Looking Ahead

Is it too early to look ahead and see what the off season is going to bring? Let's take a couple of minutes and sit on the porch and whittle while we talk off season hockey.

Well first off we should be in the top 10 picks for the draft so that'll be nice. I think the biggest move that will be concerning Thrasher fans though will be the disposition of front office management. With Don Waddell's contract up at the end of this season the fans are clamoring for new leadership, the question is will the Octocluster provide it, or will they allow the Teflon Don to retain his current strangle hold on hockey mediocrity?

Lately I'm also seeing more calls to replace John Anderson. I'm not sure yet how I feel about that. I like his system and if people played it like they did in November then it could be exciting to watch and effective, however I do have a list of issues I have with him, the first being his inability to get this team ready to answer the bell for a full 60 minutes on a consistent basis. Another thing that is getting irritating is the plethora of excuses used in the post game scrum in which it's always a bad bounce, or we're fragile...we're fragile??? These are hockey players....fragile?? really?? I guess maybe if they are that fragile they should try Ice Dancing.

After we solve the GM and Coaching conundrum we'll need to move on to UFA/RFA signings and roster moves. I'm hoping personally that we can convince Pavel Kubina to stick around, but I expect to see Maxim Afinogenov and Colby Armstrong exit stage right...(even)

Have you gotten your season ticket package for next year yet??? I got mine last night and I'm still not sure...for more reasons admittedly than the on ice product, but that certainly hasn't been compelling enough to make me throw caution to the wind with respect to my other concerns.

With last night's loss to the Blue Jackets this team all but sealed their playoff fate and they are now left to the whims and unpredictability of what the rest of the NHL does and less to how we do alone. I think what makes this such a bitter pill to swallow this season is because we tasted sweet success so early in the season and felt like we should be looking to who we're going to play in the playoffs at this point instead of what moves the club will make in the off season...that will start in April

Stay tuned for the next post when I actually research who we might have a shot at in the draft...and do a UFA/RFA breakdown