AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 16
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Mixing things up in Philly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lots of changes tonight as the Thrashers try and get their first win. The first is in goal where Johan Hedberg will get the start in favor of Kari Lehtonen. Hedberg’s last action came in the third period of the Buffalo game and he lost his only start of the season in Tampa. In that one he faced 34 shots and made 29 saves.
Marian Hossa said he feels fine and is ready to go. He’ll skate with Eric Perrin and Slava Kozlov. That means Eric Boulton and Chris Thorburn sit (with Mark Popovic) like I figured yesterday. Bob Hartley is keeping the rookie line intact with Bryan Little centering Brett Sterling and Darren Haydar. I chatted with Haydar a minute today after the morning skate (while Sterling did a crossword next to us) and he’s excited about getting that first goal, but is determined to make sure it’s not his only NHL goal. Hartley likes the line, because he thinks the young players can play their game without worrying about setting up a superstar like Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk. Haydar pointed out that it’s also three guys fighting for jobs and playing time, so naturally it’s going to bring some energy to the team.
My only concern is that by sitting Eric Boulton and Chris Thorburn you lose some of your toughness. Who is going to stick up for guys like Slava Kozlov or Ilya Kovalchuk if some of the Flyers start taking liberties on the scorers? Kovy again?
Hartley said the team prefers not to keep three extras, so be ready for a roster move shortly. If not today, then within the next day or so. You figure they’ll want to keep the extra d-man (Popovic) around, and if Haydar keeps playing well on the all-rookie line… I guess that leaves Thorburn as the odd man out. I’ll have to look in my files somewhere, I’m not sure if Thorburn has a two-way deal or not. Or there could be a trade. As of this morning, Hartley said he wasn’t sure what direction the team would go.
What else… The defensive pairings were blown up, like I talked about yesterday. Hartley re-iterated that he’s looking for chemistry and communication between his defensemen. He was pretty blunt when talking about the Zhitnik-Havelid chemistry. There was none, he said.
Looks like Ilya Kovalchuk and Tobias Enstrom will be at the point for the first PP unit. I asked Kovalchuk if he was moving back to the point, and he said “we’ll see.” I told him we already knew, to which Slava Kozlov responded, “everybody knows.” So the secret is out. I know that’s where he prefers to play on the power play, so maybe he’s being rewarded for his outstanding play so far this season.
So Hartley is trying, you have to give him that. We’ll see how it plays out on the ice.
