vs. Sabres - 2006/12/30

So you've got to hand it to Buffalo in their win last nite over the second best team in the Eastern Conference. It's clear that Buffalo's the better team in matters like this. More depth, more speed (like woah), and some amazing scenes of great teamwork all account for what could possibly be the best team in the NHL. While I missed the last contest between these two teams, it's a sure thing that when these two squads match up, it's going to be close and incredibly hard-fought.

Kari Lehtonen's ability to see the puck and anticipate where it's (most likely) going next keeps the Thrashers in contests that could easily be slaughters, i.e. Buffalo's first period onslaught earlier on this month against Washington. Of course, there were times that you simply cannot beat a scoring tandem like Afinogenov/Briere/Vanek, as displayed here (sorry, Kari):



Did I really think that the Thrashers outplayed Buffalo last night? To a degree, I can say yes. But there were times when Atlanta were putting the pressure on Miller and Co. and after a few minutes of heated pressure in Buffalo's end, there would be an amazingly quick surge of blue and gold heading towards Kari and getting off a chance or two. It was like for every five minutes Atlanta spent in the Buffalo zone, there was at least one or two high-quality changes Buffalo had immediately after to follow suit. Eventually things evened out over the duration of the game, but it was proven to me last nite that Buffalo has a knack for turning plays around to their advantage... and really making something happen from that. Between the Briere goal and the unnecessarily high amount of three-on-one opportunities Buffalo had (and eventually capitalized on with the second goal from Pominville on one such play), Buffalo's talent lies in how well they play as a team and that's kinda the most important thing.

But after speaking this much about the Sabres, it kinda makes me sick to an extent because I'm just gushing about the opposition, right? Ugh. I had to catch myself there.

Le Thrash did come out from the beginning and somewhat carried that kind of momentum thoughout the game. Early penalties from Buffalo created great chances for the Thrashers to come out on top in the first few minutes of the game... and that got me particularly excited. The Thrashers' power play, however, remains to be quite stagnant in these high intensity situations when, if there's an opportunity to make a powerhouse like Buffalo pay, you take the chance and put it on and get something out of it. I'm not discrediting their power play teams, but something's not clicking and it needs to be worked out. We all know the power play can turn it on (as was evident during their October rout of the Ice Cats), there's no doubting that. But to compare power play abilities against teams like Buffalo and Florida... that's ridiculous. Atlanta needs to keep this a constant element of their game in order to be regarded as one of the better teams in the conference, if not the league.

And there are always these questions about Atlanta's depth... about how they aren't deep enough once you get past Kovy/Hossa, or even Kozlov... and that their defense isn't that strong. Well, compared to the fortress that Anaheim has in Pronger/Scotty Nieds (don't want to spell it out, egh) or the tandem of Toronto's McCabe/Kaberle or Montreal's Markov/Souray, sure, Havelid and Sutton doesn't look that intimidating. But judging from the defensemen's recent play (and not just those two), they are keeping the Thrashers in games and playing a complete game. Goals from Havelid, Vishnevsky, and especially Shane Hnidy are holding up... from their own play (and probably the play of Kari, too, but whatevs) in their own zone. To talk about Le Thrash's defensive corps as something even close to high-and-mighty is astounding.

It's a shame that the score turned out to be 4-1 because that was not representative of a team that put up as much of a fight as the Thrashers did last night. What's not a shame is that the next two times the Thrashers meet Buffalo will be at Philips, February 6 and March 18. Depending on what happens in the next few months, those games will be huge regardless, but for positioning purposes in the playoffs and possibly home-ice advantage as well.

Can a Thrashers fan really talk about the playoffs and not be talking too much...?

Down and Out Again?

Here's a few quick points to get me started again since I've apparently fallen off the writing wagon:

1. While getting excited all day for the upcoming Thrashers/Sabres game "tonight" and turning on Turner South at seven and watching 10 minutes of lame college football, I finally realized that the game is TOMORROW night. Apparently I want 2007 over sooner rather than later.

2. Speaking of the Thrash, they're quite the streaky punks, aren't they? They either win five in a row, or lose four consecutively, or win five more... and then decide to have another five-game winning streak and attempt to go through Buffalo while in the process. Of course, we all remember what happened the last time the South invaded the North earlier this season... dare I say repeat performance? Ehhh... hush.

