Olympic Break Over...March To The Playoffs

Well I took advantage of the Olympic break to take a little vacation myself from blogging..just a little battery recharge before we get ready for the stretch run. The Thrashers have kicked the PR blitz into full swing with many players hitting the streets giving away java and then pounding the local federally supervised air waves.

A quick note on the Olympic hockey tournament. Was that not one of the best tournaments you've ever seen? What a hell of a hockey game yesterday, the Americans have nothing to be ashamed of and left everything they had out on the ice. Ryan Miller had look on his face that was combination "I want to cry" and "I want to puke". Let me be the first to say to you Ryan, if it hasn't already been said. You made every American proud.

Overall the Vancouver Olympics was a good time, with the obvious exception to the young Georgian luger who lost his life the day of opening ceremonies. I'm glad to see the U.S. do so well and really, also happy for our upstairs neighbors Canada.

Ok...back to the Thrashers...so this week is going to be huge on several levels. First off the Thrashers have several games this week and they are all going to be huge from this point on. Tuesday we have the Panthers and then Thursday we host the Islanders and finishing the week up with Tampa Bay in Tampa.

Playing games on the ice isn't the only thing that will be concerning the Thrashers this week as there are many games off the ice to play between now and Wednesday afternoon. For those of you uninitiated, that's the NHL trade deadline for the season. We're not sure of anything in these crazy times but there are a few things that are fairly good bets.

• Slava Kozlov has requested a trade. He's unhappy with his reduced role here and knowing this is the twilight of his career he would rather go out on the ice than in the press box. Slava is as class as it comes and I hate to see him not with us...but it is what it is..hope all works for him
• We have a glut of defenders, somebody is gonna go. Right now we're sitting on Enstrom, Kubina, Popovic, Oduya, Schubert, Hainsey, Bogosian, with Kulda giving a strong showing and Valabik injured. That's too many defensemen. Kubina, Popovic, Schubert are all UFA at the end of the season. Enstrom, Bogosian, Oduya and Kulda would all be considered hands off. Rumor is that Waddell is thinking and maybe talking extension to Kubina. We'll keep an eye on that one
• With the exit of Kovalchuk the Thrashers will be looking to shore up the loss of offensive production and so will be in the market to add some scoring. With the addition of picks and prospects stemming from the Kovalchuk and Lehtonen trades the Thrashers have a full basket to play with.
• Look for possible trades involving Colby Armstrong, he's a UFA at the end of the season and there has been a lot of talk that he's just not a total fit for the  JA system.

It's good to be back and looking forward to an exciting week, nay...month in the NHL. The Thrashers did a good job in the abbreviated February in keeping themselves in the hunt and now they have to bring it home. They will be feeling  the pressure, but they aren't the only ones as there are very few teams in the conference who can already breathe easily.

So here's to a busy week and FanThrashtic will be here to weigh in on all the moves both on and off the ice this week. For my 2 readers that missed me while I was on Olympic break...I'm back