It's interesting how that nostalgia seems to be generational. I was your "now" age (26-38) for the span that the Thrashers played here, so I was already a "paying" adult with a very young family who spent thousands of dollars on a relatively tight budget at the time on season tickets for their entire duration, not a young kid tagging along on a parent's dime. I think our experiences probably were radically different. Watching the utter indifference of Time Warner and then ASG, the lack of on-ice success, the Heatley-Snyder tragedy, the deliberate dismantling of the roster and the preordained relocation leaves me with no happy vibes. At all. I keep telling myself that there's nothing unique about Atlanta the city, so this absolutely could have, should have, and would have worked if it wasn't put in sinister hands.
I was in Nashville last week to see my adopted Canucks, and the Preds are celebrating their 25th Anniversary season. That should've been us next year, rather than us hoping for a do-over finally done right.
By contrast to the Thrashers, I was just eight when the Flames left in 1980 (under very different circumstances), and I still have a soft spot for them. Whenever they came to town to play the Thrashers, it was total nostalgia for me. The fact that the Flames are currently wearing the heritage jerseys originating from their Atlanta days just kills me (in a good way).
