Thrashers Blogosphere -- Most Underrated In The League?

Ok, someone is going to have to explain this to me. The Atlanta Thrashers, probably the most crapped-on franchise in all of pro sports, have developed a startlingly large following of bloggers lately.

Factors that make a large Thrashers blogosphere unlikely:
- They play in Atlanta, a notorious black hole of sports fandom.
- I have seen high school basketball games fill more seats than the Thrashers.
- In franchise history, they have never won a game that could be described as "significant".
- Only one player on the roster is worth a trade in NHL '09.
- They wear these and these and these. In public.

In spite of all this, and the fact that the team has accomplished squat for the past two years and is headed nowhere as long as Don Waddell has anything to do with it, the Thrashers blogosphere is growing faster than Carey Price's GAA. What gives? Could this team be filling the niche left empty by the Whalers and Nords?

The Blueland Chronicle - Several posts daily, nice balance of seriousness and snark.

Bird Watchers Anonymous - Lots of insight on the Thrashers' off-ice issues.

Blueland Outsider - Straight up fandom. And LOL pics for fun.

Firewagon Hockey - "Fuck you, Thrashers. This isn't a team. It's a goalie and five monkeys trying fuck a football. Hey you know what? There's a league of deaf kids here that need a goalie." Yeah. Bonus points for Bruins fandom.

The Thrashers 411 - Everything you could possibly want to know in a game preview.

Blueland Roar - Epic road trip reviews and other die-hard goodness.

The Iceman Bloggeth - Ok, this one is a bit of a cheat because it's an Atlanta Constitution-Journal columnist's paid blog [retraction: this is a legit fan blog hosted by the ACJ site. My mistake!]. But I'll give him credit for a clever title [no retraction.]

Thrashers Recaps - Irregular, random thoughts on all sorts of stuff.

We Want Dunham! - I think this one might be dead, but I hope not... if only for the sake of keeping the awesome title alive.

Blueland Blog - Very regular, keeping the pulse of the team.

Chi-Town Thrash - Brand new, but pretty thorough so far.

Getting Pucks Deep - Lots of nice gameday photography.

Slightly Off-Topic - Only a week old, but like Chi-Town Thrash it's pretty good so far.

TheRussianOne13 - Tasty visuals.

Thrashers Prospect Annex - Former Hockey Futures writer still contributes occasionally to this prospect blog.

24/7 Hockey - Well maybe not considering it's only updated occasionally.

Bruins vs. Thrashers: Resisting A "Sloppy Seconds" Reference...

It was a crazy one last night, with the B's flattening Atlanta 7-3. Can't believe I passed up the opportunity to see this game, in favor of the 12/28 matchup. On the other hand, live games don't have a rewind/slow-motion option for replaying awesome goals and fights.

You've gotta give respect to struggling teams who put up a fight. The Thrashers lost primarily on the basis of awful goaltending; having played a decent first 5 minutes and still finding themselves down 2-0, everything just fell apart from there. Ondrej Pavelec was F-minus bad, Johan Hedberg (what happened to this guy?) looked on the verge of a mental breakdown, and the rest of the team was playing with a pretty large chip on its shoulder. Unlike certain other teams, the Thrashers didn't just fold up their tent and wander off into the night. They played hard and fought hard, and a lot of it felt like old-time hockey.

Hard to know what to expect tonight in Boston. If past blowouts against struggling Dallas and Tampa are any indication, the Thrashers will have an internal meltdown on the team plane and arrive with no desire to play hockey anymore (Hedberg certainly looked like he was heading in that direction). But from what I saw last night, I wouldn't be surprised to see them come out with their foot squarely on the gas -- they've scored 7 goals in 2 games against the Bruins' top-ranked defense, and with an early lead they might stand a chance of pulling off the upset.

Items of interest -- Milan Lucic picked up a Gordie Howe hat trick last night. In his previous game against Atlanta, he scored an actual hat trick. Are there any other kinds of hat trick he could score tonight... perhaps a natural one? Also, the Bruins were the first Eastern team (2nd overall, behind San Jose and beating Detroit by a matter of minutes) to score 100 goals this season.

Other news -- Aaron Ward played only a minute before deciding he wasn't in game condition just yet. After seeing a pretty poor outing from callup Matt Lashoff against the Caps, I'd kinda like to see Johnny Boychuk dress for this one. [update: Patrice Bergeron will take the night off with the flu, which throws a monkeywrench in the Bruins' lines. For one thing, it opens up Bergeron's spot on the PP, where he plays the point. Best guess is Mark Stuart gets a chance, after scoring twice last night. Also, this means that Stephane Yelle will move up to center the second line, and Martins Karsums will make his NHL debut as fourth-line center. Karsums will skate with Shawn Thornton and Vladimir Sobotka, who will replace Petteri Nokelainen, who injured his shoulder last night. Got all that?]

