AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January
January 2009
The worst stretch of a bad season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two black marks on a door outside the Thrashers locker room at the RBC Center Saturday night showed just how frustrating it is to play for Atlanta’s NHL team these days. Someone, I’m told it was Ilya Kovalchuk, slammed a stick against the door. He cares. Kari Lehtonen cares, as anyone watching him and his 38 saves could see. In fact, I think most of the Thrashers care. They just don’t seem to play that way lately most of the time.
“We got no effort,” Kovalchuk said after Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Hurricanes. “We practice hard. We do everything in practice, but we don’t show up in the games. If not for Kari, we’re going to get another blowout [loss]. It’s unacceptable. I don’t know. It’s bad. You lose every game, it feels awful.”
The Thrashers got outshot 21-4 in the first period. They fell behind 4-0 in the first period against the Islanders Thursday night and 1-0 in the first period against the Stars Tuesday night and 2-0 in the first period against the Flyers in the last game before the All-Star break. They lost all four games.
“We talked about getting ready,” coach John Anderson said. “We’re so fragile. We have one or two bad shifts, it’s like we’re so worried about our own zone we don’t chase pucks down. We just collapse. We don’t chase pucks down. We’re so worried about the front of the net we don’t go after loose pucks in our zone, and we get hemmed in.”
Anderson has a point. Remember the victory in Nashville, the game that turned into a laugher for the Thrashers? It started with the Thrashers pinned in their zone and turned only after Eric Perrin took advantage of a Predators miscue to score a goal against the run of play. The Thrashers used to look better than their 29th-place record. Lately, though, they’ve often looked as if they’ve accepted that 29th-place identity. It’s as if they’ve been beaten so often they take the ice expecting to lose, and when something bad happens they see that as confirmation. That doesn’t bode well for the next two-plus months.
It’s really hard to get a team with a low self-image to believe, and it’s really hard to get a team that doesn’t believe to win. Oh, I think they’ll have some nights when things go right and they look good and they wind up on top, but it’s very hard to see that happening often. And when some of the better players start disappearing at the trade deadline, the victories are likely to be further and further apart.
Ron Hainsey estimated the Thrashers played 15 or 16 of the first 20 minutes in their zone. Not only did that lead to a 2-0 deficit on the scoreboard, but it also tired out the team so much they didn’t have much left the rest of the game.
“It seemed like they had all the energy,” Hainsey said of the first period, and he said the breakdowns were bigger and more numerous than they were Tuesday night. “When a guy has nobody on him for 30, 40 feet, that’s usually not good news in this league.”
The Thrashers have been shut out in eight of the nine periods since the All-Star break, and they had very few scoring chances in those periods. It’s one thing when you get shut out by a hot goalie; it’s another when you hardly make that goalie break a sweat.
To all the 151 Thrashers fans who made the trip to support your team, know this: The players noticed, even if they didn’t play like they noticed.
“The way they supported us, it’s unbelievable,” Kovalchuk said. “I’ve never seen, on the road, that many fans supporting us. I didn’t expect it. We have to show a better effort, especially when we’ve got so many people supporting us.”
“I felt a lot of energy from the team [in warmups] because of all the fan support,” Little said. “They were so loud throughout the game. It’s pretty disappointing we couldn’t give them a good game.”
“It’s awesome [support],” Hainsey said. “You could hear them throughout the game chanting, and all through warmups they were raucous getting us into it. It was great. We just couldn’t use it, obviously, in the first 20 minutes.”
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New lineup, new results?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kovalchuk-Peverley-Little
Kozlov-White-Thorburn
Motzko-Reasoner-Armstrong
Boulton-Perrin-Stuart
Havelid-Enstrom
Schneider-Bogosian
Hainsey-Oystrick
Lehtonen
Erik Christensen and Boris Valabik are healthy scratches. Colin Stuart will wear No. 49 and Joe Motzko No. 41. Stuart will be on the penalty kill, and Motzko will get a shot at some power play minutes. I’m not positive about the defensive pairings.
The first two lines are ones Thrashers coach John Anderson used in the third period of the 5-4 loss to the Islanders Tuesday night. The Thrashers scored four goals in that period.
Anderson, on the new Kozlov-White-Thorburn line: “Hopefully we’ll keep them together for three or four games. That’ll mean we’re winning.”
