AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November
November 2008
Ugly, ugly, ugly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As you can see from my game story, John Anderson has had enough with the way his team is playing, so much so that he sounded like a man eager to shake things up. Something has to happen before Dec. 1 becomes Jan. 1 and a 10-point deficit in the standings becomes a 20-point one. But we all know coaches don’t have the final say when it comes to who’s on the roster.
The current 1-5-1 stretch the Thrashers are on is not what Anderson signed up for when he took the job. My question: What should he and Don Waddell do personnel-wise? Is it time to grab some players from Chicago who might not be ready but at least will play hard for 60 minutes? Is it time for a low-level trade to alter the mix? Or, and I’m just asking, not suggesting, is it time to trade the one star this team has? You can’t trade a goalie until Kari Lehtonen gets back on the ice and plays a few games, so that’s off the table for now.
Speaking of playing hard, Joey Crabb seemed to do just that today. He was credited with two hits and a blocked shot in 10:25 of ice time.
Ondrej Pavelec played great in net.
Otherwise … see the headline of this blog entry.
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Long wait for Boris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boris Valabik hasn’t played in two weeks, since Mathieu Schneider’s return from injury. He’s clearly the seventh best defenseman on the roster, though he does add some size and fighting ability others don’t have.
The Thrashers are halfway through six games in nine days. So, do you play Boris, or do you keep him in the press box? If you play him, who sits?
“A slapshot in the foot, somebody gets sick, you’ve always got to be ready,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said Saturday. “Boris played very well for us when we put him in. I have no problem putting him in. Right now we’re going to stay with what we have, and he’s got to be ready. He’s got a good attitude. I know it’s hard on him, but he’s working hard out there [in practice] and always ready.”
With back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday at Montreal and Ottawa, it makes sense to have him with the team. But if everybody’s healthy after those two games, maybe the Thrashers should consider sending Valabik to Chicago so he can play a Friday game at Peoria and a Saturday game at Chicago against Rockford. The Thrashers have only one game this weekend, Saturday at the New York Islanders.
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Crabb to play tonight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Joey Crabb makes his NHL debut tonight for the Thrashers, in place of Erik Christensen on the third line. Crabb also will appear on the penalty kill, and that might be his biggest opportunity to make a case that he belongs on the ice. The Thrashers rank 29th out of the 30 NHL teams in penalty killing, at 74 percent.
The Thrashers play the Predators tonight at 7:30.
Kari Lehtonen might be back skating in a couple of days after having an injection Thursday as part of the treatment for his ailing back. “There’s a series of things he had to do,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “This is the last one. We’ll find out probably Sunday or Monday if he can skate.” Lehtonen last played on Oct. 30 against the New York Rangers.
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Capitals without 7 starters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Have arrived in DC after my 4:15 a.m. wakeup call in Toronto. News here is that the Capitals will be without seven starters tonight against the Thrashers, including forwards Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin. Other missing players: defensemen Mike Green, John Erskine and Jeff Schultz and forwards Chris Clark and Boyd Gordon.
The Capitals called up four AHL players, all of whom are expected to play tonight.
The Thrashers canceled their morning skate, so no news until after 5 p.m. We’ll see if they stick with the plan to play Ondrej Pavelec or go with Johan Hedberg after his good showing Tuesday night at Toronto.
Nap time for me.
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Johnny “Rotten” Anderson speaks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thrashers coach John Anderson, back home in Toronto, entertained a pack of reporters (I counted five video cameras) with stories of the days he and Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson were teammates with the Dallas Black Hawks and the Leafs. They got hazed together as Leafs rookies.
“Instead of shaving our heads, they kind of cut pieces out of it, so we looked like the Sex Pistols,” Anderson said. “They called me Johnny Rotten. They called him Sid Vicious. I said hello to Sid today.”
Then there was the night as Dallas teammates they wanted to watch the World Series on TV during a road trip, but the TV didn’t work in their room, so they changed rooms. The next day, coach Gerry McNamara chewed them out for missing curfew.
“I checked your room and knocked on it a thousand times,” McNamara said. “You guys weren’t in. Where were you?”
On to the more serious stuff.
Slava Kozlov is OK today after leaving the ice early in Monday’s practice, which is good news for him and the Thrashers but maybe not for Joey Crabb, whose NHL debut won’t come tonight here in Toronto.
Johan Hedberg is in net.
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Get ready to rumble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
OK, I’m back. And just in time for the most game-intensive stretch of the season.
