Lehtonen Is Back !!

After last night’s game, I, and I am sure many others, began to really look forward to his return. Moose and Pavs had done well for a long while, but the team needs its #1 back.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: HE’SSSSS BAACCCKKKK!

Goaltender Kari Lehtonen will join the Thrashers in New York tonight and is expected to return to the ice either Saturday against the Islanders or Sunday against the New Jersey Devils.

Waddell liked what he saw from Lehtonen when he watched him play Tuesday night in Chicago and assistant GM Larry Simmons had a good report from Lehtonen’s game Thursday night – a 4-3 overtime win over Peoria in which Lehtonen made 30 saves.

“Now he’s had two real good weeks of practice and two games,” Waddell said.

Scheduling and Instigator

Your news and notes for Friday is made up of two very important bits of league news. The first is that the NHL, starting next year, will change the scheduling format:

The NHL has approved a scheduling format that will have each team play 24 divisional games, 40 in-conference matchups, 15 games against non-conference teams and three wild card games against out of conference teams.

The format – which was used prior to the NHL lockout – allows for every team to play every team at least once in a season, but it would still be every other year before a player like Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin would play in every building.

This change has been under debate pretty much since it was instituted. It is great for the league, as no one wants to have to watch a game with the Florida Panthers 8 times in a season.

The second news is not a change, but the possibility of one. Darren Dreger is reporting that many players on the ice are changing their minds about the infamous instigator rule:

NHL Players Association Executive Director Paul Kelly and his entourage have visited with seven of the league’s 30 teams on their fall tour.

Kelly is asking players the question, “Do you want it removed?,” and sources say the vast majority are saying yes.

As one player put it, “guys have to be more accountable,” citing hits to the head and hits from behind this season as the motivator for urgency.

This is a rule change that will change the play in the league drastically, and would make it a much cleaner, more respectful game. It would mean more fights, but very few cheap shots and vicious hits.

Postgame, vs. Toronto: Minor League Hockey

At 16:20 of the second period in tonight’s game, Ilya Kovalchuk scored. At the time the goal went in, it had been an incredible 168 minutes and 32 seconds since the last goal the Thrashers scored, three games earlier against the Capitals.

Finally putting one in the net did not spark a huge rally for the Thrashers, however. Tonight’s game was pathetic. I feel like I could copy and paste a game recap from one of the first six games of the season and it would apply perfectly to tonight.

There are a lot of excuses that could be used: the first goal was insanely unlucky, the second goal hit the post before going in, the Kozlov-Dupuis-Holik line had two or three chances on a wide open net that just missed (see picture to right), and the fact that the Maple Leafs came in as a team playing desperately for a win.

All are true, but should not be given any credence. The Thrashers probably would have lost to many AHL teams tonight. With the exception of maybe 5 total shifts the entire game, there was no hustle, no effort. I would blame this on the four days without a game, but then again it is exactly how they played against the Devils and Pens.

Before I continue ranting, there were a few positives. The hustle play of the day goes to Chris Thorburn, a guy not usually known for speed. Part way through the game, the puck was shot into the offensive zone, and would have been an icing. Thorburn outskated the Toronto defensemen, showing speed that was quite impressive.

Tonight was Darren Haydar’s first game since November 1^st. He logged 16:35 time on ice, scored an assist on Tobias Enstrom’s goal, and even got time on the power play. It seemed that most of the scoring chances for the team had Haydar involved. The guy definitely deserves to be in the lineup for a while.

Eric Boulton again used his fists to try and spark a rally. At first, he got his butt kicked. I felt bad for him. He hung in there, and in a marathon fight, ended it with a draw or maybe even winning the fight. It did spark the team for a minute or two, but then the ‘slumberplay’ started again.

The other three players that played well tonight have played well for a while and don’t need elaboration. Pascal Dupuis, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Tobias Enstrom have consistently been our best players for the last couple of weeks.

Back to the negatives. Tonight was ugly, boring, minor league hockey. There were four times that two Thrashers players collided with other, passes missed, and missed badly, and there appeared to be no organization with the puck. Recently a lot of the guys have taken practices off for various reasons. Waddell and the veteran players need to step up and make practices required for a week or two to get any chemistry back.

Lastly, Kari Lehtonen won again tonight in Chicago (Sterling had a hat trick, but that is off-topic), making 30 saves on 33 shots. The bottom line is that Pavelec played well in his first NHL stint, but is still very young and needs development time. Hedberg also played well in goal during Kari’s injury, but he is not able to carry a starting goaltender load. Make sure the Fin is completely healthy, but get him back to Blueland as soon as possible. We need our goaltender to steal a game or two.

Saturday night’s game is in Long Island against the Islanders. Who should be in net? Will Ondrej get a shot? Or will Waddell put Moose back in net to try and get some rhythm?