3. Games I've gone to in the past few weeks: the Anaheim game was unfortunate but could've been our's, the Pittsburgh game was lucky (and that pesky Crosby... ugh!), New Jersey was testy at the beginning but eventually went in our direction, and the Tampa Bay contest was something else (despite gnatty St. Louis getting his way for a goal). Up next on the agenda? Phoenix, at home, on the 5th. I really should look into getting season tickets.

4. Yeah, Christmas was unreal. After a few days of tweaking and getting pissy, it seems like I've finally gone the route of satellite radio (Sirius, seriously) in my car. It looks like I won't have much hockey going on (that's XM's thing), but it's still pretty neat. And I have yet to play around with my new camera that'll surely be something amazing. It also looks like I have to turn into a bowling professional with all the bowling supplies I acquired.

5. It was never in doubt that I'd make a return to Coachella next April, but trying a secure a place to stay for the thing is looking testy at this point. With the lack of announcements of any bands playing as well, I hope I'm not biting my nails come February when everything gets finalized in terms of the whole entire trip. Of course, there are some hopefuls that I'd love to see there, but we'll get to that in another post that's closer to the big day.

6. I'm a downloading fool lately because of OiNK not caring about ratios for the holidays. Initially, I had no idea what to do with all of this freedom, but I overcame it when I realized I was being a tool for not taking any action. Here's what I've got so far:

Emily Haines - Cut in Half and Also Double
The Knife - Silent Shout and Deep Cuts
Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn
Final Fantasy - he poos clouds and has a good home
Goldfrapp - Supernature and Felt Mountain
Keane - Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea ("they're for the girlfriend/sister/mom/female" - haha)
Ladytron - Witching Hour
Mono - You Are There
Silversun Pickups - Pikul EP
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
The Stills - Rememberese EP
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity and Life
Supergrass - I Should Coco and In It For The Money
Talking Heads - The Best Of
The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Air - Pocket Symphony
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

Do I think I'm done? I really don't think so. But I've gone effing crazy.

7. Sorry about the lack of posts... hopefully when things settle down in the next few days/week or two, there will be some more time to spend writing. Ugh.

8. And back to hockey... I'd like to congratulate Britt (of Nasty Nest fame, really) for making the cut over at Hockey Buzz and becoming the Thrashers' blogger on the site. That site definitely has some great people up there providing some great pieces on teams around the league and just on hockey in general, so for her to be a part of that is great. Check her column out here: http://v2.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?blogger_id=74

We're working our way back, kids. Just hold tight for the immediate future. We'll be back in full force in the coming weeks.

Recap: The Comas

It always keeps surprising me how often The Comas mix up their live lineups. The first time I saw them, they were a three-piece. The last time (which was a few years later) was a few months ago and they were... ugh... something... I probably can't remember because they were so effing loud then. But memory makes me want to say a four-piece. Cannot immediately recall. Well, last Wednesday, they were a five-piece... and probably the best I've seen 'em.

I got to the Drunken Unicorn a little early (as is the customary standard for shows when I'm flying 'em solo), downed a few beers, and got ready to be met with... something. The main draw for the night was New York band Asobi Seksu, with The Comas bookended by 1986, a band from Austin (by way of New York). I was not familiar with Asobi Seksu, only the fact that I've seen their name thrown around the blogosphere and there was never anything negative about them. And I never even knew of 1986 until they got on stage. Apparently they've had some arrangement problems because 1986 only appeared as a duo. According to the singer, some of their members were from Mexico and couldn't make the trip...? Don't know how legit that is, but that is what was said. Regardless, whether they were more than what they appeared to be on stage, they sure as hell rocked the place out and I certainly didn't expect it. You can only do so much with two band members, and they made the most of it, basically opening up the Unicorn and causing it to overflow with pure rock.

The Comas quickly set up and were on a mission to really win over the audience. When they last came around, I remember the set being really punctuated, crazy loud, and completely dominated by tracks off Conductor. Thankfully that wasn't the case this time as they mixed up the set and provided some great added elements to the older tunes.



The tandem of "Employment" into "Hologram" opened the gig and led into the always-charming "Tiger in a Tower". The set featured a couple of newies and they seemed alright, but it's hard to really invest anything into such tunes when you've only heard 'em once and that was it. "Sweet Sweet 69" featured Andy doing the vocals through a megaphone and that really made the live rendition come off rather true to it's album version. They bought the rock back, kicking everyone's ass with a red-hot "Wicked Elm" and ended with some more new material and then they were done. With the incorporation of those new tracks into the set, that lends hope to the idea that maybe a new record is on its way. Fingers crossed for that one.

