AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 30
Sunday, December 30, 2007
You Want Me To Do WHAT?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“You want me to do WHAT”?
I could hear the incredulity spewing forth from his mouth on the other end of the phone. It was Friday, noon-ish. Don Waddell had just read my last blog entry that called for him to put Kari Lehtonen back into the nets for Saturday night’s game. He wasted no time getting on the horn with me to find out if I had started the New Year’s partying early!
“Yeah, that’s right”, I fired back. “Put him in there…trust me, Donnie, you won’t regret it”.
Oh, he hedged all right. He hemmed and he hawed. He gave me all the shallow, shortsighted, knee-jerk reactionary reasons why Moose should have started. You know the ones like, “But Hedberg is fresh and he needs a start”. And, “But Kari let in four last time…and they were all so soft”…Blah, blah, blah. DW obviously is a “lurker” in this blog!
I continued, “Oh, and another thing…I hear Slates is under the weather. Call Chicago, have that Colin Stuart kid wing his way down here to start in his place”.
“But, Rawhide…he’s not a center! If I’m gonna call for anyone it’ll be…”
“Don, buddy, pal, chum, comrade…look, I don’t have time for this, I’m a busy man. Get him down here, put in on the Holik line with Dupuis…I’ve got this feeling, so just go with it. Besides, Larson can center the 4th line. Geeze, do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you”?
“Putting Kari back in the nets? Saturday night”? He kept whining, “I dunno…it’s a sellout. We’re expecting almost 19,000 people. You know how we do in front of sell outs”.
“Sell out, SCHMELL OUT”! I quipped back, “Look, just trust me on this Don-meister…start Kari, it’s a no brainer”.
Anyway, he reluctantly capitulated. I tell you…that boy, Donnie,…when he listens to me, he does OK. Eventually, if he keeps this up, I’ll be able to turn him loose with this whole Executive Vice President/GM/Head Coaching thing.
And that’s the way the conversation went! - Yeah, that’s it…that’s the ticket. It happened, really…just like that!
Anywhoooooooo…
Kari Lehtonen laid a big, fat, hairy goose egg up on the Philips Arena scoreboard Saturday night when the Thrashers and Blueland really needed one. In stopping all 26 shots faced in the 5-0 victory he became the first goalie to shut out the Bs all season. In all honesty, he got a great deal of help from the defense in front of him. The early goals from the forwards didn’t hurt either. But when he was called upon, he was up to the task.
Things went so well for the Boys of Blueland that the one puck that did beat Kari, a short-handed break away shot that doinked the post, was taken right back down ice and led to Ilya Kovalchuk’s 32 goal of the year. And Alexei Zhitnik notched his first of the season on a slapper while the puck was rolling on its edge. It wobbled like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball over Tim Thomas’ right shoulder, who had relieved Alex Auld after allowing 3 goals on 13 shots in the first.
And how do you think it must feel to be Colin Stuart right now? His first NHL game and his fist NHL point, (assisting on Pascal Dupuis goal). The only thing making it sweeter is that his brother Mark got to see it…from the Bruin’s bench!
The captain got into the scoring as well as he banked in a shot after Auld took a little field trip out by the boards. Holik added on an assist to finish with 2 points and a +2.
But, speaking of “Finnish”…thank you…the night belonged to Kari. He now has six quality starts in his last seven and is looking more like the net minder we have expected him to be.
So…who do we place between the pipes Monday afternoon? I’m sure Don will be looking in to get an idea of what to do!
Hey, it could happen!
