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April 2008
Dropping in on the Wolves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chicago — Somehow I survived the big Illinois earthquake last night. Actually, my wife couldn’t have been surprised less when I said I slept right through it. It takes more than a 5.1 to wake me up.
So, has it really been two weeks since a blog? No wonder I’m getting e-mails from you guys wondering where I am. The answer is Chicago, for a couple reasons. The primary one is that I’m examining the relationship between the Wolves (AHL) and the Thrashers to see if the Wolves are part of the problem for Atlanta’s step back as a franchise.
In some of the ‘What went wrong’ stories I’ve been reading about the Thrashers, the relationship with the Wolves has been brought up. I’ve also heard rumblings from people close to the organization that there are issues. I’m sure you’ve heard some of the same complaints, like Chicago hires its own coaches, plays its own system, focuses on winning over playing Thrashers prospects - am I missing any? And the fact is this: There are really only two players currently with the Thrashers who spent considerable time with the Wolves: Garnet Exelby and Kari Lehtonen. And if we’re keeping it real, which we like to do on the beat blog, Kari plays in Atlanta, not Chicago, if there isn’t a lockout.
So certainly, that’s a red flag. But I’m still in the reporting stage of this one, not in the opinion forming stage. Chicago GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, who will be an NHL GM one day, and John Anderson, who should be an NHL head coach one day, were obviously pretty passionate about this subject. We talked at length about systems, players development and the relationship between the Thrashers and Wolves and I’ll save the details for my story. But they feel like they’re putting forth great effort and resources into developing players as well as winning.
One of the players who has been with the Wolves and Thrashers said the negatives about the relationship between Chicago and Atlanta are “way overblown.” Do you think the Wolves are part of the problem? Minorleaguenews.com doesn’t think so, they named the Thrashers the Farm System of the Year. Full disclosure: I hadn’t heard of minorleaguenews.com until two hours ago but I’m sure they’ve never heard of me either, so we’re even.
Chicago has signed three Thrashers prospects to ATOs from junior - Riley Holzapfel, Spencer Machacek and Angelo Esposito. All three will join me in the press box tonight since they’re just up to get a taste of the pro hockey lifestyle and not necessarily a ton of ice time. Although, you could argue that it’d benefit them to see some time in the playoffs. I spoke with Angelo for a few minutes this morning and hope to grab Spencer and Riley tonight to see how things are going.
Angelo’s focus now is on making the Thrashers out of training camp next season, even though he just turned 19. He knows he has to work on conditioning and add some pounds, but really wants to stick with the Thrashers next season. We’ll see. That’s a heck of a jump.
I also wanted to catch up with John Anderson about the Thrashers coaching vacancy. If he’s going to get an interview, he doesn’t expect to talk seriously to Don Waddell until after the Calder Cup playoffs. But he really wants the job and is confident he can be part of the turnaround, adding “I can’t coach them from here, I know that much.”
The success of his good friend and longtime minor league coach, Bruce Boudreau, can only help Anderson’s cause. The two still talk on a daily basis and it’d be interesting to see them square off as division rivals. It’d give me something to write about, anyways.
Thoughts on Bradley’s column: I’m glad Mark Bradley was picking up the slack, while I was laying low. First, I don’t think Mark was as soft on Don as some of the people who commented. Bradley said it was a huge upset that Don was back, and then let Waddell do most of the talking. I thought there were some interesting quotes from Waddell in there. The quote about Dan Snyder was puzzling to me, in fact I had to read it twice. Why even go there?
Waddell also said this team didn’t have problem scoring goals. I beg to differ. I think, other than Kovy, this team had a serious problem scoring goals. To say that the Thrashers are only two players away from a complete turnaround also seems like quite a reach.
But Waddell is right about the fact that in today’s NHL, you can turn things around quickly. He’s right about Philly. The Flyers addressed their defense and then signed Daniel Briere to a huge contract. If the Thrashers are serious players in free agency and can add a prime target like a Briere (who is finally paying dividends) then maybe things can change. But you have to wonder if the Marian Hossa saga might have hurt the recruitment of premier free agents. I know this much, players talk and if there are perceived issues about the organization, that will hurt on July 1.
Exit interviews: I know I’m going back a couple weeks here, but I never blogged about the final day following the season. It’s the day the players do their exit interviews and address the media before taking off for the summer. The consensus from my own exit interviews was that the team desperately needed accountability and an identity. Even Waddell said as much with this quote: “Accountability from a coach to player standpoint - we have to be better moving forward.”
That’s interesting to me because there were times when Brad McCrimmon tried to instill some accountability - like when he threw the team off the ice during a lackluster practice. But even then, Waddell defended the players. It sounds like Waddell is realizing now that more accountability was needed. Or maybe I’m just reading into things too much.
But the biggest thing players stressed is the lack of an identity. And this kind of gets back to the whole Chicago Wolves thing. If the Thrashers had a distinct identity, like say the New Jersey Devils, the AHL affiliate might be more apt to consistently fit that identity. There’s no question a lack of an identity was an issue this season for the Thrashers. What was their identity? A team that gives up a ton of shots and hopes Ilya Kovalchuk scores?
Waddell said, moving forward, developing an identity is crucial. It also raises the question, should the Thrashers still be trying to develop an identity at this point in their existence? Shouldn’t they already have one?
Anyways, here is Waddell on that: “The strengths of our team right now, we added some of the guys, the Eric Perrins, Colby Armstrongs - we’re going to be a good skating and aggressive team. We have to be a better defensive team. Are we going to become a defensive-bound team? I don’t think so because of the forwards we have here. The identity of our team, it’s going to be critical to establish that with our new coach and coaching staff. We have to play to the strengths of our team: scoring goals and taking care of our zone.”
