Tonight’s game against the Flyers looks like a key one for the Thrashers, who follow it up with hard-to-win games Thursday and Saturday at the New York Rangers and New Jersey and then a 5 p.m. home game Sunday against Florida. (The good news for the Thrashers is that Sunday game is the second of a back-to-back for the Panthers, too. Florida plays at Nashville Saturday night. Small advantage, Atlanta, which at least will be at home on Sunday.)

The Flyers are 11-0-1 against the Thrashers the last three seasons.

By the way, there has been Bogosian talk on the blog again. So:

Here are two key facts: 1) He isn’t being sent anywhere anytime soon, as coach John Anderson made pretty clear today. 2) It’s 10 games played, not 10 games on the roster, according to the CBA, which I have quoted on here before.

“A player aged 18 or 19 earns a year of professional experience by PLAYING ten or more NHL Games in a season.” — Page 52

And

“In the event that an 18 year old or 19 year old Player signs an SPC [Standard Player Contract] with a Club but does not play at least ten NHL Games in the first season under that SPC, the term of his SPC and his number of years in the entry level system shall be extended for a period of one year …” — Page 23

So Bogosian does not hit the decisive game tonight, which will be the eighth game he has played. A decision has to come after Thursday’s game, assuming he plays tonight and Thursday. And the decision appears to be a formality. Don Waddell emphasized to me in a conversation on Friday that just because Bogosian stays for a 10th game does not mean he stays with the Thrashers all season. It just means the clock starts toward free agency, and unrestricted free agency is far enough down the road that Waddell isn’t overly worried about when that clock starts.

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