Dates to circle, puckheads

Craig Custance posted dates in his Thrashers beat blog for the AJC - some important, some trivial. Here are the dates that I find noteworthy:

Fri., September 14 - Training camp commences! I'll be there as often as I can to provide pics and some informal commentary on the happenings at the Ice Forum in Duluth - y'all should definitely make it out there, it'll be worth the trip!

Sat., September 15 - Preseason and regular season tickets go on sale to the general public. Seeing that my season ticket holder days are ahead of me, this is a big day for me to stockpile a bunch of tickets, mainly the season opener and closer. Any other games will immediately depend on whether or not there are specials going on for certain games/days of the week/etc.

Fri., October 5 - The Thrashers '07-'08 season opener vs. Washington. You better believe that I'll be there. Aside from game one of last season's playoff run (I never made it to game two), this game will probably result in total celebratory mayhem. Not only do the Birds already have some intradivisional beef with the Caps, but the crowd will go absolutely bonkers when the Thrashers raise the first (OF MANY) championship banner to the rafters of Philips Arena. DO NOT MISS THIS MOMENT.

Fri., January 25 to Mon., January 28 - All-Star Weekend. I anticipated this sooooo much back in '05 when it was originally supposed to come to Atlanta. I looked forward to having the best NHL talent in this city for a few days. I wanted to be immersed in hockey at the Georgia World Congress Center. I made a wishlist of players old and new who would sign autographs. I salivated at the possibility of hockey collectibles on display. I wanted it all. Then, the lockout came. This time, the whole shebang isn't going to get canned. And I'll be there. So excited.

Tues., February 26 - Trade deadline @ 3PM. At this point in the season, we'll know where we stand. Last season, we definitely made some important moves to get us into the postseason, but where did those moves get us today? Tkachuk moseyed back to St. Louis, Belanger traveled up north, Dupuis resigned, and we have Zhitnik for a little while longer. Hopefully we won't need to clean shop just to make it into the playoffs this season. And if Hossa doesn't have a contract extension by then, does he get moved as this is his last season, under contract, in Atlanta? Hmm...

Wed., April 9 - Let the playoffs begin! Surely, we cannot have a teensy-tiny sip of playoff fever and then miss out on 'em entirely the following year. While the roster for this season has some more question marks than I'd like, I'm betting that between things coming together (i.e. team chemistry, rookies' performances, etc.) for us, acquisitions during the season, and the folding of the competition within our division (yeah, I said it!), we'll start gnawing on postseason yumminess in March and won't loosen our grip for some time, including well into April!

Mon., June 9 - Absolute last day of Stanley Cup playoffs. By this time, the world will know who will be etched onto the Cup of Greatness for all to see and discuss for the, uh, upcoming '08-'09 season. Who will be the surprises of the season, with regard to both the players and the teams? Who will be the biggest let downs? Will the off-season moves (Briere, Smyth, Gomez/Drury, I'm talkin' to you!) prove beneficial or will teams have to deal with blights on their team payrolls? Also, what rookies will be far and above the rest of the young'uns?

Le Thrash on Le Tube

From NHL.com (that is, if you haven't realized by now), the nationally-televised games were announced. Our Thrash have a few tilts scheduled for the oh-so-popular Versus network and absolutely none on NBC, which is apparently starting NHL coverage in the new year.

Tue., October 16 @ Philadelphia (puck drops @ 7:00 PM ET)
Mon., November 19 - vs. Tampa Bay (puck drops @ 7:00 PM ET)
Wed., January 2 - @ Carolina (puck drops @ 7:00 PM ET)
Tue., March 18 - @ Philadelphia (puck drops @ 7:00 PM ET)

Personally, I like that there's some sort of network in the States that is picking up hockey, but absolutely hate how it's not a part of most cable packages. I, for one, am seriously missing out on hockey when it's televised on Versus. I'm sure you can make the argument that ESPN would be limited as well, but it's my understanding that most cable packages include ESPN in there.

Basically, Versus doesn't reach as many homes as it should and you can go ahead and include myself in that category. If anyone truly knows the formalities behind the Versus/other network discussions/debates/etc., please fill me in or provide me a link to more clarity on this subject.

Meh, here are a couple of handy links to familiarize yourselves with this topic:

• Versus-NHL Deal Leaves Door Open (dated Aug. 7)
  
• NHL & ESPN talking about new partnership to replace NBC (dated Aug. 4, courtesy of SeSo's capefish!)

Thrashers '07-'08 Schedule Released! (clicky)

Considering I just saw this, the Atlanta Thrashers upcoming season schedule was released yesterday, July 11, as was the rest of the NHL. I knew it would happen because I was slowly picking up that other teams were releasing their own schedules... go figure this happens while I'm working. So while I have absolutely zero time to really pick it apart, I have noticed some interesting aspects of it, some of which I plan to talk about this coming weekend. (That's right - the return of weekend posts here @ WWD!) For starters, however, here are the links to the press release for the announcement of the schedule and the preseason schedule (which was released earlier this week or last weekend).

See y'all at the prospect camp tomorrow afternoon!

Link: Thrashers Announce 2007-08 NHL Regular Season Schedule
Link: 2007-2008 Regular Season Schedule
Link: Thrashers Announce 2007 Preseason Schedule