Thrashers Win Season Opener against Tampa Bay

The Atlanta Thrashers opened the new season last night against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a scary 6-3 win.

I didn't see a moment of the game live, but listened to Thrashers Radio live on the internet. Due to work, I couldn't hear anything from the first period.

I joined the game with a score of 2-0. Zach Booger-Snot added a goal while Evander Kane later assisted for his first NHL point in his first NHL game. Well done. Kovalchuk scored the first, appropriate for the Captain.

Then, it got a little scary. A goal by the Lightning. Then another to end the second. 4-2. An early third period goal let me think that the old "can't stop 'em defense" was back. And maybe so. But an insurance power play goal coupled with a back up insurance goal later in the game sealed the deal for the boys in blue.

Now, I've looked at some of the numbers and this is what I see.

Way to many shots allowed on goal. 39 allowed by the Lightning. 30 is my magic number. Less than that is beautiful. Pavelec is a talented goal tender, especially looking at some of the highlights from that game; however a tender is only so good no matter who minds the net. You've got to have some blockage and breakups in front of him. The Thrashers only had 28 shots on goal. The most important thing is not the shots, but the goals HOWEVER I am a big believer that you need to take more shots to insure the puck ends up in the net. Not wild shots, but don't always look for the golden opportunity because it may never materialize.

From what I heard, it does sound like the Thrashers aren't needlessly putting around with the biscuit out there and acutally (GASP!) taking the shots. Four of the shots were wristers, one tip in, and one slap shot by Kovy. This indicates to me that players are actually taking the initiative themselves instead of relying on the Captain K for everything. The tip-in was a beauty of a backhand which came as a result of a juicy rebound by Tampa's tender, Smith. How long have I been yelling at the Atlanta bench to follow the shot and plant someone by the goalie?

See? It works!

As far as penalties, they took too many for me. Then again, I think almost ANY penalty is unnecessary.

Except for fighting. That really can inspire a team as Thorburn and Bolton proved last night (especially Eric B.)





The Thrashers took only a few stupid penalties, but commited less than the Lightning. Good deal. However, on that note the Powerplay is a little lacking. I would say the same about the penalty kill, but the second Tampa Bay goal (a PP goal) was scored by amazingly fast Martin St. Louis in a 4 on 3 situation. With that much open ice for St. Louis, he was going to score against a tired and depleated Thrasher defense.

Still, I hate Martin St. Louis. All four feet of him.

I really wish I could have watched this game. It's hard to comment on a game simply listening to play-by-play and looking at the stats and box scores. I will say that the Thrashers Radio is very entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of the broadcast but I wanted to see it!

A surprise was Peverley coming up with a duo of goals to match Kovy's pair. Salmela and the previously mentioned Booger-Snot (Bogosian) notched the other ones. Assists came from a rogues gallery of players (9 total) which is a great thing. Teamwork with a few weapons, especially Little and Lil' Toby both having a pair of assists.

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But you don't come the HOCKEY COP website looking for hockey information do you? Of course not! You come looking for Disney pictures and information!

Well, let me sum up all of my light duty jobs I've done since my new assignment.

I worked as a Food / Wine Greeter, a Turnstile Host, a Character Attendant, and a Bus Information Person. The first and last were horrible. One was telling cast members not to walk into the park as a guest from backstage and the Bus Info was telling people who were already lost accurate information they didn't want to hear. Like their bus was going to be really late.

The Turnstile host was surprisingly nice. I waved to everyone that left the Epcot park while opening gates for strollers or wheelchairs while looking out for rented strollers, wheelchairs and alcohol. None of those things leave the park. I got to wear the big Mickey hand! And I was recognized by management for doing a good job by way of a Fantastic Service Recognition.

The best was the Character Attendent. I worked with a pletheria (is that spelled right?), oh well, a pletheria of characters. This included the Character Spot (home of Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy), Donald in his Three Cabeneros outfit in Mexico, Snow White in Germany, Stitch, Daisy Duck (S-D-Bs!), and most recently in France with Belle, the Beast and sorta worked with Princess Aurora also known as Sleeping Beauty.

I can't really say a whole lot about my experiences with these folks except it was awesome! I loved seeing the looks on people's faces when they got to see their favorite character. My favorite is by far Belle. She knows the 501st and is a fan! She has even hung out with Princess Leia during the Star Wars Weekends for a few years.

Like I said, I can't say a whole lot about all of my interactions with the characters for obvious reasons. But know it's quite surreal watching Sleeping Beauty sitting next to Briar Rose herself.

On a sad note, all of my associates are gone now. No more Stephanie. No more family. No more ghost friends. They did leave me with some additional pictures taken by Gina of the evening. They are below. Some are similar to my pictures, but feel free to ignore them.

Big thanks to Gina, Madog, DeTag, Steve, Liz, and Jesse for letting me hand out with you guys. It was great. And, this just in, Stephanie will be here October 12-14. Yay!

OH! I almost forgot! My new job is Bus Greeter. I work with probably the most juvenile folks around, but I won't see them that long. Serious. I'm not sure if their maturity was collected and liquified it would fill a test tube. But that's okay. Considering the nature of the job, that may be a benefit.

See, my new job is to go to a different resort everyday and stay at the bus stop. I interact with the guests waiting and mark each and every bus that comes into the station. If a bus takes more than 20 minutes, maybe 25, I call and get another one. It helps keep the buses accountable by relieving the stress of the drivers and the guests.

Also, we can work at Fantastmic, the spectacular show at Disney's Hollywood Studios. That will be fun.

That will be fun. Plus, the hours are desirable. 6:45 until 2:00 am.

If you've ever visited a Disney Resort, you should appreciate the fact that there will be someone looking out for your Disney Transportation needs.

Enough of that. On to the photos!

Many of them are similar, but some are new and non-ghost-ish. Some are a bigger view of the preparation process. Also, note that I had some trouble uploading the photos for some reason, so they appear out of chronological order. That c-word is suppose to be, you know, that word that means the order in which things appear in real time. I can't spell. Plus, there are some more picture of me since they are from a different photographer.

Enjoy!



Thanks Gina for the photos!

One last parting story. I met Steve and Liz recently at Animal Kingdom. We rode Dinosaur a few times during the day. They were fun romps through time!



The funny story comes from the beginning of the day.

I was there early, early enough for rope drop (gate opening). I was the first person in line for the Dinosaur ride. Now, other people were in line behind me, but the family directly behind me got really slow and held everyone up. Perhaps they were remembering the warning outside.

So, they asked me how many in my party.

One. And the ride had to keep moving apparently.

I rode the ride by myself, as in no one else in the vehicle. I'm used to going to parks solo without friends or anything, but NEVER have I rode in ANY ride by my lonesome.

And here are the results...



Let me say the ride is scary, but it's terrifying if there's NOBODY else in the car with you. It looks like I'm riding in a car full of Stephanie's since she's terrified of dinosaurs and would hide on the floor if forced to ride this attraction.

Liz and Steve were much better riding partners. And perfect for taking photos. All I have is the one freak out pose. The Vitale's have an assortment of photogenic emotions in their grab bag.

TTFN