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Sunday, February 25, 2007
Finally, a move to stop the bleeding
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
They have been playing like they’re waiting for something to happen. Maybe somebody makes a trade. Maybe the opposing goalie faints. Maybe the NHL releases a statement: “This exceeds the amount of misery we will tolerate for one franchise. We hereby declare the Atlanta Thrashers a playoff team.”
“You can’t play that way,” Bobby Holik said Saturday when asked if the team needed a trade. “You can’t go to work thinking, ‘Oh, if only somebody else was here.’ “
No, you can’t. But somebody else needed to be here. And finally, somebody is.
Too often low profile at the trade deadline, Thrashers general manager finally made a significant move Saturday. With his team transitioning from first-place wonders to a panicking lot struggling to tread water in the playoff pool, Waddell shipped a piece of the future (prospect defenseman Braydon Coburn) for a piece of today (Philadelphia defenseman Alexei Zhitnik).
Holik neatly summarized the situation after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Carolina when he said: “Is it good a thing? Yes. He can make a difference. But only if everybody else is doing their job will this trade improve us.”
Something had to be done. At some point, you had to assume that the team that started 23-10-6 might not be coming back. The Thrashers once led the Southeast Division by 10 points. They now trail in the division and lead non-playoff teams by only two.
A trade guarantees nothing. But what it does do is send a message: to the players in the locker room who live to compete, to the people in the stands who have been paying for empty promises, to anybody who has witnessed Waddell do little or nothing in the past, even when an SOS has slapped him on the head.
Coburn is about tomorrow. Zhitnik is about now. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. This franchise hasn’t had nearly enough “nows.”
Zhitnik can carry the puck. He will provide immediate help on the power play. Of his 91 career goals, 45 have come on the power play. All we know about Coburn is he can’t play in the NHL now, and he hasn’t looked as advertised.
Why wait? There has been too much waiting. Waddell in the past has been overly concerned about “mortgaging the future.” Apparently, the message finally got through: Dude, if you don’t improve this team, there’s a good chance you have no future. The Thrashers had as much chance of winning with tomorrow’s prospects as the Hawks have of winning with today’s salary cap space.
“We’ve all talked about the future for so long,” Waddell said, “but our future is present.”
In doing so, he took on a player who will make $3.5 million annually for two more seasons. For that, Atlanta Spirit owners should be commended for taking on salary.
There has been this concern about overpaying in a trade. But how long do you watch every team around you “overpay” and do nothing? Maybe Nashville overpaid for Peter Forsberg. But sometimes you have to overpay for the upside. It’s the upside that enables you to separate yourself from the field.
Nobody said trying to win came without risk. Indeed, risk should be the mandate.
Against Carolina, the Thrashers committed too many turnovers in the defensive end and forced too few in the offensive zone. Still, they trailed only 2-1 and had a power play with 8:43 left. Then they whiffed, and a blocked shot led to a rush going the other way and a goal.
“With the power play, you’re out there to give momentum to your team, not to close a casket,” coach Bob Hartley said.
Zhitnik can make a difference. At 34, he’s not the player he was early in his career with Buffalo. But he immediately becomes this team’s biggest threat on the back line.
The Thrashers once were 13 games over .500. They are 8-13-4 since. Even with the unraveling, they could have made the playoffs without a trade. But merely qualifying for the postseason shouldn’t stamp this season as a success. There is a chance to do more.
A trade assures nothing. But doing nothing projects less.
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