AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 12
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Excitement building for historic playoff opener
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, for my sake, let’s hope tonight’s game doesn’t turn out like the Vancouver- Dallas game last night. Four overtimes. 72 saves for Roberto Luongo. And countless missed deadlines for the poor sports writers covering that game. But despite that, there was some great coverage of a game that really set the tone for the playoffs. If you only have time to read one game story, try this one by Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province.
Fun morning skate today, tons of media and players from both teams were in good moods. Jaromir Jagr said he had a good feeling about tonight’s game, but then again so did the Thrashers. I didn’t sense any tenseness, although the lighthearted blue hair from Wednesday had disappeared. Andy Sutton went black (turns out his attempts to return to his natural color resulted in a hunter green. Reminds me of those old ziplock commercials — yellow and blue make green). Kari Lehtonen buzzed his off and has a white buzz cut. He kind of has a Mark Martin look going for him (didn’t think a Detroit guy could drop a NASCAR reference did you?).
Nobody admitted to staying up for the entire Vancouver game and New York Rangers coach Tom Renney joked that he would mute his hotel TV to make sure Henrik Lundqvist was getting his sleep and not watching the game in the next room.
Speaking of Jagr, Lynn Zinser from the New York Times, had a good piece today about how Jagr has changed his game to get the Rangers where they are today. I remember when I was up in New York, there was a lot of talk on the radio that he shouldn’t be the Rangers captain and he wasn’t a good leader. Lynn’s story disputes that.
In chatting with some of the Rangers, they said that this is a totally different team than the won that the Thrashers played earlier in the season. Brendan Shanahan said the team is finally comfortable and confident in close games, which wasn’t the case early in the season.
I’m curious to see how you guys break down the series by position. I’ll start, but would like to see your opinions:
Forwards: Both teams have a ton of firepower and before the Tkachuk trade I would have said this was pretty even. But the extra depth and balance that Tkachuk provides makes me think the Thrashers have an edge here.
Defensemen: The Rangers are getting healthy on the blueline and might enjoy a slight edge over the Thrashers in this department. Neither team has the really dominant No. 1 defenseman but you have to be impressed by a guy like 6-foot-6 Marek Malik was finished the regular season a plus 32.
Goatending: Obviously this is the key to the series, and I’ve become convinced that Kari Lehtonen is going to rise to the occasion. I asked Bob Hartley today how long a leash Kari was on, if the team would turn to Johan Hedberg and he said he’s staying positive and fully expects a big performance out of Lehtonen. He looked pretty focused this morning and when Lehtonen is focused he usually is outstanding. That being said, no goaltender played better down the stretch than Henrik Lundqvist who finished with a 2.34 GAA. He’s certainly the kind of goalie who can win a series by himself. But I may be in the minority here, but I see this series as the series Lehtonen really makes a name for himself nationally.
Coaching: Bob Hartley has the edge simply because of his playoff experience over Tom Renney. Hartley’s next playoff victory will be his 50th. Renney’s next playoff victory will be his first.
Music taste: We don’t miss a thing here at the blog b eat, so when you’re trying to find any edge one way or another between two teams, you can’t overlook pre-game music. Well, after practice this morning, the Rangers were blaring some Gwen Stefani, while the Thrashers had Metallica going. I like Gwen Stefani as much as the next guy, but The Sweet Escape doesn’t seem to be the best song out there to get me fired up to play hockey.
