Thrashers

By The Other J.B.

October 10, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this

first?

I’ve noticed Ilya’s Mercedes is always parked against the curb like that the Ice Forum. Didn’t realize it was unofficially “his” parking spot. It’s definitely one of the best looking rides I’ve ever been in the presence of. Can you just imagine that beautiful piece of machinery sitting in a line of cars waiting to get into a gas station? It’d stick out a bit, I think…

ok enough about Kovy’s car.

SIX HOURS TO GO Y’ALL!!!!! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By fes

October 10, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this

with little in, which line will he center?

By Russian

October 10, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

Yes. Drop a Puck! I can’t wait. Little is playing which good, but he is on third line which is not good.

By Mike Knobler

October 10, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this

fes Little will be on the right wing. He is on the line with Eric Perrin at left wing and Marty Reasoner at center.

By Bob

October 10, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this

Little as the checking line RW makes no sense whatsoever. How the heck are we going to figure out if he’s an NHL center by playing him there?

By Fact Checker

October 10, 2008 2:21 PM | Link to this

Little as the checking line RW makes no sense whatsoever. How the heck are we going to figure out if he’s an NHL center by playing him there?

That’s what happens when an incompetent GM signs WAY too many 4th Line Centers, lol. Instead of Reasoner he should have gone after Stephane Yelle, at least he can play on the wings also. Little will never progress in this sytem, because he is not being utilized properly. Can you say Brett Sterling on RW, anybody? lol

By Mike Knobler

October 10, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this

Guys, I don’t think John Anderson looks at his third line as a checking line. In fact, he doesn’t refer to lines as first, second, third or fourth at all. Anderson is talking balance, as in scoring from all of his lines.

By Scottbravesfan

October 10, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this

The NHL has done a terrible job of getting the word out that opening night was last night. I saw no advertisement on TV at all except on Versus. Usually Versus will run ads on the other comcast owned cable networks like they do for the WEC but I saw nothing for the NHL. Sean Avery is right they are terrible at marketing because they have no marketing at all. Hopefully the Thrashers can get a win tonight.

By Scottbravesfan

October 10, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this

Also nice coverage from the AJC on opening night, they couldn’t even get an article up on the main sports page. Just a blog.

By Mike Knobler

October 10, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this

Scottbravesfan I refer you to the print version, with a great picture of Kovalchuk in the center of the cover of the section and two more pages of info inside.

By ranallo10 (in AT)

October 10, 2008 5:22 PM | Link to this

Scottbravesfan — Technically speaking, opening night was last weekend. I guess they really FUBARd their marketing plan if you missed the European games (two in Stockholm, two in Prague) that marked the beginning of the NHL season.

By Mike Knobler

October 10, 2008 6:20 PM | Link to this

Do you fans have any special opening-night, or, in keeping with Atlanta hockey tradition, perhaps opening-Knight routines?

By stendec

October 10, 2008 9:14 PM | Link to this

Sori Letemin is the sorriest F+++++G excuse for a no-talent piece of S++T to ever masquerade as a professional goaltender! What an oxygen waste. Avoid the rush. Deal this untalented Finn now! Thrashers cannot give this porous slimeball a big enough lead! Line up aplogists. Let the excuse parade commence. THERE ARE NO DAMN EXCUSES!

By stendec

October 10, 2008 9:25 PM | Link to this

Well, Sori Letemin has blown a 3-0 lead and allowed a shorthanded tally. The swiss cheese man non-effort between pipes has completely deflated team! New coach needs to jerk his sorry A++ before third period. What an untalented scumball doucebag! Score is 4-4 after 40 minutes but with Finn F++++T in net loss seems inevitable! Waited all this time for this? What a F+++++G letdown! At least Falcons show promise. Thrashers finished!

By stendec

October 10, 2008 9:40 PM | Link to this

Is that Ilya Kolvachuk or Maryann Hossa on ice? Difficult to tell!

By stendec

October 10, 2008 10:03 PM | Link to this

Thrashers up 6-4 late in game! Maybe Sori Letemin does not have enough time to blow THIS lead! Hopefully!

By shamrock

October 10, 2008 11:30 PM | Link to this

stendec is a D-Bag! Thrashers win! No excuses needed!

