AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February
February 2007
Grading the trades
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alright — now that the dust has settled — I like the idea that one of you started: Grading the Thrashers trades. Taking into consideration everything - salary cap, the future, the recent slide, the necessity for this team to make the playoffs — How would you grade the Thrashers moves over the course of the last few weeks?
I’ll start and give the Thrashers an A - : I’m not concerned that much about the draft picks for this year’s draft, because by all accounts, it’s not the best draft in the world. Scouts are saying that once you get out of the top ten, you can get the same guy at 11 as at 40. And we still have no idea where any of the Thrashers picks will be.
I think the deals needed to be made, and in a wide-open Eastern Conference, the Thrashers have to be considered a team that has as good a shot as any to make a long playoff run. My only criticism is that maybe the Thrashers waited too long to pull the trigger on two of them. The timing on the Belanger and Tkachuk trades were fine, if not to the Thrashers’ advantage. But based on other deals, the price of Zhitnik and Dupuis was probably lower a couple months ago when they were on their original teams. Maybe certain needs became apparent in the last month though, which might have made those trades a necessity.
As for lines — Waddell seemed to think that Dupuis would fit on the Holik/Larsen line, although he said he’d leave that decision up to Hartley. Hartley was less sure (as of yesterday) where he’d play Dupuis. He didn’t want to assume that Dupuis would skate on Holik’s line, he’s still weighing all his options. We really won’t know for sure until the morning skate on Friday.
Blogging on deadline day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Good morning — just wanted to get the blogging started early today in the final hours before the trade deadline expires. Yes, I think the Thrashers have another move left - albeit nothing major - depending on how things go on the waiver wire (Petr Cajanek maybe?).
I’m still in Boston - couldn’t find a flight out of here last night that gave me time to cover the game and get to the airport on time, so it’s not exactly an ideal situation. We start boarding here at 8:30 a.m., then I’m out of commission until noon. I’m sure there’s a good scientific reason why it takes 45 minutes longer to get to Atlanta from Boston than it does to get to Boston from Atlanta, tradewinds or something, but right now I’m not exactly thrilled — hey Don, if you’re reading this, try not to make any moves until I land in Atlanta. I appreciate your cooperation.
In the meantime, I’m going to put a couple calls out here this morning. I’ll try to update this blog on the comments section all day as I hear anything. As I type this, there are conflicting reports about Gary Roberts and him waiving his no-trade clause to finalize the deal to Pittsburgh. TSN says it’s a done deal, while hockeybuzz.com says Roberts refused. A few people I’ve talked to that would know these kinds of things were inclined to think that Roberts would decline a deal to Pittsburgh - but who knows?
The Canucks helped themselves yesterday, landing a guy some of you wanted Waddell to look at.
There was a three-way deal with Wings, Flyers and Blackhawks.
Jeremy Rutherford reports that Bill Guerin still hasn’t ruled out a contract extension in St. Louis. But then again, why would you extend his deal when you can just trade him and resign him in the summer? Worked for Doug Weight. Shouldn’t there be rules against that kind of thing?
Waddell still working it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Is the trade deadline here yet? Today started early — 4 a.m. to be exact, so I could make sure I got to Boston in plenty of time just in case anything happened out here. Surprisingly, Hartsfield is pretty darn busy at 5 a.m. It turned out to be a pretty eventful morning. Where should I start?
How about the roster moves - Niko Kapanen skated with the team this morning at practice, but it was apparent that he would be (at best) a healthy scratch. Denis Hamel wasn’t there at all, which immediately raised suspicions that he was going to be waived.
Turns out both could be gone. Don Waddell said he placed both Kapanen and Hamel on waivers, which means he’s probably not done perfecting the roster. Now, if Kapanen doesn’t get claimed, then he’d have less flexibility, but if he does…. We’ll know by Tuesday at noon.
This means that the only scratch for tonight is Steve McCarthy, who actually has been playing pretty well lately. Bob Hartley said he hated to do it, and that it’s just another example of hockey (and life) not being fair. McCarthy got caught up in a numbers game. The Thrashers have gotten some calls from teams looking for defensive help since they now have seven guys who can contribute, so there’s always the chance that one could be moved - Waddell’s comment on that: “We like the seven we have.”
