AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 26
Friday, October 26, 2007
Pavelec starting plans on hold
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings from the bowels of the Sommet Center in Nashville, where they play live country music between periods.
Hey, it was comforting to a southern gal like me who is transitioning into this sport, learning more and more by the day, and being so bold as to blog in place of Craig today. Be gentle.
The team is loading up for Chicago right now, heading out this afternoon and before they left Don Waddell said no, it won’t be Ondrej Pavelec in goal tomorrow night in Chicago. It’ll be Moose again.
Chicago might have been the logical time to get Pavelec his first start. Waddell has said he plans to play him before these next four games of the trip are through, and the Blackhawks are the only team left that doesn’t have a winning record. They’re 5-5. Montreal is 4-2, Ottawa 8-1, and Tampa 5-3.
But this is also not a good time to take Johan Hedberg out of goal. He made 31 saves last night against Nashville, this after building some momentum in the shootout win over Toronto. So smart move. Agree?
As for the rest of the team, Waddell said after this morning’s practice that despite the 3-0 loss to the Predators - the team’s third shutout in 10 games - he’s not getting in anybody’s face.
“We’re not going to be knocking these guys down, it’s all positive reinforcement,” Waddell said. “What we talked about today was consistency (game-to-game). I don’t think we were that bad last night, we’ve got to give (the Predators) a lot of credit. I was talking to their coaching staff this morning. It was by far their best game of the year. They did a good job of shutting us down. They didn’t give us a lot of opportunities.”
He won’t get down on the team, but I will for just a second. As much of an ability as they showed Tuesday to come back from adversity in Toronto, after they gave up their second goal in the second period last night, I pretty much knew I was free and clear to bang out my game story. This team isn’t coming back from that much.
Yes Ilya Kovalchuk hit the post, but as Moose pointed out after the game, so did the Predators. Marian Hossa did get off four shots, which was better than his previous two games when he combined for three.
And looking for things to build upon, rookie Tobias Enstrom led the team in ice time with 24:49, getting more time on penalty kill and making an all-around impact.
That’s it for now. Off to Chicago. Does Oprah go to hockey games?
