The home opener schedule's been released a day in advance of the full schedule.  The Thrashers open on Friday, October 8th against Washington, and the Blues open Saturday, October 9th against the Flyers.  Yeah, I know.  Weird matchup for the Blues, but hey - at least we know what to expect.

Speaking of Blues, or former ones, this year's Hockey Hall of Fame voting is gearing up, and in case the voters don't remember, Adam Oates is still available.  I offer up my case along with 9 other bloggers over at NBC's Pro Hockey Talk as to who we'd like to see in the Hall.  And, yes, Oates is on my list.  Thanks to James for letting me share my opinions, and of course a continuing thanks to him for letting me randomly appear on Cycle Like the Sedins.  For some reason, he trusts us.  Wacky.

Hot on the heels of the Thrashers to Winnipeg rumor of a while back comes the newest refutable rumor in the never ending saga that is the Atlanta Spirit.  This time, though, the rumor comes from a slightly more reputible source than a Winnipeg radio show.  The New York Post reported a few days ago that the Spirit were looking to sell everything - the Hawks, the Thrashers, Philips, the whole shebang.  Local sports talk radio station 680 the Fan picked the news up to be broadcast.  Almost in record time, the Atlanta Spirit issued another press release reiterating that the franchise is not for sale - I'm starting to become convinced that they just have a form letter that they ask a secretary to print out and mail to newspapers and the like.  For more in-depth analysis of how the Post rumor could or could not be legit, please to go to the Blueland Chronicle, who were the only site that mentioned this issue for a few days.  I would have, but I really tend to tune the "ZOMG THRASHERS ARE MOVING!!11!!" rumors out, and I was still recovering from writing 4 separate articles on the Halak trade for 4 different sites.

But I marinaded on this for a while, and good bud PCS (he of the weekend links on St. Louis Game Time) asked me my opinion on this TSN article detailing the refuting of the rumors - kudos to TSN for finding a photo with a full Philips, BTW.  Anywho, I'm sure he wanted a brief response.  Instead he got a bit more... which is after the jump.

In a surprisingly busy NHL news day, the Blues might've made the biggest splash in years.  Yes, you read that right.  A team that John Davidson vehmently stated would not be in play for any big stars traded Lars Eller and Ian Schwartz, an AHL and WHL prospect, to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for the city's savior - Jaroslav Halak.

Wait, I've been traded where?  Whaa? Why are they calling me the "first starter in ten years?" What is this place?

Yes, that guy.  The goalie who was an absolute wall during the playoffs, stunning the Presidents' Trophy winning Capitals and Stanley Cup champion Penguins.  The goaltender that still finished with the highest save percentage (.923) of the playoffs despite his team being eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals.  The goalie that led the Habs down the stretch when Carey Price folded under the immense pressure of playing in that hockey mad city.

I'm in shock.

The Blues were in reported contract talks with Chris Mason for an extension in case the free agent market wasn't shaping up to being something the Blues liked.  The only goalie who was going to be on that market who was an upgrade from Mason as far as statistics go was Evgeny Nabokov - who Davidson directly said no to because of cost. Apparently Montreal started shopping Halak after determining that they wanted to give Carey Price every chance to be their new Goalie of Tomorrow (or give him a nervous breakdown, either or), and the Blues stepped up with some pieces that the Habs liked.

Habs fans are justifiably freaking out (witness the Wikipedia entry about 20 minutes ago for Paul Gauthier) because they didn't get an NHL roster player in return - this is, of course, the same reason Blues fans are thrilled.  Lars Eller was our 13th overall pick in the 2007 draft, and was set to be another speedy addition to the Blues front lines.  An AHL all star last season, Eller 18 goals and 39 assists for 57 points in 70 games.  He'll be a nice forward for Montreal - St. Louis realized that he had another year of development left and that the Blues already had David Perron, so Eller was expendable.

Ian Schultz is a firecracker, with 150 penalty minutes in 70 games to go along with 55 points.  He has a while to go, since he's still with the Calgary Hitman, but the Habs should be very comfortable with him as well.  Calm down, Montreal fans.  You got a good deal too, if you have patience with them. The Blues needed to make that jump to playoff team this season, and filled a weak spot.  The Central Division just got a hell of a lot harder.  Sorry, Columbus.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Rick Dudley requested permission, and was granted it, to speak to John Torchetti regarding the head coaching position.  Torchetti's been considered the front-runner for several weeks due to his previous working relationships with Dudley in both Florida and Tampa Bay.  The Southeast Division's not uncharted territory for Torchetti, but his tenure with the Cup champions has left him more familiar with the Western Conference as of late.