Manny Fernandez starts tonight. He had won 7 straight until losing to the Caps, and Tim Thomas allowed 3 goals to a mediocre offense. Guess why Timmy looked so pissed off after that last goal? Manny is in a great position to pick up a few consecutive starts if he plays well tonight.

You could probably make some money by running a betting pool around who will be starting for the Thrashers tonight. Do they start Pavelec, who gave up 4 goals on 5 shots, or Hedberg, who was the backup AND got pulled in the same game, and went off on his teammates in the process? (anyone else catch his "fucking stupid" directed at Boris Valabik, accidentaly picked up by the NESN mikes?)

The Habs got bad news, as they have been bitten hard by the injury bug. They have lost 2 of 3, have a tought week coming up, and are now 7 points back of the Bruins. But forget all that... check out this awesome blog post from Four Habs Fans.

Meanwhile the Rangers lost a crazy game to the Devils, coming back from 5-1 and still losing 8-5. That puts the Rangers a solid 4 points behind the Bruins, with 4 more games played. Right about now, we should be looking out the corner of our eyes at the Flyers and Pens instead of the slumping Rags. As I type, the Flyers lead the Pens 2-0.

Bruins vs. Thrashers: Stuff To Look Out For

The Bruins' easy December schedule continues tonight in Atlanta, in the first game of a home-and-home with the Thrashers. I don't like to write off any team, least of all one with a player as explosive as Kovalchuk... but let's be honest, the Bruins should be shooting for 4 points this weekend. Otherwise we'll get to April Fool's Day and kick ourselves for being 1 point behind some schmuck team like the Pens.

Stuff to watch tonight:

Goaltending rotation: It's a safe bet that Tim Thomas will start this game. He and Manny Fernandez are back on an alternating schedule, and will probably stay that way until one of them cracks. On the other end, it's tough to say who will start -- Johan Hedberg is the "starter" but has a vomit-inducing GAA of 3.55. To his credit, his past 2 games against the New York teams looked much better: 1.50, 95% saves.

Early decision: The Thrashers have been involved in only one shootout this season, a win on October 18th.

Obscure but good: Everyone knows that Ilya Kovalchuk is being wasted on this team, but there are other quality players on the Thrashers roster who get virtually no recognition leaguewide. Toby Enstrom is one of the better young defensemen in the conference, and will have a large role in any future successes in Atlanta. Bryan Little is a promising 21-year-old from Edmonton on pace for a 40-goal season. And... yeah, that's about it.

Kovie watch: Kovalchuk isn't exactly known for being a gritty player -- in fact, he rather sucks at defense -- but he has been playing with some extra snarl lately. Perhaps it's frustration, perhaps it's showcasing to get the hell out of Atlanta. In any case, he remains one of the league's most dynamic goal scorers, so pissing him off is not a good idea. Furthermore, rather than lose him for 2 or 5 minutes, the Thrashers would be wise to protect him with some muscle... which leads me to...

Goon watch: Atlanta's enforcer is Eric Boulton. He's close to my heart because I remember seeing him rack up 325 PIM in only 44 games in Charlotte a decade ago. I mean, this guy fought in literally every game and frequently more than once per game. Crazy and fearless. The Bruins don't fight a lot, so it might not come to anything, but a bout between Boulton and Shawn Thornton would be an instant middleweight classic.

On the forecheck: This game will probably boil down to good forward pressure by the Bruins. Atlanta has a pretty weak defensive corps, and no elite puck-mover, and therefore spend quite a lot of time in their own zone. If the Bruins forecheck aggressively, they should be able to cause turnovers and use their skill to score early and often. Then again, they played a pretty solid game against the Caps and simply couldn't beat the goalie. That's why they play 'em.

Other previews:
No other previews up yet, but you can check the links to the right side of the screen to see them as they roll in.

Thrashers blogs:
The Thrashers have a surprisingly strong blogosphere following, for a struggling team in a so-called non-hockey market (pfft.). I am guessing that at least a few of these will offer previews.
Thrashers 411
Blueland Chronicle
Firewagon Hockey
Blueland Outsider
I have no idea if Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons? is planning to do a preview, but his last one was pretty good and it gives you a ton of insight into the inner workings of the Thrashers roster.