Defense, Hossa, and Habs

Three internet bits to point to.

First up, James Mirtle took a look at defensive stats through the first few weeks of the season. Of the top 20 defensemen in 5-on-5 goals against average, who is the only Thrasher player? Rookie Tobias Enstrom.

In the worst 5-on-5 goals against average, there is two Thrashers: Alexei Zhitnik (3rd highest), and Garnett Exelby.

Shouldn’t be too surprising if you watched the Thrashers at all this season, but it is always interesting to see the proof in numbers.

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Next, from Craig Custance:

Don Waddell turned to Hossa to see if the Thrashers star forward still wanted to be the second shooter, just like he was all of last season when he scored five shootout goals.

But surprisingly, one of the most prolific scorers in the NHL declined.

In his last 20 games, including the playoffs, he has four goals. For a guy who expects to approach 40 goals each season, that’s not exactly the ideal pace. It’s as if he’s following the Andruw Jones playbook for how not to perform in a contract year.

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Lastly, I was looking at this sites traffic for the last few days and found an interesting source of visitors. A bunch of folks made their way here from Four Habs Fans, a blog about, what else, Les Habitantes. I went over there to see how this site was linked, and found this in their gameday preview:

Pay your cover charge to – Talking Thrash. Clever name. If only they had the team to, you know, use it.

Always funny to read that after a Thrashers win. Make sure to read the postgame, titled “The Sky is Falling.” Makes yesterday’s victory just a tad sweeter.

My (late) two cents about Montreal

Hey everyone – I happened to be flipping channels tonight and saw the NHL Network (Comcast) is replaying the Atlanta/Montreal game. In English, even! I know I’ve been away for a bit, but I figured I’d do a mini recap of this game. I wasn’t planning on doing it since I didn’t think I’d be able to watch the game on TV. Yay for Comcast and the NHL Network!

Anyways–on to the game…

We look a lot better. I’m not sure if it is the “fast boards” that the announcers kept mentioning at Montreal or what, but we played with intensity tonight. The best statistic I saw all game was our 13 shots in the first to Montreal’s 2. By the end of the game we were tied at 33 SOG a piece, but this is the first time we have outshot an opponent in any period, if I’m not mistaken, and certainly the first time we weren’t outshot by our opponent for the whole game. It seems that DW is letting them play with a little more creativity and flexibility, and it is finally starting to pay off a bit.

Kozlov seems to have finally woken up from whatever funk he was in in the beginning of the season. He is playing with energy and he is playing smart with the puck. He is no longer getting outskated and muscled off the puck–I’m glad to see him back.

Hossa also looked good, he just isn’t getting the bounces. I think he may have come back a bit too soon, and he is finally starting to get his groove back (and not in a Stella kind of way). If Ilya Kovalchuk doesn’t get our MVP this year I may have to rethink my team loyalties. He has shown up all season, (often the only one in some games) and it seems like the rest of the team is finally starting to play up to his intensity. He and Haydar had some good exchanges during this game; they seem like they are starting to work well together. Little had a solid game, too–interesting move to put him in the top 3 for the shootout, but I’m not complaining.

I was impressed by the play of White and Holik too. I was starting to think Holik was going to be a strain on this team, but he had a pretty decent game tonight. Let’s hope that is a trend that continues. Popovic had some good series, but generally didn’t stand out too much (he only had about 10 minutes TOI all night I think). I continue to be impressed by the play of Enstrom, also. He is going to go far on this team, I hope. He is, by far, our most consistent D man out there every night.

Our PP opportunities, while not necessarily successful, look SO much better than they looked in the early season. We aren’t just standing around passing to each other, but rather moving and taking good shots. Our PK still leaves something to be desired, though those 5 on 3’s looked great. Overall, our special teams look like they have gotten a shot in the arm.

I’m still not sold on Klee. He makes a few decent plays, but mostly he just seems to take up space (and take dumb penalties). Havelid looked better than I’ve seen of late, but still doesn’t look like his head is totally in the game. And I don’t know what is going on with AZ, but he looks lost out there. He doesn’t even look like he is trying half the time. It seems that DW may have noticed that and benched him for some shifts, but I wouldn’t be opposed to sitting him for a whole game. He is becoming more of a liability than an asset out there.

Finally, Moose was a stud tonight. I want THIS Moose to keep showing up.

Don’t look now, but we’re starting a little win streak!

As always, this is only my two cents. I could be wrong.

Possible Trade With Edmonton?

