AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 01
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Lehtonen jumping right into the action
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How about a weekend blog? I owe you guys one anyways since I didn’t blog during yesterday’s travel day. You know what’s not easy? Driving from the Newark airport to Long Island, especially when you decide to cut through Manhattan on a Friday night. Turns out the horn on my rental Chevy works pretty well, I fit right in with the cab drivers. Plus, I barely had enough cash on hand for the tolls and tunnels. What happens if you go through the one of the tunnels and you don’t have the $6? Do they send you back? I almost found out.
Kari Lehtonen is in goal tonight, no sense making him wait around for his debut. He had some ice on his left hand after practice today, but he said it was just a stinger, nothing to worry about. He’s excited about his return to the team and said he had a great time in Chicago. The Thrashers certainly need him to be on top of his game if they want to turn around this losing streak.
A few other moves of note — look for Chris Thorburn to skate on the third line with Bobby Holik and Slava Kozlov. He said he’ll miss playing with Slater and Boulton, but looks forward to the opportunity. On the flip side, Pascal Dupuis is on the fourth line, and isn’t happy about it. We’ll see if he plays with a little extra fire tonight.
I actually missed the lines during the morning skate because of an extended interview with Andy Sutton and then Ted Nolan’s media availability coincided with the first part of the Thrashers skate.
Sutton said he’s enjoying his time with the Islanders. There was a period of adjustment for him, playing in the new system but in talking to him and some of his teammates, he seems to have picked up his play lately. He’s been physical and Bryan Berard said he had no idea how good a skater Sutton was. Looks like he’s playing about 16-18 minutes per game.
Jon Sim was around doing a workout this morning, but by the time I was looking for him, he had left. One person I talked to said that people don’t realize how big a blow Sim’s injury was to the Islanders. Evidently, he was a perfect fit for this team, and they were optimistic that he could get 20 goals this season. I’m hoping to catch up with him at the game tonight to see how his rehab is coming.
Wade Dubielewicz will get the start of the Islanders tonight, so maybe the Thrashers caught a break there.
The team is bussing it to New Jersey after the game tonight, I’m going to try and make that drive in the morning. Wish me luck.
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