The Thrashers play six games in nine days, bookended by a a pair of on-the-road back-to-backs. Tuesday and Wednesday in Toronto and Washington followed by Friday vs. Nashville, Sunday vs. St. Louis and Tuesday and Wednesday in Montreal and Ottawa. My fingers get tired just typing it.
(My quads already are tired from Sunday’s marathon. I finished in 3:33, five minutes off my personal best, six minutes off my goal pace, but at least a good bit of exercise on a beautiful day in Philadelphia. Thanks for the well wishes in my previous blog post. Next race: Callaway Gardens, during all-star weekend.)
With so many games in so few days, there should be a chance for Joey Crabb’s NHL debut, plus a game or two for Boris Valabik. The plan is to put Johan Hedberg in net on Tuesday and Ondrej Pavelec on Wednesday.
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Bogosian makes progress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I forgot to share one of the pieces of good news for the Thrashers I learned from Thursday night’s loss to the Penguins. I saw Zach Bogosian afterward, and he’s no longer wearing a brace on his broken leg. A second X-ray showed that healing is taking place, and Bogosian told me his rehab has picked up in the past week. It sounds like he’s on schedule for a December return.
A few other thoughts:
Eric Perrin’s versatility sure has come in handy. The Thrashers have played him on the left wing, at the start of the season, on the right wing with Eric Boulton and Jim Slater during the winning streak and at center Thursday night after Todd White got hurt and he’s likely to be back on the right wing Saturday night with Ilya Kovalchuk and Jason Williams when the Thrashers probably call on Erik Christensen to center for Slava Kozlov and Bryan Little in White’s place. “I’m pretty comfortable anywhere,” Perrin told me on Friday.
Thrashers coach John Anderson, on the hit that knocked White out of the game: “I don’t think it was a cheap hit, maybe a little late.”
More Anderson, on the Penguins’ physical play and the Thrashers’ response: “I wish we had initiated some more of that in our building. Knock ‘em down.”
On a personal note, I won’t be at Saturday night’s game. I’m headed to Philadelphia to run the marathon, my 14th. It’s the first regular-season game I’m missing, and Carroll Rogers will do a terrific job reporting on it for us. (She also wrote our story on the victory over the New York Islanders and on one of the exhibition games.) I’ll be back for Monday’s practice, walking gingerly.
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How to beat the Pens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Erik Christensen knows Pittsburgh. Here’s his analysis of tonight’s game between the Thrashers and his former team, the Penguins.
“Obviously their keys are Sidney [Crosby] and Evgeni Malkin. The key to success is to be on those guys and hit those guys all the time, finish your checks on Sid and Malkin and try to contain them as much as possible. They’re going to get their chances. They’re just too good.
“It’s always a little nerve-wracking, I think, [going against your old team]. I was nervous the third game after I was traded, we went into Pittsburgh and lost in a shootout. But after those first couple of shifts are out of the way, it’s just like any other game.
“Army [Colby Armstrong] and me, we just know their breakouts and everything that Michel Therrien did. We both played for him for three-plus, four-plus years, everything forwards and backwards that he likes to do. Anytime during a game, when we see something they’re doing, we can make an adjustment. We know where they’re going to be on the ice. We just have to figure out how to get around them.
“What John [Anderson] is doing with us is very different from what they do. We’ll see how the two systems are going to clash and who’s going to come out on top. If they play their system and we play ours and try to keep Sid and Malkin in check, I think we have a good chance. The way we’ve been playing of late other than in Philly, we’ve been playing pretty well. You’ve got to be feeling confident.”
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Should Kovalchuk be captain?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tony C. asked two great questions in my previous blog post. Does John Anderson really want Ilya Kovalchuk to be the Thrashers’ captain, and is Kovalchuk’s seeming shyness a result of the language barrier?
Second question first. To some extent, yes. I can only imagine what I’d sound like trying to give interviews in a language other than English, even after I’d lived in another country for the better part of six years. But I think it goes beyond language to the way Kovalchuk views his role. And that goes to the answer of Tony C.’s first question.
I think Anderson would love for two things to happen: 1) Kovalchuk embraces the role of being a leader, and 2) Kovalchuk provides at least a hint that he’ll be here long-term.
I think No. 2 is tricky. The Thrashers don’t want another one-year captain. It won’t be Mathieu Schneider, for example. But when I asked Anderson about Kovalchuk in that regard, he said, “I can’t tell the guy stay here because we’re going to make you captain.”
I think No. 1 is the most important. And that’s where I wish I could have squeezed this into the story I wrote today: “Ilya is inherently shy,” Anderson said. “He almost gets embarrassed with success, embarrassed with greatness. I think he has a big ego, because you have to have an ego to score that many goals, but he doesn’t want to convey that to everybody. I think he has a shyness, a humbleness inside him. He has a humbleness that’s refreshing, but it somehow inhibits him a little bit from stepping out beyond the norm.”
