Tuesday’s New and Notes

Happy Gameday to everyone. Finally, after a long wait, Blueland is back in business tonight. And a whole lot better than last time we were there.

Ilya Kovalchuk’s absolutely incredible play over the last week or so has generated a lot of press:

• Darren Eliot on Kovalchuk’s play and who has influenced him.
• He participated in a press conference call yesterday, the transcript of which can be found here. Lot of great quotes about his play and his relationship with Waddell.
• He won the top star for the NHL for the last week:
  

  Last player to post hat tricks in consecutive team games:
  Alex Kovalev, Pittsburgh, 2001-02 (Nov. 13 at New Jersey and Nov. 14 vs. NY Islanders)

  Last player to post hat tricks in consecutive team games, both on the road:
  Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh, 1995-96 (Oct. 26 at NY Islanders and Oct. 28 at New Jersey)

AJC’s Mark Bradley wrote a great article about the success of Waddell behind the bench:

There’s powerful local precedent: An Atlanta general manager once fired the guy below him and took the job himself and, after relinquishing the GM position, won 14 division titles. Not that Don Waddell is swayed by the example of Bobby Cox and the Braves.

“No, no,” Waddell said Monday. “I’m not giving up the seat I sit in.”

He meant the GM’s chair. But the more Waddell talked, the more apparent it became that he doesn’t plan to quit either job any time soon. The Thrashers are 5-3 since he stepped in as coach after canning Bob Hartley, and he doesn’t act like a man who’s overwhelmed by the dual responsibilities. Indeed, Waddell said, “When I was doing this [in the minor leagues more than a decade ago], I always thought my strength was as a bench coach.”

Gameday news – Sterling was sent back to Chicago and Pavelec is in net tonight against Washington. I’m not an expert on the waiver system in the NHL, but I am pretty sure that Sterling was one of the only players on the team that could be sent down without having to clear waivers, and since the team had more healthy scratches than is normal for an NHL team, he was sent down. More playing time definitely won’t hurt, either.

Lastly, Japers’ Rink has a gameday preview for the game tonight. He asked a lot of the Thrashers bloggers reasons why the Thrashers will win tonight, and my response is included. I decided to go the comedic route, so make sure to check it out.

Tkachuk’s Effect on Waddell

From the National Post:

Here’s some irony for you:

Atlanta GM Don Waddell in an attempt to save his job in Atlanta, simply had to make the playoffs. So he dealt a player (Glen Metropolit) plus first-, second-, and third-round choices to St. Louis for Keith.

As it turns out, the Thrashers rolled over in four games and Tkachuk had one goal in the playoffs — that all important, game-opening goal in Game 4, when your club already trails the series 3-0. So where’s the irony?

The trade that was supposed to save Waddell’s job is more likely to get him fired, if any of the suits among the Atlanta Spirit ownership group ever run into a hockey person who tells them what an absolute dog Tkachuk is as a leader. This guy has played in 85 playoff games in 15 NHL seasons. Do the math — that’s a career of first-round flame-outs. He hasn’t lead an NHL team anywhere, any time, and Tkachuk is due to play his 1,000th NHL game next season.

And Waddell gave up three picks for him? That’s called raping a franchise to protect your own gig.

‘Raping’ seems a little strong for the situation. It wasn’t the best deal ever made, but without Keith, would the Thrashers have even made the playoffs? Don’t think so.

How Good is Don Waddell?

How good do you think our GM Don Waddell is? Well, Forbes.com ranked him 6th.

That is 6th not in just hockey but in all of sports.

Rich McKay, the GM of the mediocre Atlanta Falcons, is 19th. And Atlanta Braves GM John Schuerholz? The guy that organized the franchise that holds the record for most consecutive division titles? He comes in at 42.

Well, I never was one to rag on the guy as much as many other fans, but there is absolutely no way he is the 6th best general manager in all of sports. If he really was that good, the franchise would have made the playoffs a year or two sooner.

Forbes.com uses both performance and payroll to come up with its rankings, but I don’t buy into the system. The Ice Man agrees. I for one still say that his job is on the line if the team doesn’t make the playoffs this year, and next.

Playoff Picture / New CBA

The first article for Friday comes from Allan Muir discussing the teams in the playoff picture. The second paragraph nails it perfectly.

In an act of obvious desperation, GM Don Waddell dispatched picks and prospects for Keith Tkachuk, Eric Belangerand Pascal Dupuis, completely revamping his center corps in the days leading up to the deadline. He also added skilled defender Alexei Zhitnik.

Ultimately, the team’s success will depend on two factors: coach Bob Hartley’s ability to motivate his troops and the play of goalie Kari Lehtonen (right). The young goalie has won just two of his last 10 starts, giving up several backbreaking goals along the way. If he doesn’t get it together, Waddell’s bold moves won’t be enough to save the season.

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The second is an interesting discussion by Eklund on the effect of the new CBA on the trade deadline. He uses Atlanta repeatedly as an example.

Now that we have lived through two Trade Deadlines with the new CBA, what is the effect?

It is not less trades. It is not less value. It is a curve in value.

So when you look at winners and losers now you do so in terms of entire franchises. Tell me this. Why did the key players end up in Nashville, Atlanta, San Jose and Long Island? In days gone by (way back in say 2002) they would have landed in Detroit, Colorado, Toronto, Philly, and NY City.

In Montreal hockey will always have a future. In Atlanta they need to make one. There is no need to hang onto draft picks if those picks are playing to empty rooms seven years from now.

Monday News and Notes

From TSN, Niko Kapanen, and Denis Hamel have been put on waivers. If no team picks them up, then the Thrashers continue to pay their salary but it does not count against the cap.

I have expressed my views of Niko, and so this move makes me quite happy. It might also be a sign that Waddell isn’t done trading before tomorrow at 3. Should be very interesting.

Jason Krog was also waived by the NY Rangers.

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Interesting quote from USA Today:

Asked whether he was planning any more moves, Waddell said he had $2.471 million left in cap space, and he may or may not be done.

Joked Waddell: “What’s Billy Guerin’s cap space? – It’s $2.4 million.”

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Darren Eliot’s view of the trades:

Well, in Waddell’s words, the future is now — and in a span of 12 hours he consummated two deals that were diametrically opposed to his staunch builder’s stance of the past seven-plus seasons. In acquiring Alexei Zhitnik and Keith Tkachuk, Waddell parted with prospect Braydon Coburn — the eighth overall pick in 2003 — the first and third picks of the upcoming draft and a second rounder in 2008. He also sent forward Glen Metropolit as part of the Tkachuk deal — the second roster player dealt in the past couple of weeks after defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski was dealt to Nashville for centerman Eric Belanger.

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From The Forechecker:

I love what Atlanta’s doing on the trade front. Many bloggers (Paul Kukla and Tom Benjamin, for example) decry the “rent-a-player” aspect of the NHL, but I think it only hightens the excitement of the final portion of the season, and gives bottom-dwelling teams a chance to get a jump on building towards next season.

Everyone’s got a solution to the problem of selling the NHL in the US, and the first item on most people’s list is to get the NHL back on ESPN. You know what? I don’t think that would help all that much. Another option to consider would be to tie into the two Superstations, WGN and TBS, to get Chicago Blackhawks and Atlanta Thrashers games televised.

Very interesting idea. TBS basically spread the Braves to every corner of the nation, and I think would do a great job with hockey.

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From Larry Wigge, “Tkachuk adds power to Atlanta’s quest“