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Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Spending Turner dollars makes sense
By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com
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Because even Ted Turner wouldn't have been able to build Rome in a day, no one in Atlanta can realistically expect the Thrashers to be much better than they were last season, could they?
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Wed., Sept. 27
The Thrashers should take a small step forward based on some of the young players maturing. Typical of any expansion team, their difficulty will be goal scoring. Andrew Brunette was the team's only 20-goal scorer and 50-point producer last season. Donald Audette must be a 25-goal scorer, and defenseman Petr Buzek needs to surprise everyone with his improvement this year, as much as he did with his play last year. He would give them a really good anchor on the blue line. And for them to take a major stride forward, someone like goalie Damian Rhodes must jump out of the woodwork and have an unexpectedly sensational season. |
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"The guys were in all-right shape (last year), but for our team, all right isn't good enough," coach Curt Fraser said. "We need to be quicker and stronger. Every guy I've seen is in much better condition."
"Last year, we all had to be patient. We had to work with kids to develop them so that we could be better the second and third years. But now that we've gone through that first year, we expect a great deal more out of these guys. We're going to push them a lot more. There's nobody that can't improve."
All well and good ... until reality takes over.
So Gord Murphy doesn't come back from shoulder surgery, and Adam Burt is signed to fill that hole, until he takes a puck in the face that leaves him with a smashed cheekbone. And so goes the shattered Thrashers defense, not a good sign for a team that simply doesn't possess anything resembling offensive firepower.
And shouldn't it be mentioned that the goaltending has been lousy, too? Once good enough to split duty in Ottawa, Damian Rhodes has been an oft-injured failure in Atlanta. And backup Norm Maracle was just dumped in favor of unproven Milan Hnilicka.
Bottom line: The Thrashers are the perfect example of an expansion team. Terrible, but trying to get better as long as it doesn't spend any money.
Building the right way through the draft and developing prospects and yada, yada, yada. But you'd think that with all this Turner money floating around, there would be some sense of urgency in signing a couple of real gate attractions in the offseason.
Nah. Save that stuff for the Braves.
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Bottom Line on the Thrashers
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Young defensemen
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Depth
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Damian Rhodes
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No. 2 goalie
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SEASON OUTLOOK: The Thrash had 14 wins last season. There is absolutely no guarantee they'll top that total this season. How's that for an outlook? |
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.
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