Picture: (AP Photo/Gregory Smith)

Ilya Kovalchuk Profile

Michael found this video on YouTube and sent it to me. I hadn’t seen it before, and it is awesome. It is a bit old, but it shows just how much Ilya loves what he does.

Lehtonen’s First Rehab Start

Kari Lehtonen made his first rehab start tonight in Chicago against the Quad City Flames. It took the Flames 59 minutes and 50 seconds to finally get a goal past Kari. He faced 28 shots, and made 27 saves. Not only that, but he got an assist on the Wolves first goal and got the first star of the game.

The only goal he allowed was on the penalty kill with 10 seconds left and coming off of a defensive breakdown. Not a bad first game back, is it?

Lehtonen, because of the collective bargaining agreement, can only stay in Chicago for two weeks for rehab. He will probably make 3 or 4 more starts. Look for him to be back in Blueland December 12th against Boston.

That means we have 15 days left to argue about what to do with the three goaltenders.

Second Round of All-Star Numbers

The second round of all-star numbers are in. Ilya Kovalchuk has moved up to 6th place, and is only about 20,000 votes of a starting position.

Crosby again is leading in votes, with almost an incredible 100,000 votes higher than Daniel Alfredsson, who has the second highest. The other player in a starting position is Vincent Lecavalier.

Marian Hossa has 16,854 votes for the 20th highest, and Slava Kozlov has 9,294, for 26th highest.

The Sellout Curse

A question was asked about the sellout curse over at the message boards that made me wonder exactly how bad it is. Here are all of the games over the last two seasons in home sellout games:

2006	Opp	Result
5-Oct	Tampa Bay	OTL, 2-3
10-Nov	NY Rangers	L, 2-5
17-Nov	Dallas	L, 3-5
9-Dec	Pittsburgh	L, 3-4
5-Jan	Phoenix	L, 4-5
28-Jan	Philadelphia	L, 1-2
3-Feb	Philadelphia	L, 2-5
24-Feb	Carolina	L, 1-4
18-Mar	Buffalo	W, 4-3 (OT)
4-Apr	Washington	L, 2-3
7-Apr	Tampa Bay	W, 3-2 (SO)
12-Apr	NY Rangers	L, 3-4
14-Apr	NY Rangers	L, 1-2
2007
5-Oct	Washington	L, 1-3
10-Nov	Carolina	L, 3-5
23-Nov	New Jersey	L, 0-3

We are 2-13-1 in sellout games at home over the last two years. The two wins were in overtime or the shootout.

Of note, the largest crowd last year that was not a sellout came on March 16 against the NY Rangers. The building was 99.5% full, and it of course was a win for the Thrashers, 2-1.

Postgame, vs. NJ Devils: The Brodeur Show

You can’t win them all. Cliché, but true. A lot of people will look at this game, see the 3-0 score, and overreact. Don’t.

This game came down to three key things: we just could not get a break, we played a very good defensive team, and we were facing arguably the best goaltender in history.

About the “breaks:” the last few games it is seemed that every bounce, rebound, etc. went our way. Passes were crisp, and found the streaking player right on the tape. Tonight was the exact opposite: nothing went our way, and then to not help things, it seemed that everyone’s timing was off.

Once the Devils went up by a goal, and especially up by two, they went into complete lockdown mode so well that it was hard to even enter the zone. They played the “we have the lead, now hold it” game to perfection. Kudos to them.

We got chances on Brodeur, but he played like one of the best of all time. Can’t do much about that.

Don’t blame Moose, he kept us in the game. Don’t blame the defense, they too kept us in the game. And don’t blame the offense, there were plenty of chances.

Bottom line is that there are losses that are unacceptable, and then there are games you lose and don’t really feel that bad about it. This game was the latter.

Best player for the Thrashers by far was Pascal Dupuis. He usually brings a lot of energy to the ice, but tonight he played at a major higher level that normal. He had a ton of great chances and amazing plays, and almost scored on two or three occasions.

I only have one comment about the refs. They missed a ton of calls, even to the point where I was commenting on should-have-been penalties on the Thrashers. Granted, they missed calls both ways. That wasn’t the problem. The problem I had with the game was how the refs reverted to pre-lockout rules and game-play. The hooks and the holds that aren’t allowable after 2005 did not get called tonight. Refs: call it fairly, but also call it by the rules. That’s what they are there for.

Hey look! The sellout streak continued.

In non-game news, Kari will report to Chicago tomorrow for rehab.

Tomorrow night the team is in Pittsburgh. Ondrej Pavelec is in goal, and hopefully the Thrashers will be able to start a new winning streak.

(AP Photo/Tami Chappell)

Who Improves the Thrashers Offense?

