AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USRed Alert! Red Alert! Red Alert!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday night the Atlanta Thrashers…make that the RED HOT Atlanta Thrashers…responded to a full-fledged Hurricane warning in Philips Arena by donning their new alternate unis for the first time in a game and placed Blueland under a full Red Alert!
The result was a 3-2 victory that pushed the current winning streak to five straight games…raised the Thrashers home record to 5-3-0…improved their record against Southeast Division foes to 4-0-2… and tied New Jersey for the 9th place in the conference with 16 points.
Not a bad couple of weeks following a 1-7-2 stretch, I’d say. And if the play of the team and the result on the scoreboard has anything to do with the red jerseys…then they can wear ‘em every night as far as I’m concerned.
Marty Reasoner has been a self-appointed Cane killer this week. His first period goal… one that came during a 2 on 1 break with Colby Armstrong halfway through the first period … got the evening off to a fine start. In the two games this week versus Carolina, Marty has scored three of his four goals on the season. Eric Perrin notched his initial tally of the 2008-09 campaign 3:32 into the second with Boulton and Slater getting the assists.
Sure is nice when the lower lines pitch in, eh?
But then there’s Slava Kozlov…Killer Kozzy… whose power play goal in the third would wind up being the margin for victory on this night. Carolina was attempting to kill off a 2-minute, 2-man penalty at the time…and came within two ticks of the clock from doing so… before Kozzy took a feed from Bryan Little and netted the all-important third goal for Atlanta. Just moments prior, Ilya Kovalchuk and Ron Hainsey had paired up to save the puck from crossing over the blueline and out of the attacking zone, setting up Kozlov’s heroics.
Johan Hedberg was very solid ‘tween the pipes in his third straight start stopping 27 of the 29 shots fired against him. Both times he was bested came when Carolina was on the man advantage.
For his part, Cam Ward had a strong night as well. Though three of Atlanta’s 25 shots got past him, two were on 2 on 1 breaks and the third on a 5 on 3 power play. The save he made on Bryan Little in the first…sliding to his right to get a skate on the puck…was outstanding as was his gloving of a Kovalchuk bomb in the third.
The Thrashers will now make their way to Philadelphia in pursuit of the sixth consecutive win. If I’m not mistaken, this franchise has never strung together more than five in a row…fumbling through stacks of records and stats…no I can’t find any such streak. Can I get my staff on this? Brendan? Trixie? PJ? Staff?…STAFF?
%$#&@…I hate it when they take the weekend off! Regardless, I think the Thrashers will be going for that team record Sunday night in Philly.
Oh… and lastly, Garnet Exelby as Ron Burgundy…very classy.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By LAC
November 15, 2008 1:02 AM | Link to this
Very good team effort last night, solid in all areas for the most part.
I loved how “LITTLE” tripp tracey the Carolina home boy color guy, just could not understand losing twice to, as HE put it, Woeful Atlanta… Well “tripp” go back to Raleigh and SUCK YOUR THUMB !!
You are THE WORST color guy in the NHL, By Far, a complete waste… Look forward to the next meeting say 6-1 Atlanta !
Wonder if that dan boyle will have any comments about Tampa, sure would be bad playing there…
Will be interesting, we have MORE points now than Philadelphia, lets really shock them and get two Sunday night for sure… Cheers !!!!!
By Jason
November 15, 2008 1:42 AM | Link to this
Ex should do the Ron Burgundy bit all season long for the Keys to the Game. Heck, even extend it to the intermission interviews! Or for that matter, deafening silence would be better than trying to hear Natalie the Idiot Blonde try to do the keys to the game and interviews.
By kracker
November 15, 2008 1:43 AM | Link to this
LOL Loved X as Ron Burgundy. I have pics from the big screen, I hope they work as well as he does it.
I do think these guys can get the recent Flyer monkey off their back come Sunday. {omg, I just now see the Flyers as being the winged monkeys in the Wizard of Oz!) Surely we can beat the Winged Monkeys of Philly! LOL
Like Hainsey said on The Fan today, they need to get the franchise winning streak up to 8 or 9 games.
By Brendan
November 15, 2008 2:02 AM | Link to this
Five consecutive wins is the franchise record, Rawhide. Six would set a new record, for Atlanta. The team is now on pace for 82-points. Rawhide has the team at 86-points. Another win, and they would be on pace for that, just about.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are now paying Barry Melrose, John Tortorella, and Jay Feaster to do NOTHING for them. They are paying Brian Lawton to be a puppet GM, with possibly less power than Garth Snow, out on Long Island. Well, I shouldn’t say that. Lawton didn’t hire Melrose. Oren Koules did. So, maybe Lawton does have some stroke? But my feeling is … ANY General Manager in Tampa must do WHATEVER Koules says. Or they’ll join the ranks of those who are paid to do NOTHING for them.
Wonder if Bob Hartley, who came away “empty-handed” over the Summer, might be offered the position in Tampa? It’d get the Thrashers off the hook, I believe, if Hartley got the job in TB. Hey, I’ve seen nothing. There’s no rumor, either. I’m just musing aloud. That’s all.
By Brendan
November 15, 2008 2:20 AM | Link to this
What if Rick Tocchet violates his probation, (for running a gambling ring,) then what would the Bolts do?
By Tony C.
November 15, 2008 2:22 AM | Link to this
Aww c’mon Brendan!!!
Hartley to Tampa-that’s gotta be at least e2 on the ecklund scale.
By Sage of Bluesland
November 15, 2008 8:03 AM | Link to this
If this team plays like this in January and February, I’ll be impressed.
Remember during our 2nd year, we had a wonderful record up until January—which is when teams finally shake out and the cream starts rising to the top.
Don’t hold that ticker-tape parade just yet. Markedly improved play as of late, absolutely. This team is still too streaky for my tastes.