It’s a long quotation, but it gets at a really important point. This is about more than a “C” on the jersey. It’s about Kovalchuk truly fulfilling his amazing potential. There’s a certain comfort level in being one of the guys, in not wanting to stand out, or, perhaps more accurately, not wanting to risk being perceived as putting yourself above other people around you. But if you want true greatness, you have to get over that. You have to be willing to risk setting yourself apart and above if you want to lead.
Barack Obama had to be willing to run for president, with the real possibility he would fail and the certainty people would accuse him of being presumptuous — “uppity” was Rep. Lynn Westmoreland’s unfortunate word — for seeking that office. Kovalchuk doesn’t have to run for president. But he does have to step forward, rather than waiting to be anointed.
What do you Thrashers fans want to see happen? Do you think my analysis is consistent with what you’ve seen, or do you think I’m full of crap? If not Kovalchuk as captain, then who?
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Schneider returns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mathieu Schneider returned to practice with the Thrashers today and shows no apparent ill effects from the hip flexor strain that kept him out of the last five games.
Meanwhile, there’s no sign of overreaction to the first loss in two weeks: The lines remain unchanged.
There’s a very small group of onlookers at today’s practice, but there’s one notable group in the stands: Some of the Dayton Bombers, who play the Gwinnett Gladiators Wednesday and Thursday nights.
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Speed bump or brick wall?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday’s third period ranked with the third period at Buffalo and the second period at Carolina as one of the best 20 minutes of hockey I’ve seen the Thrashers play. Sunday’s first period was one of the worst.
When I see that sharp a contrast in a single game, I wonder why. If the Thrashers were simply bad, untalented, incapable, it would be easier to understand. If they were a team that knew it was going to make the playoffs and could look at the calendar and say, “It’s only November,” that might make sense, too.
But this team isn’t in either of those situations. There’s some talent. Bryan Little has been a revelation. Slava Kozlov is on a pace to score more than 40 goals. Ilya Kovalchuk can do things very few other humans ever have. Ron Hainsey has been an excellent addition to the defense, and, despite what happened on the game-winning goal Sunday night, Niclas Havelid has been having a wonderful run lately as the steady, calming defenseman every team needs.
So, how can they look as lifeless, out of sync and sometimes flat-out careless as they did in the first period Sunday night? They weren’t tired or rusty, and they shouldn’t have been overconfident.
By the way, I spoke with general manager Don Waddell before Sunday’s game. He had just been in East Lansing watching first-round draft pick Daulton Leveille, the CCHA rookie of the month for October. Leveille doesn’t physically look like an NHL player yet but will when weight training fills him out. He’s only a freshman. Also, defenseman Mathieu Schneider (hip flexor) is very close to returning to the Thrashers lineup.
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Does Philly have Atlanta’s number?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers are well aware they’ve lost 11 consecutive games to the Flyers. How does that affect them heading into tonight’s game? Not so much, defenseman Garnet Exelby said.
“I think more of it’s coincidence than anything,” Exelby said. “Their team’s changed a lot and our team’s changed a lot over that streak. The bottom line is it comes down to how we show up, and the way we showed up for the previous game against the Flyers this season is not acceptable. We have to be better [than in that 7-0 loss]. I think we’re a different team even from then.”
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Thrashers, Flyers going different directions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lot has changed since Oct. 28, the last time the Thrashers played the Philadelphia Flyers. That 7-0 loss wasn’t the bottom of Atlanta’s streak of five regulation losses, but it was close. Now, the Thrashers have figured out how to win and it’s the Flyers (two points behind at 5-6-4) who are struggling. They’re bickering, too.
Joffrey Lupul, who scored a couple of goals against the Thrashers, stopped scoring and was dropped to the fourth line.
“He’s a scoring player and when you don’t score consistently I think it starts to wear on your mind,” Flyers coach John Stevens told reporters. “He plays well when he does the little things well. When he does that he gets more confidence and he helps the team.
“I don’t think he’s been doing it to the level he’s capable of. He’s been a streaky scorer to this point. He got goals early and has been inconsistent [since]. I see him as a guy who can help our team in a lot of other ways besides on the score sheet.”
Lupul was not impressed by that explanation.
“I can make better plays with the puck. I can be stronger in the offensive zone. I can be stronger in my own end. But, I need the opportunity to do it,” he told reporters.