The Thrashers are looking to snap a three-game losing streak.
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Short-term answers?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s be blunt. The Thrashers have looked bad for the better part of back-to-back games. They’re struggling. They’ve got 2 1/2 months left to the season and no shot at the playoffs.
Let’s discuss what you would do if you were John Anderson. (That takes any discussion of the general manager’s role off the table. I know what you guys think on that subject. Let’s talk about something else.)
For today, I can tell you that Anderson is running an intense practice, and he’s sticking with his third-period lines from last night. That means:
Kovalchuk-Peverley-Little
Kozlov-White-Thorburn
Perrin-Reasoner-Armstrong
Boulton-Christensen-Crabb’s spot (Crabb isn’t on the ice this morning. I don’t know why)
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Money woes, and other woes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Be sure to read Kristi Swartz’s story about the vast sums of money the owners say the Thrashers and Hawks and Philips have lost. One thing to note: Aside from the NHL lockout year, the amount of money the Atlanta Spirit has lost has declined pretty consistently year over year.
Speaking about declines, Thursday’s matchup at Philips between the Thrashers and the Islanders pits the two teams in the lead for the right to draft John Tavares this June. Because of the draft lottery, finishing last gives a team a 48-percent chance of getting Tavares.
The Thrashers have handled the Islanders in the first three games of the four-game series. Unfortunately for Atlanta, this is the last game against the Isles this season. (Or maybe that’s fortunate, if you’re already seeing the standings as a race to try to secure a top draft pick.) Here’s a sobering piece of arithmetic: The Thrashers and Islanders have performed almost exactly the same against the other 28 NHL teams. The Thrashers are 14-27-5 in those games; the Islanders 13-26-5 (with two games in hand).
Meanwhile, if there’s anybody out there who insists on finding the good news in bad situations, consider these two things:
—The Thrashers have killed 10 consecutive penalties, and their once worst-in-the-NHL penalty kill has been a hugely successful 86 percent over the last eight games.
—Kari Lehtonen is playing winning hockey. His save percentage has been 93.9 or better in four of the last five games.
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Kovalchuk plays Santa
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t return from the All-Star game in Montreal emptyhanded. As John Anderson was doing his post-skate interviews this afternoon, Kovalchuk handed him an All-Star game cap. “You’re still on the power play,” Anderson said. I think I saw Todd White with a cap, too.
Kovalchuk has been credited with getting Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin to end their feud over the weekend. Kovalchuk, in typical fashion, downplayed his role.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Kovalchuk said of his reported role as peacemaker. “They’re both Russians. They were always friends. Russians hit each other on the ice, they make a big deal about it. Canadians fight all the time, and they don’t say anything.”
Ovechkin did some guest DJing at a club. Kovalchuk didn’t spin any tunes.
“He was pretty good. I just was listening,” Kovalchuk said. Did Ilya dance? “A little bit,” he said.
Kovalchuk said he had a good time in Montreal and liked the game the best of all the things he did over the weekend. He skated with Jeff Carter and Thomas Vanek on a supercharged line that somehow didn’t score in a 12-11 game. “All three shooters, so we needed a couple more pucks on the ice,” Kovalchuk said.
Bryan Little represented the Thrashers in the YoungStars game and also had a great time.
“It was awesome,” Little said. “The best part about it, it was Montreal, and the fans there were unbelievable. They couldn’t have had it in a better spot.”
The best part: “Going to the YoungStars game, walking on the red carpet, I couldn’t believe how many fans there were. It was crazy.”
He met Mark Messier and had dinner with Vincent Lecavalier, who shares an agent with Little.
“I didn’t get any scoops about Vinny,” Little said of the Tampa Bay star who has been the subject of a lot of recent trade speculation. “They were keeping it pretty quiet. We were talking about stuff other than hockey that night.”
In Thrashers news: Center Jim Slater isn’t on this trip but is healing well and probably will return next week, general manager Don Waddell said.
The Thrashers will use the same lineup tonight they used in their final game before the All-Star break, at Philadelphia: Kari Lehtonen plays in goal and Nathan Oystrick is scratched.
