AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 13
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Recchi, Oh Canada And Other Quick Shots
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So Far, So Good Mr. Recchi
It was speculated that the addition of Mark Recchi would be a boost to the sluggish Atlanta power play. Wednesday night it sure appeared that was the case, indeed. Trailing by two in the second, Recchi notched his first goal in a Thrasher uniform on the man advantage and then added another tally a minute later to tie the game. The team would score another power play goal on Ilya Kovalchuk’s rocket blast that gave them the lead. So, while one game is hardly enough time to declare any roster move a success or otherwise, it certainly was a good start to the Recchi experiment.
Same Song, Different Verse
Once again, the Thrashers were victimized by a late period goal. Boston’s Glenn Murray netted a game tier with a buck-seven left in the second period after Atlanta had rallied from a 2-0 hole to take the lead. To be honest, prior to the Boston goal, it was 8 minutes of some of the most outstanding hockey the hometown boys had played in quite a while. But it seemed like the late period let down bugaboo just won’t go away this year and it bit us in the butt again. Call it lack of focus on the goalie or the defense or just bad luck, but it keeps popping up and it’s aggravating as can be. Wednesday night’s version of the same ‘ol song seemed to suck all of the energy right out of the team and swung big Mo back to the Bruins.
Oh, Canada
So, good day, eh… and welcome to the next week’s hockey schedule, it looks like a real beauty, ya know. Four of the next five games are against teams from The Great White North including two this weekend. Toronto at home Friday night then up to Ottawa Saturday night. After a game against Tampa Bay next week, it’s Ottawa again and Montreal. Saturday’s game lands the Thrashers on Hockey Night in Canada, so it would be real nice to have a good showing in front of our friends up there….eh?
Kari Is So Very…
Kari Lehtonen is so very…good? Bad? Inconsistent? Spectacular? All of the above? I guess it depends on what night it is. Since coming back from his injury he is 2-1, giving up 0 goals, 3 goals and 6 goals respectively. Against the Islanders in New York he stopped all 33 shots, but just last weekend gave up 6 goals on only 27. He’ll surely get a start this weekend in back-to-back games so he’ll have a chance to get back on track. But would the real Kari please stand up….
Speaking of Back-To-Back
Our record in the second game of just such a series is 0-5-1. There are 10 such back-to-backers left on the schedule.
I Can’t Look
A quick glance at the standings finds Atlanta at 29 points. While that puts us only 3 points off the pace for the 8th and final playoff spot, it also puts us at 3 points ahead of last place Washington, (going into Thursday night’s action). If the team was looking for a good time to start putting 3 solid periods together, might I suggest…NOW!
Kaptain Kovy
Ilya Kovalchuk and his 24 goals and 17 assists put him on a pace for 66 goals and 112 points for the season. His career best in scoring was 98 in the ’05-’06 campaign when he also notched his career best 52 goals. Could you even imagine where the Thrashers might be if he were ONLY playing at that pace?
Triple Double
It was pointed out in these parts that the Thrashers have a triple-double going on, three players with a double digit minus rating, (Bobby Holik at -11, Alexei Zhitnik at -13 and Steve McCarthy at -16).
For What It’s Worth
The Thrashers are 3-2-0 on Friday nights and 3-6-0 on Saturdays. For that matter, they are 4-1-0 on Tuesdays, 2-2-0 on Wednesdays, 1-4-0 on Thursdays, 0-0-1 on Sunday and 1-0-0 on Monday.
