Schneider in Thrashers blue (photos and more)

Today was Mathieu Schneider's first day on the ice with the Thrashers after Friday's trade. With most of the team in Detroit for a preseason game, there were 10 skaters and one goalie out, and they only went about 45 minutes.

Schneider looked very good. He's such a smooth skater that he doesn't look like he's working very hard, but he was keeping up or ahead of other players in skating drills. He had a good sweat on by the end. Assistant GM Larry Simmons was at the practice checking up on him.

Schneider did not yet have a number on the back of his helmet.

The players seem very favorable about the trade to get Schneider. I asked Eric Boulton some prospect-related questions, and also about Schneider. He said "First day, he hasn't been skating much I don't think, but he looks good, he's gonna help us out a lot. He's a great defenseman, he's gonna make the team a lot better."

He has a very good stick -- keeps it in the right position and tips pucks away a lot.

I said to Colby Armstrong that Schneider looked hard to get around. "Most guys look like that when I'm coming down on them," he joked. "No, definitely a great pickup for us. A veteran guy who can put up numbers but has the experience and solid play that we need. Obviously a good move for our team and I think everyone here is looking forward to having him. I just got to meet him this morning, but from what I've heard, great guy, great team guy, so a good guy to have in our room for sure and on the ice for us."

Brett Sterling on Schneider: "Oh, he's a great player. His stats over the last, what is it, 15 years have been unbelievable. I actually met him about three years ago in LA, skating with a bunch of guys out there [in the summer] and he was unbelievable. I mean I was still in college and he treated me like one of the guys. There was no awkwardness at all. He came in today and said hi, remembered me. He's one of those guys who's a great team guy and it's gonna be a great step for this team. I think it really helps us."

Sterling played goal at the end after Hedberg went off. He was actually rather good at it. He was down and dirty in the snow -- I told him he looked like a snowman when he came off.

Jeff Pyle, coach of the ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators, led the drills today. He's the most senior coach left now that the Wolves coaches cleared out for their own camp. He had two guys helping move pucks around and it was hard to identify them because though I had seen their faces, I had never seen them on skates before. One was strength and conditioning coach Ray Bear, who is always in sneakers and a clip board.

I asked Pyle who his other assistant was. He said he thought his name was Cat, but joked that we should definitely check with immigration. Pyle said that Cat's claim to fame is that he toured with the Beatles -- he doesn't know if it's true, but it's a good story.


He is indeed Cat Collins, a guy who helps out with the equipment on game nights.

Note: Permission to reprint photos can be obtained by emailing holly_gunning@yahoo.com.

Paquette ejected in season opener

From the Sun Journal:

Maineiacs' captain Danick Paquette made his long awaited season debut, but that lasted all of 4:09. On his third shift, Paquette went to line up Moncton captain Matt Eagles. The shifty forward ducked, and the players' knees collided. Officials assessed Paquette a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for kneeing, and also kicked Moncton's David Savard out of the game after the lunky forward started a fight with Paquette.

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Poll: Predict Anderson's bench minors

The poll question was "How many bench minors (unsportsmanlike) will John Anderson's Thrashers get this season?"

The main thing I got out of the answers is that everyone agrees Anderson is an old dog. He's either already learned his lesson and will keep quiet, or will continue to be penalized like in Chicago. He won't stop at 1 bench minor -- only 2% voted for that choice. The most popular answer was 4-6 times, with 31% of the vote. I believe that's what I voted as well.

Results:
0 -- 17%
1 -- 2%
2-3 -- 29%
4-6 -- 31%
7 -- 19%

I think from this you could set a betting line of about 3.5 bench minors.

Everyone has a beast they fight, and Anderson knows he needs to be better with the refs. Another thing he should probably work on is not chewing gum and blowing bubbles on the bench when the TV cameras come out.

Above is Anderson with his trusty writing pad. He's unorthodox in not using a dry erase board for drawing up plays. "I like my pad there because I can rip it off," he said after the game. I asked him about how the coaches were getting along on the bench. "Oh we were arguing," he joked. "No, it worked out really well. Actually we had a little problem with our mic on the bench to cut clips, but I guess that's why we do exhibition games. It's not just for the players but for the coaching staff."

Anderson and Randy Cunneyworth interacting on the bench.

Assistant coach Steve Weeks served as the eye in the sky, and he'll likely do that most of the year. He's been the "systems" coach for a few years because he has a good eye for the macro level.

At least there are no Swedes to break in during preseason this year, with their guaranteed too many men calls. Last year Toby Enstrom went through it. In Sweden, players have more leeway on line changes so when they get to the NHL they often get whistled for it. Swede Patric Hornqvist took two too many men penalties for Nashville on Thursday.
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In other news, former Thrashers draft pick Mike Hamilton has been invited to Quad City Flames camp as a tryout.