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Welcome back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers returned to the ice this afternoon for the first time since their game Wednesday night at Philadelphia. The All-Star break apparently wasn’t enough time for Jim Slater’s shoulder to fully heal; he didn’t practice today. Garnet Exelby did and is traveling with the team to Dallas for Tuesday night’s game, but it will be at least a week before he’s in condition to play, coach John Anderson told me. Exelby said he expects doctors to clear him to play sometime this week, but there’s definitely a difference between being cleared to play and being ready to play.
I asked Anderson if Exelby will do a conditioning assignment with the Chicago Wolves, as Zach Bogosian did. Anderson said that’s a question that has yet to come up. There’s also no word on what will happen when Exelby returns and the Thrashers have eight defensemen (assuming no one gets hurt in the interim). Anderson said there’s no guarantee the Thrashers wouldn’t keep all eight on the roster; that would create competition. Also possible, I think, is that Nathan Oystrick or Boris Valabik goes back to Chicago, though not necessarily for long. The trade deadline could bring some changes the first week in March. Oystrick would have to clear waivers to go to Chicago. Valabik was in Chicago during the All-Star break fetching things he had left there when he got called up to the Thrashers two months ago.
Both teams are likely to look a bit rusty Tuesday night.
Some hot streaks the Thrashers hope will survive the All-Star break: Ilya Kovalchuk’s goal-scoring streak, Rich Peverley’s point-scoring streak, Eric Perrin’s two goals in the last three games, Chris Thorburn’s goals in back-to-back games and in three of the last five games.
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Still working at it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers sometimes go without a pre-game skate on the morning before the second game of a back-to-back. That wasn’t the case today. They had an optional skate.
An unofficial roll call:
Johan Hedberg, Niclas Havelid, Tobias Enstrom, Boris Valabik, Zach Bogosian, Rich Peverley, Chris Thorburn, Marty Reasoner, Colby Armstrong, Ilya Kovalchuk, Erik Christensen, Eric Perrin, Joey Crabb.
Kari Lehtonen gets a third consecutive start tonight after playing great in last night’s victory over Montreal.
The word on Jim Slater’s shoulder, from John Anderson: Bruised, day-to-day.
The Flyers have had the Thrashers’ number, with a 12-game winning streak in the series and a 27-3-3-1 series record overall.
Danny Briere, who originally planned to return from a groin injury tonight, won’t play and is headed back to the doctor, the Philadelphia Daily News says.
Meanwhile, the Flyers have another interesting personnel situation involving their 18-year-old defenseman. Lucas Sbisa has been a healthy scratch three consecutive games and four of the last five. Sending him back to Lethbridge helps the Flyers stay under the salary cap once they re-activate Briere.
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Kovalchuk to target shoot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In addition to playing in the All-Star Game, Ilya Kovalchuk will take part in the target shooting segment of the skills competition. The way he has been shooting lately, he might win it.
Carroll Rogers is covering the game tonight. I’ll be in Philadelphia for tomorrow’s game.
I did go to the skate today. As expected, it’s Kari Lehtonen in net tonight.
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Peverley named NHL’s 3rd star
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rich Peverley’s magical week had a magical ending. He was saved from being sent to the minors by being claimed off waivers, then went plus-5 with six points (a goal and five assists) for his new team, the Thrashers.
He’s not just in the NHL; he’s the league’s third star of the week, behind Pavel Datsyuk (one goal, six assists) and Mike Camalleri (five goals, one assist).
No big news at practice today. No absences. No line changes.
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68 minutes of brilliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From the end of the first period Friday night through early in the second period tonight, the Thrashers outscored the opposition 9-0.
Did you think this team had it in them?
What a night this has been, with the big hits by Colby Armstrong and Boris Valabik, the first goal and first assist from Zach Bogosian, Rich Peverley’s continued fine play, Eric Perrin and Ilya Kovalchuk and Jim Slater putting away their breakaway opportunities, Bryan Little working the wraparound magic …
I am posting this with 8:05 left. It’s 7-1. Unbelievable.
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Happy New Year to Moose
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Johan Hedberg starts tonight for the first time since Dec. 30. He’s 1-0-1 against the Maple Leafs this season, so it makes sense with a game tomorrow at Nashville that the Thrashers went with Hedberg instead of Kari Lehtonen tonight.
