AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > November
November 2007
In search of secondary scoring
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just like we speculated yesterday in the blog, Don Waddell is shaking the secondary lines up a little bit for tonight’s game. Darren Haydar is in and will play with Bryan Little and Eric Perrin. That means Slava Kozlov will play on the Bobby Holik line. Larsen and McCarthy are sitting. So which one is the second and which one is the third line? The move balances out the scoring, but you lose a little defensively when you swap Larsen for Kozlov. Kozzy and Holik seemed to have pretty good chemestry when they played together earlier, so it could be a good move. I predict a Slava Kozlov goal tonight - you heard it here first. And if he doesn’t, I’m just going to go into the blog software and delete this sentence. The bottom line is this: The Thrashers can’t depend on Kovalchuk and Hossa to do all their scoring. They’re going to need better offensive production from the other lines, so maybe this is the first step toward achieving that.
Johan Hedberg in goal, which means Moose and Kari Lehtonen will be playing at the same time tonight. So pick a side — who lets in fewer goals tonight - Kari or Moose. Obviously Kari has the advantage of not facing the Toronto Maple Leafs, or maybe that’s not an advantage. I don’t know.
As we speak, Bruce Levenson is either playing golf in Pebble Beach or voting at the board of governors in California. It depends on when you read this. Don Waddell said he backed Brian Burke in his proposal to allow teams the ability to eat salary in trades. I asked him if he thought it gave a competitive advantage to bigger market teams like Toronto and New York, and he said they can just stash players in the minors anyway to clear cap room, so this way those players can stay in the league. This is the first board of governors meeting that Waddell has missed.
Anybody see Braydon Coburn’s contract extension? Good for him, seems like he’s doing well in Philly. I think it’s safe to say that trade isn’t working out right now for the Thrashers.
I hear the calls starting to come for the next huge Thrashers defensive prospect, Boris Valabik. I asked Don this morning who would be the next defenseman called up if the Thrashers needed help on the blueline, but he wasn’t tipping his hand. He mentioned the solid play of veteran Joel Kwiatkowski but also said he liked what he saw from Valabik when he was in Chicago to see Lehtonen play the other night. In her most recent breakdown of the players in Chicago, Holly Gunning at Hockey’s Future pointed out that Valabik is battling ankle injuries again, although it wasn’t the same ankle that cause him to miss time at the end of last season. There’s also a great quote from John Anderson about Brett Sterling inside that story that the AJC censors wouldn’t allow through.
Lehtonen sharp in rehab start
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kari Lehtonen’s performance last night is a good sign for the Thrashers. He had a shutout until the final 10 seconds of the game in his first start of rehab in the AHL. Don Waddell, who was at the game, said he liked Lehtonen’s lateral movement and that he looked good in there for the Wolves. I think he finished with 27 or 28 saves and evidently there was nothing he could do on the goal, which came on the power play.
Did any of you watch the game online, I’m curious how you thought Kari looked. Johan Hedberg, not surprisingly, will get the start in goal for the Toronto game. But with back-to-back games coming up with the Islanders and Devils, we’ll probably see rookie Ondrej Pavelec one more time before he’s sent back down to Chicago.
Based on practice, it looks like Waddell might be mixing things up a little for the Maple Leafs. He said he still hadn’t decided for sure what changes we’d see for Thursday, but he wants to get Darren Haydar an opportunity to play. So, if Haydar goes, I’d look for him to possibly play on a line with Little and Perrin, with Kozlov moving to Holik’s line. But again, that’s just speculation. We’ll know for sure at the morning skate.
The Toronto media is starting to make it’s way into town, and evidently it’s just a circus up there with the jobs of both the GM and coach on the line. You think the Thrashers could have the kiss of death for another coach, a week after being the team that ended Glen Hanlon’s time in Washington? We’ll see.
I checked on Tobias Enstrom’s all-star voting number for you guys and and he’s at 3,856 write-in votes as of Nov. 26th. Now that won’t win him a starting spot in the All-Star game, but it’s a pretty respectable total for a guy who isn’t on the ballot and doesn’t have a lot of name recognition outside of Atlanta. It’s too bad they won’t be doing the YoungStars game (from what I hear) this year because I imagine he and Bryan Little would be locks to make that team, especially with the game at Philips.
Let’s say the Thrashers tweak the lineup for Toronto and play Haydar, where would you put him? You think there should be any other changes in the lineup? Should Steve McCarthy get some playing time? Who do you sit?
Kovy movin’ on up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A nice long practice this morning. Eric Boulton (back) and Eric Perrin (flu) were the only guys to miss practice. Brad McCrimmon ran the practice today because Don Waddell is in Chicago to watch Kari Lehtonen’s rehab start tonight. The performance of Lehtonen this week may be more important than how the Thrashers actually perform on Thursday and over the weekend. If Kari Lehtonen is outstanding that could mean more to the long-term benefit of this team than a win or two. The same goes if he struggles.
