Montreal Is Falling Apart, Thrashers Finding Their Footing

So Montreal lost another big name, Saku Koivu, according to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun.

Koivu decided to take his career to a non-traditional market in the wondrous city of Anaheim. I think it's really cool/respectful for him to note that Minnesota was not the right place for him to play because his brother had made it his place to play.

How many players these days stop to think about something like that? I'd venture to say not many, if any at all.

In addition, I believe Montreal realized they were just getting old, hence why so many key players departed this season. As productive and great leaders they were, over 82 games wears you down.

It's sad to see Montreal celebrate its centennial season and miss the playoffs, with some players that deserve to possibly have their jersey's hung in the rafters have to walk and look for work in another city.

I guess that's the way sports go these days.

Now I have been receiving some flak from individuals about the Atlanta Thrashers and how they have finally turned the corner and are becoming a respectable franchise in the eyes of the players.

We may have not made a huge splash in the market, but the very encouraging news is that Kovy has already sat down and starting negotiating with the team...which means he is impressed (we all know he liked the Antropov signing since he sent Waddell a text with two words, "Good Job").

But as I started talking about how the Thrashers really did upgrade their defense and solidified two scoring lines for the first time since we had Kovy and Hossa, I started receiving comments that it doesn't matter what we do, Kovy will leave and the Thrashers will crumble short after that.

Now lets stop a second and think about the progress since the start of this season.

First, I can't help but think this case against Steve Belkin and ASG must have ended very favorably for ASG. They have spent some serious money this offseason on both the Thrashers and Hawks. They also let Don Waddell hire another man with considerable experience and a phenomenal track record, Rick Dudley, so they together can run the GM office more effectively.

John Anderson is obviously starting to place some input on which players are coming here (he was the one who told Waddell to get Rich Peverly) and he is making the team be, well, more of a team.

He also knows how to draw the leaders out of a group and get them to motivate their team, as well (possibly one of my fondest memories of the season was when the team banded together after they were eliminated and made it their personal vendetta to make sure that any team that was playoff bound had to do everything right to win the game..."If we can't make it, neither can you").

Once Kovy became captain it was evident this team of young guys really were about to turn the corner. Kovy broke out of his slump in record setting fashion and the team rallied around him. The team that seemed so lack-luster and slow suddenly had a jump that literally electrified Phillips and kept you on the edge of your seat the entire game.

Lastly, here is why we really cant move:

ASG has a 100 year lease on Phillips, which as a contingency built in for Phillips pay the $10 million in naming rights there has to have both an NHL and NBA team in there or they can drop the sponsorship.

On top of that, if someone wanted to move either the Thrashers or Hawks, they would have to pay the remainder of the fiscal lease the building has on it.

Then they have to pay for the actual value of the franchise itself (roughy guessed to be around $80 million).

So lets do the math...if a group/individual decided to buy them and move them, they would have to incur a minimum expense of at least $300 million. I doubt even the infamous Jim Basille could pony up that kind of cash, just so another city in Canada has a team. The high end of the spending spectrum could be up towards $450 if you count all of the other sponsors like UPS and Heineken.

Sorry to be so analytical this morning, I just felt these items needed to be addressed in a proper way. I'm signing off, until next time.