Joey Crabb is the healthy scratch among the forwards, with Nathan Oystrick scratched again on defense. Crabb’s absence is likely to mean penalty kill time for Colby Armstrong.
Todd White, who missed practice on Thursday, is good to go tonight.
John Anderson liked the play of Erik Christensen and Chris Thorburn the other night. It will be interesting to see whether he puts Eric Boulton with them and moves Eric Perrin to another line.
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White misses practice, expected to play
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thrashers center Todd White got kicked in the foot during the third period of Wednesday night’s loss to Ottawa and missed practice on Thursday but is expected to play Friday against Toronto, coach John Anderson said.
Here are some quick thoughts from Wednesday night:
—Eric Perrin, Chris Thorburn and Erik Christensen not only produced a goal for Thorburn but also seemed effective all night, with a centering pass from Christensen for Thorburn inches away from connecting for what would have been a sure goal. Perrin has fought through a lot this season and would surely like more ice time than the 11:39 he got Wednesday night. Still, one of these guys could be in the press box for the Toronto game, assuming John Anderson wants Eric Boulton on the ice for that one.
—Rich Peverley won 12 of 15 faceoffs and seemed very aware of his defensive responsibilities. Blueland Blog man Ben Wright pointed out that Peverley’s 18:53 was a career high. Anderson would have liked to ease him in a bit more but had to put him out there a lot in the third period with the team down a goal.
—Mathieu Schneider gives the team some of the physicality it needs but takes a lot of penalties. The numbers are huge: a team-high 20 minors in 31 games. Only Boris Valabik is taking minors at a higher rate: 19 in 26 games. On a team that’s as bad at killing penalties as Atlanta is, penalties are especially costly.
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Tonight’s new-look lineup
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Erik Christensen joins Eric Perrin and Chris Thorburn, a move that could add some offensive punch to another line for the Thrashers tonight against Ottawa. That leaves Eric Boulton sitting, along with Jason Williams.
The other lines are as they were at practice yesterday: Kovalchuk-Peverley- Armstrong, Kozlov-White-Little, Slater-Reasoner-Crabb.
Kari Lehtonen is in net.
No word yet on the defenseman who will sit. The guess here is Nathan Oystrick. Mathieu Schneider did not skate with the team this morning but could play tonight, coach John Anderson said. Schneider has had the option of skipping morning skates. Age (he’s 39) has its privileges.
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Peverley with Kovy; Little, Bogosian back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New center Rich Peverley is working with Ilya Kovalchuk and Colby Armstrong today in practice. There are five guys in gray sweaters; the two others are Erik Christensen and Jason Williams, and they have skated with Kovalchuk or Peverley. My guess is Williams and Christensen will be scratched for Wednesday’s game against Ottawa.
Bryan Little is back with Todd White and Slava Kozlov, so it looks like he’s ready to play.
New third line with Jim Slater promoted and moved to the wing, with Marty Reasoner at center and Joey Crabb on the other wing. That leaves a fourth line of Eric Boulton, Eric Perrin at center and Chris Thorburn.
Also, Zach Bogosian has returned from his conditioning assignment with the Chicago Wolves. I’m not sure which defenseman sits against Ottawa. Boris Valabik, Ron Hainsey and Mathieu Schneider are all on the ice today after not practicing Sunday.
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It’s 7:30 p.m., really
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday’s Thrashers game doesn’t follow the usual pattern. It’s midweek, but it starts at 7:30 p.m. You can blame or thank TSN, which is televising the game in Canada. Which raises the question: What start time do you prefer? For me, it’s 1 p.m. like Saturday’s game at Florida, or 7 p.m. during the week. My least favorite: Carolina has 8 p.m. games against the Thrashers when there is a basketball game earlier in the day.
Speaking of Canada, if you don’t know the words to “O Canada” you should pick them up soon. You will be hearing them Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday as the Thrashers play Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. I think it sounds best in the original French, but the bilingual versions I’ve heard have been pretty cool, too. It has been official only since 1980.
Speaking of anthems, it would be fun to hear the Swedish, Slovak, Russian and Finnish ones once a year in recognition of the Thrashers from those countries. I wonder what it’s like for those guys night after night hearing our national anthem and occasionally Canada’s.