It’s not something anybody really wants to consider, but what if Lehtonen really struggles? What do you do then? What if he mentally hasn’t recovered from the playoffs, and physically can’t stay healthy? That would really put the Thrashers in a tough spot. Do you have a solution, or would we rather not even think about it?
Bruce Levenson will be representing the Thrashers at the board of governors. A few of you saw Scott Burnside’s story saying that GMs want to be able to eat salaries to help promote trading. And no, the Thrashers aren’t interested at all in Bryan McCabe, but Scott raises a good point. It would help increase trading if teams could keep a little salary to spur the deal. Some of you are ready to ship out Alexei Zhitnik and his high-priced contract - well, something like this would certainly help the cause. So we’ll follow the results of that one closely. The league is also expected to get rid of the unbalanced schedule and talk about requiring the use of visors, which was a topic in which the Thrashers shared their opinion with new NHPA boss Paul Kelly during a recent meeting in D.C.
If you were voting for the Thrashers, what stance would you take on the schedule, the salary and visors? Is there any other realistic changes you’d bring up for the agenda?
Ilya Kovalchuk has moved up to sixth in All-Star voting, passing Dany Heatley. If you look at the people ahead of him in the voting, it’s not like he’s being beat by a bunch of no-names. As one observer said today at practice, “That Alex Ovechkin is a pretty good player too.” Point taken. Here are the latest forward tallies, and I cut it off at Kozzy:
Forwards
Player NHL Club Votes
Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh 177,873
Daniel Alfredsson Ottawa 80,211
Vincent Lecavalier Tampa Bay 73,743
Daniel Briere Philadelphia 62,867
Alex Ovechkin Washington 55,692
Ilya Kovalchuk Atlanta 52,948
Dany Heatley Ottawa 47,957
Saku Koivu Montreal 46,554
Maxim Afinogenov Buffalo 33,080
Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh 32,688
Chris Drury NY Rangers 27,481
Jaromir Jagr NY Rangers 26,267
Mats Sundin Toronto 25,683
Jason Blake Toronto 24,333
*Alex Kovalev Montreal 23,922
Simon Gagne Philadelphia 22,946
Jason Spezza Ottawa 21,748
*Mike Richards Philadelphia 19,783
Thomas Vanek Buffalo 17,101
Marian Hossa Atlanta 16,854
Patrik Elias New Jersey 15,519
Martin St. Louis Tampa Bay 15,080
Eric Staal Carolina 14,200
Brendan Shanahan NY Rangers 11,873
Bill Guerin NY Islanders 9,460
Vyacheslav Kozlov Atlanta 9,294
Oh, and thanks for the birthday wishes. It’s No. 31 for those of you scoring at home.
Taking advantage of time off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers are taking a couple days off here in a scheduling break that comes at a good time. If fatigue, mental or otherwise, was an issue for the ugly losses over the weekend, this slow stretch helps the cause. The team was off Sunday and today. Sunday was a scheduled day off while Monday was a bonus from coach Waddell.
It’s a time to reconnect with families, recover a few bumps and bruises and a few Thrashers are using this time to give back to the community. Marian Hossa will be at the Georgia Aquarium today at 3 p.m. to meet with kids as part of his Hossa’s Heros program. The kids will get a behind the scenes look at the aquarium with Hoss, lunch and games. Ilya Kovalchuk will be meeting with children on Tuesday at Discover Mills for some bowling, food and fun at Jillian’s. At some point this week, I believe Niclas Havelid will continue his work with Habitat for Humanity. Now I realize some of this is PR, but this is just the work that’s being publicized. These guys do a lot of stuff behind the scenes that isn’t reported. I know, more often than not, when they do public appearances, they stay much longer than they’re asked. We hear a lot about the negative things athletes do, but this really is a good group of guys. A couple weeks ago, there was a little kid who lost a couple family members in a horrible accident. I didn’t hear all the details, but he was a huge Thrashers fan so they brought him into the lockerroom and he spent time with the guys, getting autographs and chatting it up with the players he looked up to. The guys were great, and this kid was on cloud nine the entire time. It wasn’t anything that was publicized, I just happened to be there as it happened, and witnessing interactions between the players and the kids was fun to watch.
Alright, enough with the warm and fuzzies, what the heck is wrong with the penalty kill? This is a busy time for the coaching staff, which let’s not forget, is understaffed. I wouldn’t be shocked if Don Waddell used this time to bring in some help. Maybe it’s somebody on the administrative end or another assistant, but this is really the first extended opportunity he’s had to address some of this and the timing would be right. The real question is who - Any suggestions?
You have to wonder if we’ve seen the last of Ondrej Pavelec in Atlanta for awhile. There’s no denying this kid provided a big spark for the Thrashers and is a big reason why they are where they are. But he’s still only 20. He’s going to be inconsistent, and this team doesn’t have the luxury of inconsistency. If Kari Lehtonen looks good on Tuesday and Thursday for the Wolves (anyone get AHL games on their TV?) you could possibly have him start on Sunday in New Jersey. I know they want to give Kari three or four games, but if he looks like he’s ready after two, why not?
