05:41 PM ET  06.24 | We made the playoffs...and i never thought we would have with the way we played in some months of the 06-07 season. We wheeled and dealed to gain experience and made our first serious push for the NHL playoffs and actually even won the southeast division in doing so. But for me it started the most bittersweet 2 weeks I have ever experienced as an 8 year Thrashers fan. In those two weeks we clinched a playoff spot, won the division over the previous 2 Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightninig and Carolina Hurricanes, hosted the first ever playoff game of any professional sport in Philips Arena's history (unless you want to count the AFL team the Georgia Force as a pro team...my apologies to any fans of our beloved Force) and were uncerimoniously dumped from the NHL playoffs in 4 straight losses. Needless to say it was painful to watch. I didn't watch hockey and won't until October (especially after seeing who had made the finals...I mean come on Anaheim and Ottawa?? 4-1 series to Anahiem...glad i didn't waste my time watching). That being said, I have stayed interested...getting my first ever (at the ripe age of 22) season ticket package to Thrashers games for 2007-2008. I also remained interested in any offseason transactions. Still it was hard...the painful embarassing memories still etched in my memory as if it had happened yesterday. True its only June...October and many off season aquisitions are still to be made. I trust that Mr. Waddell knows what he is doing. Hell we wouldn't have made the playoffs if it wasn't for Zhitnik, Dupuis, and Tkachuk. However those trades also only gave us 4 picks in last weekend's NHL entry draft all of which weren't even made until the 3rd round or later. Before I felt like crying I checked out www.thehockeynews.com to check our roster and the current years left on each player's salary. This too was painful. As I checked our salaries i realized of the 23 starters on our roster from 06-07 only 10 are currently signed to us (Hossa, Kovalchuk, Holik, Zhitnik, Havelid, Rucchin, Lehtonen, Hedberg, Larsen and McCarthy). Now i do realize there is still a week left before we let the likes of Kozlov, Tkachuk, de Vries, Sutton, Belanger, Dupuis, Sim, Hnidy, Vigier and Boulton go (all Unrestricted free agents as of July 1st) but how many of these superstars can we sign? Only time will tell. As for now I as an Atlanta sports fan just nervously wait for any news to filter onto my computer wherein I will be quick to rant once again.