation in which the "machine" known as the "Detroit Red Wings" is likely going to annihilate you.  And honestly, at this point, you deserve it.  Unless you can come up with a masterful performance and come out swinging in Game 7, you deserve a summer off.  And if, while you're at it, you could stop teasing your fans with post-season appearances that result in nothing because the SAME problems arise, that would be great too.

I get that you were without Ryane Clowe this game...but Detroit was out Johan Franzen and they seemed to make it work. That's what phenomenally-talented, playoff-winning teams do.  They make it work.  And in Game 7, Detroit will likely make it work.  No Franzen and a bum-wrist Datsyuk?  No. Effing. Problem.  Home ice advantage?  Worthless.  Patrick Marleau?  Still gutless.  Your 3-0 lead?  A prologue to the story of this playoff series.

At this point, I don't even think having you continue on in the series is all that good for anyone.  I may hate Detroit but at least they're playing some fantastic hockey as of late.  And I may hate Detroit but at least I know they'll show up on Thursday. 

It's impossible to say the same for you.  I don't think you have that extra level.  I really don't.  The same things that won you those three early games just aren't going to cut it this time.  Let's not kid ourselves here:  You barely eeked those wins out anyway.

If the Wings win on Thursday, I will barely bat an eyelash.  And if the Wings win on Thursday, I don't think you'll ever shake that "choking" reputation...

...because clearly, that's what Sharks do best...

-Shaela

Pending Disaster: No Ryane Clowe for Game 6

Damnit Sharks.

Why couldn't you just close out your series with Detroit in four (or I guess five)?  Why couldn't you just play the way you're capable of and send the dreaded Red Wings golfing for the season?   Why couldn't you just end the suffering of Wings-haters everywhere and seal this series up with a pretty teal and black bow?

I have only two possible conclusions: 

1. You're choking.  Again.  And this time, no one will bail you out with "but they played a great series" because flatly, if you blow a 3-0 series lead, you suck at everything,  EVERYTHING.
2. You're just trying to make it interesting.

Please, for the sake of us all, let it be Option 2.

I'm interested, okay?  A little too interested, if you know what I mean.  You allowed Detroit to steal two games in a row, one right out from under you and your two goal lead, and now they have an honest shot at this.  They really could pull off a 2010 Philadelphia Flyers...something people were really only joking about two games ago.

I will never forgive you if Detroit pulls off a 2010 Philadelphia Flyers.

Ever.

Unless you want to dethrone the Bruins as "Choke-Artist of the Decade (and put my happiness in serious jeopardy), I suggest you win tonight, San Jose. And win big. In Detroit. Take it to those talented bastards in red and don't look back. Datsyuk who? Lidstrom what?

But of course, since you couldn't just end it all early, now you'll have to do it with injuries... which is what happens when series trudge on. No Ryane Clowe tonight, folks.

Not good.

As in "Oh, we are effed" not good.

As in "A significant piece of the puzzle of our success is out" not good.

What we have here is drama unfolding, a storyline for disaster.  It would be fun if it didn't mean Detroit was slowly inching their way toward another Stanley Cup.  But that's exactly what's happening here.  Make no mistake about the Red Wings:  You can NEVER (and I repeat NEVER) count them out until the nail is in the coffin.

You brought this upon yourselves, Sharks. When the hockey gods give you a chance to seal a series against Detroit, at home, you do it.  Everyone knows you don't fuck with Detroit.

And now you have to fuck with Detroit in Detroit.

May God have mercy on us all if you can't get it right.

-Shaela

Peace out, Purple and Gold

So the Lakers are done.  In a sweep.  Did anyone really see that coming?  But then again, did anyone really see the Spurs being upset by the Grizzlies back in Round 1?

Hard to feel sorry for either of them, huh?

And of course by "hard" I mean "undeniably infeasible."  LA is nearly impossible to like unless you're a Lakers fan.  Or maybe, despite his undeniable talent, that's just Kobe Bryant.  Either way, peace out, LA.