There are a lot of rumor sites out there that I completely ignore and are about as accurate as pulling names out of hat for possible trades. There are a few though that usually is on target, and has solid sources. One of those is Spector:

Jim Matheson reported Monday Atlanta Thrashers Director of Player Personnel Mark Dobson has been following the Oilers three times in recent weeks, leading Matheson to speculate if something’s up. Matheson observes the Oilers need a puckmoving defenceman among other things. Matheson also reported Oilers veteran blueliner Dick Tarnstrom, signed by the club to a one-year, $2 million contract, may be the odd man out on the team’s blueline has been a healthy scratch in two of the club’s last three games despite the fact the Oilers top two defencemen, Sheldon Souray and Joni Pitkanen, are out with injuries.

Interesting. And I pointed yesterday to Craig Custance’s article discussing the fact that Waddell has been active on the phones recently. I obviously don’t think this team is built completely for success, but the Thrashers are 4-2 post-Hartley, in the midst of a brutal road trip, and beating pretty good teams at the same time.

Bottom line is I don’t expect to see a major trade if this current success continues.

Monday’s News

A few random bits of information from Monday:

Former Thrasher Peter Bondra officially retired, and will become the general manager for Slovakia’s national team. Good luck to the future hall-of-famer; hopefully he enjoys and does well in his new position.

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A few interesting nuggets from Craig Custance:

Waddell’s been busy. He said he’s had conversations with nine general managers in the last three days. Some he talked to about the coaching search, others about improving his roster. He’s not ruling out a trade in the midst of the coaching search. Obviously this team could use help defensively and at center.

Waddell has also been in touch with Marian Hossa’s new agent, Ritch Winter. If Hossa is convinced this team is headed in the right direction, I think he’ll sign. If he doesn’t, he won’t. It’s that simple. Waddell remains optimistic that something can get done.

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Tom, a regular over at the Thrashers message boards, has created a new blog in which he will post practice reports. He is able to make it to most of the practices, so look there for regular updates.

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Lastly, Kari’s new helmet design is close to being done, and it is official that the theme is Optimus Prime from the Transformers movie. Sounds pretty awesome, can’t wait to see it.

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Tomorrow night is in Montreal, again not televised. Sounds like another great night with Mr. Kamal.

Breaking News! Kozlov Rejoins Team

After a 10 game holdout over unknown reasons, Thrashers player Slava Kozlov rejoined the team tonight and immediately made his presence felt. In his first game of the season, he scored the first goal on the night, making it only the second time all season the Thrashers have scored first. In the third period, he scored the eventual game winner in a great assist from fellow Russian Ilya Kovalchuk.

Wait, what did you say? Slava Kozlov has been playing all season? Oh. Well, he finally decided to play WELL tonight, and it is so much nicer to have two thirds of the big three playing well. Ilya Kovalchuk continued his domination by scoring the second goal for the Thrashers, and assisting on both of Kozlov’s goals. Every time the Thrashers have a good play, it seems that Kovalchuk is involved in it.

Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Joseph Oliver)

Who is that last third of the big players who hasn’t played yet? Marian Hossa. He played just under 25 minutes tonight, and didn’t register a point. He is starting to create more chances, and is slowly rejoining the team, but once he starts producing our offense should look a lot better.

Johan Hedberg officially is in the groove. The game wasn’t on TV, so I wasn’t able to watch it, but from the sound of things he made a ton of great saves and kept the Thrashers in the game in the second period. For the second or third game in a row, he has played very well.

The last point to discuss is Garnett Exelby’s penchant for taking absolutely stupid penalties with about a minute left in the game. In Toronto, his penalty for tackling a Leafs player let them tie the game with 9 seconds left and send the game to overtime. Tonight, he had a horrible slashing penalty that led to the ‘Hawks second goal, and made the game a lot more nail-biting than it needed to be.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: From Dan Kamal, after Ilya Kovalchuk’s goal:

SCOOOORE! Ilya Kovalchuk! What an elegant interruption of the spacial symmetry!!!!!

Bonus points to whoever figures out what that means.

Anyways, the Thrashers are 3-2 post-Hartley. Slowly but surely, the performance and execution is starting to show up. Hopefully the consistency will soon follow.

Another Day, Another Loss – Rant

How many different ways can you find to talk about a loss?

Thrashers lost again tonight in Nashville, giving up three goals and being outshot 34-20. Goalie Johan Hedberg played well enough to keep the Thrashers in the game, and the goals were the result of defensive lapses. For the second goal allowed, Garnett Exelby got his feet crossed on a rush and let a Predator skate right around him.

