AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 29
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sutton’s healthy, but is the power play?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After the loss to Philly, one where the power play continued to struggle, the talk around practice today was how to fix the special teams. The team worked a lot on the power play during the practice, and the penalty kill is about to get a major boost — Andy Sutton will be back for the New Jersey game. That should help a penalty kill that is currently ranked 26th in the league.
Hartley said that the two defensemen sitting will be Vitaly Vishnevski and Braydon Coburn, he also expects to sit down with GM Don Waddell pretty soon to talk about future plans of the defense, which is now eight deep. If everybody stays healthy this week, expect Coburn to be sent back to Chicago. He needs ice time, and with the current set-up, he’s not going to get it with the Thrashers.
As for the power play, obviously it needs to be fixed — especially the 5-on-3. The team watched tape of the Philly game, and talked about staying a little more patient on the power play. As Marian Hossa said, sometimes it seems like they’re pressing to score in the first 10 seconds of the power play, instead of wearing down the opponent’s PK and getting a better opportunity.
