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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Year Of The Mongoose
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been quite busy over the last week or so with some of the activities my boys are involved in. Because of that, my time available to read and participate in the discussion portion of this forum has been greatly reduced. However, when I did have the opportunity to check in late Sunday night, it was quite a treat to read over the topics that you all were engaged in over the weekend. It was informative, entertaining and cordial. So, to Brendan, Sara, Ranallo10 (in AT), Alan, Glovesave29, Bob and all the rest of you…I just want to say thanks and well done. For me, it was just what the doctor ordered after a busy weekend with a full schedule.
Now, let me take this opportunity to revisit a subject that came up during the meeting that some fellow bloggers and I had with John Anderson earlier this summer. When I wrote of it afterward, one of the things I mentioned was his intention to employ a more aggressive type of defensive play. Instead of last seasons passive defensive plan…which allowed opposing players to cross the blueline virtually unchallenged… Anderson will look for his defenders to actually confront forwards who dare seek entrance into the Thrashers zone, harassing them with body and stick.
Coach Anderson referred to this more confrontational style of defense as “mongoosing” the opposition.
This came as welcome news to me after last season watching quite the opposite take place. Too many times the Thrashers blueline corps looked more like attendants at a turnpike tollbooth than NHL defenders. Worse, once “working” their way into the zone they were there long enough to file for Homestead exemption while Atlanta’s defense engaged in a brand of play that was dubbed Whack-a-Mole by, as you may recall, our own Sara.
She described the Whack-a-Mole defense as, ”a defensive strategy which involves chasing the puck, particularly around the boards of your own zone, and wildly swinging your stick in it’s general vicinity in the hopes that you might actually get lucky, make contact, and knock it out of your zone. Practiced heavily by the Atlanta Thrashers during the 2007-2008 season, of which the team’s final standing position of 28th out of 30 demonstrates the effectiveness…or lack thereof… of said defensive zone strategy”.
Indeed, last year’s defense allowed a league-worst 33.9 shots against per game and too many times Kari Lehtonen was called upon to turn away upwards of forty-some attempts at his goal.
Now the plan is that the buggers will actually have to pay a price at the tollbooth and their time in our zone will be greeted with an air of hostility rather than hospitality. Imagine that.
Also, Atlanta’s defenders will be looked upon to seek opportunities to step up on the other side of the blueline. To this measure, Tobias Enstrom showed a good ability to do this last season as he contributed 33 assists and 38 points in his initial season at the NHL level. The signing of Ron Hainsey fits nicely in this plan as well. Last year he accounted for 8 goals and 24 assists on a Blue Jacket team that could score but 2.32 goals per game, (only the Islanders faired worse in that category).
This more active defensive play should yield positive results for the Thrashers in the respect of SA/G. The question is, however, by how much? A fraction? A full shot per game? Could we dare dream that it could bring that stat down closer to 30 SA/G?
Of course, the shots taken per game statistic will need improvement as well. Last season’s 25.8 S/G was, like Atlanta’s woeful SA/G stat, worst in the NHL. But improved play from the back should prove instrumental in achieving this goal. Regardless, an 8-point gap in these two numbers simply has to be closed dramatically and the best place to start is in our own end… replacing Whack-a-Mole with the mongoose.
The responsibility will primarily fall upon the likes of Nic Havelid, Tobias Enstrom, Ron Hainsey, Garnet Exelby, Zach Bogosian and Ken Klee to make the new era of defensive play in Blueland a success during this upcoming season.
Call them Atlanta’s mongooses.
Or is that…mongeese?
In Other News
Allan Muir of SI.com predicts that the signing of Ron Hainsey will be seen as one of the sure-fire UFA busts this season.
Here’s a good piece on Thrasher’s first round draft pick Zach Bogosian by Tom Ferda of The Hockey News.
The Minnesota Wild and Marian Gaborik seem to be happy with the meeting that recently took place between the two parties and hope that a deal will be worked out soon.
Adam Proteau of ESPN.com ranks the NHL’s six divisions.
You’re sure to here the word “change” quite a bit from Denver this week. But, as Darren Eliot points out, it seems to be prevalent throughout the NHL as well.
Well, look here, will ya. Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com compiled a list of the worst American cities to be a sports fan…and Atlanta is NOT on it.
Oh wait…we DID make this list!
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