ATLANTA — The Atlanta Thrashers are back! For a night, at least.
No, Atlanta's not getting NHL hockey again - after two failed tries, it's a virtual certainty we'll never go back down that road. But the (somewhat ironically) fondly-remembered Thrashers will appear on ice once more this year.
The Atlanta Gladiators, who play in minor league hockey's ECHL, said Monday they would take the ice under the Thrashers name and wear specialty Thrashers jerseys for a game in December.
The team, which plays at Gas South Arena in Duluth, announced "Blueland is BACK!" for their Dec. 16 game against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
According to a release, the game will feature "special Thrashers rally towels," "specialty Thrashers merchandise including Thrashers t-shirts and pucks" as well as the Thrashers' original mascot in attendance.
The Atlanta Thrashers last played in the NHL in 2011, after a mostly underwhelming decade-plus run from their introduction as an expansion team in 1999. The team relocated to Winnipeg, Canada and became the Jets (the reincarnation, as it happened, of a previous NHL team that had left that city).
Four Thrashers from their final season - Blake Wheeler, Zach Bogosian, Evander Kane and Andrew Ladd - still play in the NHL.
The Gladiators are currently affiliated with the Arizona Coyotes, whom Ladd currently plays for (though on the team's long-term injured reserve list).