Postgame, @ Washington: Forgot to Show Up

What is there to say about that game? The Thrashers bodies were in Washington, but their brains and hockey skills were left in Blueland.

This game set up perfectly to be a poor performance. The Thrashers won last night at home in front of a huge crowd and against a rival. The Capitals also played last night, losing a tough one. The Thrashers hadn’t lost in regulation in December, and were going into Washington to play the worst team in the league who had some key players hurt. Definite win right?

To win this game, all the Thrashers needed to do was to come out early and put pressure on the Caps, and put one or two in. They would lose any confidence they had, and the game would be over.

Easier said than done. Caps came out focused and fired up, and took a two goal lead in the first.

Anytime you see 6 goals given up, it can be pretty quick to blame the goalie. Don’t. 5 of the 6 goals were not Kari’s fault:

• 1st GA: Havelid made a horrible turnover that led directly to the goal
• 2nd GA: Ken Klee blocked Kari’s view entirely, and he never saw the shot.
• 3rd GA: Jimmy Slater tackled Kari.
• 4th GA: A weird shot that bounced around many players and hopped over Kari’s shoulder.
• 6th GA: Mike Green scored on a great offensive play on a pass from a corner, directly following a lazy attempt by Garnett Exelby.

The Thrashers made mistakes, and the Capitals, well, capitalized. They scored 2 goals within 1 minute in the first, and 2 goals within 1:09 in the second. Ballgame.

The Thrashers didn’t quite give up just yet though, and scored two goals in the third. That is the difference between this years team and last year’s. Last year, there was the huge brawl in a large win between these two teams. This year? They kept pressuring and scored a few.

Who is to blame tonight? Well, hockey is a team game, but one offensive line and one defensive pairing can take the blame. The line of Eric Boulton, Pascal Dupuis, and Jimmy Slater were a combined -9. The defensive pairing of Ken Klee and Garnett Exelby were -7 together. The only plus rating on the night was Slava Kozlov, who played well in his second straight game.

Where do we go from here? Fortunately the next game is not until Wednesday night. With the addition of Mark Recchi, and the eventual loss of a spot to a current player, there are going to be substantial changes with lines. Waddell has two days of practice to play with possible combinations and try to find what will click.

Postgame, vs. Washington: Kari Who?

Recap – AJC

To begin with, I was not able to watch the first period so all of my comments are on the last two periods. From what I have read though, it was fairly lackluster.

Tonight was a very good game (reminder: only commenting on what I saw). Instead of doing good, bad, and ugly, I am going to do the great, good, and bad. There wasn’t a whole lot of bad tonight.

The Great

Ondrej Pavelec. This game was only his fourth ever professional start (AHL and NHL), and he registers 31 saves, including many incredible ones, and kept the team in the game by himself at times. This was the first time all season there has only been one goal allowed, and only the third time there has been less than three. Congrats Ondrej. His play is going to lead to some interesting debates in about a month or so when Kari comes back.

Ilya Kovalchuk. The guy continues to score at will. About 6 minutes into the second, he carried the puck into the offensive zone. There were Capitals players everywhere, and I went ahead and figured the play was going nowhere. In a flash, after a few dazzling moves, the puck was in the back of the net. Three minutes later he got hurt, but that is in the bad section.

The Good

Pascal Dupuis. After Ilya got hurt, the offense seemed to leave with him. For the rest of the second and most of the third there was no direction, and not many chances. A few players (including Bryan Little) and Dupuis seemed to decide to single-handedly create chances and use their speed and creativity to generate opportunities. Dupuis did not register a point, but definitely had a lot of scoring chances.

Todd White. He scored the game winner in overtime, and it was his 100th career goal. Congrats Todd.

Penalty Taking. The Thrashers speed that we heard about for so long seems to be paying off – they are earning a lot of penalties. Tonight, there were 6 penalties called on the Caps, and all 6 were the result of speed: hooking and holding. The power play was a different matter.

The Defense. It is still not stellar, but definitely getting a lot better and a lot more consistent. Anytime you can hold Alexander Ovechkin scoreless it is a good night.

Rookies. Little and Enstrom have been playing well all season, but I had a moment at the start of overtime that gave me a lot of hope for the future. Having two rookies on the four on four in a situation like that is very impressive.

The Bad

Power Play. 0 for 6. Granted, a lot of those were without Ilya Kovalchuk, but it was downright pathetic at times.

Kovalchuk getting hurt. 3 minutes after his goal, Kovalchuk was on the left wing. A pass went to him, and he was slightly out of position. In the split second it took him to move a foot or two, the puck got inside his normal shot swing, and he torqued his body to get the shot off. He immediately started skating over to the corner and then left the game. According the postgame show it is only back spasms, so hopefully he will be back against Florida.

6-3 post-Hartley, out of the basement, and only 3 points out of the playoff race. Not bad, huh?

(AP Photo/John Amis)

Chris Bourque Debut

Ever heard of a player named Chris Bourque? No? Well you should have heard about Ray Bourque.

The former Boston and Colorado defensemen’s son is making his NHL debut in Atlanta tonight. The game is not being televised because of that stupid Versus blackout clause, so his debut will be video-less. (Is that a word?)

Postgame, vs. Washington, April 5

I am going to hold judgment on this game until after the weekend. The Thrashers showed up tonight and scored quickly, less than two minutes in, and then played absolutely horrible and flat until halfway through the third. A furious comeback after a 4 minute penalty kill fell just short. If the team learned a lesson and plays full 60 minute games this weekend with playoff intensity, then tonight was a success. If the lackluster play continues, then the team has huge issues to work out before the playoff debut. Keith Tkachuk said it well in the AJC: “That’s hopefully a kick in the rear for us. It’d better be.”

