Flaming Thrashers from Hell!

Our friend Rawhide has written a wonderful piece about conversations he's had recently with former Atlanta Flames player Tim Ecclestone (now the proprietor of TJ's Sports Bar & Grill in Alpharetta), mostly about the history of hockey in Atlanta and the sad fact that the Thrashers organization doesn't make much of an effort to include Flamers players in its operations or in its ceremonies.

Obviously, Atlanta isn't Chicago, and we can't have the likes of Bobby Hull and Tony Esposito drop the puck before important games, but wouldn't it be nice if the organization DID try to involve Flames players like, say, Pat Quinn?

HMMMMM?

Anyway, read the article. Your editor must confess, in the third person, that he hadn't yet entered the world when the Flames relocated to Calgary. He vaguely remembers the Knights and their success, but the first NHL team he was conscious of were the Los Angeles Kings, 'cause of that Gretzky fella.* But he would love it if former Flames (and former Thrashers! How does Scott Mellanby not have a job here?) could be involved, professionally and ceremonially, in the Thrashers organization.

*Which should tell you just how foreign any "hockey belongs in Canada and Canada only" or "hockey only belongs in cold miserable places" viewpoints are to me. I never had any serious knowledge of the Original Six until relatively recently; growing up as a casual and non-obsessed spectator (in contrast to today), hockey for me was the Los Angeles Kings, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (I know, I know) and for some reason the Washington Capitals.