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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Rank the biggest goals this year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s good to be back in Florida. Too bad this is the final game of the season down here - just enjoyed a great lunch on the beach, which I figured I deserved since I got stuck in Philly with a snowstorm. The big talk down here has been the big games last night. First I’d like to acknowledge the staff at the Original Steak House and Sports Theater which set a group of us up with big screens featuring the Carolina/Toronto game, the Florida/Tampa game and Pittsburgh/Washington game right in front of us. Great food, great company and hockey made for the perfect night.
More importantly for Thrashers fans, the night couldn’t have gone much better. The right teams won and not too many people were surprised when Dunham went down with an injury. Now the big thing is for the Thrashers to take advantage of it. The team hasn’t won on the road since the trade deadline, and with two of the next three on the road, it’d better turn that around quickly.
This morning, Bob Hartley seemed to think that Ed Belfour would get the start in net, despite playing last night. But there was a lot of debate whether or not that might actually happen. Don’t be surprised to see Craig Anderson tonight for the Panthers.
Had a good chat with Scott Mellanby, just wanted to see if he was feeling nostalgic about possibly playing in Florida for the last time in his career. He hasn’t officially announced his retirement but he did acknowledge that this was “probably” the last time he’d play in Florida. Although he said he thought the same thing last year.
While at dinner, we got into a discussion about the biggest goals this season. FSS will be doing a package (I believe on Saturday, but don’t hold me to it) where they count down the seven biggest goals of the year for the Thrashers. Now I know what those seven will be, but I’m not giving it away here, I’ll make you tune into the Thrashers game to find out (although I’m sure you will anyways). But it made for some good debate over chicken wings and beer. My opinion was slightly different because I got thrown into the mix in January, but my top seven included two from Bobby Holik (the goal when he was sliding on his stomach, and the huge goal against Carolina he scored from the blue line). You also have to throw in Zhitnik’s game winner against the Rangers (even though I was listening on the radio driving from Philly to Richmond in a sleet storm), the one Darren Eliot cleverly calls “Hoss, skip and a jump” and what about Hossa’s goal from the corner against Carolina? Anyways, what are your top seven goals this season?
Morning skate report: Florida didn’t skate. Everyone skated for the Thrashers. Here’s your lineup:
Ilya Kovalchuk-Keith Tkachuk-Pascal Dupuis
Slava Kozlov-Eric Belanger-Marian Hossa
J.P. Vigier-Bobby Holik-Eric Boulton
Brad Larsen-Jim Slater-Scott Mellanby
Defensive pairings
Alexei Zhitnik-Niclas Havelid
Garnet Exelby-Greg de Vries
Andy Sutton-Shane Hnidy
Goalie
Kari Lehtonen
