Thrashers are goners!

Is this really the way it is going to end? The deal to sell the Thrashers was made official today and I couldn’t be more disappointed! This is totally devastating to me and I can’t believe that the NHL and cowardly Commissioner Bettman allowed this to happen. Which by the way, Bettman never even stepped foot in the city when all of this started! He assured the city they would do everything he could to keep the team here, but all along all he was thinking about is the fat 60 million dollar check the NHL will get for a franchise relocation fee. What happened to the “Covenant” with fans Mr Bettman?

I can’t blame all of this on the commissioner, the joke that is The Atlanta Spirit Group should get most of the blame. They never gave the Thrashers a chance to succeed. It was clear from the beginning that they were more interested in the Hawks and the ownership of Philips arena. With that being said, I am surprised that the Thrashers made it 11 years! Anyway, they never made any serious efforts to improve the product on the ice. Waddell should have been fired years ago and look at all of the great talent that was once on the team! You could form a team of former Thrashers and it would beat any All Star team you could put together! Players like Hossa, Kovalchuk, Savard, Heatly, Lehtonen, etc! I blame most of those departures directly on the owners. They never provided a stable and viable future for these guys and they all wanted out. It was a bad marriage from the beginning and now the fans are suffering for their ineptness!

The fan base in Atlanta is solid! Can it be compared to some of the Canadian fan bases, no, but look at all of the other options our city? Most Canadian cities only have one major sports franchise while Atlanta has three other pro franchise and two major colleges in the area. In the end, the support was there but the product wasn’t. I was the biggest glassy eyed optimist when it came to this team and I believed we were on the right track to make the playoffs and eventually contend for a cup, but that has all be yanked away! The members of the Atlanta Spirit should be ashamed for their lies and actions, but instead they are probably celebrating their great caper and counting their money!

This one is going to be tough for me to get over, but I don’t blame the players. I wish them the best of luck and I am sure they will enjoy playing in front of the hockey crazed fans in Winnipeg. They will get a chance to play for a sellout crowd for every home game.

Thanks Thrashers players but screw you Atlanta Spirit Group!