AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 20
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Surprise! Hedberg gets the nod
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you ever come to watch a morning skate before a Thrashers game, you usually know who the starting goalie is by who leaves the ice first. Well, today we didn’t even wait for the two goalies to leave the ice before heading to the dressing room to chat with the players - the assumption was that Kari Lehtonen would be in net for this huge Southeast showdown.
You know the old saying, what happens when you assume?
Johan Hedberg entered the dressing room first, and that’s when it was apparent that Lehtonen was getting the night off - a pretty surprising decision since Hedberg just started three games ago. Before that, Kari started 15 straight. Typically, I leave the starting goalies alone before the game, so I didn’t talk with Johan about it. Kari, however, was fair game. After the skate, he came in the dressing room, and knocked over a bunch of sticks. My assumption was that he was mad about not starting. But it was another bad assumption. After chatting with him, he said he wasn’t mad at all and that he had faith in Hedberg pulling out a big win tonight. So much for my hopes that he would rip Hartley (hey — we need some good controversy around here).
So we’ll see Hedberg in goal tonight against the Hurricanes - perhaps Bob Hartley is hoping that Hedberg repeats his strong string of starts in November where he picked up a struggling Kari Lehtonen. Four of Hedberg’s five wins came in November. What do you guys think, is this the right move at this point in the year?
A couple of you mentioned Scott Burnside’s column on Don Waddell, so I thought I’d give it a link here: “Time for Waddell to make a big move” - It’s interesting reading, as is most of Burnside’s stuff.
Like I mentioned yesterday, J.P. Vigier is back in the lineup tonight and he’ll skate on a line with Bobby Holik and Eric Boulton. Looks like Hamel is a healthy scratch.
