Thrashers

By Conyers Dawg

December 7, 2005 04:22 PM | Link to this

We miss Dany Heatley!

By Bob

December 7, 2005 04:26 PM | Link to this

Point taken, John. You’ve figured out we want Waddell gone and hold him accountable for this mess. Do us a favor, and all fans of this team and start turning up the heat on him by asking him about what he’s built here, mabye it will help?

But to follow your lead, here’s the guys that wear the sweater who shoulder the blame-

Lehtonen = for showing up out of shape

Hossa = he finally looked like he cared last night, before that he’s looked like he didn’t want to be hear and was playing half-assed. He needs to pick it up every night and skate like he did last night

Holik = he looks like he cares, but his skills and speed and eroded. Not his fault, he’s in the twilight of his career

Kovalchuk = he’s the big one. He needs to wake the heck up and figure out there’s two ends of the ice. He is not some prima donna who can just float and cherry pick and try to carry the puck himself. It is a team game, start playing the team concept or trade his lazy floating butt to some other club and get us some kids who care to compete at both ends of the ice

Modry = pitiful. He’s a Euro Tamer, Tremblay. I don’t know what he can do though, he’s slow, he’s not suited for the new open NHL. But he can play smarter and quit taking penalties

Sutton = wake up and play good positional defense, he’s always out of position

DeVries = he’s trying to do too much. I feel he’s got good skills, but it seems like he’s trying to cover for his partner all the time and getting caught out of positon

Summary = the guys need to get back to basic hockey and rally around each other. Part of the problem overall is bad team cohesion. The players need to stick to their individual responsibilities and most of all, start working the puck better, meaning compete in the corners, faster and crisper passing, digging for pucks, chasing pucks, skating harder.

By caillou

December 7, 2005 04:28 PM | Link to this

Pass the puck to the open man who happens to be skating, carry the neutral zone with speed. In the defensive zone if a puck is within 10 feet of the blue line get it out no matter what the cost. In the offensive zone if the puck is ten feet from the blue line get it deep. Cycle the puck down low because you can’t hold/hook/ interfere. Get bodies infront of the net because the d-men can’t cross check, there is no price to pay to stand infront of the net. Shots from the point need to be low to create rebounds. If the puck is coming from the right d-man put a winger near the goal line to the left of the net, see Thorton’s goal last night.

By JB

December 7, 2005 04:38 PM | Link to this

Goaltending: D- unfair to judge rookies….Dunham has done ok when he was in the lineup…..Kari better stay healthy when he gets back or the fans will boo him out of Atlanta

Defense: F Modry and Sutton have been horrible at best. Havlied and Hnidy arent much better.Exelby gets a passing grade here. Ill have to wait and see when his minutes are on the level of Modry and Sutton

Fowards B- Until lately this group has held the fort….I for one like Hossa…..he has done everything I thought he would. Kovy can be better and I think he will.

Centers D+…..Stefan is a bust…..Holik is overpaid plain and simple. Kozlov has done ok when he has lined up there.

Coaching B+ Hartley has done a good job with a vastly overated roster. They can`t skate with 25 out of the 30 teams in the league. Who could have done better?

Front Office and Ownership F- Minor league all the way…..terribly overpriced product….They really should be ashamed of themselves

The Thrasher fans B+ To put up with this year in year out is tough…..This is a gutcheck year to see who the real fans are.

By RomansFriendBill

December 7, 2005 04:49 PM | Link to this

Holik is a waste of money. Don Waddell should be taken down solely for signing a contract paying Bobby Holik 4.25 million per year for the next 3 years. What a huge mistake! Is Hartley to blame for Holik and some of the other signings. Devries for 2.something a year? We are the yankees of the south without the winning! In the beginning of this season from hell Bernie Mullen was blaming all the losses on the goaltending. Well, the Goaltending is not the reason why we can’t win. What is Holik giving Atlanta for 4.25 million per season? We are paying a third line center 4.25 million. If we were in first place I’d have no problem with that but mired neared the bottom of the table we can’t afford him. I get sick everytime I see his slow butt on the ice. Release him. Break all his sticks, hide his skates, anything so he can’t play.

By Thrashy Thrashy

December 7, 2005 04:53 PM | Link to this

The funny thing is that the Thrashers would be at or a few games above .500 with a good goalie. As bad as the defense has been, the goaltender’s injuries are the ultimate difference in this team’s record. I have a feeling that we’d still be complaining about Modry and Holik, though.

By kevin avera

December 7, 2005 05:59 PM | Link to this

We are still without a number two center, I agree Holik is a 3rd line center, he is excellent on faceoffs and has some value on a winning team but we need another big time center to go along with Savard.