According to TSN, Brian Boucher, Petr Cajanek and Bryan Berard are among a group of players placed on waivers today. Waddell called it an interesting list. Now, obviously I don’t think that Boucher will be claimed by the Thrashers anytime soon. Berard’s name was connected to the Thrashers in earlier rumors, but that was before the Zhitnik deal — but maybe Cajanek is a possibility. He’s signed through next year, for a salary ($2M) higher than I would have guessed. But if Steve Rucchin is on the shelf for awhile, and Hartley ever wants Tkachuk to return to the wing where he belongs, the Thrashers might want to look at another center before the deadline.
Like I mentioned in the Tkachuk story posted online this afternoon, Tkachuk will center a line with Kovalchuk and Sim. The pairings are Zhitnik-Havelid; Exelby-de Vries; Sutton-Hnidy. Kari Lehtonen will start in goal.
Lastly, if you’re ever in Boston, I strongly recommend the Larry Bird sandwich from The Four’s. Great chicken sandwich, but an even better atmosphere. It’d be a great place to watch tonight’s game, if I wasn’t working it. But I’m looking forward to seeing how quickly the additions fit in. You don’t want to judge after just one game, but we will anyway.
A whirlwind weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You know it’s been a busy 24 hours when every inch of paper on all my reporter’s notebooks are full and I’m taking notes on team handouts, when my digital recorder’s memory is maxed out, and my cell phone battery is completely dead. It’s been a wild couple days, and the trade deadline is still two days away. As you know by now, the Thrashers have made some huge additions and have paid a huge price to get them. Even Don Waddell conceded that the price of players might drop as the trade deadline gets closer, but guess what — the Thrashers couldn’t wait.
This team needed something. Slava Kozlov called it a cold shower and a wake-up call. But by adding Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik the Thrashers addressed their biggest needs. Zhitnik is now the power play quarterback this team needed — and he can help the penalty killers. Kari Lehtonen said he remembered a 5-on-3 when Philly was in town that Zhitnik basically killed by himself, staying on the ice for 2 minutes. Tkachuk will give Ilya Kovalchuk a little more room to work, and should also be a boost on the power play. He’ll score his share of garbage goals by the net, which is his specialty.
But it was a big price. There are people in the Thrashers dressing room who still believe Braydon Coburn can develop into a top two defenseman. And three draft picks in the next two years for Tkachuk is a steep price. I wouldn’t sweat that conditional first-rounder — this move was to pick up Tkachuk for right now. Quite honestly, I don’t see him re-signing with the team unless something crazy happens in the postseason.
And let’s not forget Metropolit — he emerged as a useful player and good skill player. He was pretty upset about the trade, mostly because he said he really enjoyed playing with that group of guys. But Metro never quite won Bob Hartley over — he was a healthy scratch last night, and everybody involved said that wasn’t because of the trade. So interpret that any way you like.
I’m sure the critics will emerge saying the Thrashers overspent to pick up these two players, but I would have been much more critical if they didn’t spend at all. What would you rather have — a guy like Anson Carter for a fifth rounder or Tkachuk and Zhitnik for the price the Thrashers paid?
We won’t know the true impact of these deals, who won and who lost, until after the season and beyond. But it’s obvious that something needed to be done and it was.
Now, I still have to find a hotel in Boston — haven’t had time to do that. Oh and Don Waddell said he may not be done — he’s not counting out anything until it’s 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Tkachuk to Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GM Don Waddell confirmed that the Thrashers traded for St. Louis forward Keith Tkachuk. They paid a steep price, sending forward Glen Metropolit, a first and third round pick in this year’s draft as well as a second round pick in the 2008 draft. There is also a conditional first round pick in 2008 if the Thrashers resign Tkachuk.
“This is exactly what we needed for this hockey club,” Waddell said.
Metropolit said he was looking forward to the opportunity in St. Louis, but was upset about leaving the Thrashers.
“They just got a great player in Keith Tkachuk, I hope they make the playoffs,” Metropolit said.
Done deal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Update: In case you missed our story up top, the deal sends Braydon Coburn to the Flyers for Alexei Zhitnik.
According to a source within the Thrashers organization, general manager Don Waddell will be addressing the media after tonight’s game. It’s expected that he’ll be announcing a trade, although there’s still no official comment on who they will be picking up. I’ll let you guys speculate for now, and will let you know the news as soon as it’s 100 percent confirmed.
Practice update, trade talks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Busy time of year in these parts. The Thrashers didn’t practice too long, but there were a couple of interesting developments out in Duluth. First, we can end the speculation — Kari Lehtonen will be back in net for the Carolina game, although I’m sure you all assumed as much. But then again, we’ve learned not to assume anything, right?
