It's here! Real hockey! Sweet Jesus! So excited! So what that it's just a pre-season game!

Mother Nature decided to step in and make matters more interesting and dumped tons of rain on Atlanta and its surrounding cities. Downtown Atlanta was actually flooded and nobody was going anywhere. I was not about to let that stop us, though. We were going to see hockey come hell or high water! (It was high water this time, as it turns out.) Fully expecting traffic to be absolutely ridiculous, we headed north from work. But strangely, there was almost no one on the roads. We got there in 20 minutes. Weird.

Once nestled into our seats for the season (and loving it!), we were joined by our friend Virginia. We chatted and shouted throughout the whole game, took pictures, and generally had a great time. We won 4 to 2, which is always awesome. I left there very hoarse and it was only a pre-season game! Hell yeah! Go Thrashers!

The Pre-Season Roster Card. They print these for the pre-season games instead of the program booklets.		The inside of the Pre-Season Roster Card.		Hedberg got the start, but Legace was on hand as his back-up.		Antropov skates about during warm-ups. Some of the fans call him "Atlantropov." Very cute.		The boys pile up on Legace.
They all took turns beating him up, like some kind of gang initiation.		One of the opposing goalies.		Boulton fires on Legace.		The first face off!		Here we go! Here we go!
The Moose, in attack position.		Michael Leighton started for the Hurricanes.		Hockey action.		Moose looks like he dropped something.		Leighton wouldn't let me take his picture.
Just after celebrating a goal.		Kovy waits for the puck to come his way.						Some action along the boards.
Kovy takes the puck out of our zone.		A little fight breaks out.				Hey guys - the puck is over there.		Reasoner works hard to gain possession, and is apparently the only person not taking a picture. :)
Kozlov is an army of one.		For his efforts, he gets harassed by Andrew Alberts.		New guy Kubina. He scored the first goal of the evening.		Our captain works out some details with the referees.		Another goal!
You can see Kubina's nice black eye at this angle (upper right).		Reasoner looks displeased.		The very cool Slater sign from last season has returned!		Thrash gets the crowd moving.		Kozlov breaks into the Hurricanes zone.
And decides maybe he should go this way instead.				Little watches the action.		The game is over, so everyone comes out to pat the Moose on the head.
		Victory is ours!		Legace comes out to congratulate Hedberg on his win.		"Nice job, buddy."		The goalies head back over to the bench.
Bryan Little was the game's third star, and Mark Popovic here was the game's second star.		Nik Antropov was named the game's first star! Go Nik!