Goaltending D, This situation is unfortunate, Garnett just isn’t ready.

Defense D Modry is awful, Hnidy I don’t know he doesn’t get any minutes.

Offense C, When there on they are effective but their are too many nights when they disappear, The team always is looking for the highlight goal instead of crashing the net and creating chances.

Coaching B, Doing the best he can with goaltending situation.

Front Office D. Waddell needs to make a trade to jump start this team or the year is over.

By George Mathis

December 7, 2005 06:03 PM | Link to this

This team needs a healthy quality goalie and better-skating defensemen. Once it gets that, the forwards will take care of scoring, though we could use a true center that is also speedy.

Lehtonen will likely right the goalie ship. Modry and some other D-men are too slow and take stupid penalties because they can’t accept the new rules. Or are too slow, mentally and physically, to adapt. Fixing the D will require trades.

Kovalchuk will be fine, but needs to trust his teammates more and quit forcing the puck through the zone (and three collapsing defenders).

The only problem with forwards is we have no true center that can skate with Kovalchuk or Hossa (or Bondra). Savard is slow. Holik is slower. Stefan is fast but not very good.

Koslov is acceptable but not a true center. He cannot win faceoffs and cannot handle some of the large centers he will be matched against.

I predict a trade for a fleet center and defensive, quick D-men.

By TonyC

December 7, 2005 07:03 PM | Link to this

amen. We need faster “D” I think that’s obvious, also after watching last night’s game it is obvious that #17 doesn’t believe that he CAN’T skate through 3 men ALL the time (it is fun to see when he does though)….we are HORRIBLE at holding the point in the attacking zone…..it’s agonizing to see the puck float out past the circles and KNOW that whoever is on the point will muff it, IF there’s even a man there. Coach’s comment that “we do have a team concept” begs the question: Does anyone on the top 2 lines know about this? I say bench some of the big names for a game or two…(bring up Jimmy Slater’s old line from chicago?) Stop blaming Holik, he doesn’t get overpaid to be an ofensive dynamo, he gets overpaid to win faceoffs and scare the hell out of the other team’s #1 line (which he does, more often than not).

This guy Lehitonen, better be as good or better than ‘94-‘96 Brodeur if we keep taking such stupid penalties! I wonder how many others notice the number of DUMB penalties Savard keeps taking…..tripping calls in the last 5:00 of a period are NOT what we’re looking for from our #1/#2 centre!

I think that ownership would be surprised with the level of support they’d receive if they got a winner! JB I think you’re on point with most of your grades…although I think #2 is going to get a lot better, however we need a better role model for him and Coburn (if/when he shows up) than #25, #7 etc……

By Joey

December 8, 2005 07:47 AM | Link to this

We need Kaberle back. Say what you want, but Frank Kaberle does have the ability to move the puck well and wasn’t out of position all that much. He may not have been the big hitter that Exelby is and Sutton should be, but letting him get away may be haunting us. He is the kind of D that will benefit from the new NHL. He is playing quality minutes on a 1st place team. The thing that you don’t see from guys like Kaberle is them putting their team in bad situtations that often (dumb penalties). Most of the penalties from our D have been because they are either lazy and out of positon or they just forget that they can’t clutch and grab anymore. When these guys figure that out and start to stay out of the box, then maybe they can learn to get the puck up the ice better.

By RS

December 8, 2005 09:41 AM | Link to this

Ilya has always been streaky…two weeks ago everyone was saying how much he had improved his all-around game. He’ll come back around. One of his problems is that when things are going bad he tries to do too much and makes things worse.

Manasso….do you think Ilya could be hurt? He was going great until that knee in the thigh about 10 days ago…against Carolina, I think.

By Red Light

December 8, 2005 12:30 PM | Link to this

Modry can skate but he’s been bad so far.

Waddell can’t trade because he has no cap room and which team will take the overpriced guys the Thrashers have?

Waddell entered the season with no top-line center. Savard is a second liner for about 25 other teams. There has never been a question that Holik was a 3rd-liner, but Waddell obviously didn’t recognize that.

Hartley wears out his top power play unit because where else can he go for scoring?

Injuries happen but this organization has no depth whatsoever. Who can he call up? No one.

Kaberle (19:45, +1, 5G 12A), Staios (21:56, +5, 1G 10A), Pothier (15:33, +10, 1G 8A) all are playing solidly for their teams. Even Kurtis Foster is playing for the Wild and has 4 goals in 7 games and is plus-3.

deVries and Modry are both -11.

No question the goalie situation has been a big problem, but which genius signed Hurme, and put all of his stock in an unproven 21-year-old in the first place?

