The Puck Stops Here

Friday night, a series of tornados hit downtown Atlanta. Among the buildings damaged was Phillips Arena, the home of the Atlanta Thrashers. The extent of the damage is still unclear at this point. Atlanta has four remaining home games this season (and will not make the playoffs). Their next home game is Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Should their arena have been damaged sufficiently it may be necessary to move those games (though it is unclear where they would be moved to). This would be a financial hit to the Thrashers to lose their final four home dates or have to move them to a likely smaller facility. Atlanta is a non-traditional NHL market and thus is not on as strong financial footing as some of the older NHL markets.

Here is the CNN story on the tornados.