Thrashers @ Canes: 3 Stars

My three stars of the night:

3rd star: Johan Hederg. Moose faced a lot of shots tonight, and kept the team in the game. Without him, the Thrashers lose this by a sizable margin.

2nd star: Eric Staal. 1 goal, 1 assist. The guy was everywhere. All three players on his line did well, but he in particular was a pain the Thrashers butt.

1st star: Ilya Kovalchuk. 1 goal, 3 asssist. Kovalchuk’s twelfth career 4 point game included a highlight reel goal in which he beat three Canes, and two beautiful assists. He has a 3 goal lead in goals over second place Alex Ovechkin, and is only 1 point behind the scoring leader Vincent Lecavalier.

This concludes a bit of an experiment for me in live blogging. Drop me a comment or an email and let me know what you think.

Thrashers @ Canes: "Live" Blog, Overtime

You knew this game wasn’t going to easy, didn’t you? Game goes to overtime, with a battle for a very important second point.

• Enstrom falls down in the neutral zone, and the Canes get a great chance. Hedberg flails around, but the puck does not go in.
• Turnover in the defensive zone, Scott Walker gets a 1 on Hedberg, and Johan stones him. Without him this game is a blowout.
• Finally a good chance for the Thrashers, Ward gets a great save on Kozlov.
• What a hockey game. 4 on 4 hockey between two rivals that is going back and froth with great chances.
• Finally a penalty against Carolina. Kovalchuk draws the penalty , and the Thrashers get 1 minute and 5 seconds of a man advantage.
• GOAL!! Another beautiful pass from Kovalchuk to Hossa!

Thrashers @ Canes: "Live" Blog, Third Period

The third period starts off with the news that Eric Boulton is out for the game with a sprained knee, which he suffered from crashing into the net in the first period.

• Eric Perrin takes the fifth penalty of the night, committing a hold on a Cane breakaway.
• The Versus announcers must read Talking Thrash because now there is constant play by play commentating.
• Post for Carolina on the power play. The post score: Thrashers: 2, Canes: 1.
• Interesting note: the Versus play-by-play announcer is John Forslund, who also works for the Hurricanes. The commentator is Darren Eliot, who has the same position for the Thrashers.
• Hey, look, another penalty on Atlanta, the 6^th of the night, this one on Ken Klee. The Thrashers continue to give odd man rushes starting in the neutral zone that are forcing them to take penalties.
• Goal, Canes, 3-2. Long range shot bounces off Hedberg, and rebound was put in by Eric Staal between Hedberg’s legs.
• Another goal Canes, following Zhitnik’s failure to clear the puck. Goal by Andrew Ladd, less than 90 seconds after the previous goal. Game is tied.
• Hurricanes are leading in shots 25-11.
• The line of Whitney-Staal-Cole is killing us.
• 13 minutes into the third, and the Thrashers have two shots.
• GOAL! Beautiful pass from Kovalchuk to Holik. Great play, and the Thrashers have the lead with 6 minutes left. Holik has a three game goal streak .
• “Kovalchuk on the backhand pass. If you have ever seen Kovalchuk’s curve, you know what a feat that is.” – Darren Eliot
• Another damn penalty, this time on Holik. Seventh of the night.
• Goal Canes, game tied. Hedberg almost makes a great save, but the puck trickles in.
• Game is going to overtime. Furious third period, with 4 goals scored.

Thrashers @ Canes: "Live" Blog, Second Period

Time for the second period.

Let’s start off with a complaint about the Versus announcers. In most announcing teams, there is a play-by-play guy, and then a commentator. Both of these Versus announcers are filling the commentator role. There is NO play-by-play aspect to their work. “Blah blah blah blah, Kovalchuk scores, blah blah.”

• Post by Exelby, and then quickly followed by another post by Brad Larsen. The line of Thorburn, Holik, and Larsen held offensive possession well, generating two very close chances.
• ANOTHER penalty, this one on Kovalchuk.
• The duo of Hossa and Perrin has to be the most dangerous shorthanded offensive threats in the league.
• Penalty killed, and followed by Colin Stuart harassing Cam Ward behind the net.
• I love Southeast hockey: up and down, with speed everywhere. It is so much more entertaining that playing, say, the Devils.
• Rush from the Canes, great save by Hedberg, and Havelid gets called for hooking. The Thrashers had done so well since the beginning of the season not taking penalties, but haven’t been doing the same tonight.
• Give a team with so much offensive talent like the Canes so many chances with a man advantage, and eventually they will capitalize.
• Moose with a huge save! He is the best penalty killer tonight.
• Penalty killed, 4 for 4.
• I love hockey in HD. Have I said that yet?
• GOAL! Right off of the faceoff win by Todd White, Kovalchuk shoots wide, and Recchi knocks in the rebound. 3-1 Thrash.
• 3 goals on 9 shots. I’ll take that percentage any day.

