AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 14
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thrashers Fail To Answer Call Of The Wild
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday night Atlanta was handed it’s first regulation-time loss of the season…a 4-2 decision to the Min-EE-soooh-tah Wild. Atlanta is now 1-1-1.
Antti Miettinen led the visiting Wild with a pair of goals and an assist. Andrew Brunette…remember him?…had a goal and assist as well. Marian Gaborik scored the other goal for the Wild. Gaborik’s tally was a solo effort in front of the Thrashers net in which he was able to lift the stick of Thrasher defender Mathieu Schneider to strip away the puck then flip it into the net…all in one fell swoop. That goal broke a 1-1 tie at 2:44 of the final period.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored his first goal of the season, tying the game in the second period off a nice pass from Bryan Little…who himself added a goal later in the game. Little now leads the team in scoring with three goals and two helpers for five points.
In many ways, this was a waste of a decent effort by Atlanta’s defense. They allowed the Wild but 26 shots on goal. Kari was beaten on four of them…one on the power play when Brunette was left alone on the far post, the second on Gaborik’s fine play while Schneider was attempting to skate the puck away from the net, the third on a break away after the puck was lobbed over Nathan Oystrick’s head and the final Minnesota goal was scored as Kari and the entire Thrashers defense seemed to sell out to Brunette who then fed Miettinen far post for an easy tally.
Atlanta matched the Wild’s shot total of 26.
Next Up For The Thrashers, Thursday night Atlanta welcomes backs Bobby Holik as the New Jersey Devils come to town.
If My Head Wasn’t Attached To My Body…
I completely forgot to post my season predictions…tsk, tsk, tsk. Where is my head sometimes?
Anyway, for what it’s worth…
Eastern Conference
1. Pittsburgh - 109 pnts.
2. Montreal - 100 pnts.
3. Carolina - 96 pnts.
4. New York Rangers - 96 pnts.
5. Philadelphia - 93 pnts.
6. Washington - 92 pnts.
7. Boston - 91 pnts.
8. New Jersey -90 pnts.
9. Ottawa - 89 pnts.
10. Buffalo - 88 pnts.
11. Atlanta - 86 pnts.
12. Tampa Bay - 81 pnts.
13. Toronto - 79 pnts.
14. Florida- 77 pnts.
15. New York Islanders - 73 pnts.
Yeah, I know the Caps may be the “chic” pick to repeat in the Southeast, but I think the Canes will finish the job this year.
Western Conference
1. Dallas- 103 pnts.
2. Detroit - 102 pnts.
3. Calgary - 95 pnts.
4. San Jose - 94 pnts.
5. Minnesota - 93 pnts.
6. Anaheim - 92 pnts.
7. Chicago- 91 pnts.
8. Colorado - 90 pnts.
9. Nashville - 89 pnts.
10. Phoenix- 87 pnts.
11. Edmonton - 86 pnts.
12. Vancouver - 84 pnts.
13. Columbus - 82 pnts.
14. St. Louis - 78 pnts.
15. Los Angeles - 69 pnts.
Hey…anyone can pick the Wings.
Whoo-Hoo!! We Aren’t On This List
Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com has put out his list of The Ten Sports Franchises Most Likely To Move. There are three NHL teams making this list and Atlanta is not one of them.
