AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 30
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Who should play with Kovalchuk?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Marty Reasoner and Chris Thorburn have been skating on a line with Ilya Kovalchuk since that memorable day (for me) when I caused a media circus by blogging what I thought I saw because of the sweaters in practice: Kovalchuk on the fourth line.
Who knew Kovalchuk’s goal-scoring would drop to near fourth-line levels?
Kovalchuk has scored three goals in 14 games with this line. Yes, he has 15 points in those 14 games, but the Thrashers need goals from him. Tuesday night, when Kovalchuk’s goal-less streak reached a career-high nine games, John Anderson suggested it’s time to change the lines again.
He won’t mess with Kozlov-White-Little. Everything else is fair game. The question: What should he do? He has tried Kovalchuk with Erik Christensen and Kovalchuk with Jason Williams, and neither was ideal. The center pretty much has to come from one of those two players. Does he put them both out there with Kovalchuk and scratch another forward? We’ll probably see Wednesday night.
