December Is Going To Be Busy

The Thrashers had a busy November and December offers more of the same. After having a slow and sparse October schedule the boys in Blue ramped it up in Mo-vember and now with their Ron Burgandy mustaches behind them it's the season of Santa and the scheduling is tighter than ever.

What do the Thrashers have to look forward to? Well it's going to be a month with some stiff competition. They'll be living out of their suitcases for a good bit of the month, and not a ton of rest for the guys either, as there is no more than 2 days off between games all month.

The Thrashers kick off a 15 game December by hosting the NY Islanders on Thursday December 3rd. This will be yet another attempt to shed the Thursday curse and see if we can't give the Isles a little payback from the beating we took at their hands up there in New York.

Here's what the rest of the month is going to look like broken down in bullet form for you

• 15 games
• 10 road games and 5 at home
• 2 sets of back to back games on 9th and 10th and then again on 16th and 17th
• One of those sets of back to back is all on the road and one is a road and then home
• 3 Division games
• 12 Conference games
• We will face the Panthers, Bruins, Devils and Habs twice in the month of December

We're looking at having to play several top teams this month including the Devils, Flames and Bruins along with playing tough opponents such as Vancouver, Dallas and Tampa Bay

The Thrashers enter the month of December with a good road record of 8-2-1 which we hope will serve us well as a foundation for another 10 on the road. The Thrashers improved their home record to 6-5-2 with the win over Florida on Monday.

What should we expect? What do we want and need out of this month? Well..I would like to see us get at least 10 of the 20 available points during our time on the road and win 3 out of the 5 at home that would give us 16 points conservatively at the end of the month. That wouldn't be a bad month either. Of course I'd love to see us go on a 15 game tear and kill the entire NHL but let's be realistic here.

Looking at games that we should be on the inside track to win includes the two meeting with Florida the game against Toronto and the home game against Dallas. I think we stand a good shot against the Habs but they are a tough team and would like to split our meetings with both the Bruins and Devils.

Overall the month of December is going to be busy and it's going to be tough for the Thrashers but with 2 months of the schedule behind us we've seen enough of this team to tell that if they play good hockey we can emerge on the back side of this month with better than half the points available to us and stay in the hunt for a playoff berth.

What do you expect from this month? What would you like to see?