We should have a Kari’s return pool. Throw in a buck and pick his return game: It’s hard to say now before seeing how he looks in live action, but put me down for Dec. 5th against the Islanders at Philips. You?
Lehtonen ready for rehab in Chicago
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s still hard to believe that when I looked over the Eastern Conference standings today, the Thrashers are in playoff position. That’s remarkable. Now the next challenge for the Thrashers will be sustaining it. Sometimes when you’re working towards a goal, like say .500, it’s human nature to ease your foot off the gas once you get there.
The Thrashers showed no signs of that against the Caps, and when you ask them about it, there’s a reminder that .500 was never the goal of this team. This is a team that had it’s sights set on the playoffs, and advancing.
The other danger this team faces is when Kari Lehtonen is ready to return. Things are going well, so you have to be careful not to disrupt that by putting Lehtonen between the pipes before he’s ready. That’s probably the biggest reason why Kari is headed to Chicago for a conditioning rehab assignment starting on Sunday. Don Waddell said this morning that he’d like Lehtonen to get about three games with the Wolves as he works himself back into game shape.
In talking to Kari, he seemed fine with the decision. He said he thought it would be fun to go to Chicago, where he still has friends and get some game action. He said he’s itching to get in a game after nearly a week of practicing. There’s still no pain, and he said his timing is improving. The Wolves play Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week, so if Kari plays three games with them and is ready to return that puts him back in Atlanta the first full week of December which was right with projections made when he was first hurt.
Johan Hedberg has quietly put together a heck of a string of games here. If Moose wins tonight that would be his fifth consecutive, tying a franchise record held by Lehtonen. Hedberg will start tonight against New Jersey. Ken Klee called the last game against New Jersey the low point of the season. You remember that game right? It looked like the Thrashers were going to earn their first win of the season but couldn’t hold on against a struggling Devils team. I expect a much different game tonight.
Caps could be dangerous
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dangerous game tonight for the Thrashers. You have a Washington team that was taken to task at practice yesterday, and is pretty desperate heading into tonight’s game. They’re starting to get healthy with Semin back. It’s absolutely crucial that the Thrashers get off to a good start. The Capitals are 1-10-1 when they don’t score first.
But that being said, Washington is struggling. After a hot start, including that convincing win over the Thrashers in the season opener, the Capitals dropped to 0-5-1 against division opponents in their last six games. By contrast, the Thrashers have really taken advantage of this stretch of division games to leap back into the division race. The Thrashers were 4-9 at the outset of this stretch of eight consecutive games against Southeast opponents. And now they’re .500. Honestly? I didn’t see that coming. To think that they could have a winning record on Thanksgiving is a real testament to the team. When we sat here and predicted their record in the eight-game stretch on this blog, I think the most optimistic projections had them at 6-2. Now, that may still be the case after tonight, but I think Don Waddell and company would accept 6-2 after all is said and done.
We were talking about this Washington team at the morning skate and how they have some similarities to the Thrashers a few years back. There’s good, young talent, a superstar Russian winger and maddening inconsistency. They should steal a move from the Thrashers playbook, bring in Bob Hartley to whip them into shape, and see what happens. Wouldn’t that be fun to face Hartley eight times a year (although that’s about to change)? But you won’t find a nicer person in coaching than Glen Hanlon, so I wouldn’t want it to come to that.
The Capitals are shaking up the lines a bit tonight, so we’ll see if that sparks them against the Thrashers. Tarik El-Bashir reported in the Washington Post that Viktor Kozlov is returning to center Ovevchkin and Clark on the top line. The second line is Fleischmann, Nylander and Semin. Rookie Nicklas Backstrom will center Pettinger and Laich on the third line. The pairings will also be mixed up, but you couldn’t possibly care about that, could you?
The Thrashers? Same old, same old. The way things are going, I wouldn’t change much either. Johan Hedberg is in goal, and your two scratches are Haydar and McCarthy. I will go on record as saying I thought this would be a good spot for Ondrej Pavelec. He looked great against Washington last time he played them, and I wouldn’t want him sitting too long. Plus you can pace Moose a little bit. But I understand the other side, you don’t mess with what’s working.
If you were at the last Thrashers home game, Don Waddell is giving you partial credit for the penalty kill after Marian Hossa’s diving penalty. He said the constant booing lit a fire under the team and they really responded. It was a pretty loud crowd for a Monday, so nice work.
And for those of you who yell “Shoot” during the power play, Bobby Holik is with you. He said this morning that he thought there was too much passing going on in the power play, and that they’re trying to be a little too perfect. So if you see more shooting on the power play tonight, maybe Bobby convinced the rest of his teammates he was right.
