Thrashers

By Brian

January 10, 2007 04:03 PM | Link to this

We need a center. Putting Kapanen up a line won’t do the trick.

By Rawhide

January 10, 2007 04:24 PM | Link to this

I think this is just a rough patch, but it still a concern.

The past two seasons, January to mid February has been unkind to the Thrashers, costing us a playoff spot. Now a 4 game losing streak during the same period does raise eye-brows.

But I think this year’s squad a more consistant and able to handle the next 12 weeks of a playoff push.

The most troubling aspect is the obvious: The inability to hold leads in the 3rd….taking bad penalties is the main culprit. Deal with this, wins will return.

The three biggest numbers right now for the Blue Crew are 6, 2 and 11.

We are 6 points up on Carolina in the SE division, 2 points ahead of NJ for the second seed in the Conference and 11 point better then the 8th place team in the East.

Those are important and in that order. Win the division-your in. Then you think about positioning,……worst case scenario,…just make the playoffs. Keep the eye on the division title, guys!!!

GO THRASHERS!!!!

By Brendan

January 10, 2007 05:15 PM | Link to this

I think this is a rough patch, Craig. The team has had to play a lot of road games recently, with more to follow. Coming away from it at .500 is an acceptable outcome.

However, there are things that need to be addressed. The late goals in periods, especially the 3rd period. We hand out points so gratuitiously that we’ve been mistaken for a Welfare Office. Teams see us on the schedule and immediately think, “well, should at least be an overtime point comin’ our way.”

Yes, the center position is important. But DW probably will not make a move before February 15th. So, all I can say is, “Go Metro!!!” ‘Cuz he’s gonna have to be the guy.

The chemistry of the team was altered when “X,” Sutton, Mellanby, Kozlov, and Rucchin were out. There’s no denying that. Even when they’re here, fully-assembled and healthy, I doubt this is a Stanley Cup-winning roster. Which is why this looming trade deadline is so important to the direction of our playoffs.

For a “regular season team,” Atlanta’s pretty good. A little above average. Good enough to be among the roughly fifty-five percent (55%) that qualifies for the postseason. But this team cannot enter the playoffs without upgrades and expect to hoist anything other than their jerseys over their heads. Unaltered, I suspect the Thrashers will go as far as Kari Lehtonen carries them. Hopefully, they enter the playoffs healthy with plenty of depth on defense.

By Tony C.

January 10, 2007 06:04 PM | Link to this

The streakiness bothers me. True, if the win-streaks outnumber the loosing-streaks, then success generally will follow. Still, 3-in-a-row in the “L” column isn’t good. I like the idea of breaking a season into 7-game series…if you win each 7-game series, well chances are you get to drink whisky out of a very select community Cup. Just a thought.

Sutter used the “season of sevens” method to propel Calgary to within a period of The Cup the season before the lockout.

LET’S GO BLUE !!!

By michael

January 10, 2007 06:06 PM | Link to this

hell yes there is cause for concern. Our power play is 18th in the league. Our penalty kill is 26th in the league. I don’t know if anybody remembers but our pk was at the top of the league for a while and our power play has been on the decline as well. We are averaging about 7 penalties a game, not good when your pk is 4th from last in the league. We are now a plus 1 for the season, that has been on a steady decline. Take a look at the standings and teams are catching up because they are playing better. At the beginning of the season we were coming from behind on teams, now we let teams come back.

By danlmac

January 10, 2007 06:58 PM | Link to this

Bloggers, thanks for your comments. I think we are all agreed that: 1)another center, 2)a D-man if possible, 3)reducing late penalties, 4)improved penalty-kill, 5)improved PP, etc, etc, need to be addressed. This reminds me of coach Fraser’s (remember him) comment about the water pipes leaking everywhere.

Do forget that the Thrashers are good team though. Despite all these “issues”, and injuries, we are still a .500 hockey team (lately), albeit streaky. My fear is that one more injury could cause the losing streak(s) to prevail. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who held his breath,..really held it, when Kozlov left the Yotes game.

I’d like to see our defense,especially Coburn, make defense the #1 priority. Did anyone else see Hnidy behind the Capitals goal line when the rush that Semin scored on (in OT) started? Stepping up into the play is good,..but is it worth the risks?

As many shots as we are giving up, emphasis on defense (from forwards too)and patience, may reduce penalties as well. We have a good record when going into the 3rd either tied or down. No matter who the opponent is, I like our chances in the shootout when Kari and Slava are in the lineup.

Would like to see some lines stay together long enough to develop some chemistry. (BTW: Do we have any wings who could move to center?) Metro seems to be in the middle of action when he is out there. I agree with others it would be nice to see him on one of the top two lines for more than a cup of coffee.

Also would like to see a trade sooner rather than later. I’m afraid I don’t have Brendon’s patience.:) In my mind some good players may already be dealt if we wait. Seems to me the Hurricanes started putting pieces in place (picked up Weight, or was it Recchi?) in early Jan last year. Brendon’s point on more teams being willing to trade nearer the deadline is a good one, though.

Iceman… good to see you are back. For awhile I thought the ajc may traded both you and Manaseo for Craig.

As always (well almost) I’ll close with hoping the boys bring their “A” game to New Jersey. The Devils are 2 points behind us in the East.