There was an interesting twist to the Steve Rucchin injury saga. Yesterday he continued his work outs, and an injured foot that has been bothering him hadn’t shown any signs of improvement, despite all the time he’s missed with headaches, etc. So they got it X-rayed. Turns out he has a cracked bone in his foot and will miss another two weeks at a minimum. Hartley said the foot injury came out of left field, and he was as surprised as anyone when the doctor told him it was broken. Rucchin, well, he wasn’t so surprised. He said it’s been bothering him for awhile. So Rucchin’s upper body injury is now an upper and lower body injury. The guy with the middle body injury, Brad Larsen, should be okay to go on Saturday against Carolina. He’s been out with a groin, but he’s been practicing with the team, and if Hartley gets the final stamp of approval on Saturday, he’ll be back in the lineup.
Still a lot of chatter on the trade front. If recent play is any indication, the need might have gone from a center to a defenseman. Eric Belanger is really looking like a nice pickup and this team could use a shakeup on the blueline. But word out of St. Louis is that Atlanta is the front-runner for Keith Tkachuk, who scored his 20th goal of the year the other night against Minnesota.
Last night, I was joking with Rob Koch, the Thrashers PR guy, that it’s about time Anson Carter got traded. That’s how I know spring is coming. Well, right on cue, Carter was dealt to Carolina for a fifth-rounder, just in time for the big showdown against the Thrashers on Saturday night. Now I’m biased because Carter is a Michigan State guy and played there when I was covering the Spartans, but a fifth-rounder doesn’t seem like too high a price for a guy who scored 33 goals last season. There was a feeling that Columbus would hold off on making any deals until St. Louis (which seems to control the market) dealt Tkachuk and Guerin, but I guess that wasn’t the case. So maybe things will loosen up in the trade market. Columbus is believed to be looking to extend LW Fredrik Modin, but if those talks break down, he might be available. Defenseman Adam Foote is available, but he has another year (4.6M) on his contract and is slowing down. He’s a good leader and can kill penalties, but probably is more of a No. 3 or No. 4 at this point of his career.
Last thought: ajc.com is a big website with lots of space - there’s plenty of room for two hockey bloggers. The IceMan and myself are not in competition with each other, ideally our blogs compliment each other. He brings a perspective that I can’t, and gives a great forum to debate the Thrashers immediately after games. I don’t think commenting has to be an either/or proposition — comment on both. I know a few of you have been critical because he hadn’t posted in a while - I’m fortunate enough that blogging is part of my job description. IceMan blogs because he’s passionate about hockey. For that he deserves more slack than he’s getting. Alright, I’ll step off my soapbox and let you guys debate some of these trade rumors.
Biggest game ever?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some quick team-related news — The Thrashers called up Derek MacKenzie from Chicago and placed Steve Rucchin on the injured reserve. Rucchin is still having headaches related to that hit in Colorado — he’s got a history of concussions so the team isn’t messing around at all with this one.
MacKenzie was called up just in case Eric Belanger can’t go tonight. Belanger didn’t practice yesterday because of the flu (that seems to be going around in the dressing room. Boulton had it a few days ago). Belanger skated this morning and Bob Hartley said he’d be a game-time decision based on how he was feeling. When I saw him in the dressing room, he said he was feeling better, so we’ll see.
Now, with that stuff aside, we can talk about the game tonight. We were debating it in the office this afternoon, but is this the biggest game in team history? You don’t want to overreact to every game from here on out, but couldn’t this game tonight be one that we point back to and say, this was a turning point? Where does this game tonight rank in stature for you in the short history of the team?
Is there a goalie controversy brewing?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flew in this morning from Carolina, and traveled straight to Duluth to get to the bottom of the goalie situation. Big props to Delta for getting me to and from Raleigh exactly on time, because I scheduled this trip without a minute to spare. Got to Duluth for practice right at noon, which was when it began.
The big news? Johan Hedberg will be in net against Tampa Bay, and Bob Hartley is open to riding his suddenly hot goalie as far as he’ll take him. I asked Bob when we’d see Kari again, and his answer was, “That’s up to Johan.” So if he plays as well on Thursday night as he did on Tuesday night, we might be seeing more of Hedberg.
Once again, Kari Lehtonen took the news well. He said he doesn’t care who is in net, as long as the team makes the playoffs. Kari and Johan have a good relationship, so I can’t see Lehtonen ripping Hartley for playing Johan any time soon.