And I did stick around for Asobi Seksu's set. Some of what I heard, I liked... other things I heard, I really didn't understand. It's apparent that most of their sound derives from the shoegaze type of rock, but other than that, I found that probably a lot of the appeal is that there's an Asian girl fronting the band and that sometimes she sings in Japanese. We all love us some Asians, and, granted, she was cute, but other than that and the crazy guitar work going on, I really couldn't find much to their act that I really appreciated. Maybe if I was more familiar with their material, I would've liked the show some more. And maybe I should've done my homework with regard to them. But if they were expecting to win over some new fans from the show who would've been "BLOWN AWAY" by 'em, I really couldn't say that. And maybe there were some people there who instantly became a fan of their thing. I wasn't one of 'em. Depending on who they are playing with the next time they come to town, I might get a better understanding of what they do.

Fortunately, the main draw of the show for me was great.

Goin' Twisted Sister on TO's ass!

It's been a while. And I just thought I'd finally add my two cents and raise a pint to the Thrash for, well, going Twisted Sister on the Maple Leaves' rears and silencing them after all these years (you know, the Thrash aren't going to take it? Ugh, c'mon here!). A magnificent home shutout sure was nice, and the kicker was going absolutely bonkers in the Air Canada Centre and getting the home crowd to send the Leaves to the showers with a nice cacophony of BOOS. As a Thrashers fan, I greatly appreciated the victories and revelled in 'em for a few hours... until Atlanta got housed by Tampa Bay... yet again. When is this team going to get over the hump and persevere? Sure, a five-game winning streak is awesome and all, but to come off of that with an 8-0 defeat from a seemingly mediocre division rival? Something more competitive would've left a nicer taste in my mouth... but whatever. And I guess you can erase "seemingly mediocre" from Tampa's squad when Lecavalier and St. Louis and RIchards all showed up and really stuck it to us Thrash. We've all known that those three have amazing potential... and that they've kinda-sorta let a few down so far this season... but they sure came out of their shells for that game last week. Ugh. Hate to see things like that... especially against Tampa.

And not seeing any of that game on top of missing the Penguins matchup altogether really makes me feel like I've missed out... but not really. Sure, I'm there for everything Thrashers, whether it comes in the form of thrilling, life-changing victories or really bad hangover-esque massacres at the hands of hated division rivals. But I really can't say much about their play from the past two games... and I'm not ashamed of that realization... it just hurts that I can't be there for every second of it. Damned work commitments, I swear. This week proves to be quite different though. Well, kinda.

I mean, I am going to the critical matchup against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. And just thinking about that game gives me fits. Is it the fact that we're going up against the West's (and possibly league's) best team? Is it the fact that we're going up against the league's best defensive pairing in Pronger-Scott Niedermayer? Or is it also a lingering bitter taste in my mouth knowing that we lost one of the league's top emerging young stars in Chris Kunitz early last season? It also could be that I have two people from the Ducks on my fantasy team (one of them being Kunitz, ugh). But whatever combination of all of that mess, a nervous anxiousness still casts over that game and really will see how the Thrashers matchup against the league's elite. The Ducks are no joke anymore (were they ever, really?). All the hype that surrounded them during the preseason has appeared true as the Ducks have met up all expectations and appear to be the clear front-runners in the Western Conference and do not look to be coasting any time soon.

What's also great about this game is that it is one of three which the Atlanta Spirit are handing out vouchers to fans who bring in unwrapped toys for those less fortunate. Through the Toys for Tots program, the Atlanta Spirit are letting fans have the opportunity to attend a game in January for free. It's always better to give than to receive, right? Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone involved to me!

And don't forget about the game on the 21st when Pittsburgh returns to Philips - it also marks the return of the Snyders to Atlanta on their tour across North America. Definitely not something worth missing, for sure.

Show Update! The Comas!

Even though the holidays are all over the place and my work situation is appearing to be a constant hell for the rest of eternity, I'm still finding time to, a) attend Thrashers games, and, b) even go to the occasional show. This week looks to be a little relaxing on the Thrashers front, but what I'm lacking with the Thrashers, I'm gaining in shows. As mentioned earlier, there is the AA Bondy/Duquette Johnston show at Bottletree Cafe in Birmingham on the 8th that I'll be attending. And there is also something else noteworthy that caught my eye last week, I totally forgot about it, and when I was printing out my calendar for next week, I suddenly realized what I was forgetting all this time.