Lecavalier vs. Kovalchuk - who’s better?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pat Burns recently said that if he was starting an NHL team and had the first pick of any player, he’d take Vincent Lecavalier. Alex Ovechkin told me if he could hand-pick any player as a teammate, it’d be Ilya Kovalchuk. It’s safe to say those two are the hottest two players in the NHL right now. Lecavalier is on a seven-game point streak, and all of them are multi-point games (a franchise record). The last NHL player to do that is Mario Lemieux. He has six goals and 19 points in his last seven games. The trio of Lecavalier, St. Louis and Prospal has 80 points - the most of any trio in the league.
But we know how well Kovalchuk has been going. In three games against the Lightning, Kovy has five points (four goals, one assist). He has 15 points in his last seven games and leads the NHL in goals with 16. He almost single-handedly carried the Thrashers out of their brutal start, and hasn’t slowed down since his teammates have picked up the slack.
So take off your Thrashers blinders for a second, and answer honestly. Who would you pick first right now to start a team. Lecavalier or Kovalchuk. And defend your answer.
Morning skate report: No changes from last game. Moose in goal. That was easy, right?
Questions for Hoss: One of the fun parts about my job is that I can satisfy my own curiosity about things about the game by going right to the source. Since I didn’t do the Carolina game, I didn’t have a chance to ask Hossa if he banked that game-tying goal against Florida off Jay Bouwmeester’s skate on purpose (you remember, the one with two seconds left last week). He said it was an accident. Kind of. He faked the shot on Vokoun and realized that if he shot the puck, Vokoun was in position to make the save. He also knew a teammate was coming hard on the other side, so he tried sliding the puck across the crease to a teammate and it hit Bouwmeester’s skate and the rest is history. He said Bouwmeester was coming in too fast for him to try and hit a skate on purpose. But he also said that he does use the opposition for deflections that are sometime viewed as lucky bounces. He said, particularly during 5-on-3s, when defensemen retreat too far back, he’ll use them for a redirect. But that wasn’t the case against Florida. But man, talk about patience. There’s 2 seconds left, and he’s still making the absolute right decision. Good stuff.
Rehab for Kari?: Don Waddell still hasn’t ruled out a rehab stint in Chicago for Kari Lehtonen, but he did say that the goalie would have to approve any rehab assignment. In talking to Kari yesterday, it didn’t seem like he thought a rehab trip would be necessary so we’ll see.
Shutting down the search
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There you have it. Apparently satisfied with what he’s seeing from his current staff, Don Waddell made the recommendation to ownership to put the coaching search on pause for now. He’s keeping the job within the organziation at least through the end of the season and if they continue playing like they have, that would bode well for Brad McCrimmon since Don has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be an NHL coach forever.
The players are on board with this decision. As Niclas Havelid said, they don’t have the luxury or time to adjust to a new coach coming in. McCrimmon has mostly been running things during practice and Don running the show during the games. That won’t change for now, but don’t be surprised if Beast is handed the reins when Waddell’s general managing duties pile up.
It’s not surprising news, and it makes a lot of sense. If this team struggled under Waddell, then you’d need a new voice, but there’s no reason to, as Waddell said, “upset the applecart.”
So do you agree with the choice or were you hoping a fresh voice would come in and save the day? Let’s not forget that Waddell’s pool of candidates opens considerably come summertime. THere might be some firings, there might be assistants who have a window to negotiate with other teams. But that’s a long way away right now.
Lehtonen working with Weeks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was an optional practice this morning, so I didn’t catch a lot of it. I spent most of the practice interviewing Tobias Enstrom for a feature (I know, it’s about time. Right?). Toby was great and this is a fun story because really there’s so much we don’t know about Enstrom. It’s a clean slate. It’s the opposite of the Ilya Kovalchuk feature, where it seems like everything has been done with him. Bet you didn’t know that Enstrom is a die-hard hip-hop fan? That’s one of the reasons he was excited to come to Atlanta. His favorite artist? Jay-Z. Yeah, this is most definitely a younger Thrashers team this year than last.
Garnet Exelby was back at it today so I think things look really good for his chances going into the Carolina game. Steve McCarthy was limping a bit today after taking a shot off the leg when he blocked a shot last night. It was a great play as Mac showed once again a willingness to sacrifice his body to stop a puck.
The medical staff has officially turned Kari Lehtonen over to Steve Weeks to get some of his timing back and start getting back in hockey shape. Lehtonen has been pain free for over a week and the fact that he’s now skating and working with Weeks is a good indication that he’s really close to returning to practice. It could happen as soon as Sunday, so that would be a real positive development for the Thrashers. Don Waddell hasn’t ruled out a rehab assignment in Chicago, but hasn’t given any indication that’s what the team is planning on doing. There’s a busy stretch of games coming up in which a healthy Lehtonen would be a big boost.
No word on who the starting goalie will be in Carolina. I know that Waddell hasn’t changed too many things after a win so putting Pavelec in there would be a slight strategy change. But he has said in the past that he doesn’t want to get locked into keeping a lineup just because the team won. What do you think? Is it a bad idea to swap goalies after a win?