Brad Larsen skated before practice - his lower body injury is more like a middle body injury. He said his groin was bothering him, and he didn’t want it to become a major issue. He felt good today, so there’s a chance we’ll see him back in the lineup. But as he pointed out, if the team plays as well as it did against Carolina, Hartley might not be inclined to change the lineup.
We’ll be addressing it in the paper on Thursday, but do you guys agree with Hedberg playing again, especially considering Lehtonen’s confidence issues? Is this sending the young goalie the wrong message?
I guess none of that matters if the Thrashers win again.
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.
One last stop on road trip
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As I write this, the team heads to Carolina to try and get that top spot in the division back. They’re tied with Tampa Bay, but have played more games. A couple things of note at practice — J.P. Vigier skated and was at full strength. They will activate him from the IR today, if they haven’t done so already. Eric Belanger didn’t practice, but the team let him go from Ottawa to Carolina to get some of his personal stuff in order. There’s nothing easy about being traded (twice!) in the middle of the season. Plus he’s got two little kids, and some stuff (like his car) that needs to be moved to Atlanta. So that’s why Eric Boulton was skating witih Kozlov and Hossa. Boulton is feeling better, by the way. Flu bug has moved on.
Let’s see, what else. Brad Larsen didn’t practice as expected. Bob Hartley said he won’t be going on the IR, he’s day to day with a lower body injury. The team is being kind of coy with this one, especially after its transparency with Vigier’s groin injury. I’m not sure why one is a secret, and the other is for public consumption, but I’m trying to get to the bottom of it. The Thrashers drop a few games, and suddenly I’m dealing with the iron curtain.
Steve Rucchin didn’t practice as his injury continues to linger on and on and on. For the record, the Thrasher’s haven’t won a game since he was hurt (not counting the Colorado game in which he was injured).
Since I wasn’t able to respond to a couple comments yesterday, I’ll do it here:
Jenn: I’m not sure I was dressing anything up. I don’t know if you were talking about Hartley’s comments or something I wrote, but you won’t get an argument out of me that the team is playing like garbage right now.
Bobo: I think you nailed it, and that’s what we’re going to address in the morning paper. If this team wants to get back on track, it starts with No. 32.
Lee: Realistic trade options? I don’t want to rule anything out at this point. I think Trade speculation is funny, we can try to guess all day, but then something like Belanger getting traded twice in two days happens, and I don’t think anyone saw that coming. Despite the Belanger trade, this team still needs another center and speed on the PK. You’ll see more teams willing to deal as we get closer to the 27th.
Bob: As far as Waddell working hard to bring enforcements — I guess that was an assumption. He’s in Naples right now with every other GM in the league, and has collected a ton of frequent flier miles recently scouting players all over the continent. I know he realizes that this year is different than past years, and he will make another move if it’s an impact player that can make a difference. With most GMs, you can predict their tendencies based on how they’ve responded in the past — the Thrashers are different. They’ve never been in this situation before - so you can’t judge how they will respond with how they have in the past. I’m reserving judgment until I see how this team is made up on Feb. 28th.
B. Thenet: Your response to Hartley’s deal or no deal quote should have been my follow-up question. I wish I would have thought of it at that time.
Lee: Larsen is day to day. He’s out for Carolina, but we’ll see from there.
Deal or no deal?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wow, tough one yesterday. I’m on the long commute home from Ottawa, sitting in the Detroit airport waiting to board my flight back to Atlanta. Just finished reading the Sunday Detroit Free Press, where they’re still talking about the Red Wings missing out on Forsberg. Although it wasn’t too bad a weekend for the Wings, who quietly resigned Tomas Holmstrom to a three-year deal.
The Thrashers have the day off today, and to his credit Bob Hartley has always honored the days off he schedules for his players. I’m sure some of you would prefer to hear that the Thrashers were in Duluth working their rears off, but in all honesty, they didn’t play all that bad yesterday. That was by far their best effort since the win in Colorado.
Before the game, Hartley tried to keep the recent slide in perspective:
“If someone would have come to me on day one of training camp, and said ‘Stop everything. Were taking you to 22 games left, [first place is] where we slot you, do you accept this? Deal or no deal?’
I would POW - Deal. You know? Not that I wouldn’t want to go open another suitcase, but I would have taken this deal. That’s where we’re at today.
You guys agree?