Meh...and so the NBA Playoffs trudge on...

 -Shaela

Second Round - Fail

Last week, I wasn't quite ready to hop on the "Second Round Sucks" bandwagon.  Sure, the games weren't as exciting and there was a distinct feeling of "let-down hockey" in the air...but surely that would all even out or disappear as the playoffs continued and teams found their stride, right?

Wrong.

100% wrong.

Caps?  Swept.  Flyers?  Swept.  Wings?  WISH they were swept but no, there will be a Game 5.  Nashville?  The fork is hovering...

Despite the increased number of OTs, a trend which has continued into Round 2, the games themselves have been watered down versions of Round 1.  It's just not all that fun right now.  I'd argue it's likely not even that much fun for fans of the teams on the winning end of things.  I mean, did B's fans really go into their series with Philly saying "Man, I hope for four snooze-fest games in which the Flyers don't even make it interesting.  Especially Game 4.  I hope that game just sucks."?

God I hope not.

When it's your team for just one game, you want a blow out.  But in the playoffs?  You want entertainment.  You want to be on the edge of your seat.  You want "holy shit, did that just really happen?!"  You want the roller coaster, the fear.  And this round, you're just not getting it.  Any of it.

No one is.

What all of this adds up to, aside from boredom, is less hockey...and less hockey, while good for the health and stamina of the remaining teams, is very trying on a hockey-addict's sanity.

This isn't good.

But maybe Round 3 will be?

-Shaela

Hockey on U St.

I've spent the last few weeks completely absorbed in finals and the NHL Playoffs.  While the relationship is far from symbiotic, it has worked in keeping my sanity intact while I attempt to cram all the (useless) biostats I possibly can into my non-math mind.

It's the playoffs.  It's what you do.  You sit in front of the television, you open your stats book and, during intermission, you pretend as though you're capable of absorbing anything you're reading (even though you find yourself continuously looking up at the TV to discern how the hell Rinne ACTUALLY saved that).

It's probably also addiction.  I really don't care.

One thing you notice when you're sports obsessed, however, is that a lot of people...well...aren't.  And in my life right now, a lot of people simply aren't...and they definitely don't follow this whole 'hockey' thing.  When I start talking about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I'm like entertainment...like a foreigner speaking about some interesting foreign custom...

...which is ridiculous...because it's the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Stanley. Cup. Playoffs.

What the hell?  Right?

The whole thing can be a bit isolating.   But just when I think no one cares about hockey and I'm doomed (ha, doomed?  Blessed) to wander the Earth as a fan of the most under-appreciated sport in the world (to everyone else except hockey fans.  I personally would marry hockey if it were a person), I step out of the Gibson on U St. at 1 AM on a Saturday and stumble upon (not literally, though after one of the Gibson's painkillers...it could have happened) this:

There, spray painted on the sidewalk, is the greatest symbol of hockey's success advertising the greatest playoff fight in sports.

For a second there, I was back in Colorado, crowded around the TV of whomever agreed to host the night's playoff game, feeling right at home.  But DC's a good hockey city too, and when Sunday rolls around and I find myself in the living room, watching the Caps game with my two roommates and my roommate's boyfriend, I feel right at home too. (The Caps losing and going down 0-2 on the series kinda sucked though...)

-Shaela

Josh McDaniels - Still Ruining Sundays

Being a Broncos fan over the last few years has not been easy.  Mired in mediocrity, the Broncos have spent the last few years making one bad decision after another, erasing the "glory years" and replacing them with laughable misery.  The dam of "mediocrity" has become the river of failure. 

In sports, it's impossible to stay on top. Sure, some teams are just perennially successful (Detroit Red wings) and some teams are just perennial...terrible (Chicago Cubs...) but remaining at the very top for years and years just doesn't happen.   The late '90s were good to the Broncos but after Elway retired, Denver went through one QB after another trying to find a fit.  We hung in there for a little while but sure as taxes, things started to fade.