Did you guys see this story? Apparantly some racy pictures of Toronto’s Jiri Tlusty made their way to the internet. He issued a statement, saying “I used poor judgment in this instance last season, and I have learned a valuable lesson.” He promises it won’t happen again. It’s just a stark reminder that you have to be extra careful in the internet age.
Exelby waiting out ankle injury
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So I went into the Thrashers dressing room after the morning skate to do a little work and ended up spending the entire time talking about Atlas Shrugged with Bobby Holik. I’m convinced that Bobby needs his own radio show. How about a Podcast? That’s what we need, a weekly Thrashers podcast to go with this blog. You think we could get more than 2,500 people to download it?
The book discussion all started because we were talking about that old CNN clip where the newswoman forgot to turn off her microphone and went into the bathroom and bashed her sister-in-law, or maybe it was mother-in-law. I forget. That’s when Bobby starts criticizing his teammates choice of television viewing habits, and talked about the virtues of spending time in a book store. And Holik even claims to have finished reading every single book he’s ever started. Where does Atlas Shrugged fit in? Well, Ben Wright, the Thrashers web guy, said Atlas Shrugged is the only book he hasn’t finished. Turns out, it’s also my favorite book. And thus, the debate.
So what does that mean to you, the reader? It means less insight than usual. Sorry. Not that you come here for insight though, right? I did manage to stop the book discussion long enough to talk to Don Waddell and Garnet Exelby about the defenseman’s ankle. He won’t play tonight and wants the ankle to get in better shape before he returns to the ice. He didn’t practice yesterday or today. In his words, he was tired of being a liability on the ice while he tried to play through the injury. So he’s out tonight, Steve McCarthy is in and Exelby is day to day. He’s hoping this ankle injury, which he classified as a deep bone bruise, won’t keep him out longer than a week. The only lineup change is in goal, where Johan Hedberg replaces Ondrej Pavelec.
While the team was skating this morning, Kari Lehtonen was running stairs up and down the empty Philips Arena stands. He looks like he’s in great shape, and didn’t show any signs of the groin injury. By all accounts, his recovery is going well and like I mentioned yesterday, he could return to practice next week.
Did any of you catch the Florida game on Versus last night? The Panthers lost for the fourth time in the last five games. Tomas Vokoun wasn’t exactly sharp and you have to wonder if he’s going to play tonight. Backup goalie Craig Anderson hasn’t started a game since Oct. 18 (Toronto) but I remember him playing well against the Thrashers last season. George Richards points out in today’s Miami Herald that the Panthers were 2-9 last season in the second of back-to-back games. But, as we know, the Thrashers are in no position to take any games for granted.
Thrashers updates: Exelby, Rucchin, Lehtonen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This will be a kind of newsy blog today, since some of this stuff will be difficult to weave into the Eric Perrin feature I have planned for the Tuesday paper.
Ilya Kovalchuk and Garnet Exelby didn’t practice this morning. Ilya Kovalchuk played over 28 minutes against Carolina on Saturday and let’s not forget that he’s just a couple games removed from missing time with a sore back. So Don Waddell is trying to rest him when he can, because it’s becoming evident that Kovy is going to be ridden pretty hard this season. 28 minutes for a forward is a heck of a lot of ice time. As for Exelby, Waddell called his chances of playing 50/50. So I would peg him as questionable for Tuesday’s game against Florida. According to Waddell its still the ankle that’s bothering Exelby.
Sara asked about Steve Rucchin, well, here you go. He won’t be examined again until February, so he’s out in California right now. The team isn’t saying it, but I will. He won’t play this season. The strongest Waddell will commit to is that the Thrashers aren’t counting on him this season. Even if he’s cleared to play in February, he’ll have to work back into hockey shape and is going to really risk another head injury to come back a play a week or two? It doesn’t add up.
Johan Hedberg will be back in goal for Tuesday’s game, so the rookie Ondrej Pavelec will get a little rest. The Thrashers will catch a little bit of a break, getting Florida the day after they host first-place Carolina. We’ll see if they can capitalize on it.
Kari Lehtonen’s progress continues, and Waddell said they hope he can get back out on the ice and practice next week. Personally, I think any talk of trading Lehtonen is crazy. First, Kari got off to that slow start and he’s coming off an injury, so for any trade purposes his value would likely be lower than in the past. Second, Pavelec is 20 years old with four NHL starts under his belt. Third, Johan Hedberg is a free agent after this season. So let’s say you trade Kari and you don’t get good value. Then after this season is up, all you have left is a rookie goalie - who no matter how good you think he is, is going to have ups and downs. Me? I’d continue to give Ondrej the majority of the starts while Kari is hurt, and assuming he continues to play well and that’s a big assumption at this point, you can let Kari work out the kinks in a rehab assignment in Chicago. Then you swap them out and IF everybody is playing well in February, you trade Moose near the trade deadline to a contender looking for a solid veteran goalie. But it’s a fun debate, anyways.