Happy gameday everyone. Hope the leftover turkey is good.

James Mirtle has taken a look some unusual offensive stats:

I decided today’s challenge would be to see which players improve their team’s offence the most when they’re on the ice.

I’ve split this into defencemen and forwards, and will look at three different stats: even strength scoring, even strength shots on goal and power play scoring.

Of the top 10 “Blueliners who improve even strength scoring the most,” the Thrashers have two players: Tobias Enstrom comes in at 8, but guess who is the second highest? Niclas Havelid. The Thrashers average 3.99 goals per game when he is on the ice, and only 1.5 goals per game when he is on the bench.

There are no Thrashers in the even strength shots category, but Tobi Enstrom came in #5 in the power play scoring difference.

Now to the forwards. Not surprisingly, Kovalchuk is the third highest in improving even strength scoring. In improving even strength shots, Darren Haydar is the third highest.

To sum it all up, Mirtle combined all three categories to come up with a list of players weighting these stats. Kovalchuk is not in the top 20 for forwards, but Tobias Enstrom comes in THIRD for all total defensemen.

Now for a little bit of analysis. I was a bit surprised to see Darren Haydar in the even strength shots category, but then when I thought about it, I remembered him shooting a ton, but with very few quality chances.

Havelid in the team goals category was a real shock. I know he is playing better now, but he started off the season horribly.

Kovalchuk probably isn’t in the top 20 for forwards because he is not generating a ton of shots. He scores on an incredible 24.1% of the time he shoots.

And then lastly is Tobias Enstrom. This kid never ceases to amaze. No matter what stat people throw out there, Enstrom is usually high up. He is the highest ranked rookie defensemen in Mirtle’s stats, and is ahead of even Niklas Kidstrom and Zdeno Chara.

If he keeps this up, he really will get a lot of Calder discussion.

Thanksgiving Dreams

Let’s hop in the Delorean and take a ride back to October 17th. On that day, the Thrashers were 0-6, a full FOUR points behind the next team in the conference standings, and reeling over the firing of their Stanley Cup winning coach. Fans were talking about how this might be the beginning of the end of NHL hockey in Atlanta, and the future for the success of the Thrashers was definitely quite dim.

Now to today. The Thrashers wake up to look at the standings where they are basically tied for 6^th in the standings, with a winning record for the first time all season. Seriously, to start 0-6 and then to have a winning record before Thanksgiving is absolutely incredible. I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but this turnaround has got to be one of the more dramatic and sudden ones in history.

For yet another year the spotlight in Atlanta sports is open. Atlanta Falcons? One of the worst teams in the league. Atlanta Hawks? Better, but still not good. Atlanta Braves? Yes, Glavine’s coming home, but they missed the playoffs again last season.

Just like last year, the best pro team in Atlanta plays hockey in Blueland. Last season the team stepped into the spotlight with more shyness than a 13-year-old girl with acne. This season is the time for the Atlanta Spirit and everyone in the organization to step into that proverbial spotlight, grab it by the neck and wrestle it into submission.

During the game last night one of the co-owners (I can’t remember which one) was interviewed and he talked about how his dream is keeping the team like it is, Waddell stays behind the bench, and he gets to drink from Lord Stanley’s Cup at the end of the season.

Well here’s my dream. Come January, all eyes in the NHL turn towards Atlanta and the Thrashers, at which point the team is in first place in the division and one of the better teams in the league. Mr. Kovalchuk starts in the game, and the Bulb is absolutely rocking.

The end of the season comes, and the team is announced as back-to-back Southeast Division Champs. Kovy wins the Richard and Hart, Enstrom wins the Calder, and Waddell wins the Jack Norris.

The playoff starts, and all of Atlanta is focused on the playoff run. Blue is everywhere; you can’t go anywhere without seeing a Thrashers logo. The radio stations finally stop talking about Vick and are discussing who should play in goal.

The team wins it’s first playoff game in history, and the place is louder than a Widepsread Panic concert. That victory suddenly becomes a second, and then a third. All of a sudden, it’s game 7 of the Cup Finals against the San Jose Sharks. The-town-with-only-one-championship that only knows how to lose is beside itself in hockey fervor. The game is packed with not one seat empty. Every single person has one blue. Jock’s and Jill’s, Taco Mac, CNN Center, ESPNZone, and sports bars across the city are jam packed, with every TV on hockey instead of baseball.

The team wins, and Kovalchuk and Hossa raise the Cup together in a moment that brings tears to the eyes of many longtime Thrasher fans. Our friendly neighbors to the north that always criticize us poor southern folk and our lack of hockey ability finally agree that yes, Atlanta is a hockey town.

Hey, it’s Thanksgiving. I can dream.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.