A few things to talk about: Ilya Kovalchuk, Andy Sutton, and the power play.

• Kovalchuk scored his 40th of the season and 200th of his career early in the first. Congrats. It was all downhill from there, though. In the second period in particular he made a ton of mistakes, turned the puck over, and was greatly outplayed by the other Russian, Alex Ovechkin (I almost puke every time I say that damn name). Kovy’s play led to Hartley benching him at the end of the second, and he didn’t return until there was about a minute and a half left in the game.

  Many people have been debating this on the various boards. Honestly, he deserved to be benched. Yes, we greatly needed the two points from tonight, but the way he was playing in the first two periods, he would not have helped even if he had been on the ice. If Kovy learned a lesson from this, then it was more than worth it. I applaud Hartley for having the cahones to make such a move.

• Early in the game Andy Sutton was on a two on two breakaway. I turned to Patrick and said that anytime the words Sutton and breakaway are in the same sentence, it usually isn’t a good thing. To the absolute shock of anyone to ever root for the Thrashers, Andy Sutton scored a shorthanded goal with five minutes left. Let me repeat that again just because I didn’t believe it either. Andy Sutton scored a shorthanded goal. Not only that, but he played amazing tonight: blocked shots, used his size and hit people (including a great one on Ovechkin).
• The power play struggled again tonight, going 0 for 4. They had two chances in the first when we were playing well, and couldn’t capitalize and extend the lead. Late in the game, two penalties were called, and the Thrashers had a 6 on 3 power play for the last 45 seconds. Usually when a team has double the number of players on the ice, it can score. Not the Thrashers.

Period recap – The first period was good. We dominated the puck and had a ton of shots and great chances. A lot of tip shots went just wide and if put on net, the score would have been higher. Second was downright awful. Every Thrasher on the ice made bad plays and turned the puck over. Every time we tried to clear the puck, it looked like a pass to the Caps. The second period carried over to about halfway through the third. After a stoppage, the guys had a noticeable jump to their step and were playing with intensity. The momentum was shifting, which led to a goal for Thrashers. 3-2, 7 minutes left. Check that, penalty to Boulton, 4 minutes, no goal. That was the definition of a momentum killer.

Tonight was gut wrenching. For the final two minutes I could barely stand to watch with all of the close chances. The loss means that in all likelihood, the division title will come down to the game on Saturday versus the Bolts. I don’t need to tell you that it will be by far the biggest game in franchise history. The Arena was rocking tonight, and needs to be even louder on Saturday. Can’t wait.
(Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Poor Ovechkin

From the Washington Post:

[Dan] Boyle, who flipped the puck over Kolzig as he was sprawled, scored while left wing Alexander Semin sat in the penalty box for inexplicably picking up — and throwing — the puck from near the blueline into the corner after being knocked to the ice. Officially called “closing hand on puck,” it was easily the strangest infraction called on a Washington player this season. Capitals Coach Glen Hanlon responded by benching Semin, the team’s second-leading scorer, for the entire third period.

Afterward the players met for about 15 minutes behind closed doors. Although no one would divulge exactly what was said, when the meeting ended, all-star left wing Alex Ovechkin emerged from the locker room and smashed his stick repeatedly against the wall and a trash can until it broke into four pieces, according to those who witnessed the episode. Ovechkin’s iPod and headphones also were destroyed, crumpled in the hallway.

Ovechkin and Semin, who are close friends and who were linemates on Saturday, left without speaking to the media. Asked why he thought Ovechkin was so angry, Kolzig said: “I’m sure he’s probably frustrated with what happened and in the meeting. And that’s really all I’m going to say. It wasn’t targeted at Ovie. He’s obviously our guy. But it was something he didn’t want to hear.”

Johnson Sprung a ‘Lik

I came up with that title after Holik’s goal in hopes that he would score some more, but he didn’t. Those of you who were at the game know why I would be thinking of headlines after such a goal. Holik scored the best goal I have ever seen live and didn’t even get one of the three stars of the game. I guess it goes to show you how well everyone else played. Eric Boulton definately deserved the first star with two assists and his first multi-point game ever. He is definately fighting hard for a regular spot in the line-up. Slater is going to have to fight even harder if he wants to earn his spot back after last night.

The other two stars of the game were Kari and Alex Ovechkin, in that order. I guess you can’t deny Alex his third star when he had both opposing goals. Kari deserved second star as well facing more than one situation in which our defense couldn’t keep up with AO and Semin, and they got some nice shots off (a few posts).

The four Thrashers goals were scored by Kozlov, Holik, Tkachuk, and Kovalchuk. It is great to see so many players stepping up and playing so well. Sim played well again getting a point last night with an assist to Kovalchuk’s goal. Hossa kept up his point streak (11 games) with an assist to Kozlov’s goal. Overall, he seemed to be having a hard time last night and couldn’t seem to hold on to the puck. I don’t think it is as much a reflection on him as it is a reflection of the respect other teams’ defense have for Hossa’s abilities. They know they have to shut him down which in the past might have shut down the Thrashers offense, but not any more.

I almost forgot to congratulate Slava on his 300th goal and 700th career point.

Lightning vs. Capitals

Ovechkin gets another chance for me to like him for a short period of time tonight. If he can just pull his team to victory over the Lightning, that would be great. Somewhat good news for Thrasher fans that the Lightning are beginning a 6 game road trip, their longest of the season so far. Lets hope they have a result nearly as bad or worse than the recent Thrashers’ road trip.

And the Ovechkin conceited quote of the day, when asked about recent trades Ovechkin replied, “I still think we have a great team. It doesn’t matter who we lost or who comes here.” (NHL.com preview). So in other words, as long as he is there, they will have a great team. He might not have meant it in that way, but having heard many Ovechkin quotes before, that is how I took that quote.