AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 10
Monday, December 10, 2007
Recchi makes practice debut
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So I try and skip a game and the Thrashers go and add a future Hall of Famer? You guys should be clamoring for Carroll Rogers to do more games, because good things happen when she picks up the baton. Although, that performance on the ice Saturday night wasn’t exactly good, now was it?
The guys were excited about the Mark Recchi addition, and here’s the bottom line from my perspective - it’s a pretty low risk move that has the potential for a decent payoff. The guy has two Stanley Cup rings, the Thrashers could use some help on the right side and now they have an extra motivated player in their dressing room. And believe me, he’s motivated. He’s willing to fill any role that Don Waddell and Brad McCrimmon have in mind. I’m guessing he’ll skate with Bryan Little and Eric Perrin which seems like a natural fit there. Recchi made a joke about Little being born one year after he started in pro hockey. Both Perrin and Little admitted to growing up huge fans of Recchi, so if they can get over being a little star struck, they should be fine. There were a few line combinations out there today, so I’ll see if anything more consistent happens at practice on Tuesday.
So who’s the odd man out? Waddell said it’s too early for that kind of talk, but I’m guessing it’s Darren Haydar to start. And the signing doesn’t necessarily bode well for Brad Larsen, who hasn’t been playing much lately anyway. The Thrashers will trim back to 22 players eventually, but at this point there’s no timetable. Remember, they’re paying Haydar anyway, so they don’t save anything by sending him to Chicago. Plus, they run the risk of losing him. So there will be some decisions made. If they decide Eric Perrin could center a line with Larsen and Recchi that could even mean that Little is the odd man out. He’s one player who they could send to Chicago and not run the risk of losing. And he’s not exactly tearing it up right now, so a stint in the AHL could be a confidence booster for him.
Mark Popovic was out again today. This day-to-day ankle injury is now a week old. They want his ankle 100 percent before they test it, so that’s the delay.
A couple of you noticed Fred Brathwaite’s disappearance from the Chicago Wolves. He got a bunch of money from a Russian team to play there. Officially, he was suspended by the Thrashers for failure to report, but there’s little the team can do about it because there’s no agreement with the Russian hockey federation. So the Thrashers lose some depth, but with Ondrej Pavelec down there it’s something they can absorb.