“Maybe that’s why I’m confused when he says he wants me to have the puck more. Right now, in a fourth line role, you chip the puck in and try to play in their end. Any offense you get is a bonus.”
Danny Briere is out again, this time with a groin pull.
Scott Hartnell is in the doghouse, so much that he was benched the entire third period of Tuesday’s game.
“He yelled at me a couple times for not moving my feet,” Hartnell told reporters. “I just hope he holds everyone accountable, it doesn’t matter what number they’re wearing on their back.”
The Thrashers, meanwhile, seem a lot happier. Their biggest problem is injuries. Neither Kari Lehtonen (back) nor Mathieu Schneider (hip flexor) made the trip to Philadelphia, though Schneider did skate before practice on Saturday.
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Moose ready; Lehtonen, Schneider not
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Johan Hedberg goes for three consecutive victories tonight, and the Thrashers go for five in a row, when Atlanta takes on Carolina at Philips.
Hedberg started just two of the first 13 games and now is getting a chance to play more consistently. He said he would have liked to play even quicker after his Sunday performance at Raleigh, when he stopped 35 of 37 shots against the Hurricanes.
“It certainly takes away some of the momentum, having the big break,” Hedberg said of the Thrashers’ four days off between games, “but at the same time I have more muscle memory from playing than I had before, so that’s a good thing.”
Kari Lehtonen (back) and Mathieu Schneider (hip flexor) did not participate in the skate Friday morning at Philips. Both have been listed as day to day for, well, days. There might be more sense of urgency about their absences if the team weren’t on a four-game winning streak without Lehtonen having played in any of those games and without Schneider having played in the last three.
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Will the layoff hurt?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It will be interesting to see how the Thrashers react Friday night after not playing a game since Sunday afternoon. It’s the longest stretch between games other than the all-star break.
Kari Lehtonen is expected to skate with the team Friday morning before the game against Carolina, coach John Anderson said. “He probably could have skated today,” Anderson said. “We just wanted him to have an extra day of rest.” Lehtonen has been having back problems, and they’re serious enough that Ondrej Pavelec once again is on the Thrashers’ roster (and was at practice on Thursday).
Defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who skipped the weekend’s games at Buffalo and Carolina with a hip flexor strain, also is likely to be back on the ice for Friday’s skate, Anderson said. The Thrashers aren’t rushing him. “We’d rather err on the side of caution,” Anderson said.
After working on fundamentals earlier in the week, the Thrashers returned to a more typical in-season practice on Thursday. They spent a lot of time working on the power play.
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Face the music
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s a link to the music the Thrashers play in their locker room after every locker room
My story explains what’s up.
Mathieu Schneider didn’t practice on Tuesday and is still day to day with a strained hip flexor. I did see him at the practice facility, though he was too far away for me to ask him a question.
Kari Lehtonen was back practicing with the team and looked good to go, and he said he is, too.
The team did Hockey School 101, lots of drills in small groups. One group skated around a water bottle that required them to make a sharp cut near the net. Then they had to shoot to a goal covered with a piece of material that blocked off all but the corners.
Another group bounced a puck off a piece of wood to a teammate, who had to shoot the rebound into the net.
Another group stick handled around a cone with a heavy puck.
With the next game not until Friday, it was time to work on fundamentals.
Nothing new on a goalie trade. I think the timing would be a bit screwy for that.
Brendan asked about the double post. What happened is, I accidentally typed over my blog from the day before, then realized my mistake and copied to a new one. That blog is gone forever, but your responses to it aren’t.
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Who gets next call-up?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers sent Ondrej Pavelec back to Chicago in what Johan Hedberg had made a predictable move with his play in the third period at Buffalo and throughout the game at Carolina. Hedberg proved himself capable of still being a quality NHL goalie, and if the plan is to have Kari Lehtonen as the No. 1 it makes sense to have Pavelec in Chicago where he can play.
That leaves the Thrashers with 20 healthy players pending the returns of Mathieu Schneider (sooner) and Zach Bogosian (later). There’s no need to rush to bring up spares, based on the the schedule for the next couple of weeks: Three home games, one road game, no back-to-backs and the road game is in Philadelphia, which is very easily accessible should the Thrashers need a last-minute call-up.
The next time the Thrashers might want an extra forward around is Nov. 25 and 26, when they play at Toronto and Washington back-to-back, with a Nov. 28 home game making it three games in four days. Might Brett Sterling be back for that, or Mike Hoffman, who should be ready to fight by then? How about Hoffman vs. Donald Brashear?