Second period thoughts: Hedberg is on fire. This is a classic SE division game, with up and down reckless play, and little defense. The Thrashers dominated last Saturday against Boston, playing their style of hockey. They continued it in the first period on Monday, but then got away from it. They are playing their style again tonight. If the Thrashers can consistently play the way they want to, they might not win every game, but Blueland will see the playoffs again.

Thrashers @ Canes: "Live" Blog, First Period

To celebrate the first time I have been able to watch the Thrashers in HD this season, I am going to try and “live” blog the game.

Interesting note about the back to back between these two teams- The Thrashers are in 13th place in the conference. If we can win both, in regulation, the Thrashers will be in 3rd in the East.

• Game on. Way too much possession by the canes to start the game.
• What a rush from Eric Boulton, showing a bit of surprising speed.
• Kozlov scores just over 3 minutes in a great shot that surprised Cam Ward.
• I love hockey in HD.
• Goal Canes. Less than a minute after the Thrashers score. Whitney on the tip.
• 6 straights goals (5 in Boston, first tonight) that the Thrashers have given up have come on long ranges shots. Granted, a few were tipped, but 6 straight coming basically the same way is more than coincidence.
• Goals offically came :39 seconds apart.
• Pascal Dupuis is fast. Really fast.
• Five minutes in, and I haven’t noticed Kovy do anything yet.
• Penalty on Boulton, let’s hope the PK does better than last game.
• PK comes through and shuts them down.
• Hossa dances around on the halfboards, and draws a penalty.
• GOAL KOVY!! Highlight reel dance through the defense on the power play. He took on three players, and won.
• Remember his goal in St. Louis when the arena gasped in amazement? Many of the Canes players and fans had similar expressions after that goal.
• Oh man, delayed call on Zhitnik for tripping. Pretty weak call.
• Penalty killed, but the Canes continue to hold the puck in their offensive zone.

Period summary: Any time you have the lead on the road it is definitely a good thing, but the Canes have held the puck way too long. Penalty kill is definitely playing better than in Boston.

Canes Diving

From Jon Press on AOL’s NHL Blog:

After Florida defenseman Bryan Allen was whistled for tripping ‘Canes center Eric Staal on a questionable call in overtime, Panther netminder Ed Belfour lost it (clinical term) and started skating around while doing his best pantomime of a dive (though if we were playing charades, I’d have probably guessed “high hurdling” or something). The result was a two-minute minor for Belfour for bad acting unsportsmanlike conduct, a two-man advantage for Carolina and a two-point win on the Whitney goal moments later.

After the game, the Panthers were still steamed at the call(s) and the way they believe the Hurricanes play the game.

“We’ve got to get five or six guys to dive every time you touch them,” Panthers captain Olli Jokinen said in reference to Carolina’s Eric Staal hitting the ice on Allen’s penalty.

“He embellished it as much as he could,” said Allen. “It’s embarrassing the way they play the game. They’re looking for the easy way out, taking dives and looking for the cheesy call.”

Here is Belfour’s acting out the dive and what drew the unsportsmanlike. It is maybe one of the funnier things I have ever seen in a hockey game.

Hey Tampa…

Pregame, vs. Carolina, Mar. 4

Game Notes – Preview

The Carolina Hurricanes come into Atlanta for a Sunday matinée game with large playoff positioning implications. The Tampa Bay Lightning lost yesterday, and so with a win today the Thrashers would pull into a tie for first place in the division. With a Carolina win, they would pull within one point of the Thrashers.

The game is not going to be on TV today. It was originally on NBC but was dropped. Scott Burnside talked about this the other day:

Nice job by NBC to rob Carolina and Atlanta fans of a chance to see their teams play in a crucial Southeast Division matchup this weekend. The game was, quite properly, originally scheduled to be one of NBC’s national telecasts Sunday. But the network decided it wanted more Sidney Crosby and dumped the Thrashers-Hurricanes game, leaving no local television coverage in either market. Instead, fans in the East will get to see Crosby playing the NHL’s worst team, Philadelphia. That’ll be nice for all those Martin Biron fans. Memo to NBC: The NHL has 30 teams. We understand players named Hossa, Kovalchuk, Brind’Amour, Tkachuk, Ward, Staal and Stillman actually can play the game, too.

It is also the mullet giveaway game. Should be interesting to see how those look.

