Every now and then, you stumble across something---a moment, a symbol---that perfectly encapsulates the absurdity of being a Thrashers fan, in all its stepping-on-a-rake/pratfall/slipping on a cat/Three Stooges slapping splendor.
This morning while traversing the deserts of Midtown ATL USA on my trusty camel Feisal, I noticed a ginormous billboard advertising tonight's Thrashers-Devils game. The lone hockey player in the ad was not a Thrasher but a Devil. Ilya Kovalchuk. In a Devils uniform.
Many people, probably most people, at the game tonight will boo our former Czar mercilessly, and it's understandable that they would do that. Understandable but stupid. Kovalchuk makes a convenient target for over-the-top hatred, but it's a sad peasant mentality that leads people to focus their anger about something or other (like a hockey team that consistently misses the playoffs, if that's what gets you riled) on one highly visible scapegoat and ignore the less visible architects of their misery. The ones who actually hire people and allocate money and set goals for the organization. Big Shooter states this pretty forcefully here. Do read.
All that said, it will be interesting to watch Kovalchuk play against us and see all the patented Kovy moves from the other side of the telescope. Will he score? Will he lose the puck at the blue line? Will he get into a fight with Jimmy Slater? Will he get first star of the game? It ought to be a riot, a slightly depressing one, but a riot nonetheless.
And hey, what about those Niclas Bergfors and Johnny Oduya types? How will they play against their former team? Heeengh?
As Rawhide points out in today's edition of the Internet AJC, the Thrashers could be eliminated from playoff contention tonight if they lose in regulation and the Flyers at least push their game against Toronto into overtime. It could be a spooky time for anyone still holding on to the more extravagant forms of wishful thinking.
I predict the Thrashers manage to win tonight. But if tonight is indeed our death game, I can only hope we'll go out to the strains of this devil mariachi band.
UPDATE: The traitor speaks!
The gall! He even claims to be "very exciting."
10 comments:
I don't care much for that Shooter guy when he's blabbing his mouth and taking my blog handle in vain. But doggone it, I can really get behind taking the Lord Jesus Christ in vain!! King of Jews juxtaposed with the King of Beers!
Beyond AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yeah, Kovy: suck it! Boooooo!!
There's going to be bloodletting in section ___ tonight.
The beauty of it is, as long as niether one of us kills the other one tonight we go back to being friends after the game.
Fair warning: if it gets bad enough I'm not above kicking Mr. Speaker in his lady parts. That's just how Big Flair rolls... Wooo!
"Understandable but stupid. Kovalchuk makes a convenient target for over-the-top hatred, but it's a sad peasant mentality that leads people to focus their anger about something or other (like a hockey team that consistently misses the playoffs"
I can assure you there will be a lot of good people who are hardly "sad peasants" booing Kovy lustily tonite. I understand what you're saying, but the Kovy sitch is not all black and white. You can boo the man for his decision -- you wanted what was best for this team; you saw the glimmer of hope; you believed that Kovy could lead them and then he bolted -- yet still admire the man for his accomplishments.
I will never like Dany Heatley and the reasons go beyond the fact he killed one of our players. I am afterall a Christian and I can forgive. But the boy is a dunder-headed shit-fuck and doesn't deserve my respect nor the respect of anyone in Ottawa for that matter.
I will boo Kovy for his decision to string us along when he could've been a bit more forthright behind closed doors rather than let Jay Grossman pull his strings and make him look like some sort of pariah, who was treated unfairly for years.
He had a chance to rise above all of the bull-crap and make a decision that would've been admired by his fans and the fans of the Thrashers. Perhaps he would have brought about the needed, proactive changes that y'all whine about as long-time Thrashers fans.
They had a legitimate chance to win now and in the next two years with the talent they were assembling through the draft and around him in UFA. More could have been done, but Kovy bailed before even making a counter-offer. "Hey Donnie, what about 2 years for $21 M eh, we are very exciting? Since you are willing to give me 7 yrs and $70 M and all?"
He was handed the keys to the franchise and he blew snot all over the jersey he wore proudly for 8 years. He could've taken a shorter contract and called the ASG's bluff. What harm would it have done in 2 years if it didn't work out? He'd still be very rich, only 28 y/o, a 400 goal scorer and the most coveted free-agent since __________________ (insert egotistical overpaid athlete of your choice).
I hope I have made my point and y'all feel a bit contrite for calling emotional, passion-filled fans "stupid peasants" when they have a bit more reason to act in such a fashion than you give them credit for. Unlike the idiots who scream "Knights" at an NHL game.
With your permission I would gladly like to make "dunder-headed shit-fuck" a part of my vocabulary.
Yes, an honest-to-goodness debate! I have achieved my aim by calling people peasants.
I think of the anti-Kovy crowd as more like (ironically enough) the Russian variety of peasant that had such fun with anti-Jewish pogroms but never really stopped to consider why their lives sucked so much: the tsar, the aristocracy, etc. Not like the more romantic French variety, with their coq-au-vin and wine-making and insurrections. Perhaps I should have said "serfs."
Yes indeed, a heated, yet fun debate!! No worries, I'm a big man and my lady parts can take it. Just catch them squarely please so it hurts less!
After the first chorus of booos, we will need to direct our vitriol in the general direction of the serfs and peasants residing outside the feifdom of Newark as they will surely be here in force tonite trying to exhort their sinister-looking, Devil-horned wearing team from the swamps of Jerseylicious-ville.
Am i the only one who hasn't missed Kovy a lick since he's been gone? I personally hope he doesn't come back, not that he would, to eat up a massive chunk of salery cap space we could use to overpay a few other mediocre players.
Oh, Sweet Merciful Jesus, the season is finally coming to an end. Way to lay down like dogs "Trashers". Fire everyone, move the team, who the fuck cares anymore.
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