No comment on media training
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s always fun to talk to a team fresh off their media training. I entered the dressing room this morning after the practice down here in Ft. Lauderdale or Sunrise or wherever the arena is, and immediately discovered the strategies the Thrashres were taught in Duluth when the league sent a media training staff to Atlanta. Evidently there’s a group that does a league-wide tour so NHL players learn the proper way to interact with predators like myself.
And it’s a good thing, because these hockey players are bombarded by the crush of media in Atlanta. So here’s what I learned from the players. Evidently, no comment is out. Ken Klee said it’s preferred to say, something like “I’d rather not discuss that, but I’d be happy to talk about ‘fill in the blank’” To which Bobby Holik said, “I’d be happy to talk about me.” I’m beginning to suspect that the media training didn’t sink in with Bobby. He seems to show some empathy towards the job we have to do, saying “I have a job to do, and you have a job to do. Even when you ask stupid questions.” There you have it.
Ilya Kovalchuk is a go tonight. Losing him would have been a huge buzz kill for this team and likely would have sapped them of any momentum they’ve picked up in their last five games. The Thrashers are 4-1 in their last five games, would you like to guess what they’d be in those five without Kovy?
But he’s back, and playing a Florida team that’s solid at home. The Panthers are 3-2 in their last five games, and this is a pretty decent Florida team. Especially defensively. You’ve got to love what a guy like Jay Bouwmeester brings to the table to lead the defense. The Thrashers could use a 6-4 blueliner, that’s for sure. I’m also looking forward to seeing Cory Murphy. When we were down here for the exhibition season, I chatted with Brian Biggane, who covers the Panthers for the Palm Beach Post (one of our sister papers). He said Murphy was going to sneak up on people this season, and he’s been a great addition to the power play down here. He has a goal and nine assists so far this season. That reminds me. When I was in Buffalo watching some hockey at a sports bar up there, a guy told me that he was close friends with Murphy and that the Thrashers were interested in him this summer. Don Waddell shot that one down via e-mail a couple weeks ago. Man, if you can’t trust random drunk people in Buffalo sports bars, who can you trust?
Carroll Rogers continues to do a great job pitching in with Thrashers coverage, her story “Dirty jobs go to Thrashers’ 4th line” is a great read. Great stuff from Odgy at the end. Speaking of that line, Jim Slater said they are now the “Greek god” line. Why, I asked? Because, he said, they all have sculpted bodies. I don’t know about that nickname for the three of them, I think Zeus would have a goal by now.
On that note, I’m going to finish up this Kovalchuk feature. I’ll get at your comments in a little bit.
Kovalchuk probable for Florida
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ilya Kovalchuk was back on the ice this morning, although it was just a quick skate at the end of practice. But he’s confident he’ll be ready to go against Florida on Friday, so there’s some good news for you. You want some detail about how much pain Kovalchuk was in yesterday?
“I didn’t feel good at all. It was a little bit scary actually. I couldn’t even go in the bathroom,” he said after practice. Hey, we get in-depth here on the beat blog.
He expects to play, and said the doctors and trainers who were able to turn things around so quickly deserve a lot of credit. This could have been a lot worse, so assuming he doesn’t wake up in Florida tomorrow in extreme pain, he’ll be out there against the Panthers.
And as expected, Ondrej Pavelec will get another start. I like the Ondrej the Giant suggestion much better than The Wall as his nickname. I’m sticking with that one. Teammates are just calling him Pavs. I assumed that with back-to-back games, Pavelec would get one start and Johan Hedberg the other, but Don Waddell is keeping his options open for the second game. It sounds like Pavelec can earn a string of starts if he continues to play well.
The Thrashers are now 2-0 during their stretch of eight consecutive division games. Anybody want to venture a prediction as to what their record will be for those eight games. Is 6-2 too optimistic?
Back in the playoff mix
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hey, don’t look now, but the Thrashers are three points out of a playoff spot. Isn’t parity great?
There’s a lot going on right now in what was supposed to be a light day for me. Let’s start with Ilya Kovalchuk. If you’ve ever hurt your back before, it’s always pretty darn sore the next day, and that’s what happened with Kovy. Carroll Rogers is on top of things in that department. She got the update online about the MRI and as soon as we know Kovalchuk’s status for Friday, we’ll let you know.
I was supposed to sit down with Ilya for an extended interview this afternoon for a story I’m writing for Sunday. The back injury threw a loop in those plans, and I also was busy working on the story you’ll see in Thursday’s paper. A conversation with Scott Mellanby uncovered a couple interesting facts. One - he wanted to join the organization after he retired and was willing, in his words, to work for peanuts. But the offer never came.
Second, he credits Brad McCrimmon (along with Steve Weeks) for the success the Thrashers have had since Bob Hartley was fired. So Mellanby joins the growing ranks of people who feel like McCrimmon is the right choice to coach this team.
Said Waddell: “Lots of people have called me with their opinion. That’s part of the process right now.”
