Levenson Backs Waddell, Hainsey Snubbed

HTML clipboardI have a feeling I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the comments ofthis post, but I'm going to share this link with you anyway.Craig Custance of The Sporting Newsspoke toThrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson about GM Don Waddell 's future with theThrashers. Levenson more or less said that Waddell isn't no the hot-seat butthat he does expect results.I know Waddell has plenty of detractors, but hear me out for a moment. If anew GM had been brought in this summer and that GM had hired John Anderson,Randy Cunneyworth and Todd Nelson, drafted Zach Bogosian, signed Ron Hainsey,extended Toby Enstrom for four year and traded Ken Klee and Brad Larsen forMathieu Schneider I can guarantee you people would be singing his praises andsaying the team just needed more time to come together. If you look at Waddell'sbody of work since the trade deadline and throw out any grudges and biases fromprevious seasons I think you can give him a pretty solid grade.In other news, the.nhl has unveiled theEastern and WesternConference All-Star ballots. The East features two Thrashers- Ilya Kovalchukand Kari Lehtonen. I won't hold it against the.nhl that they didn't include ToddWhite or Bryan Little since they aren't exactly household names, but how aboutshowing Ron Hainsey some love? He's actually 8th in scoring among EasternConference defensemen and only TWO of the 12 defensemen on the ballot (AndreiMarkov and Mike Green) have more points than him. TWO. Speaking of two, two ofthe guys on the ballot haven't actually played this season- Sergei Gonchar andRyan Whitney. James Mirtle (at his new location)has more on the wackiness that is the All-Star ballot. The good news is that a few key changes have been made to the voting processthis year and they all make the experience better for Thrashers fans. First ofall, you don't have to fill out a complete lineup. If the only player you wantto vote for is Kovy, just vote for Kovy. It should also be easier to addwrite-ins, and it'll be easier to vote via text message (more on that later).The coolest part is that voting results will be published in real time, so we'llalways know where Kovy and Kari rank. The All-Star polls open on Nov. 12, sorest up.Finally, I was at Fort Benning with the team today. Pictures and a story tocome in the next day or so. I'll be at practice tomorrow so hopefully I can getan update on Kari for you.Source