After an 8-8 season defined mostly by injuries, the Broncos fired Mike Shanahan, the most successful coach in Broncos history.  The fact that it was the third straight season without a playoff berth probably did not help any.  And just like that, Shanahan was gone.

From then on, a series of events would take place that would see the Broncos falling far, far from grace.  Instead of a football team, they would become both a soap opera and a spectacle; both the picture of dwindling hope and dark disappointment.

To kick off the misery, the Broncos hired Josh McDaniels, of the Videogate '07 Patriots.  It was all downhill from there.

If only I had a time machine...

Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "Wow, here's something new:  Another Broncos fan who hates Josh McDaniels. How original."

I don't care.

I hate Josh McDaniels, and though I can't credit him with every minute piece of the Broncos demise, I can place a significant proportion of the blame directly on his shoulders.

What an idiot...

If I'm a brand new coach just stepping into my first coaching position ever, why would my first thought be: "Hm, step one for me?  How about I create a gigantic rift between myself, the team, and the franchise QB.  What a brilliant plan"?

Um, plainly, it wouldn't.  Not in a million God damn years would that EVER cross my mind.  And yet, for one brilliant new coach, it was.  And that's exactly what happened.  Cutler took off for Chicago, the locker room stood divided, and McDaniels acted like nothing had gone wrong as he tried to corral respect from the rest of the team.

What a joke.

Look, I get it.  If Cutler isn't your guy (and honestly, he wasn't exactly mine), then sure, go out there and find someone who is.  But you better make DAMN sure you know what you're doing before you get yourself into that mess...and it better end with something better than Kyle Orton (who isn't terrible, but for someone like Jay Cutler, the Broncos likely could have done better.  Though I have to say, Orton has done well here).  Dude didn't even end up with the QB he started this disaster for (Matt Cassel, who ended up going to division rival Kansas City). Way to kick it off right, McD.

From then on it was just...well, not bad actually.  The Broncos started off 6-0 and for a second there, all of us poor Broncos fans thought that maybe, just maybe McDaniels wasn't an idiot.  Maybe all that soap opera shit over Cutler was worth it?

How wrong we were.  The Broncos dropped eight of their next 10 games and, with a playoff berth on the line, McDaniels benched Marshall and Scheffler against the Chiefs.  Needless to say, Kansas City sealed the deal and the Broncos missed the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

Second ranked offense in 2008?  Ranked 15th after one year of McDaniels.

The 2010 season was an outright failure all around.  Drafting Tim Tebow (for whom we gave up a 2nd, 3rd, AND 4th round pick) might (and I use that term loosely.  MIGHT) have been the only real light in the dark here (I will also grant that McDaniels handled the publicity surrounding the suicide of Kenny McKinley very well).   Brandon Marshall?  Gone (again, not a terrible decision, I guess), Scheffler, gone.  3-9 record? Very real.  Videotaping the 49ers practice in London?  Stellar idea.  Losing in London even though we cheated?  Embarrassing. Mike Nolan (the man responsible for taking a 29th ranked defense and turning them into a 7th)?  Ditched.

All of these events, however, pale in comparison to one notable McDaniels move that continues to haunt the Broncos and their fans...and will only be getting worse in the seasons yet to come.  That move?   March 15, 2010:  Josh McDaniels trades Peyton Hillis and picks to Cleveland for Brady Quinn.

Peyton Hillis...for Brady. Effing. Quinn.

Brady Quinn would go on to do next to nothing for the Broncos in the 2010-2011 season.  As for Peyton Hillis?

Well...would they put just anybody on Madden '12?

No, no they wouldn't.

But a guy who rushed for 1,177 yards, 11 rushing TDs, 61 receptions, 477 yards receiving and two receiving touchdowns?  What about him?

Of course they would.  

It's mindblowing, really, just how one decision by an arrogant, overly-confident moron will play out as time goes on.  This one hurts almost too much for words.

He's been gone since December 6, 2010...but Josh McDaniels is still ruining my Sundays. 


-Shaela