Half Empty, Half Full?

After last night's 4-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, Bob Hartley has been fired by the Atlanta Thrashers.

As usual I watched as this team showed absolutely no heart at all in the loss. I hate saying those words, but when your captain Bobby Holik gets nailed by Jason Smith and NO ONE, not even Holik goes after him, what do you say?

Hartley lost this team last season when they were swept out of the playoffs. Now he has lost his job.

The million dollar question is how long does Don Waddell have? And the bigger question is which one of these so-called owners of the Atlanta Spirit has any hockey knowledge to make the right replacement for Don if they saw fit to fire him? Rutherford? Michael? Bruce? C'mon boys - sell the team to people who care about something other than themselves and their egos.

Last season, right after the Keith Tkachuk trade, I was in an elevator with some folks and Rutherford Seydel. He was talking to folks about the trade and taking partial credit for it. If that's the case, you should get blame for it as well, dontcha think? This ownership group is an embarrasing mess and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.

Jeff Schultz of the AJC talks about how the wrong man was fired in his column. And he points out some of the other expansion teams and how well they have done in the time the Thrashers have been around. SI's Alan Muir agrees with Schultz on Waddell not being without blame. Where there's smoke...???

The best thing Don has going for him is ownership - they are cutting costs every which way (including the intern program...I mean how bad is it when interns are let go!) and having to pay a new GM while paying Don may not make fiscal sense to them. But hey, that division banner sure is pretty in the rafters, isn't it? The one move they can make that would be prudent both from the financial and hockey smarts world would be to hire Thrashers color commentator on television, Darren Eliot.

There are many names out there, but the one name I have heard is Pat Quinn. Not sure I like it, but he has had success in the league. John Anderson of the Chicago Wolves would make sense as he has worked with the young kids already.

I say we put together a group called Caps 4 Da Cup - let's go root for the Washington Capitals... best uniforms going and Alexander Ovechkin! Road trip!!!! We're comin' Nate..