A talk with Bruce Levenson this afternoon gave some insight about the coaching search. There have been rumblings that money is an issue in this hire and that ownership might be hesitant to pay another coach considering the fact that Bob Hartley will be paid for this season and next. He reiterated his stance that ownership has never denied Waddell of any recommendations that he’s made and said that money isn’t an issue in this hire.
But despite all of that, I don’t think anybody is interested in changing too much right now. The team has emerged from its early hole and suddenly find themselves right back in the playoff hunt. I think Kovalchuk’s health is the main concern of this team, even moreso than who is behind the bench. Scotty Bowman assisted by Vince Lombardi wouldn’t be able to win much if Kovalchuk is out for any extended period of time. So, I’ll turn my focus back to my Kovalchuk feature which is coming along fine, thank you. Alex Ovechkin had some interesting things to say about Kovy and I look forward to hearing what Dany Heatley has to say about the emergence of his former teammate. That reminds me, if you see Dany, tell him to call me back.
Alright, it’s off to fight Atlanta traffic. Sorry about the late blog.
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.
Kovalchuk earns NHL honors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s start this blog off with some non-surprising news - Ilya Kovalchuk was named the NHL’s first star of the week. He joined Henrik Lundqvist (second star) and Marian Gaborik (third star) in the weekly honors. A couple interesting factoids in the NHL press release — Kovalchuk was the first player to register consecutive hat tricks since Alex Kovalev did it for PIttsburgh in 2001. He was also the first to reach that accomplishment in two road games since Mario Lemieux in 1995. That’s not some bad company right there.
As much as Kovalchuk sparked the team with his outstanding performance in Tampa Bay, a few guys mentioned again today the play of Ondrej Pavelec as being a big part of the comeback. Steve Weeks said that after a save on Lecavalier by Pavelec, the team got a big boost and he maintained that strong play as his teammate rallied to complete the comeback. Because of that, Pavelec will get the start against Washington when the Thrashers return to Philips Arena on Tuesday night. It’s a well-deserved opportunity for Pavelec, who despite being so young and inexperienced, has been able to keep a high level of confidence so far. He’s getting more comfortable in the dressing room, and you have to credit guys like Bobby Holik and Marian Hossa for making him feel comfortable during the long road trip. Hossa said they tried to include the young goalie on trips out to dinner and things like that, especially since they all speak the same language. It would be something if this kid could get hot during this stretch as the Thrashers battle back towards the .500 mark.
Practice report: Garnet Exelby, who took a puck off his ankle against Tampa Bay, tried to practice, but didn’t make it all the way through today. He’ll be a game-time decision for the Thrashers against the Caps. The duo of Ken Klee and Exelby have been the most dependable pair so far this season, and you can tell they are earning Don Waddell’s trust. Speaking of Don, look for a Mark Bradley column on him. Mark was at practice today, and it’s always good to hear what he has to say.
Spoke with Kari Lehtonen today, and his rehab continues to go well. He said that physically, he’s in the best shape of his life right now and is looking forward to getting back in hockey shape. He’s working the groin a little bit, with the slide board and an exercise machine and said his return is right on schedule. He declined to set a timetable, but nothing indicates that the original 4-6 week prediction has changed.
Lastly, Brett Sterling was sent to Chicago. He hasn’t played since the loss to Nashville, so it’s good for him to go to the AHL and get some work. Waddell has been really happy with the play of the fourth line — Boutlon, Slater and Thorburn, so it was going to be tough to get Sterls back on the ice.
Kovy for MVP?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Back-to-back hat tricks? I really thought that would be tough to beat, but Ilya Kovalchuk’s real accomplishment came when his performance in Tampa Bay cracked the top three on SportsCenter’s top plays. You know he’s doing something special when he can get a hockey game into the ESPN highlight mix on a college football Saturday. That was unbelievable, and everybody after the game was talking about how it started in Ottawa. This team, right now, feels like they can come back on anyone.
Now, if they wouldn’t get off to such sluggish starts, they wouldn’t need superhuman performances from their Russian superstar to bail them out, but we’ll let that slide for now. I’m not going to be the one to throw cold water on an exciting comeback.
Kovalchuk’s drive has been with a singular goal, and that is to get back to the playoffs. Even when the team was struggling, he knew exactly how many points behind the final playoff team the Thrashers were. Even last night, he was excited, not with six goals in two games, but because the Thrashers got their first division win.
In the summer, Don Waddell said that he’d be happy if the team was .500 after this 14 game stretch. He knew that after 14 games, the team would have played a quarter of its road games and that after that schedule is pretty favorable. Well, here were are and the Thrashers are 5-9. They’re 5-5 in their last 10. And they’re 5-3 under Waddell. And they’re only three games behind the Rangers for a top eight spot in the conference. Okay, they’d have to leap frog seven teams to get there, but this team buried itself with that 0-6 start and is showing some serious resiliency right now. And simply put, Kovalchuk is the reason why.
