AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2005 > December > 22
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Olympics plus or minus?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers will have four players in the Winter Olympics. Is that good news or bad?
Rookie goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who hasn’t played since the first period of the season opener, was named to the Finnish team Thursday as a backup to Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff.
Lehtonen returned to practice fulltime this week and could be back in net for the Thrashers by next week. Obviously, Finland thinks his groin problems are in the past.
But does the experience that Lehtonen will get in the Olympics override the risk of injury for the Thrashers? They desperately need Lehtonen healthy if they are to finally make the playoffs.
The other Thrashers who will be playing in the Olympics at Turin are Marian Hossa and Peter Bondra for Slovakia, and Ilya Kovalchuk for Russia.
Where’s Tech talent?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech is making its ninth straight bowl trip, but that distinction hasn’t prevented the Jackets from rarely having a highly rated recruiting class.
This season the Ramblin Wrecksters have don't have any commitments from an AJC Super 100 player and only has one four-star (five is tops) Scout.com recruit in cornerback Laurence Marius of Key West, Fla.
Do the recruiting-niks keep under-rating the players Tech goes after or do the Yellow Jackets need to step up their recruiting efforts and profile?
