Going into Friday night’s game I didn’t expect too much. What can you really anticipate for a team that is again the talk of the town, not because of how well they are playing but because they are playing in a town that “is a great sports town, just not a hockey town.” When it comes down to it, when the northern teams are playing in Atlanta, the arena is packed. Fans flock to see their teams on ice. The Atlanta Spirit just doesn’t promote Hockey like they should.
And Friday night, it looked like a bunch of disheveled misplaced players skirting around on the ice. Throughout the entire game it looked as though Peverly couldn’t seem to get it together, no matter how hard he tried. It took over 5 minutes into the game before the Thrashers even registered a shot on goal, thankfully that 1 shot was also the first goal of the game. Pavelec was caught off guard more than once, we couldn’t find the power play and were spending too much time in the penalty box.
As if everything else going wrong wasn’t enough, the referees from Friday night’s game were in a complete different world. I would love to see video of the Avalanche goal that appeared most certainly to be assisted by the ref (which Ladd more than mentioned to the ref after the play). Or the multiple times Kane was shoved into the wall in blatant boarding calls that remained uncalled. In the final minutes of the game, between a massive team fight leaving only Thorburn with a 5 min major and the waved off goal that I swore bounced in, it was all around a disappointing game.
Chill in Blueland