Since we know Don Waddell is working hard to add some re-enforcements, this Sunday edition of the Beat Blog will close with some trade talks from around the league:
Taking on the Sens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Arrived in Ottawa last night after a long layover in Detroit (a city that I think is disappointed that Forsberg didn’t end up there). First, I’d like to thank Northwest for losing my luggage — oh yeah, and for making me check it in the first place. I’m sure my one outfit couldn’t fit in the overhead compartment. I knew the moment they took it away from me, I’d never see it again. Okay, now that I have that off my chest, we can focus on what’s really important - a string of games as big as any in the history of the franchise. Today it’s Ottawa, a team exactly tied with the Thrashers in the conference, then it goes - Carolina - Tampa - Carolina.
I think you all would forgive them for that miserable west coast trip if they pulled off three wins in the next four - right? It’s going to come down to Kari Lehtonen, who needs to steal one of these while the team figures out its special teams issues. They need him to get back to the level he was playing earlier this year in order to hold of Tampa and Carolina.
If you haven’t read Jeff Schultz’s column in today’s paper — go find it and read it. Much better than anything in this blog entry, that’s for sure. Schultz nailed it — it was critical but fair. I asked Hartley what he thought of it, and he didn’t have a problem with it. There was a lot of truth in there.
Quick injury update: We won’t be seeing Boulton, and today I’ll spare you the description I got of his ailment. Rucchin is still “foggy.” He had been hoping to be back on the ice by now, but is being careful with his head injury.
Rate the Forsberg trade
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So Bob Hartley and I had just concluded the post-practice interviewing when we started chatting about the Peter Forsberg trade. As one of you pointed out, the last time Nashville picked up a center (Eric Belanger), the Predators traded him the next day to the Thrashers.
“I’m listening for the phone,” Hartley joked.
I think it’s safe to assume that Forsberg isn’t on his way to Atlanta like Belanger, but then we started discussing how the trade will work out for Nashville. Hartley made a comment that I immediately knew would be today’s blog topic. He said that the critics on their computers will judge this trade after the season, when hindsight makes it easy to judge trades. So we’re going to prove Hartley wrong — this group of computer critics is going to judge the Forsberg trade right now.
Three questions: Who got the better end of this deal (and why)?
How many games will Forsberg play for Nashville?
How far with Nashville go in the playoffs?
and a bonus question: How far would the Thrashers have gone this year if they traded Braydon Coburn, and two draft picks (first and third rounder) for Forsberg?
Practice update: J.P. Vigier was skating hard with Steve Weeks after practice, he has to be getting close to a return. Still no signs of Steve Rucchin on the ice though, that’s not good news for longtime linesmate Ilya Kovalchuk, who was skating with Metro and Niko Kapanen. Eric Boulton didn’t practice, he had the flu. In Hartley’s words, Boulton was “throwing up like a mule.” Thanks for that image, coach.
Hartley: This is time to declare war
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First of all, great job on the comments yesterday. We broke the century mark for blog comments. Now, I know Dave O’Brien and the Braves bloggers would laugh at that, he gets 100 comments the moment he sneezes on his blog, but we’re still building here. Great work, and there was some really thoughtful stuff (well, most of it). We’ll get there, especially if this team makes the playoffs.
About that. I don’t want to be an alarmist here, but if the Thrashers do manage to drop out of first place (more about that in Saturday’s paper), a spot out of the top eight isn’t too far behind. So today, I want you to make your stand on two points. 1. Will the Thrashers as currently constructed win the Southeast? 2. Make your playoff stand - is this team in or out?
Practice report: There are many days where I think life as an NHL player would be a pretty good one. Especially when I’m walking past Porsches and Bentleys on the way to my Chevy. Today, however, was not one of them. Looks like it was a pretty tough practice, Hartley was skating them hard. It was much easier sitting in the Breakaway Grille with Dan Kamal, Darren Eliot and Jeff Schultz and talking hockey.
Hartley also said that there was a good team meeting before practice, maybe a wakeup call. And his comments after practice were pretty pointed, stuff like: “This is time to declare war. You go to war with warriors, you don’t go with water pistols.”
Steve Rucchin didn’t practice, he’s still having headaches. J.P. Vigier skated without contact. He’s on his way back, although there’s no timetable. Scott Mellanby took the day off for personal reasons.
Issues after west coast trip
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Not a lot of time to blog right now. I’m sitting on the floor in the Minneapolis airport, next to the one electrical outlet in this entire concourse because my laptop ran out of juice. But while I’m waiting to switch planes before finally heading back to Atlanta — I wanted to throw a couple questions out there. What was the biggest issue you saw on this four-game road trip? And how would you fix the PK (no crazy trade scenarios that the other team would never do allowed)? I expect all the Thrashers problems solved by the time I land in Atlanta — good luck.