Bloggers: Thanks again.

By Barry

January 10, 2007 07:33 PM | Link to this

I personally love Metro’s play and believes he deserves to be centering the top two lines. Kovy and Sim work well together if only we could get a good center for them. The problem I’ve seen lately and which befuddles me is the team defense. Remember when we had a pretty good GF-GA ratio? Now they are almost even. What happened to how the boys where playing early in the year? Remember the pressure and sticks in lane we would see? Other teams had a hard time getting any chances. That’s how we got off to a good start. Why has that type of play stopped? I don’t get it. Instead of being smart aggresive hockey we are playing relaxed reactive hockey. I’m tired of seeing us sitting back on our heels in the 3rd period.

By Craig Custance

January 10, 2007 08:55 PM | Link to this

Tony C — You and Bob Hartley must be on the same page. Before the Washington game, he said he divided the season into groups of seven games. Hold on - let me pull up my notes from that interview… Here you go, it’s raw, so excuse the typos, but here’s what Hartley had to say about that:

“We split the season into segments of seven games. Whether we ahvae a good segment going, if we have a good one, - we try to keep the same momentum. It’s kind of a mental tool,

This year so far, our worse segment was seven points out of 14. If you want to win the division, top to bottom in the playoffs. 10 points, 12 points out of 14, we have a couple of those. That has been our approach since day one — they’re building a playoff mentality — once we get to the playoffs, obviously it’s not the same thing, we all know it. I’ll make them believe it’s the same thing.”

By pondscum

January 10, 2007 09:42 PM | Link to this

I think improving the PK and not taking lazy penalties will help out alot.

The streaks,it seems some teams have them,depending on special teams play.They win when they are on,lose when they are not.

Missing Mellanby hasn’t helped either,him screening the net on the PP has had it’s effect.The PP numbers will go back up once he gets back healthy and 100%.

How about bringing up Sterling and let him play LW on a line and see if he can start scoring and draw the attention away from some others to get their confidence (and scoring) going before the postseason? The offense does need a pick me up.Sterling may only be 5”7 tall,but he goes to the net and reminds me of another used to be Chicago (Hawks) player,Steve Sullivan.

If a deal is to be had,how about D. Armstrong from the Kings or Reinprect of the Coyotes as for a centerman upgrade,or Craig Conroy? How much cap room do the Thrashers have left? Considering it’s at the half way mark now,they wouldn’t be on the hook for the whole salary of that player as half the season is gone.Maybe that’s just what there waiting to do anyways.

This is a good team just on a bad streak due to some injuries and bad penalties.Correct those,and things should turn around,no need in slamming panic buttons.

By Lew39

January 11, 2007 07:43 AM | Link to this

My view and answer to your question is “a little of both”. The team is going through a rough patch, no doubt about it. However, they are making it worse by: - not playing 60 minutes of hockey. The Islanders learned that early on. Once they learned to play every shift, every period, every game at nearly 100%, they became winners. This team seems to have a lazy streak or lack of self discipline. Definitiely, something is wrong. - Power Play: Totally disorganized and lacking energy and confidence. The results are in the stats. - Rarely having someone in front of the net. Passes go behind the net and all three forwards are there together. It sometimes looks like an elementary school scoccer match. When a pass comes out in front, no one there for a tip in. Melanby makes a living on the door step. - Passing is very tentative leading to too many giveaways. - Weakness at Center? We knew that going into the season, no surprises there. - Defense- We certainly miss Sutton. Get off Coburn’s back, he’s young and here to learn and learning from mistakes is sometimes painful with give a ways. No excuse for the rest of the Blueliners. However, we do need an offense minded defensemen that will try to rush the puck. When a pass is heading out of the offensive end along the boards toward the blueline, our guys are already heading back; we are very conservative. - Ilya- Not as consistant as last year, but that happens to every athlete (God is he talented and has he matured) and when you have only one strong line, it’s magnified. He is double teamed most times, which means someone else is open; somehow we need to take advantage of that and most times we don’t. THE GOOD NEWS: This team has a strong nucleus (you don’t win as many games as they have by being weak). No one said they would win the Stanley Cup, we all said they would get into the playoffs and we probably will. Is that good enough? This team needs to look inside themselves as a team. On the ice, they do not seem commited nor do they seem to be playing like a team. More often than not, they seem to play like individuals and not having any fun. They need to commit to give 100% of themselves for every minute their out there, winning breeds chemstry and when we were winning earlier this year, the chemstry was there. The chemstry is not there now…It’s up to the coaching staff to get them up and up to the players to execute. Something is missing.

By Bob

January 11, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this

There are definitely some problems that are finally bubbling to the surface that need to be addressed.

First is the center position. Start with that, that’s been glaring since the first few games in the season. Until Waddell gets off the snide and makes a move, do me a favor and ask Coach this:

Craig, do me a favor and ask Coach why he’s the only guy in Atlanta that can’t see that Metropolit should be played more minutes? Ask Coach why he keeps sticking Kapanen’s worthless butt on the top two lines when he’s got Metro right there. Every time Metro gets out there, he makes things happen, he has all year

By pondscum

January 11, 2007 07:32 PM | Link to this

They might be giving Kapanen the ice time to showcase him for a possible trade.

I agree about Metro though,maybe somehting is in the works.