No practice on Monday. We’ll probably get to see some new lines Tuesday morning.
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Captain Kovalchuk, a very happy man
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ilya Kovalchuk celebrates goals as exuberantly as any player I’ve seen, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen him happier than when he was awarded the captaincy tonight at the Thrashers’ Casino Night.
This clearly meant a lot to him, and that’s great, for him and for the team. It’s more than just a recognition he’s a great player. He knew that. We knew that. It’s recognition that the team looks up to him. There’s something very special about that.
Special enough to make him want to re-sign with the Thrashers this summer? I don’t know. Credit the Thrashers with this: Naming Kovalchuk captain is a smart move if they’re trying to solidify his ties to the team.
Every time I speak with him, though, he talks about winning. And, as anybody reading this blog knows, the Thrashers haven’t been doing that. If, somehow, some way, he could become convinced he could stay here and win … well, that’s a way’s away.
For tonight, though, I choose to smile along with a guy who was so very happy up on that stage in front of his teammates.
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New guy, new number
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rich Peverley has new teammates to meet and a new number to pick. He wore No. 37 with the Predators; the Thrashers no longer use that number because it belonged to Dan Snyder.
Peverley played at St. Lawrence. Todd White played at Clarkson (but not in the same years). Having them in the same locker room is a bit like having an Alabama and an Auburn football player together. The Clarkson-St. Lawrence rivalry is pretty fierce, and hockey is THE sport up there in northern New York. The campuses are only about 10 miles apart.
Ron Hainsey, Boris Valabik and Mathieu Schneider didn’t practice today. Coach John Anderson said they had minor injuries. The Thrashers just finished a stretch of 14 games in 26 days, so you’d expect some bumps that needed a day off to get better. Garnet Exelby, returning from a hairline fracture, skated after practice.
The original plan was for Sunday to be the off day, but because Saturday’s game was a 1 p.m. start and Sunday night is Casino Night, they changed to a Sunday practice so players could have all of Monday off instead. Things return to normal on Tuesday.
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Thrashers start climbing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Thrashers are no longer the NHL’s worst defensive team. Thursday’s shutout pushed them past the New York Islanders, who have given up five more goals in as many games. The Islanders have been good for the Thrashers’ egos this season; Atlanta is 3-0 against the Isles and 11-23-5 against everybody else.
The final game against the Islanders is Jan. 29 at Philips Arena, where the Thrashers will try to help the Islanders tie the franchise record of 15 consecutive road losses. By the way, that 15-game road losing streak in 1972-73 ended with a tie against the Atlanta Flames.
Congratulations to Bryan Little for making the YoungStars Sophomores vs. Rookies game.
Space limitations kept me from making a couple of points in my story about Eric Boulton.
Boulton said he wasn’t worried about ruining Kari Lehtonen’s shutout bid; he knew his teammates would kill the penalties. If you’re wondering how he could place so much faith in what remains the NHL’s least successful penalty kill, consider this: John Anderson made a similar remark to me. Anderson noted the number of blocked shots during the penalty kill and said Boulton’s teammates seemed inspired to cover his back.
Lehtonen would have preferred the Thrashers not have so many penalties, but he wasn’t exactly hopping mad about it. After all, the team got the victory and the shutout. “Now we’re happy,” Lehtonen said, “so that’s good.”
It’s a beautiful day in Florida, but to get here in time for practice I had to settle for three hours of sleep. A hint if you ever travel to a Thrashers-Devils game: Do as I did and stay in Manhattan. New York Penn Station is a 23-minute train ride from Newark Penn Station, and it’s a three-block walk to the Pru from the station. I had an excellent and somewhat snowy 11-mile run along the Hudson on Thursday morning.
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Wow
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where has this team been? Who was that wearing the Thrashers’ uniforms?
They looked excellent tonight, from start to finish. Kari Lehtonen was close to perfect but got plenty of help. Ilya Kovalchuk smashed in as hard a goal-scoring one-timer as I’ve seen him rip all season, and he made the play that sprung Chris Thorburn and Jim Slater for Slater’s beautiful goal. Todd White had two assists.
From the other point of view, the Devils played every bit as badly as the Thrashers played well.
