On today, the second anniversary of the relocation of the Atanta Thrashers, nothing warms my heart more than reading about how terrible their former owners are. The Atlanta Spirit group being God awful owners has always felt like a well-kept local secret. No one really fully understands how bad they are - just that "they're terrible," which is usually said in passing to a Thrashers or a Hawks fan.

A post! Here! Act of God, I know. Anywho, it's time for our second annual Tears in Our Beers party, hosted by Taco Mac's Prado location. Last year we had about 50 people show up (insert attendance joke here) for a night of hockey, pretty good food, and a HUGE beer selection. Let's remind the Taco Mac company again why having a team in Atlanta was a good thing - time to show them how hockey fans can drink.

Please RSVP here on the Facebook Event page so I can get a good count of folks. See you on the 31st!

Tomorrow morning, bright and early (or, really, dark and early), I'm leaving to drive for eight hours to go watch a hockey game or two. No, this isn't because the Thrashers are gone and these are the lengths I have to go to. I can drive to Nashville to see a game, and I have before. This is about more than hockey. This is about going home.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to take Valentine's Day advice from Evander Kane, but I will take some of those cookies. The Cabbie and Kane venture to a local Winnipeg bakery, apparently to boos sales/look awkward. As Kane's going through the different types of cookies, see if you can catch the Atlanta reference.

There you have it. Anthony Stewart, Atlanta, Black History Month (kind of), modern race relations in Winnipeg, Valentine's Day, and cookies. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

For the love of God and all that is holy, don't look into their eyes. NO.

From the eBay product description (bidding starts at 19.99!):

Here is a St. Louis Blues nesting dolls of the following players Al McGinnis,Chris Pronger and Barrett Jackman.This was a Blues Savis Center giveaway.The Blues baseball item is in Ex. condition and comes with a generic white box which is in Vg. condition with writing in it in two places.This is a Buy It Now so you can get this right away without having to wait till the end of the auction. This piece of sports memorabilia would be a nice addition to a St. Louis Blues Hockey Memorabilia collection. Winner pays postage.Please look at my other collectors items. Good Luck Bidders.Please see About Me TO SEE WHAT I`M LOOKING FOR.

My God, WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR is something that's part Children of the Corn, part Blues hockey. I will say that this is the cutest I've ever seen Barret Jackman look. Look at that little face! And then look away, because here comes giant glazed-over Al Macinnis...

"Quick quick! Someone close the door!"

Too late.

Photo Credit - The Hockey News

I'm a little late with this one, what with the excitement of hockey season starting again and whatnot, but the Gwinnett Gladiators twitter feed scored one for the little guy the other day. The big boy? The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

I have my own opinions about their news coverage (I read it because it's basically my only option for decent-ish metro Atlanta news), but aside from Mark Bradley and Jeff Schultz, I've found their sports coverage borderline useless. Lots of chest puffing and tooting the horns of teams that have accomplished somewhere between jack and squat, really. Their Thrashers coverage was good -- Chris Vivlamore tried with the resources he had -- but it was only good when you referenced it against team coverage in other papers. When you referenced it against sports coverage in the AJC, it was abysmal. The only times that the team got major coverage were when it arrived, when Dan Snyder died, when it made the playoffs, and when it left. That's it.

It's no secret that the NHL has some fans who enjoy fizzy adult beverages. Whether it's the alcohol's warming feeling or just the fact that some of our teams are very much exasperating, hockey fans drink more beer than fans of any other North American league. That's no small feat, considering the fact that the NHL's the smallest of the big four pro leagues. Heck, in 2011 it was figured that we were almost half as likely as the average American adult to have consumed a beer in the last month.

I was very much starting to wonder if these several hundred grown men (two in particular) could play nice with each other. Apparently they can pretend to, at the very least. Sure, the end of the lockout's tentative as of right now, but the league and the NHLPA'd never break our hearts again, right?

Sorry, I just read what I typed -- of course they would. But as long as fans keep coming back -- and we will, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it -- they'll continue to disappoint. As long as people have reasonable expectations of this happening every eight to ten years, it'll be fine. It's great to be a fan of a team or of professional hockey, just remember -- the NHL loves a cynic. Most hockey fans are terribly pessimistic at some level, so if you really think about it, why's the lockout been a problem? We all knew it was going to happen, and most of us expected it to end sometime this summer.

Speaking of the end of the lockout, the official story is that St. Louis Game Time ended it. Tell your friends, tweet it, and see if it gains traction just for poops and giggles. You'll have to have something to do to kill time before training camp starts this weekend, right?

This won't be dishy. This won't involve scoop quotes or anything like that. This is just what I realized after getting back to my hotel room at Union Station yesterday evening -- the Blues are fortunate to have an owner interested in seeing what the team's fans think. Mr. Tom Stillman, the owner of the St. Louis Blues, as well as COO Mr. Bruce Affleck and VP of Marketing and PR Mr. Mike Caruso met with myself, Chris Gift, Brad Lee, and Sean Gallagher of St. Louis Game Time over drinks at Joe Buck's last night. We discussed the lockout (like I said, no dishing other than everyone really hopes that it's over soon -- duh), Game Time, how the fans feel about the team and the whole lockout situation, as well as a few players who we all feel are underrated as both players and people. It was a very pleasant evening, and I won't lie, it was surreal.