It's time I addressed this, because I don't hide behind my keyboard when I'm wrong. So, come one, come all! Haters unite in giving me the old "See you were wrong, Jerkface. Smug, sarcastic, mean guy!". Yes, Thus far, Dustin Fluff-lien has had himself a nice little opening quarter of a season. With 27 games played his stats are as follows:
| Goals | Assists | Points | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | Shots | S% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 18 | 28 | 4 | 33 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 109 | 9.2 |
After a pretty slow start, Fluff is RED HOT and has become a legitimate threat with the Thrashers. He is exactly 8 points from his career high of 36, with the Hawks in 07-08. He SHOULD crush that previous high. He ranks first in the league with 5 game winning goals. This is all PLAYING AS A DEFENSEMAN. I could try and dissect the numbers to try and blow smoke up your asses to give the illusion that I was right, but that all goes against what I'm about. I was wrong. Now, I wasn't wrong about everything, but about his production, my bad. He is still a liability on defense, and he has still shown to be very streaky, but, as Jerry Reed once said, "When you're hot, you're hot. When you're not, you're not." He's been so hot that he was named the #3 star of the month in November. Atlanta, you got exactly what you were looking for; a personality and a fan favorite. Now, playing here, he would be back at forward on the third line getting the talent sucked out of him nightly by Invisi-Bolly. There is no doubt that he wouldn't have those numbers in Chicago. There is simply too much talent on the first two defensive lines for Fluff. Now, in Atlanta, if you can name me ANYONE with an ounce of talent on their blue line, you'll win the Daily Double. So, he's playing everywhere. It's still a long season, and things could go sour fast, but I have to take a bite out of my shoeleather sammich.
Everyone else has done just about what I said they would. Versteeg looks average and defensively lazy in Toronto, Niemi can only seem to beat the Hawks, Madden is Madden in Minnesota, Burish is plowing through the single women of Dallas, Fraser hasn't done much in Edmonton, Sopel is...Sopel, and the one player I said the team would miss most, Andrew Ladd, has been named as the Thrashers captain. I still maintain that Ladd would be more valuable to the Hawks.
I'll leave you with one of the reasons that he was one of the top three stars of the month. Granted, the defense on this play was heinous, but it looks good. If I was Ryan Miller, I would have been LIVID!
