Closing The Door

I am not just a blogger about Hockey, but for some strange reason the sport seems to draw you in and captivate you. I'm a basketball and soccer athlete and played both on a highly competative level for some time, but as a fan its different watching a team you love be pulled away. As a competitor you can fight as hard as you can and say I did everything I could but we still lost and be able to sleep that night.

Being a fan is much more difficult. Especially if your team is the Atlanta Thrashers. We had to sit through years of an incompetant GM, owners suing themselves, and and underbudget team flounder for 11 years with one glimmer of hope. Being a coach its frustrating to watch and a quote comes to mind that makes me wonder how the gentlemen, scratch that, IDIOTS that call themselves the ASG were able to make enough money to run this team.

It simply reads this: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result."

Its not super profound, its not awe-inspiring, its a simpe fact of life. The only things that never changed before we saw this team start to turn some corners this year were Don Waddell and the ASG running this team into the ground.

Now as Gearon got on the radio and said the reason for a low payroll was "going youg like they did in Pittsburg creates a lower payroll". Thats a lie, you let players walk because you couldn't look them in the face and ensure that all your efforts would go to building a winner. THE PLAYERS KNEW YOU CARED MORE ABOUT BASKETBALL THAN HOCKEY. All of Atlanta knew that when you let Waddell fire Heartly when in reality it was waddells turn to be shown the door since he was incapable of finding the right players for his coaches.

We hire Rick Dudley and the biggest names on our team sign a 5 year deal and the players that are traded here are excited about being here. Take Waddell out and look at the change. Why we didn't get Brian Burke to start off with is beyond me (Yes I get Waddell is a product of the Big Red Borg but he never really had any personal responisiblity there).

Now, I could go on and rant about different things ownership could have done to make this better and how we should have fired waddell before we let Heartly go but it comes back to the owners here. Not once did they stick up for the players and really show they cared, rather they mocked the fans and showed how little they knew about relations.

I am not here to chide or start a war, rather its a simple fan showing some frustration and wanting to know why a city won't stand up and force these owners to be responsible and build a franchise here like they promised to do.

Maybe third time is the charm... If we ever get one.