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Who gets next call-up?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers sent Ondrej Pavelec back to Chicago in what Johan Hedberg had made a predictable move with his play in the third period at Buffalo and throughout the game at Carolina. Hedberg proved himself capable of still being a quality NHL goalie, and if the plan is to have Kari Lehtonen as the No. 1 it makes sense to have Pavelec in Chicago where he can play.
That leaves the Thrashers with 20 healthy players pending the returns of Mathieu Schneider (sooner) and Zach Bogosian (later). There’s no need to rush to bring up spares, based on the the schedule for the next couple of weeks: Three home games, one road game, no back-to-backs and the road game is in Philadelphia, which is very easily accessible should the Thrashers need a last-minute call-up.
The next time the Thrashers might want an extra forward around is Nov. 25 and 26, when they play at Toronto and Washington back-to-back, with a Nov. 28 home game making it three games in four days. Might Brett Sterling be back for that, or Mike Hoffman, who should be ready to fight by then? How about Hoffman vs. Donald Brashear?
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Moose to start tonight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beautiful day in Buffalo. No, really.
Johan Hedberg is slated to start in net tonight for the Thrashers against Buffalo. Ondrej Pavelec is 2-0 as a starter, but he played last night, and Thrashers coach John Anderson decided to stick with his plans and use a rested goaltender. Kari Lehtonen is here, too, and told me he felt great during today’s skate, but Hedberg and Pavelec were the guys in net.
I’m off in search of the perfect beef on weck, the local sandwich of choice. Haven’t eaten since a 5 a.m. bagel.
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Waddell not looking to shake things up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As I write this, in the second period of Thursday night’s game at Philips Arena, the Thrashers rank last in the NHL standings. Their general manager suggests the best way to get the team out of last place is to leave the roster the way it is. I asked him directly whether before Sunday’s victory he’d thought about shaking things up through a trade.
“I don’t think we’re at that point by any means,” Waddell said. “We’ve had two losses that have been lopsided. We’ve had five other losses that we thought were games we should have gotten points in. Other than those two games, every night we’ve given ourselves a chance. We’ve got to find ways, especially on the road, to get in overtime. We’ve had games tied late in the third period where we let it get away from us. Those are things as a team you’ve got to learn how to do.
“I’m not looking out there right now. I like the guys we have.”
He’s about to have another one of those guys back.
The plan for now is to play Kari Lehtonen in goal on Sunday at Carolina. That raises the question of what to do when Lehtonen, Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec are all healthy. (The guess here is that Pavelec goes back to Chicago.)
“You try to think ahead about what you’re going to do, but every day [the situation] changes, Until we’re faced with the reality of having three guys that are ready to go, then we’ll make a decision,” Waddell said.
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Lehtonen battling back issues
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kari Lehtonen, who missed Saturday and Sunday games because he was ill, skated before the Thrashers’ practice on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, he has a new issue, stiffness in his back.
Coach John Anderson said Lehtonen will skate with the team Thursday morning. The Thrashers play the New York Islanders Thursday night, then travel to Buffalo and Raleigh for games Friday and Sunday against the Sabres and the Hurricanes.
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Kovy comes through
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ilya Kovalchuk looked fantastic in Sunday’s 5-3 victory over Florida. My game story mentions his two goals and his assist and talks about how strong that second goal was, but I couldn’t describe everything he did. I couldn’t write about the way his pass almost set up Jason Williams for a goal, or the way he got his assist by aggressively taking the puck from Keith Ballard at the Thrashers blue line and got it ahead to Bryan Little.
Interesting change to the training camp top line of Kovalchuk, Erik Christensen and Williams by flipping Williams to center and Christensen to the right wing. Looked like a good idea.
Christensen played an excellent game, aside from missing a half-empty net by shooting high. Eventually, he’s going to score, and maybe the tension will go away and he’ll score a lot. For now, though, if he can pass the way he did Sunday he’ll be a very useful player.
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Pavelec called up from Wolves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers have called up Ondrej Pavelec from the Chicago Wolves to back up Johan Hedberg in goal tonight at New Jersey. Kari Lehtonen missed the morning skate because he was under the weather, and apparently he is ill enough the Thrashers didn’t want to have to play him even in an emergency capacity. Pavelec stopped 26 of 28 shots last night in a 2-1 loss at Iowa. Coach John Anderson said the plan all along was to play Hedberg against the Devils, his second start coming in the season’s 11th game.
The Devils are going to be plenty motivated tonight. They’re on a season-high three-game winless streak and tied a team record for a home game Wednesday night by allowing Toronto 48 shots on net. The Thrashers are on a five-game winless streak.
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