Prologue
Firebirds Rising: The Expansion Team Nobody Picked Is Still Playing
By Brian Sullivan
The Philadelphia Journal
I wrote last summer that the Philadelphia Titans blinked when they left Antero Ikonen unprotected during the expansion draft. I'd like to amend that. They didn't just blink. They looked away at the exact wrong moment, and handed Atlanta the keys to a winner.
The Atlanta Firebirds, the league's newest franchise, have clinched a postseason berth in their inaugural season. Expansion teams aren't supposed to do this. They're supposed to lose, learn, and sell patience to a city that hasn't been given a reason to buy in yet.
Atlanta didn't get that memo.
General Manager Alex Grayson, who told this paper last summer that Ikonen was "the player we wanted to build around," was happy to revisit the subject. "We said in the fall we weren't here to wait our turn. People nodded and didn't believe us," Grayson said. "I'd point them to the standings."
Head Coach Michael Boudreaux, never a man for a long answer, was asked what changed for a roster most analysts buried before the season started. "Nothing changed. Everyone else was just wrong," Boudreaux said. "Next question."
Captain Ikonen, the Philadelphia castoff who has become the face of this franchise, was more measured. "We came here to play hockey and win games," Ikonen said. "We did, and now we're still playing."
The first round sets up as a genuine toss-up on paper, the kind of even matchup between Atlanta and Tampa that tends to come down to who's better between the pipes. That may be where Atlanta quietly built its edge. Starting goaltender Soren Lundmark has been a wall down the stretch, and the Firebirds have a steady, capable option behind him in Julien Soucy if the series demands it.
In a matchup this close, that depth in net could be the whole story.
So here we are. The team nobody picked is still playing. And somewhere in Philadelphia, a front office that bet against them is watching from the couch.
I'd say I told you so. But I think the standings already did.
ROUND 1: TAMPA
Press Conference Transcript #1
PRE-SERIES MEDIA AVAILABILITY
REPORTER: Coach, Tampa's a heavy favorite. Where does this series get decided?
COACH BOUDREAUX: In the blue paint. Both ends. Low-scoring, tight series, it comes down to goaltending and who blinks first. We don't plan on blinking.
REPORTER: On that. Lundmark's faced Tampa twice this year and split. What does he have to do differently against these shooters in a seven-game series?
COACH BOUDREAUX: Nothing differently. He has to do the same boring thing forty more times. Tampa's shooters want him moving, want him guessing. He doesn't guess. He's the calmest man in any building he stands in. That's the matchup I like.
REPORTER: Tampa's power play is one of the best in the league. How do you contain it?
COACH BOUDREAUX: You don't contain it. You survive it and you make them pay the other way. We've watched the tape. Our goalie's watched more of it than I have. Next question.
REPORTER: Avi, what's the biggest adjustment from the regular season to a heavyweight Tampa team in a seven-game series?
IKONEN: They hit harder. You hit back or you sit down. We'll hit back.
REPORTER: Tampa's built for a long series. Do you have the legs for seven games?
IKONEN: We'll find out in seven games. I like our room.
REPORTER: Asher, you've played in this building before. What's it like for a road team in here in the playoffs?
ASHER: Loud. Mean. They'll learn our numbers just to boo them. Honestly it's my favorite kind of hockey. Nobody in here is pretending to like us, so nobody's wasting energy on it.
REPORTER: Coach, last one. Game 1 mindset?