Yes we have no gas

My uncle called me a couple days ago wondering if it was true that we had a gas shortage in the south. He and my aunt were considering driving down to Memphis. I told him there's gas to be had, but only at like one out of six or seven stations and expect to wait in line. Like I did at the QuikTrip on Sidney Marcus the other day (note line of cars down the street):

I liked what QuikTrip did here, which was to have someone make sure cars go in line and didn't sneak in front. They were also selling their gas for $3.97 when other stations (who had it at least) were charging like $4.29. Bravo, QuikTrip. A couple nights ago I was at a different QuikTrip and it was hopping -- at 4:30 am!

Most places look like this though. No price=no gas.


Alpharetta seems to be the worst place to try to find it. There's more gas in the city than up there.

I do believe it's coming as fast as it can, since there was a gas tanker riding my tail on the way back from Nashville, but it's just not enough.

Preseason vs. Nashville (photos)

Some photos from the first Thrashers preseason game in Nashville. They won 4-2.

Boris Valabik. He got a 10-minute misconduct for gratuitous cross-checking around the net. He was partnered with Hainsey and those two were very effective. The improvement in Valabik's skating is noticeable and he said he's gotten good comments on it. In talking to him, he seems a bit more relaxed than he did when he was up with the team last year.

Chris Thorburn.

Grant Stevenson.

Ondrej Pavelec, now wearing #31. Everyone should get to pick out their number eventually. He's not a rookie this year so he piped up and got the number he wanted. Pavelec played very well tonight, even though he said he wasn't quite himself to start the game. He didn't fully see the two goals he gave up.

Here's how full the arena was. Not very.

Anything I didn't catch in this game I'm blaming on Spencer Machacek and his faux hawk a row below me.

Bryan Little.

It looked like Grant Lewis would love to have Exelby as his partner every game. Lewis had some turnovers, but he brought something to the table with his offense. He moved the puck well on the power play and took the puck in deep a couple times.

Angelo Esposito puts on his thoughtful face.

Oystrick really needed to play a great game, after what happened last year. But, he really didn't. It was an odd mix of letting Rivers do too much, and also running around out of position.

Marty Reasoner.

This one of Crabb and Oystrick seems to need a caption.

Scraps from Nashville prospects game

Last week on Project Runway, one of the contestants was chastised by the judges for putting a photographer in a dress. Too impractical. That seemed reasonable to me at the time, but I had no story or image to go with it in my mind. Now I do.

At warm-ups in Nashville for the prospects game, I got some shots down at the Predators end first. That side was easy, there was a small step down into the photo area from the stands. Halfway through, I switched sides to the Thrashers end. At that end, there is a four-foot drop from the stands into the photo area. I had to jump down, with the polite help of the guy from The Tennessean. Then, to get out, I had to crawl under the stands. Crawl. I had my trusty go-anywhere black pants on, so I was fine, but I now understand precisely what those judges were saying.

Here's a few more of the hard-gotten photos.

Paul Postma. He made some bad mistakes, but he's got a lot going for him with his skating and puckhandling. His defense will only get better with experience. He made it to his game tonight in Calgary, by the way.

Artie Kulda. He was probably the team's best defenseman.

Angelo Esposito making a face. He makes lots of faces I've noticed. He and Jordan LaVallee.

Correction on when fighting teammates in practice becomes funny. Make that 'immediately' to Esposito, Machacek's locker room neighbor. He got a little chuckle out of it.

View of the bench from above.

I was going to applaud the fact that there's music constantly playing at the main intersection in Nashville, how fun it makes it after dark. But then this happened... Leaving the arena on Tuesday, walking back to the car, the speakers outside the convention center were playing Rick Astley's Together Forever. Not cool, Nashville.
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Prospect games photos (Atlanta at Nashville)

Here are a few photos from the prospects game against Nashville today before I get on the road back to Atlanta.

Kaip and Kulda at warmup.

Grant Lewis was ready for a national anthem that didn't come. He thinks his hair is really short right now. Whatever.

Faceoff.

Danick Paquette and Kelsey Wilson. Two players of the same ilk.

Paul Postma wants to be out there all the time.

Lewis coming to the bench.

Kaip in motion.

Denny, Esposito and Pospisil return to the bench.

Chris Carrozzi takes a water break.

Jon Blum and Cody Franson. What is Postma doing down in the corner? This is during the game, so he's not stretching.

There were lots of schoolkids at this game. Dan Turple checks out the action. That's Jason Christie next to him.

One of several scrums. Mark Santorelli said that the players were told they weren't allowed to fight in the game. They got about as close as you can get though. I asked Santorelli about Myles Stoesz, who he played with in Chilliwack, specifically about his skating. Santorelli said Stoesz didn't even look like the same player now.
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