Now I need to dust myself off, and board the plane.
Gameday blog: Calgary Flames
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just returned from the morning skate, where I was highly entertained by the Calgary newspapers - there’s some good hockey writers up here. The Flames are coming off a 7-4 loss to the Red Wings and the papers were great — calling it the “Motown massacre” and “Mauling in Michigan.” While the Thrashers last loss to Edmonton was probably just as bad, I guess we let them off the hook compared to these papers. Craig Conroy called the loss to the Red Wings, the ‘final slap in the face’ in George Johnson’s story in the Calgary Herald.
So needless to say, the Flames are looking to rebound against the Thrashers. But the game is just as big for the Thrash, especially with Tampa Bay playing so well lately. Even though they’ve struggled (one win in six games), the Thrashers can go 2-2 on this west coast trip with a win tonight - which wouldn’t be bad at all.
Ilya Kovalchuk said this morning that it’s huge for the team to get off to a fast start tonight against Calgary and I agree.
Coach Bob Hartley mixed up the lines this morning — the Hossa line is the same, Hemel will skate with Larsen and Holik. Slater skated with Kovalchuk and Metro. The last line had Sim centering Boulton and Mellanby. Now, I don’t think that Sim will be centering that line any time soon, so Hartley’s working on something. He said he prefers Metro’s speed on the wing, rather than at center. So we’ll see how it all shakes out tonight.
Kari Lehtonen is back in net, and will need to be sharp. The Flames are tough at home (22-5-1) and are calling this game a playoff game, since they need the win to keep pace Vancouver and Minnesota. It should be a pretty intense game, as both teams need a bounce back win after bad losses.
Updates from snowy Calgary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Made the drive from Edmonton to Calgary last night after the game, which probably wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made. Almost stopped for the night in Red Deer, but figured if I made it that far, I should keep going. Lots of cars in ditches, even one upside down because of the snow and ice. But my rental pulled through, so we made it.
Light practice this morning, about 15 guys skated at the optional practice. Just to catch you all up on news, Darren Haydar was sent to Chicago (AHL) this morning. I know Don and Bob both liked his skills, lots of natural talent there, but with the recent pickups, he got caught in a numbers crunch.
Spoke with Steve Rucchin this morning, and he’s optimistic about a return pretty shortly. He didn’t suffer a concussion, but with head injuries, you don’t want to risk another one in a short period of time after the first one. He should be back on the ice in the next few days and is hoping to play on Saturday, although that might be a bit optimistic. I’ll keep you posted.
Moose sighting in Edmonton
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barring any last-second change of heart, we’ll see Johan Hedberg in goal for the game tonight against Edmonton. Kari Lehtonen’s streak of consecutive starts will end at 15, although he looked pretty good last night - -those last two goals both came on tipped pucks (one by a teammate the other by a Canuck), not much he could do there. Hedberg’s last start was a loss to the Coyotes back in early January, so Moose will be looking for a better showing tonight, especially if it’s going to be a month again before he plays.
I enjoyed your varying opinions of yesterday’s trade — great breakdown by the Falconer on his blog.
Those hoping the Thrashers were in the Brad Stuart sweepstakes probably weren’t happy to see him shipped to Calgary. Boston was also involved in a wild shootout last night, finally ended by their big defenseman scoring his first career shootout goal.
Thrashers trade Vishnevski
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers will be announcing that defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski will be traded to Nashville for center Eric Belanger. More to come….
Where’s Waddell?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where’s Jack Bauer when you need him? Evidently he’s the only one who’d be able to track Don Waddell, who is touring North America right now, presumably in search of a center. Ask the Thrashers generally helpful PR folks, and they say they have no idea where Waddell is each night. Don likes it that way, they said. Bob Hartley — who took a 10 minute cell phone call this morning from Waddell after a practice at Denver University, has no idea either. He just points to his cell phone, as long as he has that, he can keep up with his GM.
But I don’t need CTU, when I have our network of blog commenters. Thanks to you guys, we know that the Thrashers GM spent Wednesday night in Detroit. And I woke up this morning to e-mails from a reliable source saying Waddell spent Thursday night in Minnesota scouting the Panthers/Wild game.
