The Sky is Falling!!

With all the speculation surrounding the future of the Thrasher's captain Ilya Kovalchuk the brilliant minds at the think tank known as The Hockey News have chosen Ken Campbell as their spokesman to foretell of the doom and gloom that will soon descend upon Atlanta hockey. He also opines on how the lockout did no good for a franchise destined to eternal suck and fail such as ours. I'll let you read the article yourself but let me please rant for a while on all that drivel.

Let me begin with the fact that it becomes evident to me that the writers at the Hockey News in general, but I'll confine my comments for now to Ken Campbell specifically seem to know next to nothing about the Thrashers past Ilya Kovalchuk apparently. My only guess is that he's been getting his vast knowledge of the Thrashers through his fellow Hockey News cohort and my favorite punching boy Adam Proteau. Since the brain trust at the Hockey News has been sucking off the teat of ignorance with regards to Atlanta hockey please let me give you the other side of the story.

"Kovalchuk is fully within his rights to demand $12 million on a long-term deal and who can blame him for making that kind of monetary demand to the Thrashers?" - Well let me answer that for you Ken...12 mil is over the max cap allowed..you're an idiot.

"The real reason is more likely because the Thrashers have never been able to fill their roster with NHL-caliber players and have never been able to find a center any better than Todd White to play with Kovalchuk." - News flash..Nik Antropov has been the center on that line pretty much all year...you're still an idiot

"If they were to somehow sign him to such a deal, it would almost certainly cripple the franchise from a competitive standpoint and continue to make the Thrashers what they have been since 2001 ?? a team with a superstar and not enough good players around to help him." - With Slava Kozlov coming up as a 38 year old UFA and making approximately 3.5 million per year it will be quite easy to take his salary and put it on the books for Kovy, thus absorbing the pay increase and making room for up and coming talent..you guessed it Campbell...you're an idiot

The question really is what is Kovalchuk worth? well it depends on what motivates you as an owner, fan, manager and so on. Alex Ovechkin got a contract for 9.5 million a year and if you'll look at his numbers he's better than Kovy in every statistical category. Atlanta fans don't come out for stars, that's been evident time and time again just ask Mike Vick, Deon Sanders, Dale Murphy, Dominque Wilkins. They all saw low attendance and were big stars in Atlanta..why?? because the teams they were playing on weren't getting the job done. Atlanta will support a winner and until it gets one there will be empty seats. The fact is the house ain't full with Kovy skating in it....why??...cause the TEAM isn't winning.

As a fan on an emotional level I hope we re-sign Kovys. As a hockey fan with some knowledge of the game, if he can't come to terms with a contract that is at least in line with what Ovechkin is making I think he'll either be over payed, if he stays, or greedy if he walks.

As far as Campbell is concerned I think we see that his knowledge of the situation is not as vast as he'd like to think.