Not to pile on after a rough season, but if Don thought the strength of the Thrashers was scoring goals and taking care of their zone, I must have been at totally different games all season. The Thrashers averaged 2.52 goals per game, No. 22 in the league. And they weren’t good in their own zone. But other than that, those were the strengths.
Wow, sorry to be such a downer. You’re probably going to want me to take another two weeks off the blog. Let’s end on a positive, shall we? At least the Thrashers didn’t sign Ray Emery to a long-term deal. Bryan Murray announced today that Emery wouldn’t be back next season. Ottawa’s preference is to trade him rather than buy him out. So there’s that.
EDIT: I totally forgot one thing, and it is a positive. The Thrashers and Hawks unveiled their playrooms at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta this week. Chris Thorburn was the Thrashers representative there and I heard he was great with the kids, which is no surprise. Thorburn is a great personality on that team and the perfect candidate for events like this.
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Prepping for Stamkos Sweepstakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, this was it. The final practice in Duluth for the 2007-08 season. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. Okay, not really. This has been a long season, it seems like years since the beginning of training camp when you consider everything that has happened this year.
But last year’s season finale seems like a lifetime ago. Kari Lehtonen said that he was thinking the same thing today, and how the stakes were so different for game 82 last year. If you remember, the game was for seeding and if the Thrashers would have lost the final, they would have played the Lightning in the first round of the playoffs. I wonder how different things would have been if the Thrashers played Tampa Bay?
But they won and got swept. I tried to tell Kari, who is starting against the Lightning, that it’d be a good idea to lose on Saturday, but he wasn’t hearing it. The Thrashers don’t have a shot at the bottom two spots in the league, but they certainly don’t want to catch St. Louis. Lehtonen said the players don’t even think about that stuff, and he said his focus is to give the fans a win in the final game of the season. It is Fan Appreciation Night, isn’t it? But wouldn’t you appreciate it if they lost.
Don Waddell got a memo from the league that had the percent chance of landing that top pick in the lottery on Monday night. He was kind enough to share it, and here’s how it breaks down using the standings from right now (Friday at 1:55 p.m.).
25 percent: Los Angeles Kings
18.8 percent: Tampa Bay
14.2 percent: Atlanta
10.7 percent: St. Louis
Now remember, teams can only move up four spots so only the bottom five have a shot at Steven Stamkos. He’s why it wouldn’t be so bad if the Thrashers lost on Saturday, and I know that kind of talk upsets some of you (Hi Sam!). But do you really want Tampa Bay to land him if the Thrashers can’t?
I talked with Stamkos’ coach in Sarnia today and he said one of the issues that Stamkos is dealing with is that there aren’t a lot of players who can keep up with him in the OHL. So he hasn’t had a chance to really blossom as a playmaker. I’m guessing that Ilya Kovalchuk would be able to keep up with him, no? Here’s a taste of what Sarnia Sting coach Dave MacQueen said about his star center: “He has the ability to put a team on his back and carry it. He’s got two or three gears and I’ve never seen anybody do the things he can with the puck at high gear.”
Waddell said today that the team will hold a drawing on Saturday consisting of season ticket holders to pick a fan who will represent the Thrashers at the draft lottery on Monday. Waddell will watch it from Atlanta and instead send a fan in his place. I’m guessing the fan who goes would be an instant legend among season ticket holders if they can bring home the No. 1 pick.
Beast’s Blueprint: Soon we’ll be focusing on the next head coach for the Thrashers, and some players are making their pitch for Brad McCrimmon to get a shot. Mark Recchi said he’d come back in a heartbeat if McCrimmon were the coach and Ilya Kovalchuk said today that McCrimmon is his choice. Recchi said some interesting things yesterday, basically saying that McCrimmon should by no means be held responsible for the rough season. He said he’s heard some of McCrimmon’s ideas for how to run a team and who he would bring in as assistants and loved what he heard. “I’m a big fan of Beast,” Recchi said. “I’d like to see him have full control. I think he would be good with full control and I don’t think we saw the best of him because he didn’t have it. He’s a good coach, one of the better I’ve had. He has great ideas and likes to surround himself with great people. When you hear the people he’d like to bring, you know he’s confident in what he does. A lot of people don’t do that.”
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NHL to televise draft drawing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thrashers took the day off today, so I’m getting some family time in as well. Nice little afternoon at Ikea, thank you very asking. But I wanted to update the blog with a couple things that floated through my e-mail today.
One, the Thrashers optioned Joel Kwiatkowski and Jordan LaVallee to Chicago. Look for Bryan LIttle and Boris Valabik to follow after Saturday’s game. They’ll all get valuable playoff experience, which certainly can’t hurt. Any thoughts on Kwiatkowski and LaVallee and their chances of being on the roster to start the season next year?
The other thing I thought was interesting is that the NHL will be televising the results of the lottery drawing on Monday, April 7th at 8 p.m. It’s only the second time they’ve done that, and I think it’s a great idea. Why not, right? That could be the moment Thrashers history takes a dramatic turn. If they can somehow land that No. 1 pick, then that changes everything for next year. Steven Stamkos is that good.
It’ll be on VERSUS if you can find it or the NHL channel if you have it. I think at this point, if you’re a serious Thrashers fan, you have to root against the team on Saturday, don’t you? Is that against all the rules of fandom?
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