So if that’s true, we can piece together this much - in the last two days Waddell has seen the Red Wings, Coyotes, Wild and Panthers. So knowing what we do about the teams needs - a center, especially considering Steve Rucchin’s injury last night (he won’t play against Vancouver) - and some PK help, do those teams provide any help? Let’s speculate on players Waddell might have been scouting last night:
Todd White, Minnesota — White is in the final year of his contract and reportedly hasn’t been offered an extension. The center, who is strong on the PK (another need) has nine goals and 22 assists.
Jozef Stumple, Florida — A strong-passing center who might make Ilya Kovalchuk happy, Stumple didn’t play, so let’s hope Waddell didn’t fly to Minnesota to see him. According to George Richards’ notebook in the Miami Herald, the center sat out because of an injured shoulder that he aggravated in Tuesday’s game.
Gary Roberts, Florida — I know he’s not a center, but the winger would be another strong veteran with playoff experience. Adding another Stanley Cup winner wouldn’t hurt.
Enough speculation. Here’s what we do know about the Thrashers: Kari Lehtonen will start against Vancouver and Niko Kapanen will return to the lineup in the place of Steve Rucchin who took a shot to the head against the Avs. Alright, it’s my turn to go through security here at the Denver airport, so I have to run.
Revenge not on Hartley’s mind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re here in Denver — the first leg of a four-city road trip. First, let’s put to rest any discussion that Bob Hartley is looking for revenge on the home ice of his former employer. If he is, he’s not saying so publicly.
“It’s business,” he said. “The first time you play your team, it’s always special.. but after five years — the Beatles have split, Elvis is dead, you have to move on.”
You’ve got to appreciate a hockey coach who can incorporate the Beatles and Elvis into his chats with the media. But the big news tonight won’t be Hartley returning to play his former team, it’ll be Colorado’s Karlis Skrastins playing in his 487th consecutive game tonight, a new record for NHL defensemen. Sure, it’s not as big a deal as Cal Ripken, but if you think about what an NHL defensemen goes through in the course of a game, well, that’s pretty impressive. Greg de Vries was saying this morning that he was chatting with someone in the Avs organziation about Skrastins, whose nickname is Scratch (love the irony there), and evidently he plays through anything. I guess so.
He’s breaking the record held by Tim Horton, who founded the great Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut shops in Canada and parts of the US. If you believe Wikipedia, Tim Hortons has passed McDonalds as Canada’s largest food service operator. Just some useless trivia for you.
For the Thrashers, we’ll see Glen Metropolit centering the Marian Hossa/Slava Kozlov line which hasn’t exactly been lighting it up lately. Metro prefers to play center, although I know he liked playing on the wing with Kovalchuk. But a few of you had been calling for Hartley to make this move, we’ll see if it gets extended action.
Niko Kapanen won’t play tonight - he’s a healthy scratch. Eric Boulton will be playing for the first time since Jan. 9th.
Coburn headed down to Chicago
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Right about now, the Thrashers are boarding their plane for a flight to Denver. Braydon Coburn, however, won’t be with them.
The young defenseman will be sent to Chicago (AHL) as the team tries to continue his development, which wasn’t happening as long as he was a healthy scratch. Coburn practiced this morning with the team, but after practice Bob Hartley confirmed that Coburn was headed to the minors.
“We need to do what’s best for him,” Hartley said. “At the end of the day, he’s a very young prospect for us and he needs to play.”
Speaking of playing, Hartley said in Tuesday’s post game press conference, that Kari Lehtonen will be starting again against Colorado on Thursday. But after that, he said Johan Hedberg will be in net — most likely in one of the back-to-back games this weekend. He said he was just trying to give Lehtonen a feeling as to how it feels to be a No. 1 goalie in the NHL - and he was impressed with how Lehtonen responded. The game against the Avs will be his 14th consecutive start.
Same lineup - same results?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No lineup changes for the game tonight, according to Hartley, which is significant on a couple counts.
1: We’ll see the speed line of Slater, Haydar and Metropolit again out there tonight. Speaking of Slater, I asked him if he sensed any nervousness from Haydar on Saturday, and he laughed, saying something like - who would get nervous playing with me and Metro? Glad to see he’s still humble after his strong start post All-Star game.
2: I thought we might see Vishnevski back in the lineup tonight, but I was wrong. Now the question becomes, will Coburn make the trip out west? And when will Vishnevski play again?