Season series:

• 10/13: L, 4-3
• 10/25: L (OT), 5-4
• 11/1: L, 5-2
• 1/13: W (SO), 4-3 — Video
• 2/20: W, 3-1 — Video
• 2/24: L, 4-1 — Video

Hurricanes		Thrashers
33-27-7	Record	33-23-10
73	Points	76
SE, 3rd	Division Rank	SE, 2nd
	vs. Canes	10-20-10
	vs. Canes in ATL	4-10-6
4-1-1	This Season	2-3-1
16-14-3	on Road
	at Home	15-10-6
3-2-0	Last 5	3-1-1
5-5-0	Last 10	4-5-1
14-7-2	vs. Opposing Division	13-5-6
W, 4-1	Last Meeting	Feb. 24
.909	Win %, Leading After 1	.652
.920	Leading After 2	.692
.320	Trailing After 1	.360
.080	Trailing After 2	.231
Bret Hedican	Injuries	Steve Rucchin
Erik Cole
15.4% (25)	Power Play (RK)	16.5% (23)
83.8% (10)	Penalty Kill (RK)	77.7% (28)
-8	Goal Differential	-8
0.91 (20)	5 on 5 Ratio (RK)	1.09 (9)
29.7 (13)	Shots/G (RK)	30.7 (9)
29.0 (11)	SA/G (RK)	30.9 (22)
52.1% (6)	Faceoff % (RK)	52.9% (2)
J. Williams (31)	Team Leaders – Goals	M. Hossa (36)
R. Brind’amour (49)	Assists	M. Hossa (46)
R. Whitney (73)	Points	M. Hossa (82)
Ward	Goalies	Lehtonen
26-17-6	Record	27-19-8
1	Shutouts	4
2.88	GAA	2.88
.899	Save %	.907

Pregame, vs. Carolina, Feb. 24

Game Notes – Preview

The Hurricanes come into town to play the Thrashers for the second time this week. The Canes traded for Anson Carter from the Blues yesterday, and tonight is expected to be his first game with the new team.

From the Blueland Blog, Brad Larsen is healthy and will play, Metro is a healthy scratch, and Kari is in goal tonight. The lines are as follows:

Kozlov- Belanger- Hossa
Kovalchuk- Slater- Sim
Vigier- Holik- Boulton
Larsen- Kapanen- Mellanby

Get to the game early, there are a bunch of events downtown tonight and there will be lots of traffic. It is also Kari statue night. It is a sellout, and we all know how that team does with a packed house. Sellouts usually have a large amount of fans that aren’t really huge fans, so it tends to be somewhat quiet. For everyone going, MAKE NOISE. Wear blue, and help the guys get two points tonight. The Canes are only three points back of us.

Season series:

• 10/13: L, 4-3
• 10/25: L (OT), 5-4
• 11/1: L, 5-2
• 1/13: W (SO), 4-3 — Video
• 2/20: W, 3-1 — Video

Hurricanes		Thrashers
31-25-7	Record	31-22-10
69	Points	72
SE, 3rd	Division Rank	SE, 2nd
	vs. Canes	10-19-10
	vs. Canes in ATL	4-9-6
3-1-1	This Season	2-2-1
15-13-3	on Road
	at Home	14-9-6
2-2-1	Last 5	1-3-1
5-4-1	Last 10	2-6-2
13-7-2	vs. Opposing Division	13-4-6
Feb. 20, 07	Last Meeting	W, 3-1
.905	Win %, Leading After 1	.652
.957	Leading After 2	.692
.304	Trailing After 1	.348
.083	Trailing After 2	.208
Erik Cole	Injuries	Steve Rucchin
Cory Stillman
16.0% (25)	Power Play (RK)	16.5% (22)
83.0% (14)	Penalty Kill (RK)	77.6% (30)
-8	Goal Differential	-8
0.90 (22)	5 on 5 Ratio (RK)	1.10 (11)
31.0 (8)	Shots/G (RK)	29.9 (13)
29.0 (11)	SA/G (RK)	31.2 (23)
52.2	Faceoff %	52.5
J. Williams (29)	Team Leaders – Goals	M. Hossa (35)
R. Brind’Amour (47)	Assists	M. Hossa (43)
R. Whitney (70)	Points	M. Hossa (78)
Grahame	Goalies	Lehtonen
6-9-1	Record	25-15-8
0	Shutouts	4
3.03	GAA	2.91
0.895	Save %	0.908

Carolina Not Used To Giving Up Leads

I was just wasting time and reading the Carolina Hurricanes postgame notes, and read something pretty shocking. Ready for this? Before tonight, over the last two season the Canes were 52-0-2 when leading after two periods. Recently, they have been money with a lead going into the last period. That is 106 out of 108 possible points. Wow. What a way to break of out a slump for the Thrashers. For the sake of my sanity, I’m glad I didn’t know that stat at the second intermission.