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Thursday, March 15, 2007
Melrose: I like the Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m making an effort to eat healthy on the road, but made an exception while here in Philly — had a gigantic philly cheese steak sandwich and some great seasoned fries from a local sports bar. Caught some NCAA tournament action as well during a quick lunch break, but now it’s back to work.
Just got off the phone with Barry Melrose, was talking about the Eastern Conference for a setup piece I’m writing for Sunday’s game against Buffalo. I think for awhile, we’ve all assumed it would be Buffalo and somebody else coming out of the East this year, but he said it’s time to change that thought process. It’s wide open, and he made a pretty great point — whoever Buffalo plays in the first round (and he used Carolina as the example) will have been playing intense playoff-like hockey for 20 games, while Buffalo hasn’t been playing with the same level of intensity. He, for one, wouldn’t be surprised to see another Detroit/Edmonton-like upset. My next phone call will go out to Buffalo to get the Sabres point of view for the story.
He also likes the Thrashers, and loved the Zhitnik trade especially. He said he really likes the makeup of the Thrashers, good mix of leadership and skill. His biggest concern is goaltending, because, in his words - Kari Lehtonen hasn’t made a playoff save yet. What’s your level of concern about Lehtonen’s playoff inexperience?
In about two hours, I have an interview set up with Braydon Coburn, for a story for Friday’s paper. He’s getting serious ice-time, I’m looking forward to seeing in person how he’s playing for the Flyers. A couple players on the Thrashers said that all Coburn needed was confidence and he was on the verge of being a top defenseman, we’ll see if he’s developing some of that now with the Flyers.
Pretty uneventful morning skate — Same lineup as last game. The interesting twist that we haven’t talked about too much on here is Brad Larsen’s move to center on line No. 4. You can’t help but wonder if Jim Slater wouldn’t be a better fit there, but I’m not one to argue with W’s. Slater and McCarthy got a lot of work in practice today, I overheard a couple workers at the arena remarking that ‘there’s more coaches than players’ on the ice at the end of practice — McCrimmon, Hartley, Weeks and video coach Tony Borgford were all out skating hard with Slater and McCarthy. You gotta love that about hockey.
Biggest news here in Philly (hockey wise) is GM Paul Holmgren getting a two-year extension. The feeling here is that Holmgren, especially with all the young talent he got at the deadline, can turn this team around as soon as next year. Here’s a transcript of the conference call made after the deal was completed.
Like I said yesterday, Derek MacKenzie didn’t join the team today, but should be with the team on Friday. I’m still not 100 percent convinced that I shouldn’t be suspicious about the MacKenzie call up, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate its nothing more than what the team says, a depth move. Other than MacKenzie, everybody skated this morning at the arena. There won’t be a morning skate before the Rangers game on Friday, which I believe, is already sold out.
Alright, lastly, I picked Memphis in my NCAA pool, for no other reason than I liked dealing John Calipari when I did some college basketball stories last summer. The pick drew a laugh from Jon Sim (“Memphis? They’ll be out in the first round,” he said.) Sim picked Florida — Hey Jon, way to go out on a limb.
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