Goalie Battle

As every Thrashers fan knows, Marian Hossa is the most coveted player at this month’s trade deadline, but he is not the only Thrasher that is being talked about around the league. Most Thrasher fans know that they will lose a goalie at the end of the season to either a trade or free agency. Lehtonen, Hedberg, and Pavelec will all be more than deserving of a spot on a NHL team come next fall. Two of them will be playing for the Thrashers, one for another NHL club. The question that Don Waddell has to ask himself now is, which one goes?

I think that it is pretty safe to say that Kari’s position is pretty safe for now. He is playing great hockey, and is always good when he is healthy. As of right now it looks like he will be the Thrasher’s number one guy from years to come. That might not be the case if Ondrej Pavelec has anything to say about it.

Pavelec played solid hockey when he was up here in Atlanta and looks ready to take his game to the NHL level. He is a very coveted prospect by other teams in the league and the Thrasher’s know that. People forget that the Thrasher’s are in the middle of a playoff battle and could be buyers at the trade deadline. Pavelec could bring in a great veteran that could lead the Thrashers into the playoffs. But the Thrashers will need this guy to play a big role in the teams future, if Kari Lehtonen continues to be prone to injury.

The odd man out is fan favorite, Johan Hedberg. While it is very impractical to believe that Hedberg will be shipped out before the deadline, it is becoming more evident that he will not be resigned in the offseason. He is a great locker room guy and leader, and he will be a key piece in the teams success for the rest of the season, although his age and replaceability will shove him out of town. Ondrej Pavelec will replace Hedberg as Kari’s back up next year, a move that is crucial for the continuing success of the franchise. Hedberg is a solid veteran but he will not play at an elite level for many more years. The Thrasher’s priority is to ease Pavelec into the NHL by making him Kari’s backup next year, and potentially an NHL starter in the following years.

It will be interesting to see if this issue is addressed at the trade deadline, or if Don Waddell, or possibly his successor, deals with it after the season.

Tuesday’s News and Notes

Besides Little’s demotion, there are a few other bits of news to report:

• Darren Haydar has been put on waivers. If he clears, there will be two weeks to send him to Chicago.
• Johan Hedberg is in net tomorrow night against Boston.
• Ilya Kovalchuk has passed Alex Ovechkin in all-star voting, and is now in 5th place.
• James Mirtle has a great article about Craig Custance and the job he is doing as beat writer.
• And finally, the rumor mills are in high gear today with discussions about possible Anaheim trades.

Postgame, vs. Florida Panthers: Return of the Cardiac Kids

A win is a win. Take two points no matter how ugly they are. The good teams are the teams that find ways to win even on the bad nights.

There are a lot of ways to say it, and they are all true. The Thrashers stole two points last night, and turned a loss into a win. I didn’t take as good of mental notes as a usually do, but here are a few random thoughts from the game:

Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk. Ilya continues to dominate, scoring the game winner only 25 seconds into overtime. Marian Hossa, after being absolutely stone cold to begin the season with people yelling to trade him, has turned it a full 180 degrees in the other direction and is producing like old. Is anyone else excited to watch Hossa and Kovalchuk on the same line for an entire season?

Thrashers won again in a non-televised game. This, like the sellout streak, is just really quirky.

The team is now 4-0 in overtime games. Between this record and the incredible comebacks recently, words such as “clutch” and “Cardiac Kids” are more than appropriate. A goal with 2.6 seconds left to tie the game? The game winner 25 seconds into overtime to win it? Just another nailbiting, heart attack inducing finish to a Thrashers game.

The change from last year. I don’t know what it is, but there is something special about this team. Remember last year the three or four games when the Thrashers were on the powerplay down by a goal to end the game and couldn’t score? And how we never seemed to get the clutch last minute goal, but usually gave it up? Not true this year. With just over a minute left last night, I felt oddly comfortable. Something deep in my shoes knew this game was going to overtime.

Johan Hedberg. He played very well for just about the entire night to get the win. He hadn’t played in a while, and didn’t show any signs of rust. The second goal allowed was pretty weak, coming off of a long shot from the left wing position. He threw himself down on the ice after it went in because he was so upset. Other than that, great game Moose.

I don’t want to waste time harping on the negatives (cough Zhitnik), but just want to bask in the glory of an ugly but thrilling last-second-tying-kovalchuk-overtime-winning game against a division rival.

(Picture (c) Fred Johnson)

OUCH!

Tonight the Thrashers were taken out to slaughter by the San Jose Sharks. The final score was 5-1. I am just going to write as much as I can before I completely block tonight’s game from my memory because it was that bad. I would say this is pretty much the opposite of everything that happened in the past ten games. There was no teamwork, no hustle, no effort by the majority of the players.

The few players that played well in my opinion were Pascal Dupuis (1g), Slava Kozlov, and Johan Hedberg. Yes, Kari got pulled. Kari did not play horribly, but he wasn’t keeping us in the game either which we do depend on him to do. This game proved one thing to me personally and that is the strength of the Western Conference. San Jose was relentless. They were playing aggressive and fast after having already played a game the previous night. Their line shifts were so fast that there was never a break from the horror that was the Thrashers defense tonight.

I think the defense deserves the most blame for this loss. They played afraid. They were too afraid of San Jose to make aggressive moves to keep the puck in our offensive zone and even when they played back they didn’t play well. They couldn’t clear the crease. They couldn’t clear anything as a matter of fact, especially the puck out of the zone. The only offense they were willing to execute was the long pass for a break away. Overall, I am not too upset because I think that the Thrashers can and will bounce back from this because of the leaders we have on this team. Also, I think the referees made a few mistakes which sort of threw off the little bit of momentum the Thrashers had after scoring the first goal of the game.

Moose Sighting

From Craig Custance’s blog:

As Alexei Zhitnik pointed out this morning , these games against the Flyers are big ones. He was on the other end, when the Flyers were beating the Thrashers back in February. He pointed out that if the Thrashers would have beaten his Flyers, they’d be in the hunt for the top spot in the conference right now. But there’s nothing they can do about those losses now.

Kari Lehtonen will start in goal against the Flyers, and Johan Hedberg will start against the Rangers. Kari talked a little today about how nice it is to get the second day of back-to-back games off. He was saying that sometimes in the third period of the first game, he starts thinking about the second game – losing a little focus. it’s human nature, heck as I’m writing this, and thinking about what I have to do next. An NHL goalie, evidently, is no different.

The Thrashers called up (or will, not sure if it’s official yet) Derek MacKenzie from Chicago, basically to get another skater out there for practices. I’m guessing, with players slightly banged up, exercising their option not to practice, it doesn’t hurt to have another guy out there. Since we’re post-trading deadline, there’s no roster limits.