AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 10
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Christensen aims for next week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thrashers forward Erik Christensen skated today and said his injured right shoulder felt better than his legs, which hadn’t been on the ice since he got hurt eight days ago at Montreal. Christensen originally hurt the shoulder last season, re-injured it early this season and then hurt it again Dec. 2. It’s a subluxation, a step below a dislocation but painful and damaging nonetheless. Here’s the problem: Each time he re-injures the shoulder, he suddenly loses strength in the shoulder, and it takes time to rebuild that strength. An MRI has shown he has nothing worse than bruising, Christensen said, and the hope is that if he can get the many muscles in the shoulder strong enough the problem will go away.
Strangely enough, Christensen said, one way to avoid re-injury is for him to hit with his shoulders rather than with his lower arms, as he did in the game at Montreal.
He hopes to be able to play Tuesday at Ottawa or, at worst, two days later when his former team the Pittsburgh Penguins come to Philips Arena.
Tonight against the New York Rangers, the Thrashers have Johan Hedberg in net, riding a 28-shot save streak from Saturday’s victory over the New York Islanders.
The rest of the lineup:
Kozlov-White-Little
Kovalchuk-Reasoner-Thorburn
Armstrong-Williams-Perrin
Boulton-Slater-Crabb
Hainsey-Exelby
Enstrom-Oystrick
Havelid-Valabik