Give some credit to Marian Hossa; he did have one or two decent plays, but continues to skate on the ice with absolutely not a care in the world, let alone about the hockey game. Ilya Kovalchuk and Tobias Enstrom again looked like the only players that actually care about winning, and it is a shame they are stuck playing with “professionals” that will not give the effort to care.

Granted, Nashville, who came in with only two wins like the Thrashers, played well. Goalie Dan Ellis, in only his second career start, recorded the shutout and played very well. The Predators blocked a ton of shots, and shut down their zone as soon as they went up by two goals. But there was very few quality scoring chances by the Thrashers at all. Nothing worked.

Quick rant: I have used words like “emotion,” “caring,” and “effort” a lot recently. I am so sick and tired of only four players (Kovalchuk, Sterling, Little, Enstrom) playing with any of those all of the time. I would not mind as much about the 2-8 record if the team actually CARED at all or made it look like they are trying. How many times can we watch Ilya Kovalchuk skate in and attempt to make a play, only to try to pass but all of the other Thrashers “players” on the ice are flatfooted and watching him?

Bench them. Play Thorburn instead of Kozlov, Popovic instead of Zhitnik, and get rid of Ken Klee. Let the kids play as much as they want, whenever they want, and let Ilya pick his linemates. Don Waddell should sit down with Marian Hossa and ask him if he wants to be traded, and if not, then ask why he refuses to play. He should sit down with Slava Kozlov, and ask why he is playing so horribly and lazily when he could have done the same thing in Dallas for more money.

It is so frustrating seeing these undersized kids outperforming the veterans that have both the experience and talent to perform and produce. So to the following players, thank you for representing the Thrashers, Atlanta Spirit, and the city of Atlanta well:
Darren Haydar, Bryan Little, Brett Sterling, Jimmy Slater, Tobias Enstrom, and Ilya Kovalchuk,

To a few others that have played well at times but inconsistently (Boulton, Dupuis, Perrin, White, Exelby, and Hedberg), thanks for your effort.

To everyone else, you are not fit to represent the city of Atlanta. Please play with passion and show up to play every night, or leave.

Let’s See Pavelec

I think that the QMJHL’s best goalie over the last two years deserves the start tomorrow night in Toronto. Nothing will answer the question as to whether this guy is the future Goaltender of the franchise then let him start his first game in front of the biggest market in the NHL. Will Ondrej show the Thrashers that he is the future of the franchise and turn Kari Lehtonen into trade bait?

What do you think?

Quinn for Coach

From Sportsnet.ca:

Pat Quinn believes he has the skills to put a stop to the woeful start by the Atlanta Thrashers.

In speaking to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Quinn says that “I’d be naïve to say that you can win without good players. All teams have some holes in them. The good trick, with you and with the players, is how to hide the holes and enhance the skills of players. I’ve been able to succeed at that.”

As far as the age factor, Quinn is 64 years old, which raises questions as to whether he can relate to the young Thrashers.

“I think age is just a number. I think as a coach, I’ve been on the leading edge in this game for a long, long time,” he said. “There are common threads here. If you’re 20 or 50, when guys are trying to work together to do something, you’re on the same wavelength.”

Quinn is the man to salvage the Thrashers steadily declining hopes. Lets pray he gets the job.

Lehtonen on Injured Reserve

After playing his best stretch of hockey so far this season in last night’s game against the NY Rangers, Kari Lehtonen had to be replaced when he injured his groin. He had an MRI today, and the team put him on the injured reserve. From Craig Custance:

The Thrashers placed goalie Kari Lehtonen on injured reserve on and recalled top goalie prospect Ondrej Pavelec from Chicago (AHL).

Lehtonen injured his groin in the first period of last night’s win over the Rangers and had an MRI done this afternoon.

Before the injury, Lehtonen was playing his best game of the season and had stopped all nine Rangers shots.

“Everything felt great, I was having so much fun and then I just made one kick, a desperation save and I felt my leg go,” Lehtonen said. “I was hoping that it didn’t feel that bad.”

But it did. The team will turn to backup Johan Hedberg for the majority of the work during the upcoming seven-game road trip but coach and general manager Don Waddell said the team is also confident in the 20-year-old Pavelec who has never played an NHL game.

Until the results of the MRI come in, there is no timetable on Lehtonen’s return.

I absolutely hate to see Kari get hurt, especially after he looked like he was returning to form, but I have faith in Moose and can’t wait to see what Pavelec can do.

The Future of NHL Uniforms

Apparently the NHL is continuing to test faster and sleeker jerseys for its players to wear. Check out this video of the latest test demonstrations; this new design should make the game quicker and much more entertaining.

Obviously, this is a joke. But just imagine Alexander Ovechkin skating around in that.