Waddell was awakened by the morning light shining through his bedroom window. Groggily, he glared at the empty glass on his bedside table that still smelled of whiskey. Obviously it was too much drink before bedtime that led to the strange nightmare of Curt Fraser.
He went through his morning routine with the NHL Network playing On the Fly in the background, and grabbed a donut from the kitchen, wishing that he was with the team on a Canadian road trip so he could visit a Tim Hortons.
Intending to head to the Ice Forum to begin calling teams about who might be on the waiver wire soon, Waddell opened the door to his garage and passed through. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. The temperature was far too warm for this late December morning, and a smell of pretzels and stale hotdogs hung in the air.
Wide eyed, he stared around him at the press box of Philips Arena where his garage should be. Waddell turned to go back through the door into his kitchen, but the door was gone.
"You can't escape that easy, boss." Said a slightly accented voice behind him.
"Hnat Dominichelli? I thought you were playing rec league hockey in Latvia." Don exclaimed.
"I'm not really Dommer, I'm the Ghost of Thrashers Season Past, here to show you the error of your ways." The spirit replied.
"Look around you and tell me what you see."
Waddell did as he was told and replied "Well I can't see much, because everything is dark. Why are we here?"
"This is Philips Arena, and tonight is the start of the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But there's no one here, because the Thrashers finished out of the top 8 in the East yet again."
"Now come on, that's not my fault. We were an expansion team and it takes a while to build up." Waddell meekly countered.
"Yes, just like the Florida Panthers who only took two years to make it to the finals. Or the Nashville Predators who have made the playoffs several times to Atlanta's one." Dominicelli replied.
"But I am sure that once the team makes it to the playoffs for the first time, you will make sure that they maintain a high level of play and make it every year after that, right?"
"Um, yeah. Of course. And you'll be team captain, too."
"The silver lining of these abyssmal seasons was that the franchise received high draft picks. How well did you use them, Waddell?" the spirit asked.
"As well as any GM in the league."
"It will be up to the Ghost of Thrashers Season present to judge that claim."
And with that, Waddell found himself sitting in his office at the Ice Forum, staring at his copy of Mike Milbury's book "How to trade your franchise players for high paid dead weight."
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