You have four guys in double figures in goals, and then you have eight forwards who have less than double figures in points and each has played 15 games or more. Just how many fourth liners or checking forwards do you want on one roster?

As an opponent, you know that if you shut Ilya and Hossa down, you’re going to beat the Thrashers. You also know there is a great chance you are going to score at least four goals a game.

From Nov. 9th’s game against the Penguins through the Dec. 1 game against Toronto, average home attendance (if you can believe the figures) is 13,682. Obviously, the resurgent NHL attendance has not made it to Atlanta yet. With the trends you have all mentioned, it likely won’t.

I’m tired of the excuses. This franchise is on the fast track to oblivion and I can’t imagine what it must be like to be Bernie Mullin. He’s been duped and I hope he recognizes that sooner than later.

By Chris

December 8, 2005 12:58 PM | Link to this

John, I disagree with you somewhat on the topic of this column. I will concede to you the fact that this team should be scoring more than they are, based on the players that were brought in here, but I don’t believe the “Big Guns” are the reason that the Thrashers are where they are. Right now, the Thrashers are 9th in the NHL in goals scored (10th in goals scored per game). They have scored just one fewer goal than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have torched Atlanta in all three of their meetings so far this year. Now, while I’m sure this is not what Don Waddell had in mind in September, and it should not satisfy anyone associated with the Thrashers, the scoring is clearly not the reason for this season’s struggles.

Looking at the other end of the ice, the Thrashers are 29th (of 30) in goals allowed. If you’re an optimist, you could tell yourself that they are 27th in the league in goals allowed per game. Either way, it points to the horrendous defence that the Thrashers have played this year.

The same story is told when you look at the special teams stats. The Thrashers are 1st in the league in both power play opportunities (by a large margin) and power play goals. They sit 5th power play scoring percentage. The fact that they draw so many penalties is usually a sign that they are outworking the opposing team, using their speed, moving their feet and forcing the other team into bad positions where they need to commit penalties. This is a sign of a great offense. However, on the penalty kill, they stink. Compounding the fact that they are awful at killing penalties is the fact that they commit so many penalties. Against San Jose, early in the game, the Thrashers has a delayed penalty that was going against them. Before they could touch the puck and begin that penalty, they committed another one. This lead to a two minute, two-man advantage, which naturally lead to a San Jose goal. I’m just glad it didn’t lead to two!

Once again, it seems that the Thrashers defence is the cause of a lot of the problems that this team is facing and its more than a little disheartening that Don Waddell has spent the past five years trying to fix the same problem and has accomplished so little. I believe that biggest problem on this team is Jaorslav Modry. He’s slow, he gets beaten by his man far too consistently, and in front of the net he never seems to have position on his man. Also, I think that he is dragging Greg de Vries down with him. He is a -11 on the year (remember, shorthanded goals don’t count). Niclas Havelid, by comparison is a +3. Also, I have no earthly idea why Kaberle wasn’t offered a contract. He is playing in Carolina for almost a half million dollars less than what the Thrashers are paying Modry.

The other, and more obvious problem is goaltending. This has been Don Waddell’s Achilles Heel since Day 1 with Damian Rhodes. You could question the trainer as to why his goalies are so prone to the same type of injury, but after the job the training staff did last year, getting Heatley and others back on the ice so quickly after his injury, I’d tend to believe in their competence. I would however love to know what is going on with Kari Lehtonen. Is he still alive? Is he rehabbing in Finland? Atlanta? At all? When is he going to play again in Atlanta? In Chicago? Or even start skating? Its been more than two months since he left the season opener with his injury and very little has been said about his return.

Anyway, I’d say that while it may be easy to point the finger at the high priced scorers that were brought in win the conference, I think that the real problem lies with the guys at the other end of the ice. Chris

By Bob

December 8, 2005 02:14 PM | Link to this

Chris,

The latest word on Lehtonen is that he is cleared to practice with the team. He should be skating now and start practicing with the team early next week I’d guess by the end of next week, if he holds up in practice, he’ll get sent down to Chicago for a week to 10 days, get 2-3 games in, if that goes well, he’s back here by Christmas.

What are the odds he gets hurt again? I’d hope slim to none and slim just left town.

You’re exactly right as to where the problems lie. This team can score goals, but there’s no defense and no goaltending. And there’s been no defense or goaltending each and every year. Waddell shoulders the blame for that.

It is frustrating to see guys like Kaberle and Staios let go for nothing, well actually because Waddell thought they didn’t deserve a raise. What an indictment against his GM skills, or lack thereof.