By Smoothie

October 10, 2008 11:34 PM | Link to this

Wow, what a frenetic, heart-stopping, blood-pumping, breath-taking opener! Congratulations to Johnny and his coaching staff for notching their first NHL win in electrifying fashion. Here are my “snap-shot” observations of tonite from the TV perspective:

1) Thrashers look incredible in HD…we all need to write to SportSouth and beg them to produce more games in HD. The vantage point Philips offers is second to none…save for being there in person.

2) Ron Hainsey is a stud. He can just flat out play on both ends of the ice. But especially on the PP…he is silky smooth with the puck.

3) Bryan Little has arrived. He was the best player on the ice in the 3rd period and he seemed to kick it into another gear when playing with Kozlov. Sorry Colby, but Bryan will be taking your spot. But then again, he will be playing as Kovy’s RW by November if he keeps playing at that level.

4) Lehtonen was fantastic. He didn’t get a break in the 2nd period and his teammates didn’t exactly make it easy for him with poor PK positioning. But he came up big on the penalty shot and it completely turned the momentum. So suck on THAT stendec!!

5) Kovy has matured to the point where he is going to be a complete all-around player. His passing was phenomenal and his decision-making was good all night. He didn’t have many chances to free-lance but you could tell he was reading the game very well. He will have 90 + points this year, but may not need 50 goals to do it in Johnny’s system.

6) Lastly, for now, the blueline as a whole was so much better. And a tip of the cap to Bogey who overcame a shaky start to play exceptionally well in the 3rd period (for which he was rewarded with extra ice time). And kudos to him for standing up to cheap-shot Donna Brazzier. But on the whole, save for the PK, the Defense was solid and even Exelby seemed much more relaxed and comfortable because of the talent around him.

I know it’s only one game but there were a lot of positives to build on in this game. The true test will be how they come back on an early back-to-back, but hopefully they will come out with a lot of early energy in Sunrise tomorrow night. Fla played tonite too on the road so it’s “even” in that respect.

Go Thrashers!

By MB

October 10, 2008 11:59 PM | Link to this

Heck of a fun game tonight, and good crowd…except for that mass of empty seats in the club section. What a bunch of losers.

Anyway, in order…I can’t begin to express my disappointment that Kovy did not come out wearing the C. Maybe there was a good explanation for it, but I can’t see one. The introductions were all built up for that moment to come, and then out he skates with an A on his chest. Very disappointing from my point of view.

To Smoothie’s comments, the rook came out stumbling, but then got his game back and looked pretty good the rest of the way. And numerous times I looked back there to see our new #18 back there and felt very comforted. The blueline looked much improved (props to Hainsey) in terms of moving the puck, though I still found myself saying “what in the he** are you thinking, Exelby” far too often; and allowing 40+ shots is crazy.

Little…what can you say. I made some comments back in the spring/summer comparing him at this stage in his career to Savard’s early years. Obviously it’s WAY too early to draw any conclusions, but what a great start for the kid.

Stendec, Kari could walk on water and you’d give him grief about causing ripples. He didn’t play perfectly by any means, but he and Theodore were the reasons we were in this game. He made some unbelievable saves, including stoning the game’s premiere scorer (with apologies to Kovy) on a penalty shot.

Glass half-full…great, fun game to watch; the guys seemed energized and seemed to have a flow together; secondary scoring came through; puck was moved out of defensive zone better than previous years

Glass half-empty…bounces went our way and preseason concerns about Caps goaltending seem to be on the money; allowed 40+ shots and were outshot by 10+ (sorry, too lazy to look up the actual stats).

All in all, I think it’s a good win for the start of the Anderson era, with a number of positives to build upon.

By Mike Knobler

October 11, 2008 1:53 AM | Link to this

Smoothie, MB You guys are spot-on in your analysis, though I think the 40-plus shots allowed is a more ominous sign of how far this team still has to come than you seem to think.

Bogosian won’t be as nervous as he was at the start of the game next time he takes the ice. Guys, what you saw from him early in this game was what I saw from him in the game at Detroit. He came back and played a lot better the next game. Friday night, Anderson saw the same later-in-the-game improvement that you did.