3: Kari Lehtonen is starting again, which isn’t a surprise with the first-place Sabres in town. But there is speculation that he’s getting worn down. He’s given up four goals in three of his last four games. He says he’s fine. Hartley says he’s fine. The schedule has been pretty kind in that there haven’t been a lot of back-to-back games. That changes this weekend when the team travels on Saturday to Vancouver, then plays Sunday at Edmonton. That may be when we see the return of Johan Hedberg.
League news of interest:
Is Forsberg the answer?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The team (and its beat writer) had a day off on Sunday, but returned to practice today. The feeling around the dressing room was that most everybody was happy for Peyton Manning getting a Super Bowl title, and it sounded like the Thrashers along with the rest of the country, spent most of the night enjoying the Super Bowl.
Since we typically don’t blog on the weekends — here are some observations from Saturday:
Any attendance predictions for Tuesday’s game against the Sabres? It’s a big game for both teams, and the last before a long road trip for the Thrashers - but the team hasn’t exactly drawn well during the week. Maybe that’s for the best - since they lost in front of another sell-out on Saturday.
Talking trade; Haydar called up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BLOG EDIT: THe Thrashers will be announcing shortly that J.P. Vigier is headed to the injured reserve because of a groin injury. He’ll be replaced on the roster by Darren Haydar who is being called up from Chicago. Alright, back to the blog.
Let’s take a second in this edition of the afternoon blog to overanalyze the Andy Delmore trade, because that’s what we the media do in the place of real news. And it beats talking about the Super Bowl.
First, let’s look at GM Don Waddell’s explanation for the deal. He said the AHL veteran rule, which says that AHL teams can’t dress more than five veterans (players with more than 260 regular-season games combined in the AHL, NHL, IHL or European elite league), was a major reason for the deal. Kyle Wanvig has been a healthy scratch a lot for Chicago because of the rule, and it was a better fit in Chicago to have a veteran defenseman (Andy Delmore).
A successful team in Chicago ultimately helps the Thrashers because the more games they play (playoffs, etc.) the more the young players get to develop. So if that’s all that comes out of this deal, it’s a minor plus for the team.
But perhaps there’s more. The team already has eight healthy defensemen in the NHL, and we know the Thrashers are looking for center help, so they could be dealing from a position of depth (defense). If another trade happens soon, say for an Andy Sutton or Vitaly Vishnevski (and we’re just throwing out names here), than this Delmore deal is a little more significant - if the Thrashers don’t get a defenseman back in the trade. It gives the Thrashers some more organizational depth on defense in case a defenseman is moved.
So I floated that theory past Mr. Waddell, and here was his (unedited for punctuation) response:
“You could read into it, but I don’t think if you go into the playoff drive here, the last third of the season - I don’t know if you can ever have too many defensemen. If we decide to make a move, end up trading one, — or I’m not even opposed to picking another one up at the NHL level. So depth in the organization right now - we felt like we had pretty good depth at forward, we wanted to add another veteran defenseman.”
So that clears things up, right? Okay, not really. But for everyone assuming the Thrashers are in the market just for a center (which is obviously a need), it’s interesting to note that Waddell isn’t against upgrading the blue line at the NHL level as well.
No room for Vish?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers will be sitting Vitaly Vishnevski again today, the second consecutive game he’s been a healthy scratch, after playing every single game of the season before that.
I spoke with him after the morning skate, and he’s saying all the right things — he’s working hard to get back in the lineup, etc. etc. As much as I would have liked him to demand a trade or something, and stir up some controversy for me to write about, he did anything but. He did say that coach Bob Hartley told him that he expected to get him back in the lineup shortly.
So, while depth is good, can a veteran like Vishnevski continue to sit? How would you handle the glut of defensemen?
And all you Thrashers fans calling for Don Waddell to make a trade, well he made one this afternoon. He traded forwards Kyle Wanvig and Stephen Baby to Tampa Bay for defeseman Andy Delmore and forward Andre Deveaux. Both Delmore and Deveaux were assigned to Chicago (AHL). So there you go.
Hartley had a pretty good line after the morning skate. I asked him if the lack of regulation wins was an issue, since most of the Thrashers January wins came in overtime/shootouts.
“We don’t refuse any points,” he said. “We’re just like the Salvation Army, we take everything.”
Lastly, the Islanders will be starting Mike Dunham in goal tonight against the Thrashers. If you can think all the way back to the last time the Thrashers played the Islanders (Friday), you’ll remember that the former Thrasher relieved an ineffective Rick DiPietro and played well. Islanders coach Ted Nolan said that was a major part of sending him out there again tonight.
“He knows those guys pretty well,” Nolan said.
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