AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September > 25
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Big night for Little, Stuart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was going to blog about the battle for two defensive openings, but I’ll save that for later in the week. There’s plenty to talk about today without getting into that.
First, Kari Lehtonen won’t dress tonight. Johan Hedberg will start in goal and Ondrej Pavelec will back him up. But Kari is slated to start on Wednesday against Florida, his preseason debut. He said he’s completely pain free as well as discomfort free. That’s a good sign, so he’ll get some minutes against the Panthers but don’t expect him to play the entire game.
Brad Larsen is close to returning. He’s been skating with Ray Bear the last couple days and that means he’s pretty close to returning to practice. Hartley said he expects Larsen to be ready for the regular season.
We talked earlier in training camp about how Hartley has set aside four games for most of the players competing for openings, and tonight is a big one for some of the young forwards. This is game No. 4 for Colin Stuart and Bryan Little, and game No. 3 for Jordan LaVallee. Hartley reiterated a lot of what I wrote about in Monday’s paper, that he’s looking for this young guys to seize this opportunity. “The games keep getting bigger and bigger,” he said.
I chatted with Little for a couple minutes after the morning skate and he realizes the magnitude of tonight’s game.
“I kind of feel like it’s my last shot,” he said.
He can’t complain about his line. He’ll be playing with Ilya Kovalchuk and Stuart tonight, and I told him that Kovy is a guy who can make him look good. Little’s answer? “He can make me look good, I just have to keep up with him.” Good point.
Tobias Enstrom will be playing in his third game, in what has been an up and down camp for him. He looked great in Nashville, then was inconsistent against the Blues. He’ll be paired with Karel Pilar who also needs a good showing in his third game of the preseason.
As for me, I’ll be doing the game from between the benches tonight which I’m really looking forward to. I just got off the phone with John Kincade about his experience doing sideline reporting there during the playoffs and he said it’s the best access in sports. I’ll be doing a first person story on it for Wednesday’s paper, so keep an eye out for that.
No news on the captain, but I now know where Bobby Holik stands on the upcoming presidential primaries. So I have that going for me.
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