My Two Cents: Canes at Thrashers

Well, folks, it isn't looking like it is in the cards for us this year. Perhaps that makes me Captain Obvious, but it seems we just don't have what it takes this year to make it happen out on the ice. This is not a call to arms to bail on the team or quit supporting them or any of that nonsense... but we don't have the right mix of personnel and grit and intensity to be one of those teams this year. We've been a .500-ish team all year, and we continued to play like one tonight.

Frankly, we played like a team that had gotten thrown out of practice the day before.

We can whine and yell about the refs (horrible), we can lay blame at individual players, but when it is all said and done we have never had the chemistry, the "oomph" factor, not just tonight but for the entire season. We have been outshot all but 7 games this year, we give up the most shots in the NHL (tied with Florida), we don't clear the crease, we screen the goalies, we don't backcheck, we don't pressure, we don't possess the puck well etc. This has been true all season. What's that saying about the definition of insanity: doing the same things over and over and expecting different results? Your 2007-2008 Atlanta Thrashers.

That being said, we just didn't have it out there tonight. We took a lot of penalties, and never really got into a rhythm out there. Even though we scored first, Carolina had us on our heels all night. Kari didn't have a good game - he was screened on the first goal but the 2nd and 3rd were probably stoppable. Our defense played a mediocre game pretty much across the board (Enstrom did all right); at this point, put Mac and Popovic in and call up the youngsters.

The lone bright spot was Erik Christensen; he hustled on almost every shift and had a sweet move on the breakaway to keep us in the game, albeit temporarily. I like what I'm seeing out of this kid - he'll be fun to watch.

I was glad to see DW get fired up, but at this point in the season, it seems a bit too little, too late.

I'll still be at every game, but I've accepted that this isn't our year.

As always, this is only my two cents, I have been wrong before.