Brushed Aside

Last night's overwhelming loss to the Boston Bruins effectively brushed your Atlanta Thrashers to the side. For the woe is me crowd this is not the end of our playoff chances. Our chances have been tight for a week or  two now and we certainly didn't help our cause dropping that game to the Bruins.

Personally I didn't think that we played a terrible game in the sense that we came out and didn't try. I thought the team played with a lot of grit and heart, well, until the end of the second period with just 4 seconds left when the 3rd goal got past Moose. Eric Boulton, tried like hell to get  things going in the 1st period with a throw down with Shawn Thornton, which I think was probably close to a draw, but he got the crowd going. The dagger in the heart of the team was the final goal early in the 3rd period, I think the team had some fight left in them before that, but any will to win fled with that goal.

I thought the crowd was pretty into the game until early in the 3rd period also. The attendance somewhere around the 14,000 mark, with little to no homeless actually in the crowd drinking free beer and munching on free hot dogs.

Did that hurt? Hell yeah!!...are we now completely washed out??...Hell No!!!...It's going to be a tough climb, and one we may not be able to accomplish, but the fact is that even if we had won last night that was going to still be the case; though the win would have made the climb a little easier. We're still in the hunt and only 3 points out.

The team you may really want to pay attention to folks is Philly. Currently they are in 6th place and 4 points ahead of the Thrashers, but they are in a little bit of a free fall and having to rely heavily upon a 3rd line goalie and with Jeff Carter, their biggest offensive weapon, gone for the rest of the regular season. They could very easily fall out of the race completely and leave a spot open for the Thrashers. The biggest job that Atlanta faces is to continue to win as many points as possible to put themselves in the best position they can and to fend off at all costs the assault of the hated New York Rangers, you may remember them...they swept us the only time we've ever been to the dance.

Tomorrow the Thrashers face a tough Toronto Maple Leafs, the Thrashers can not afford to look past this team. Though they are in the cellar in the conference they have been playing some decent hockey and are working on coming together as a team, they will be dangerous in the seasons to come in my opinion.

The Thrashers are certainly faced with a major up hill climb, with teams like Washington (X2), Pittsburgh (x2), Carolina (x2) and New Jersey. With maybe...maybe...the exception of Washington, all these teams will be playing for something, whether that be pride, a improved playoff seed, home ice advantage in the playoffs or something...so nobody is going to give us anything. That is not to say that it can't be done...but it's going to be a rough road.