Start Of New Season

NHL teams

Thrashers start with mourning
The Atlanta Thrashers opened their new season just four days after Dan Snyder was killed in a car crash driven by a teammate Dany Heatley.

"It was the toughest game I ever played," Chris Tamer, one of only three players with the team since its 1999 founding, said. "That was one of the biggest goals I've ever scored."

The Thrashers held a brief ceremony in Snyder's honor before the game including a video clip that ended with a smiling Snyder smoking a cigar and holding the Calder Cup in 2002.

"I remember Dan's smile when he raised that Calder Cup," Goaltender Pasi Nurminen said. "He was the first guy carrying it around."

"It showed the Dan Snyder that we all remember and want to remember," said Don Waddell, general manager of the Thrashers.

Heatley