North, South and My Viewpoints in Between

Nothing adds to the angst of Maple Leafs fans, and perhaps to those nativists who seek fewer teams in the Southern United States, than watching Toronto squander a two-goal lead and lose to Atlanta. And the topper? Seeing the whole thing unfold on Empty Seat Night in Philips Arena.



Well there are many ways to look at the situations in Atlanta and Toronto. Here are a few.

1. Burned by years of mismanagement involving all four professional teams in Atlanta, the hometown fans are resistant to spend time (in traffic jams) and money (good after bad) waiting on the Thrashers to find their way. If the owners are not on the same page, why should Ilya Kovalchuk sign any page the Thrashers put in front of him.

2. If Maple Leafs fans acted the way Thrashers fans do, perhaps the management of the Maple Leafs would have found a way to solve the team's on-ice misfortunes. Perhaps it is better to be amassing a fortune with a terrible team, which has been the case in Toronto. There's money to be made in bad hockey. Toronto, has proven that.

3. Box score says 10,208 tickets/seats/people/comps were tallied. Math wasn't my best subject, but. ...

4. According to those commenting on the Ice Man blog, which keeps track of all things Thrasher, TSN announcers made a point of describing the obvious bad crowd during their sportscast. Surprised? No. It's there job. Now, when those same Canadian crews start to repeatedly point out the empty seats in Ottawa and Edmonton, then I'll be surprised.

5. Atlanta and Toronto, get both of your houses in order. This New Yorker enjoys visiting your cute little towns when I escape the city. Hockey just adds to that charm.

THE SCOREBOARD
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
At N.Y. Rangers 8, Tampa Bay 2
At Philadelphia 5, Columbus 3
At Washington 3, Detroit 2
At Atlanta 4, Toronto 3
At Ottawa 4, Chicago 1
At Pittsburgh 6, N.Y. Islanders 4
At Anaheim 5, Buffalo 4
San Jose 5, at Los Angeles 1
The standings are here.
Recap by Sportsnet.
Three stars by Puck Daddy.

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
All-Star Game at Portland, Maine.
Canada 10, Planet USA 9 SO
The recap is here.

EAST COAST HOCKEY LEAGUE
All-Star Skills Competition
National 11, American 10

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
Baie-Comeau 3, at Prince Edward Island 2 OT
Shawinigan 5, at Halifax 2
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.

WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
At Calgary 7, Lethbridge 5
At Tri-City 6, Kamloops 2
The standings are here.
The roundup is here.