“I feel bad for anyone who had to come to watch that,” said New Jersey coach Brent Sutter, who could have been describing a few of the Thrashers’ losses but was instead describing what he called as bad a game as his team has played this season.
Still, none of that should undercut what was a rare and wonderful performance by the Thrashers. It was only one night. It means nothing without about 30 more like it. But it sure was something special.
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It’s halftime; where’s the band?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re at the midpoint of the Thrashers’ season, and the question is becoming — or, perhaps to some people, already has become — what can be salvaged?
My No. 1 answer would be player development, primarily among the defensemen. There’s time to see what Zach Bogosian, Boris Valabik and Nathan Oystrick can do, and there’s also time to help them get better through experience. I don’t see young forwards in the Thrashers system that need a lot of NHL ice time this season; most of them are fine in Chicago for awhile. So is Ondrej Pavelec.
My No. 2 answer would be better 2009-10 contracts for the many guys who will be unrestricted free agents this summer, a number of whom won’t be with the Thrashers. That ought to be motivating Jason Williams, Eric Perin, Marty Reasoner, Niclas Havelid and Mathieu Schneider.
My No. 3 answer would be pride. Sounds a bit corny, I know, but it has to feel a lot better to win a little more often, even if you know it’s almost certainly not going to be often enough to earn a playoff berth. This is what motivates a guy like Ilya Kovalchuk.
Kovalchuk, by the way, has scored three goals in the last four games. He said that doesn’t make him optimistic; winning would.
I give John Anderson credit for keeping his team’s morale from plummeting so low they don’t want to come to the rink. That’s all the more important when the pursuit of a playoff spot becomes less and less realistic as a goal. Today’s practice included a lot of work on fundamentals, passing the puck rapidly and accurately, shooting, stick handling. Two days ago, after the loss to Tampa Bay, Anderson had a practice that was all about accountability, about making clear what’s acceptable and what isn’t. But you can’t do that day in and day out without your team tuning you out.
Meanwhile, Anderson is trying to triage his team’s problems and patch the most serious ones first. For example, the penalty kill, which had been doing better, struggled again in Pittsburgh and has again become a priority.
Bryan Little (bruised ribs) did not skate today.
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Thrasher wins championship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congratulations to Angelo Esposito, scorer of the game-winning goal in the gold medal game of the World Junior Championship Monday night. Esposito, a Thrashers prospect who plays for Junior of Montreal, had three goals and an assist in four tournament games for Canada. He scored in both the semifinal and the final, a 5-1 victory over Sweden. His stick from the final game will be displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Esposito talks about it here.
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Flat, flat, flat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Is it just me, or do the Thrashers seem uninspired a lot more frequently these days than they did earlier in the season?
Sunday evening’s game was dreadful pretty much from start to finish. Tampa Bay was a bad team playing its second game in as many days. The Thrashers were coming off one of their best games of the season, the shootout victory over Vancouver (which was also on the second game of a back-to-back, but which is a lot better than Tampa Bay). The Thrashers laid an egg.
There wasn’t much to watch. There wasn’t much to say. There wasn’t much to write about, other than Bryan Little’s rib injury and John Anderson being upset, which, as colorful as he gets, is becoming less and less new. (The give-a-crap level was zero, he said, in those words. What I wonder: Why? It’s not like these guys are openly rebelling against anyone.)
We’ll see what they look like Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
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New year, fresh start
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kari Lehtonen is in net tonight against Vancouver.
It’s fun and new to see the Western Conference teams after so many games against the familiar Eastern teams. This is just the sixth of 18 games against the West for the Thrashers, who are still looking for their first interconference victory (0-4-1 against Nashville, St. Louis, Detroit, Minnesota and Columbus). There will be 12 games against the Western Conference in the second half of the schedule.
A key tonight might be the Thrashers power play; Vancouver takes more penalty minutes than any other team in the NHL (19.6 per game, 5.3 more than the middle-of-the-pack Thrashers). The Canucks have a slightly above average penalty kill (82.5 percent, 13th in the league).
The Canucks played and won yesterday at Nashville. Jason LaBarbera made his Vancouver debut and stopped 31 of 32 shots. LaBarbera was acquired from the LA Kings. The Province reports that LaBarbera expects to start again tonight, despite the fact that his left leg cramped in the third period yesterday.
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