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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Inevitable Comparisons After Six Games
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The day after the Atlanta Thrashers played their sixth game of the 2007-08 season general manager Don Waddell faced the media to discuss the firing of Bob Hartley. The team had gone winless for those first six games…this after being embarrassingly swept from their one-and-only playoff appearance by the New York Rangers the previous spring.
It wasn’t just that the Thrashers were a half-dozen games into the season and still had that big, fat, hairy goose egg in the points column…it was the manner in which they were being beaten. The night before coach Hartley was shown the door, Atlanta had suffered a 4-0 defeat in Philadelphia. It was the second time that the team had failed to manage even a single goal in a game…the other time being a 6-0 smack down in Buffalo two games prior.
The Thrashers had been out-scored by a combined 27 to 9…an average of 4.5 to 1.5.
They were being outshot 203 to 138…an average of 33.8 to 23.0.
As bad as those statistics look, they do not even come close to describing just how bad the team looked out on the ice. The offense was punchless and anemic while opposing teams spent so much time in our defensive zone that they could have filed for Homestead Exemption.
Just how ugly was it? Well, Austin Powers had replaced the phrase, “Margret Thatcher naked on a cold day…Margret Thatcher naked on a cold day” with “Atlanta Thrashers first six games of ’07-’08…Atlanta Thrashers first six games of ’07-‘08”.
So…how does this year’s team compare after six games? Well, let’s just say that John Anderson shouldn’t have any reason to fret if he gets called into Don Waddell’s office Wednesday morning.
After Tuesday night’s 3-2 overtime loss in Tampa, the Thrashers find themselves at 2-2-2 for 6 points, which won’t get ya to the playoffs but it is a world better than last year.
They’ve scored 16 goals and allowed 17…two of those in overtime. That equates to scoring 2.50 goals per game while surrendering 2.83 per game.
The shots being taken against us is still quite alarming…35.2 per game, (Only the Bolts allow more). However, this go around they are managing to get off 30.8 shots per game on opposing net minders.
Unlike last season…when they had already suffered a pair of blowouts…they have been in every game played. Their most “lopsided” defeat…a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild, a game in which they were within one with fewer than three minutes to play. The other setbacks were a 1-0 loss to Marty the Magnificent and the New Jersey Devils as well as two overtime defeats in the state of Florida.
As individual performances go…
Todd White has been a very pleasant surprise out of the gate. He leads the team with seven overall points, (2 goals and 5 assists). In fact, he’s had a hand in each of the last five goals scored by the Thrashers…an assist on Bryan Little’s goal versus the Wild, two helpers last Saturday and a goal and assists in Tampa.
Bryan Little has played like he deserves to be on the NHL squad year ‘round. His 4 goals and 2 assists don’t even come close to telling the whole story about his total contributions.
Ron Hainsey…well, he’s hardly the “bust” that some pundits had forecast him to be. He’s fit in quite nicely with John Anderson’s style of play. He’s been as solid as a rock on the blueline, is a +5 and has chipped in a goal and four assists for good measure.
Although his 13 PIM are a tad on the high side…rookie Zach Bogosian has done little to put doubt into anyone’s mind regarding his ability to play at this level.
Notice who I haven’t even mentioned yet? Yup…Ilya Kovalchuk…he of a pair of goals and four points. He’s gonna get his numbers…but last season he had to be a one-man show up front. This season…well…it’s seems there is a supporting cast around him.
Then there’s Kari Lehtonen who has been in the goal full-time these first six games, (well except for about three and a half minutes while dealing with contact lense issues). Lehts has a .919 SV%, (ninth best in the NHL) and a 2.81 GAA. Kari has faced a league high 210 shots so far and has turned away all but 17 and no one has made more saves than his 193. This is very solid indeed.
Given that SV% stat, if the defense could limit the shots he faced to just 30…the GAA would be 2.43. If he faced but 29 SA/G…then we’re talking about a 2.35 GAA. Those type of number will get you to post-season.
But, there are some un-good things as well.
Again, giving up 35+ shots per game will simply not do. As was learned last year, it will catch up to you…same with being outshot on a regular basis.
Then there is the whole power play situation, which has a giant O-fer going since opening night. Yikes!
Jason Williams scored a goal and an assist in the first two games…since then he’s been seen only on the side of a milk carton.
These will have to be addressed for sure. But in the end…six games in with six points earned sure beats the heck out the goose egg that was laid out on the ice last season.
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