He is the Hawks' powerplay specialist, which worked ok for them - they were sixteenth in the league at 17.7% - to contrast, the Thrashers were 25th after a strong start, and wound up with a PP% of 16.1.  When you notice the level of talent difference between the two teams and the small level of difference in percentage, I'm curious as to how he'll do working with that here.  Regardless, it'll be an upgrade - our opponents won't figure it out after a month.  You know, like they did last season.

The surprise from the St. Louis Blues is that they've canceled their prospect camp.  Instead, they're opting for outside conditioning in the nice, muggy St. Louis summer.  Have fun, guys.  The interesting thing about the story (despite the fact that it does kind of suck for the fans) is how much Cam Janssen's athleticism is highlighted - Cam'll be a subject of a feature write up sometime soon (thanks to Angela, the Game Time mom for the idea).  the Blues' coaching staff's justification for this is that if you're fleet footed on the ground, then you're fleet footed on the ice, or something like that.  Well, ok then.  I hope this works, though I'm not sure how you're going to really get a good look at any of the new kids while they're having IVs of fluid pumped into them because it's 100 degrees out and 86% humidity.

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As usual, I'm slow on the uptake, but I actually attempted to have a life this weekend, so forgive the tardiness.  Falconer at BWA was, of course, the first to break the news and look into the signing of Fredrik Pettersson.  He's a 23 year old Swedish left wing currently with Frolunda.  Apparently the former teammate of Karl Klingberg chose the Thrashers over the Wild and a couple of other clubs, so color me extremely flattered by that. Petersson was originally drafted in the fifth round by the Edmonton Oilers, played a few games in the WHL, and then returned to Sweden to finish his development instead of going to the AHL.  He remained unsigned until the Thrashers picked him up.

I appreciated the description that Falconer has up of him from Red Line Report, calling him "pinball like." As someone who has watched the human pinball that is TJ Oshie for a couple of seasons, that is some serious high praise.  You want someone like that - they tend to have no fear.  They're not necessarily scoring machines, but they can average fairly high numbers, and they have a knack at getting under opponents' skin.  I guess that since the Thrashers didn't get Oshie in a package for Kovalchuk, they got the next best thing risk free. "You've been Petterssoned!" doesn't sound right, though.

EDIT: No deal's been reached quite yet - apparently they're still in agent talks.  Bah.

Better Edit: Yep, deal done.  It's gotta be, because CapGeek.com has the salary terms up.

Usually I just stick with Blues and Thrashers stuff around here, because that's kind of what my deal is. I do the wacky over at Cycle Like the Sedins, and I analyze random topics usually over on Chicks Who Give a Puck.  But Adam Burish blathering on about Chris Pronger irritated me so much that I just had to pull out the psych book and do a little psychoanalysis - and I figured this's the best place to do it.

I love being a psych instructor, because it gives me a chance to really pick people apart if I feel like it.  I usually decline to do so, but Burish's comments, and the time and the place of them, really rubbed me the wrong way.  It's not because he's a Blackhawk, but because of the fact that he's not even that good.  About two seconds after winning the Stanley Cup, Burish drops this load on the ice:

"I think Chris Pronger is the biggest idiot in the league. I can't stand the guy one bit. I hope I never get to see him again. And if I see him again, I may have to punch him."

What?  Really, what? Does Adam Burish even know what Pronger has accomplished in his career?  Two bad games against the Blackhawks doesn't negate this: 6 time all-star, Norris Trophy, Hart Trophy, Stanley Cup, and a career +/- of +175.

Burish brings this to the table: squat.  I would list his regular season and post-season stats here, but there's really no point.  His total TOI for this series was less than 10 minutes.  So, where does he get off talking about Chris Pronger like that?

The Dunning-Kruger effect.  More post-jump.

Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks on breaking their 49 year Cup-less drought, and thanks ever so much for leaving the Blues in a three-way with the Leafs and Kings for the longest drought record now.  Seriously.  Appreciated.

As a Thrashers fan, I've been asked a million times how I felt about Marian Hossa winning.  I still like Hossa, and I think he's the best all-round player this franchise has ever seen, or probably will ever see.  His leaving upset me more than Kovalchuk walking.  I gave Hossa credit for being honest and forward about his intentions at the time, as opposed to leading on fans and management alike with pipe dreams of him staying put.  I was more upset at how he ditched the Penguins to go to Detroit because they, in his opinion, offered him a better chance at the Cup.  I laughed when he lost it last year, too, because I always tend to laugh when people learn a life lesson with a touch of karma.  I admit, I was less than thrilled with his decision to sign with the Blackhawks, mostly because it was Chicago - if he'd had signed with a team I liked, I would have been happy for him.