Jose Theodore was awful. OTOH, Kari was very, very good in the final 25 minutes.

Anderson gave Colby Armstrong much of the credit for keeping Alex Ovechkin from having much impact on the game. To me, that says two things: Armstrong might very well have earned that praise, and Anderson might have wanted to soften the blow of switching Anderson and Little’s lines. When you have a hard worker like Armstrong, you want to make sure he knows and his teammates know you appreciate and recognize that work. OTOH, when you have a player delivering like Little, you need to take advantage of it, and that’s exactly what Anderson did.

By Thrashy Thrashy

October 11, 2008 2:37 AM | Link to this

I only care about winning. As long as the guys care about winning more than what line they’re on, it’s all good. Army’s a class guy and a team player all the way.

Nice win tonight.

By Tony C.

October 11, 2008 4:23 AM | Link to this

I just hope Kari still has Roy’s number…I’m afraid he’s going to be looking at 30+ SOG a game for a lil bit here.

By Sara

October 11, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this

THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!! Course it was the first game of the season, we won, and we scored seven goals - that makes it awesome by default.

Our PP is freakin’ amazing - total shooting gallery on the first one. On others, while there was more passing, that passing was cleaner than last season’s and was oriented to looking for the best shot (as opposed to last season’s only shot). The PK - eh not so freakin’ amazing yet though they had some good kills.

I was really impressed with Kari. He lingered down in the crease after that fourth goal and I feared he was going to get rattled or aggravated, but he came back and kept the team in it. The team struggled badly through the first part of the third - I think they may have gone 5 minutes without a registered shot on goal, stuck at 28 for a long time. Stoning Ovechkin on the PS alone was deserving of the second star.

And how about 7 goals and not one by Kovy - that was the #1 positive from this game. #1 negative is obviously still SOG but the defensive play is what will take the longest to come about.

Few other observations - we badly need Hoffman back and I really hope Anderson realizes that. I give Boulton mad props for always being up for a fight but bless his heart he wouldn’t intimidate a pee-wee. Brashear is an @ss but kudos to Bogosian for stepping up (jeers to the AP writers who called him Bergosian in their write-up). I’m curious to see if Brashear gets a suspension from this and I say that not because he picked on an 18 year old rookie but because the league has issues with players starting fights late in the game when there is a significant goal differential. I don’t know if they consider 3 significant or not.

I also noticed toward the very end of the second in the last minute, the Thrashers started to just kind of lacksadaisically move the puck around waiting for the clock to run down. The Caps got possession and instantly moved back in to the o-zone and went on the attack. No quit from that team - it’s a lesson the Thrash should take note of. Periods are twenty minutes, games are three periods - and you can’t quit for any of it or get lazy just because you think you have a lead firmly in hand (which more times than not you don’t).

Anyway, we aren’t starting this year 0-6 baby!! I’m happy for the guys and I’m happy for coach. I’m also happy for the fans - it wasn’t sold out (since we easily moved down to sit with friends in 121) but there was a good crowd there, very loud as Anderson said, and they all got to leave with a good feeling. Hopefully the boys keep it up tonight in Florida.

By stendec

October 11, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this

Why wait? Put bust of Sori Letemin in the Hall Of Fame now! What would have happened if offense evaporated after 3-0 lead dissolved into 4-3 deficit? Why, a 4-3 defeat! Penalty shot stop balances scale for shorthanded tally allowed. Penalty shot would not have occurred had teammate not acted quickly to save certain goal after netminder was on LaLa Land excursion! But what the Hell. Send the untalented Finn to the HofF. Just make damn sure he has a ticket. It is the ONLY way he will ever get in!

By Bob (other)

October 11, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this

Bob, LAC, Nascar Dave, sage…where are all the negative speculative, emotional comments today? Bob, I think about 18,000 showed up last night contrary to your “empty house-reduced STH” prediction.

Great win and don’t want to read too much into it as it is a long season. You guys are just unbelievable.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

October 11, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this

I am so glad the ice stick puckey season has begun. Will it be possible to have Gov. Sarah Palin as honorary puck for one of the upcoming games? gosh, I sure hope so.