Chil-lanta ... Florida Panthers @ Atlanta Thrashers ... Jassen Cullimore, Jay Bouwmeester HERE

ATLANTA -- Welcome to the town where every street, it seems, is named after a Peach or a tree or a Peachtree.

You know the game of hockey was started by Dr. John Naismith, who had his kids at a local YMCA shoot pucks into peach baskets didn't you? Of course you did. That's common knowledge.

Anyway, the Panthers are on the ice, with Jassen Cullimore apparently in the lineup as he is down there for warmups. Jay Bouwmeester is out there as well, so no trade as of yet.

Don't see Keaton Ellerby so his NHL debut is going to have to wait until another day. He seemed just happy to be here and said if he didn't play, it was cool just to be up and see how things work at this level. He's going to get the shot to play next year in training camp.

-- Bryan McCabe just made a new friend. He saw a guy in a Florida jersey down by the glass holding a little kid, knocked on the glass to get the guy's attention then flipped a puck over for the kid. That's cool. Actually see a few fans in Florida gear today. Don't see that very often.

-- Ran into the UM men's basketball team at my hotel today. Big game for your Canes tomorrow at Georgia Tech.

-- Got to play my harmonica a little today. Getting better at it. Not really.

-- Thrash are wearing their hideous brick-colored jerseys with not only the team's name on front, but number too. U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi...

-- Great seats (rows, sections) still available...

Today's Schedule (and who the Panthers would be rooting for if they weren't so busy eating boiled peanuts)

Flyers @ Bruins, 7: Cats ain't catching Bs so might as well root them on and hope to get closer to fourth.

Canes @ Caps, 7: Cats ain't catching Caps so need a Wash win to keep the Hurricanes at bay.

Cats @ Thrash, 7: Florida likes the way ATL is playing these days so would naturally root for them.

Pens @ Lightning, 7:30: Panthers have a special relationship with Bolts since both are from Florida.

The Standings (presented by The Varsity and courtesy of TSN.ca/NHL)

Eastern
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	Boston	63	42	12	9	93	215	142	21-4-5	21-8-4	3-4-3	Lost 1
2	New Jersey	63	41	19	3	85	196	153	22-10-1	19-9-2	8-2-0	Won 3
3	Washington	64	40	19	5	85	213	188	25-7-1	15-12-4	6-3-1	Lost 1
4	Philadelphia	61	33	18	10	76	198	178	18-8-4	15-10-6	6-3-1	Lost 2
5	Montreal	63	34	22	7	75	194	189	20-6-4	14-16-3	5-4-1	Won 4
6	Florida	63	32	23	8	72	177	175	17-8-5	15-15-3	6-4-0	Won 1
7	NY Rangers	64	32	24	8	72	159	175	19-10-4	13-14-4	3-4-3	Won 1
8	Pittsburgh	64	32	26	6	70	195	196	17-12-2	15-14-4	6-3-1	Won 3
9	Buffalo	63	31	25	7	69	182	175	17-12-2	14-13-5	3-5-2	Lost 3
10	Carolina	64	32	27	5	69	169	186	17-13-1	15-14-4	5-5-0	Lost 1
11	Toronto	63	25	26	12	62	191	227	11-11-8	14-15-4	5-2-3	Won 4
12	Ottawa	61	23	28	10	56	152	176	13-11-6	10-17-4	5-3-2	Lost 2
13	Tampa Bay	63	21	30	12	54	164	204	11-12-8	10-18-4	3-6-1	Won 1
14	Atlanta	63	23	34	6	52	188	221	11-17-2	12-17-4	5-4-1	Won 1
15	NY Islanders	63	20	36	7	47	154	206	14-13-5	6-23-2	4-5-1	Won 2
Western
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	San Jose	61	42	10	9	93	205	148	26-2-3	16-8-6	5-3-2	Lost 1
2	Detroit	63	41	14	8	90	234	187	24-4-3	17-10-5	6-3-1	Lost 1
3	Calgary	62	37	19	6	80	201	183	22-8-4	15-11-2	7-1-2	Lost 1
4	Chicago	61	35	17	9	79	205	155	16-5-6	19-12-3	6-3-1	Won 1
5	Vancouver	62	32	22	8	72	186	175	16-11-4	16-11-4	8-2-0	Won 2
6	Columbus	63	31	26	6	68	168	176	19-10-2	12-16-4	6-3-1	Lost 1
7	Edmonton	62	31	26	5	67	173	188	15-12-4	16-14-1	5-3-2	Won 1
8	Anaheim	64	31	28	5	67	180	188	15-13-3	16-15-2	5-5-0	Won 1
9	Nashville	63	31	28	4	66	159	172	19-11-2	12-17-2	6-3-1	Won 4
10	Minnesota	61	30	26	5	65	155	144	18-11-5	12-15-0	4-4-2	Lost 3
11	Dallas	62	29	26	7	65	179	191	17-12-4	12-14-3	3-7-0	Lost 5
12	St. Louis	62	28	26	8	64	173	181	16-11-5	12-15-3	6-2-2	Won 3
13	Los Angeles	62	26	27	9	61	160	179	13-13-8	13-14-1	2-6-2	Lost 3
14	Phoenix	63	27	31	5	59	159	193	17-13-2	10-18-3	3-7-0	Lost 3
15	Colorado	64	28	35	1	57	171	204	17-14-0	11-21-1	3-7-0	Lost 5

Comments

[Jh]

A couple of sth made the drive . Mcabes great spirit guy, and not a Bad choice for captain.

[Johnny B]

None of the Panthers' picks won. Too bad. But, have to love the Wildcats reference. I hope the Cats' third jerseys next year aren't as ugly and the Threashers' and Lightning's.

[Daniel T]

Going back to red for our third jersey is mandatory. We also need to lose those superfluous stripes running down the front and back of the jerseys. When the captains C gets placed over a silly line of piping, the jersey designer does not know what a hockey jersey is.

[ratmanfu]

"U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi..." Niiice, a Fishbone song reference. Very cool, GR.

We survived Atlanta, which has come on strong in recent games. Hopefully, we'll survive today's trade deadline, too.