And, wow, longest sentence ever. Or not.

Anyway, Wednesday night features the return of The Comas to Atlanta, and they are coming with bloggers' darlings Asobi Seksu to the Drunken Unicorn. Granted, I'm completely unfamilar with Asobi Seksu (but won't be after the gig), but I've known The Comas back to early '02 when they opened for the Breeders at the Echo Lounge during their comeback tour. Ever since that performance, I've attempted to follow the band as much as I could, getting their great albums A Def Needle in Tomorrow and Conductor, their most recent recording and possibly their best. Originally hailing from Chapel Hill, it seems as if they've relocated to New York and base themselves out of there. But I just love The Comas and hopefully they'll bring something new to the stage since it's been a while that Conductor's been out there.

For more on The Comas, check 'em out here:

website: http://www.thecomas.com/
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thecomas

On their myspace profile, "Tonight on the WB", "Invisible Drugs", and "Moonrainbow" are all noteworthy and definitely worth the listen, FYI.

Asobi Seksu / The Comas @ Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta - Wednesday, December 6 @ 9PM

Detroit? Toronto? Next! Carolina?

So let's see here - it looks as if the Thrashers are hitting their stride yet again. Following a four-game skid in the red, Blueland Nation is as vivacious as ever with four wins in the last five games, picking up nine out of 10 possible points in the process. This past week was nail-biting and completely triumphant with great wins against some hyped Original 6 teams in the New York Rangers and the (UGH) Toronto Maple Leafs. Marian Hossa just keeps getting better and better as the season progresses with two conescutive four-point performances during the two matchups and Kari Lehtonen has two shutouts in his past three games, including the amazing show he put on against the Panthers last Saturday.

With all the notoriety that Hossa gets for his stellar play, it makes you wonder if it has any impact on the ego that is Ilya Kovalchuk. In years past, Kovy was the apex of the team, trying to do everything (well, everything offensively) to win and/or score points (mainly crazy-ass slappers from the point that seemingly never are on net). He was the face of the Atlanta Thrashers and the youth of the NHL. Now, with his early season goal-scoring slump (that he eventually carved out of) and more defensive style of play, Kovy is still a tremendous asset to the team, but some of his contributions aren't necessarily showing up on the scoresheet each night. And with all of the fanfare that Maid Marian is receiving, do you really think that things like this make Kovy feel left out and looking to make the fans start up "KOVY" chants in Blueland? Let me say that it does make me scratch my head a little, only because I know how competitive that Russian is and how he lives for the team. It has to have an impact on him to an extent, but you start to think, you know?

Also, it cannot be said that it was such a pleasurable experience at the Arena Thursday night when the Leaves fans were silenced COMPLETELY. After going more than three years without making things competitve against the punks of hockey, the Thrashers started chipping away slowly, then had enough of that crap, and exploded in the third for a most triumphant win over a bitter rival. If you've ever been to a Leaves/Thrash game at Philips before, you know how the Toronto crowd makes their presence known. They are the most arrogant, in-your-face, and pig-headed fans out there (at least in the Atlanta area) and it just blows my mind how much representation they have here. But to actually give them nothing to cheer about was a complete treat for the Blueland faithful Thursday night. Darcy Tucker was silenced. Andrew Raycroft couldn't stop a beachball if he tried (in the third, at least). Mats Sundin's life was spared (due to the lack of Exelby on the bench). And there was absolutely no sign of Tie Domi, Ed Belfour, Eric Lindros, OR Pat Quinn - THANK GOD. Whatever... it just feels good to rip into the Leaves for a bit and not have any reservations about it either. Finally.

Up next on the schedule is a tiny road trip that features stops in Florida, Toronto, and Tampa Bay, with a matchup against the Penguins at home on Saturday to close out the week. Judging from the Panthers' recent play, Kari and Co. will be looking to hold back Florida even more. Florida's been scoreless in the past three, which included 1-0 defeats against Le Thrash and a shootout loss to Montreal. And we all know that Toronto will come out banging on home ice across the border, so we'll see how that one pans out. Hopefully the Thrashers will seek revenge/lucky bounces against the Lightning and try to make up for last week's miserable loss that occurred when the deciding goal in OT came off of Andy Sutton's shoulder and into the net. Gotta hate it when you're on the short end of plays like that.

Let's go Thrashers!