AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > November > 06
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Mellanby visits the Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No big changes in the lineup tonight as the Thrashers try to earn their second win of the season at home. Like I mentioned yesterday, Pavelec will get the start in goal tonight. I spoke to both Steve McCarthy and Garnet Exelby, and Exelby is still considered a gametime decision. McCarthy will take warmups tonight and depending on how Exelby feels, things will go from there.
Exelby said he took the puck off his ankle near the end of the game against Tampa. He said the moment the puck was shot, he knew it was going to hit him, and he hoped it wouldn’t hit him in the ankle. But he said that he knew he was screening Pavelec, so getting out of the way wasn’t an option. The good thing for Exelby is that the injury is a bruise, so it’s not like he can make it worse by playing tonight.
It was good to see Scott Mellanby this morning, who is in town for some golf and dropped by the morning skate. Don Waddell joked that he asked Mel if he was in playing shape. He did some golfing yesterday and played again today. If I were making decisions for the Thrashers, I wouldn’t let him leave town until he agreed to be an assistant coach through the end of the season. Then I’d just end the snail-like coaching search, and either let Waddell or McCrimmon finish the season as head coach and resume the search for a coach in the summer when the pool of candidates is bigger. But that’s just me.
Here’s what Don Waddell said when I asked if Mellanby was only in town for golf: “Yeah, yeah, I had a nice visit with him this morning. He played a couple rounds, played yesterday, played today. That’s all that was behind that… I asked him what kind of shape he was in and he said certainly not playing shape. I think we ruled that one out.”
As for the Caps, who didn’t practice this morning after playing last night, they called up Chris Bourque, Ray Bourque’s son and he’s expected to make his NHL debut tonight. Washington gave up a hat trick to Cory Stillman last night in a 5-0 loss to the Hurricanes, so maybe Kovalchuk can do it again tonight. Three hat tricks, in three games? Is that possible? According to the Washington Times, Washington will be without Alexander Semin, who has a sprained ankle, Chris Clark, Steve Eminger, Eric Fehr and Tom Poti is questionable.