A breakdown by The Falconer points out that Ilya Kovalchuk contributed to 54.3 percent of the Thrashers points this season, more than any player in the NHL. How about that as an argument for MVP? Shoot, my plane is boarding, I’ve got to run. But is there a better player right now in the NHL than Kovalchuk?
Maybe a rookie can change the luck in Tampa
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers are going with the kid. Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal tonight as the Thrashers try and end their strong road trip on a positive note. I like the decision, especially considering the team has struggled in Tampa so far this season. You might as well mix it up. He seemed genuinely excited to make the start, and admitted that playing here last time has helped relieve some of the nerves. It’s a good spot for him and Don Waddell said he earned the start with his strong play in two relief appearances of Johan Hedberg.
The Lightning have been struggling lately, which meant Torts wasn’t in the best of moods at the morning press conference. But who better than the Thrashers to turn things around against? Tampa Bay is 16-5-1-1 all-time at home against the Thrashers and have outscored the Thrashers 11-4 in two meetings in Tampa this season.
The Thrashers will need to get off to a good start against Tampa, which is hard to do. As you know, the Lightning usually come out flying. That may be one reason Waddell’s top line tonight is Kovalchuk-White-Hossa. If Kovy and Hoss can get an early goal, that would be big for a lot of reasons. For one, it might relieve some pressure on Pavelec. But this team showed last game that it’s now capable of coming back from a large deficit which was certainly in question the last time the Thrashers were in Tampa. So in that regard, a fast start isn’t as critical as earlier in the season.
As for the coaching search, Waddell said this morning that he hasn’t contacted any teams about receiving permission to interview an assistant, although he can use other avenues than just direct contact to find out if an assistant is available. There still doesn’t seem to be any urgency in the coaching search, as Waddell continues to stress that winning games right now is much more important than making a hire.
There’s been an inordinate amount of buzz surrounding the Thrashers and potential trades. I’m not saying there won’t be any deals, but I also want to add that the Thrashers just recently played in Montreal and Toronto - where A) There’s tons of media and B) It’s a good spot for scouts up there to see a team they might not typically see. So stuff might get blown out of proportion more than usual. Now when a reporter I respect, like Jim Matheson, says Thrashers director of player personnel Mark Dobson attended his third Oilers game in a short span, I take notice. Although, I don’t think the Thrashers are currently interested in Dick Tarnstrom, as some other websites suggested. So cross him off your list, especially considering the Oilers recent injuries on the blueline.
But here’s why you have to be careful about internet trade rumors. The other day, I was chatting with Bobby Holik and we were watching the huge media scrum around Hossa, which led me to ask Holik if he was doing any negotiating with the team. It was a 30 second conversation, which I used as a quick note in the paper. The next day, I go online to a few hockey websites and see a headline: “Holik to be traded?” That’s how some of this stuff gets started.
I would wonder if there’d be interest around the league in a guy like Steve McCarthy if he continues to sit. I saw Don Waddell talking to him for awhile during the morning skate. Here’s what Waddell had to say about that conversation:
“I don’t want to lose him. He’s done everything for us. His plus-minus [Mac is currently at -12] has been very misleading… If you go through those goals you’ll find very few that were his fault. Sometimes you get caught in circumstances. He’s battled every night, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. I told him not to lose faith in us. We haven’t lost faith in him.”
Big test for the Thrashers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen that the Thrashers might have caught a break in their timing. Barring a miracle Jason Spezza won’t play tonight against the Thrashers. That’s especially interesting, since Ottawa hasn’t played a game since beating New Jersey on Saturday. So you’d think they’d be well rested and ready to go, but according to the Ottawa Citizen Spezza hurt his groin during Tuesday’s practice and since we’re early in the season, he doesn’t want to rush back into the lineup.
When you’re off to a 9-1 start you can afford to be patient with the injuries. The Thrashers, meanwhile, could use a big win. Based on the skate this morning, it looks like there won’t be any lineup changes. And, really, why would there be? That Montreal game was about as strong a game as this team has played. Johan Hedberg is getting more and more comfortable as the starting goalie and defensively the team has tightened things up. Garnet Exelby said this morning that the defense is slowing down, taking its time with the puck, communicating and it’s paying off. Don’t look now, but Niclas Havelid is a plus-one as is Ken Klee and Tobias Enstrom. That’s pretty strong considering they’re playing on a team that is 4-8.
Ray Emery will make his second start of the season tonight. Martin Gerber is 7-1 with a .940 save percentage, but Emery will be looking to earn his No. 1 job back. It’s certainly not a break for the Thrashers, who have seen their share of strong goaltending this season. On the other side of the ice, Hedberg is 3-2 with a 3.10 GAA in his last five. He hasn’t allowed an even-strength goal in his last two games.
The Thrashers will have to get off to a good start tonight, as they did against Montreal. Ottawa scored first in all nine of their victories. The Thrashers power play will also be facing a big challenge - the Sens have only allowed five power play goals this season (that’s good for 89.1%).
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