By JB

December 8, 2005 03:08 PM | Link to this

Bob….Ill play Devils advocate here just for the sake of a diifferent view. When Staios and Kaberle were here we still had the worst defense in the NHL. We had arguably better goaltending with Pasi than we have now , but we have always been weak on defense and nothing to write home about in goal…….No matter who we have played on the blue line the last 6 years, we have been bad. You can always hide a bad defensemen when there are 5 good ones around him. I see Don has made defense a priority the last 3 drafts…..no results yet. We won`t be better with who we have now.

By Bob

December 8, 2005 03:48 PM | Link to this

To play devil’s advocate back at ya, you can’t make a difference as a good defenseman when your partner stinks and the other 4 guys stink also. I think Kaberle was here with Staios for one year, but Kaberle was green and getting better. Staios never played in front of Pasi. But who knows, I all I know is that I want a GM that can see talent and knows who to keep, how to let go, who to draft.

By Geoffrey Paul

December 8, 2005 04:37 PM | Link to this

I just don’t think Waddell is that bad. USA Hockey obviously doesn’t think so. This is the same GM who drafted Kovalchuk (granted, that was a no-brainer at the time), Heatley (everyone knew he was good, but how many thought he would end up being one of the new faces of the NHL), Exelby (seems to be progressing nicely), Coburn (has played excellent for Canada in international tournaments), and Lehtonen (everyone in hockey agrees he is going to be a star as soon as he gets healthy. So where is the blame for the way he evaluates talent? Talk about Stefan being a bust- ok, fine, for a #1 overall we aren’t getting anything out of him- but look at who else was in the draft. I mean, the Sedin twins aren’t exactly lighting up the league, it was a down year full of serviceable NHLers, but no stars. Lets talk about trades. The Staios trade wasn’t the greatest, but it only looks bad now several years after the fact, hard to put too much blame there. He brought in Savard for next to nothing, and when he was dealt a bad hand with the Heatley situation he turned it into much more than I would have thought we could have gotten. This franchise has been snake-bit with bad luck from day one. Injuries, injuries, injuries. We have been among the league leaders in man games lost to injury every year of our short existence. It is hard to judge a GM for putting a bad product on the ice if the product that he assembles is never on the ice in the first place! I can’t think of a single 10 game period in the history of the franchise where all of the players were supposed to be on the ice were actually out there skating. It sucks to be a Thrashers fan. SUCKS. They break my heart 3 times a week. But let’s not have a knee-jerk reaction.

By BarryJ

December 8, 2005 04:56 PM | Link to this

Geoffrey, I respectfully disagree. I don’t believe underperforming for six straight years is exactly a “knee-jerk reaction”. Remember, this is year six of Don Waddell’s “five-year plan”. His very own timetable of expectation has not been met.

At what point, then, is he held accountable for the product on the ice? At what point are the entertaining of excuses stopped?

Heck, he could generate an excuse every year for underperformance. Where are all of the second rounders he has drafted since 1999? Third rounders? Fourth rounders? (see where I’m going with this?). Outside of Exelby, you mentioned ‘high’ first rounders—That proves that the drafting is not exactly getting the job done as the talent “pipeline” from Chicago has been pretty bare.

Who’s to blame for that? There comes a time when a person has to be held accountable for the decisions that they have made. There has only been one person in the history of the organization who has had the ultimate authority to make such decisions.

Knee-jerk reaction to reality? I don’t think so. Excuses are unacceptable.

By caillou

December 8, 2005 05:28 PM | Link to this

Talk hockey not waddell.

(I know there are plenty here who would like to debate Don Waddell, his draft history and the Dany Heatley trade, but regardless of those, this team was supposed to be much better. Try to stick to the 20 guys who are on the ice every night.)

By Brendan

December 8, 2005 11:49 PM | Link to this

I place the blame on the defense. I think we’ve got two defensemen worth something. Nick Havelid and Garnett Exelby. DeVries adds some offensive spark, but he takes too many penalties.

Speaking of them, doesn’t Modry lead the team in infractions? (I haven’t checked. It might be Holik.) Our D-men take penalties because they are too slow, and are out of position.

Nobody wins while playing short-handed.

Earlier in the season, the Thrashers were averaging 27.4 minutes a game in the “sin bin.” I don’t know what it is now, but hopefully it’s less than 20-minutes on average. And that’s a full period playing at a manpower disadvantage.

Who can win like that? So, I’m not surprised by the downward spiral. The problem hasn’t really been corrected.

As for Mike Garnett, I think he’s improved. Well, he has. He’s still not really an NHL goaltender, but his play has improved.

I’m not sure when we’ll see Berkhoel again. Or if we will.

When Kari returns, if the team hasn’t addressed in penalty taking situation, we’ll see that the goaltending really wasn’t to blame.