Post by leafster on Mar 25, 2011 22:31:44 GMT -5
Ex-Thrasher Ray Ferraro pulls no punches on the mess in Atlanta
By Ben Kuzma, The Province March 25, 2011
ATLANTA — Ray Ferraro is as subtle as a punch in the face.
The outspoken TSN analyst is also a former Atlanta Thrasher and isn’t afraid to take pokes at the struggling franchise. He has a lot of material. The Thrashers are out of playoff contention once again, have made but one postseason appearance, are up for sale and have never really caught the imagination of the local sporting populace.
“There are three things,” suggested Ferraro. “Ownership is a mess and if the very top isn’t settled, then there’s no direction and nobody really in charge. They’ve had four playoff games in 10 years and who is going to watch a team that never makes the playoffs? And the third thing is that it’s a fickle sports town. It is college football first by a mile. Then it’s NASCAR and then you get into the pro sports.
“It’s an odd market to start with.”
Not that the Thrashers haven’t occasionally teased. On Dec. 18, they were 19-11-5 and led the Southeast Division and were third in the Eastern Conference. They then lost 26 of their next 38 games to expose a lack of depth on a team with the second-lowest payroll of $41.7 million US. And despite emerging young talent like Evander Kane, Tobias Enstrom and Alexander Burmistrov, there’s simply not the support group in place. The Thrashers have allowed the second-most goals and have the worst penalty kill.
All this doesn’t surprise Ferraro. He had 29 goals for the Thrashers in the 2000-01 season and Donald Audette was the only other forward to crack the 20-goal mark with 32. Atlanta finished a dozen games under .500 that season and has never really found its way. The Thrashers have had big names with big individual seasons like Ilya Kovalchuk — two 52-goal seasons — but no collective success.
“There are a lot of pieces that fit here and there like [Dustin] Byfuglien and some question to what he will be,” Ferraro said of the defenceman, who had 19 goals and 50 points after 71 games. “But there’s no identity. To me, if you’re going to be something, you’ve either got to score a pile of goals or give none up. They don’t score a pile and they give up too many.”
The Thrashers have lost $130 million the last five years, according to court documents, and courting a buyer is not an easy sell.
“I don’t know who would buy it and run it the same way,” added Ferraro. “If you don’t change the way you run it, you’re just throwing good money after bad. There has to be a direction, an idea.”
The Thrashers even tried to drum up support in December by having their mascot drive a Zamboni for 25 miles on the interstate highway to draw attention and hopefully sell 5,000 tickets to remaining games that month. The stunt included getting the police involved and holding the mascot in jail until the ticket goal was reached. It took four long days.
Meanwhile, it might not take Byfuglien long to add some spice to Friday’s game. He was a regular crease-crasher with the Chicago Blackhawks and Roberto Luongo expects the hulking blueliner to do the same at the Phillips Arena on Friday. Sounds more interesting than that mascot.
“I wrote a poem about it [crease crashing] and the least he could do is honour it,” Luongo said of Byfuglien. “I’m sure he’ll come and visit for a couple of shifts and it’s all in good fun. He’s doing his job and I’m doing mine. Little challenges like that are enjoyable.”
OF NOTE: Mikael Samuelsson (leg) and Tanner Glass (rib) are still listed as day-to-day. Cory Schneider will get the start on Sunday in Columbus.
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www.theprovince.com/sports/Thrasher+Ferraro+pulls+punches+mess+Atlanta/4499865/story.html
By Ben Kuzma, The Province March 25, 2011
ATLANTA — Ray Ferraro is as subtle as a punch in the face.
The outspoken TSN analyst is also a former Atlanta Thrasher and isn’t afraid to take pokes at the struggling franchise. He has a lot of material. The Thrashers are out of playoff contention once again, have made but one postseason appearance, are up for sale and have never really caught the imagination of the local sporting populace.
“There are three things,” suggested Ferraro. “Ownership is a mess and if the very top isn’t settled, then there’s no direction and nobody really in charge. They’ve had four playoff games in 10 years and who is going to watch a team that never makes the playoffs? And the third thing is that it’s a fickle sports town. It is college football first by a mile. Then it’s NASCAR and then you get into the pro sports.
“It’s an odd market to start with.”
Not that the Thrashers haven’t occasionally teased. On Dec. 18, they were 19-11-5 and led the Southeast Division and were third in the Eastern Conference. They then lost 26 of their next 38 games to expose a lack of depth on a team with the second-lowest payroll of $41.7 million US. And despite emerging young talent like Evander Kane, Tobias Enstrom and Alexander Burmistrov, there’s simply not the support group in place. The Thrashers have allowed the second-most goals and have the worst penalty kill.
All this doesn’t surprise Ferraro. He had 29 goals for the Thrashers in the 2000-01 season and Donald Audette was the only other forward to crack the 20-goal mark with 32. Atlanta finished a dozen games under .500 that season and has never really found its way. The Thrashers have had big names with big individual seasons like Ilya Kovalchuk — two 52-goal seasons — but no collective success.
“There are a lot of pieces that fit here and there like [Dustin] Byfuglien and some question to what he will be,” Ferraro said of the defenceman, who had 19 goals and 50 points after 71 games. “But there’s no identity. To me, if you’re going to be something, you’ve either got to score a pile of goals or give none up. They don’t score a pile and they give up too many.”
The Thrashers have lost $130 million the last five years, according to court documents, and courting a buyer is not an easy sell.
“I don’t know who would buy it and run it the same way,” added Ferraro. “If you don’t change the way you run it, you’re just throwing good money after bad. There has to be a direction, an idea.”
The Thrashers even tried to drum up support in December by having their mascot drive a Zamboni for 25 miles on the interstate highway to draw attention and hopefully sell 5,000 tickets to remaining games that month. The stunt included getting the police involved and holding the mascot in jail until the ticket goal was reached. It took four long days.
Meanwhile, it might not take Byfuglien long to add some spice to Friday’s game. He was a regular crease-crasher with the Chicago Blackhawks and Roberto Luongo expects the hulking blueliner to do the same at the Phillips Arena on Friday. Sounds more interesting than that mascot.
“I wrote a poem about it [crease crashing] and the least he could do is honour it,” Luongo said of Byfuglien. “I’m sure he’ll come and visit for a couple of shifts and it’s all in good fun. He’s doing his job and I’m doing mine. Little challenges like that are enjoyable.”
OF NOTE: Mikael Samuelsson (leg) and Tanner Glass (rib) are still listed as day-to-day. Cory Schneider will get the start on Sunday in Columbus.
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www.theprovince.com/sports/Thrasher+Ferraro+pulls+punches+mess+Atlanta/4499865/story.html