I'm fine with him winning the Cup this year.  Yes, he joined a winner of a franchise who just needed a few more little bits and pieces to get the Cup, but he signed a 12 year contract.  That commitment to a team must've negated the bad karma from before, because the hockey gods felt the need to give him the championship he wanted.

He looks more pensive than he should be, doesn't he?

That being said, Chicago - we're coming for you next season.  We have cap space, we have youth, and we have a commitment to not signing big money players.  So THERE.  Oh, speaking of signings, the Blues have inked their 2009 first round draft pick, David Rundblad, to an entry level deal.  Our defensive corps will be absolutely stacked with European defensemen.  Fantastic.  Now, can we sign some sort of sniper to help us out now?  Our problem last season was our inability to score.

Speaking of snipers to sign, it's looking less and less like Maxim Afinogenov will re-up with the Thrashers.  I'm not sure what the hold up is, but I wouldn't be shocked if it were the fact that ATL was giving him just a year deal.  For a team that has cap space but doesn't have the extra money for a Kovalchuk or Marleau deal, Afinogenov would be perfect, if you got 2009-2010 model.  I chatted about the possibility of Max to St. Louis last night with Lou Korac of the Alton Telegraph and Jersey County Star, and he agreed with me that we should take a long look at him.  Afinogenov does well when given some leeway out on the ice, which is why he succeeded here more so than the last few seasons in Buffalo.  Davis Payne is good with letting players do what they need to do - David Perron's success and Patrik Berglund's recovery at the end of last season are evidence of that.  He might not fit the make-up or m.o. of the Blues blue-collarness, but he's super fun to watch, and guy can score.  If he doesn't re-sign here, I would absolutely love to see him get over to St. Louis.

In a move that probably surprised absolutely no one, the Atlanta Thrashers have come to terms to re-sign UFA forward Jim Slater.  Slater had an outstanding year this past season, scoring a career high 11 goals and having some multi-goal games.  He's also a solid penalty killer, good face-off guy, and someone who has always been involved with the Thrashers' community programs.  Most recently he recieved the Gilner-Reeves award for the Thrasher most involved in the community, sharing it with Marty Reasoner.  Slater is also very dedicated to saving the environment, acting as the spokesperson for the public service announcements in Philips regarding recycling programs and plastic bottles.  He also got a thumbs up from this guy:

Anywho, Slater has stated before that he believes that team continuity from year to year is key to building a solid franchise.  Way to be part of the first steps towards that, Jimmah.

Draft time is upon us, and apparently I will write stuff about it.  Mostly because it's summer vacation and one can only bake and cook so much before I go stir crazy.  That, and the draft's always an exciting time around Atlanta since the Thrashers tend to pick high.  This season they'll be choosing 9th overall.  The Blues choosing at 14th overall, but I'll let coverage of Jarmo's last draft with the team fall to Brian over at Game Time, because he can do it 100 times better than I could even dream of and deserves your reading time.  He's only on Part One of the analysis, but I'm sure tons more is to come.  It's easier for him to get access to the Blues' prospects seeing as how he's within a 50 mile radius of both St. Louis and Peoria, and I'm kind of here in Atlanta.

I do have some access to the Thrashers prospects at camp over the summer, though, so it's easier and more sensible for me to focus on the Thrashers' draft and development of their young 'uns.  Timmy at BWA (of which Matt's been nice enough to trust me to contribute to now) has an analysis of the importance of intelligent drafting, not just for the Thrashers but for teams in general. It has all sorts of pie charts and graphs and math related things that I can't pretend to understand. But building the team up through smart picks outside of the first round is very important, and something that the Thrashers have (to this point) done with defensemen Garnet Exelby and Tobias Enstrom.  I'm convinced this tradition will continue with last year's 7th round pick Zach Redmond after watching him at camp last year.  Timmy mentions Pavelec, Postma, Machacek, and Kulda as other players who will act as a continuation of the strength of our later drafting.  I agree with Tim as well that the problems that this franchise has seen are not due to drafting errors, but an ability to not get the strongest return for our star players that we have had to trade, the Kovalchuk trade acting as the exception.