(and remember last year’s “turnaround” when our bumbling Donny took the reins only for what to happen when the afterburners were put on by everyone else?)
I don’t think we have that extra gear—yet.
By Alan
November 15, 2008 8:28 AM | Link to this
Ex should do the Ron Burgundy bit all season long for the Keys to the Game.
I wasn’t at the game, so my only guess as to what Ex said is “This is Ron Burgundy signing off. F*** you, San Di..err..Carolina!”
On a more serious note, the Thrashers seem to be playing with no regards to statistics at all. All I saw on Sunday was about how Atlanta had lost all these games to Carolina last year, and we won there. Then yesterday, I read how Atlanta had lost something like five straight to Carolina at Philips, and we won here. Now we’re coming on to a team that has a win streak against us somewhere in the double digits. If the Thrashers continue playing the way they have been, this whole talk about statistics can go straight out the window.
Go Thrashers, pull out that sixth straight victory!
By Jim
November 15, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
Five in a row ties the record set the playoff year. Real test now is Philly who mauled us last time out. Time to reciprocate. Snappy passing on the odd man break. Even Kovy is getting into the act but take the slapper Ilya and let the guys bang in the leftovers. Way to go Thrash. I like the new unies.
By Tom
November 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
TonyC
If my sources are correct, anything Brendan says starts as an e3 on Ecklund’s scale.
By Rawhide
November 15, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this
Alan - Here is the XLB Ron Burgundy skit for your viewing pleasure.
By five_hole
November 15, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this
Lots of good from last night. We held the opposition to under 30 shots (even though they still out-shot us) and most of those came in the last few minutes. The D generally played well, and I thought Valabik had the best game I’ve seen him play. The kid seems to be gaining confidence. I was streaming the game thru Yahoo which got the Carolina feed. Their announcers seemed to really like Oystrick (or maybe they just liked saying his name). Slava … what can you say? Everyone wrote him off last year, myself included. All I can say is, he’s back. I saw lots of attack time in their zone on the PP.
The un-good? We gave up 2 PP goals. The only PP goal we scored was on a 5-on-3 and even that took 1:57. We have to be more creative in the offensive zone.
One last thing; this occurred to me watching Valabik & Oystrick; 2 NHL ready 1st year d-men. Next year we’ll have them plus Begosian and Enstrom & Hainsey are signed to long term contracts. Also X has one more year. That’s a very young defensive core (Enstrom is 24, Oystrick is 26 & Hainsey and X are both 27). Think about that.
By Christy
November 15, 2008 11:24 AM | Link to this
Thanks for the link Rawhide. That was classic. was listening to the game on the Radio last night with a box of tissues in my hand. Don’t know how many people were there but those of you that were made it sound like a sell out with the cheers and the Moose calls.
Had fun listening in to the win.
By Tony C.
November 15, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
yeah the Carolina guys did seem to have a crush on Oystrick…
I also want to say how well Cam Ward played in the end of the 1st and in the 2nd…There were at least two goals he absolutely robbed from us. He doesn’t play such a great game, it would never have been so close at the end.
GO BLUE !!!
P.S. Thanks for the link Chiefy!
By Adam
November 15, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this
Philly will be playing in Montreal tonight and their 3rd game in 4 days tomorrow when we show up. This should be the best chance to get the Flyer “monkey” off our back. Then it’s the other Pennsylvania team on Thursday.
Sure would be nice to say “record 7th consecutive win” wouldn’t it?
By Smitty
November 15, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this
Pretty good 2 way game by the Thrashers last night. Many of the Carolina shots came from the outside except those at the end of the game when we went into a little bit of a defensive shell. I do not think we gave up a 2 on 1 and maybe only 1 or 2 3 on 2s. Offensively we seem to be getting a lot more chances. Little was robbed by Ward early and Kozlov shot was just wide from the slot early in the first. I agree Valabik probably played his best game and it is nice to have his presence when things get a little chippy. Still taking too many hooking and holding penalties. PK needs some work.
By Alan
November 15, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
Next year we’ll have them plus Begosian and Enstrom & Hainsey are signed to long term contracts. Also X has one more year. That’s a very young defensive core (Enstrom is 24, Oystrick is 26 & Hainsey and X are both 27). Think about that.
I have. It’s a really nice thought.
Teach ‘em while they’re still young. This is a perfect opportunity for them, and this team, to really start creating waves in the NHL.
Still taking too many hooking and holding penalties.
Valabik definitely is, but it’s all a part of learning to transition his game to the NHL level. Remember, this dude is big. He’s easily spotted by the refs. Until he can learn to stop taking these sort of bad penalties, we’re going to find ourselves lamenting about them. Really, what we have here is another Chara in the making. Remember how he was when he first started out in the league?
On the PP and PK: They suck. But we had plenty of good chances, and nearly capitalized on a few of them. Ward was better last night, though.
Hedberg: Did anyone else think he over-committed to one side, resulting in the Brind-Amour goal last night? He realized his error and dove to the other side, and very nearly picked it off… but in the end, they scored anyway.
Rawhide - I saw that shortly after I posted here this morning. Pretty interesting and entertaining. Great to see them thinking outside the box, because the regular girl is painfully annoying.
By Alan
November 15, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this
This from NHL.com: On Cold Ice, Thrashers Now Sizzling
There’s a poll at the bottom, asking (a) how many teams from the SE Div make the playoffs (I selected two), and (b) whether the Thrashers will be one of them (I selected “too early to tell” — “yes” is the majority response thus far, surprisingly).
By Thefan
November 15, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this
I was not able to attend the game last night because i was working late ,but what’s up with the TV schedule.All the good games are not on TV.???
By Rawhide
November 15, 2008 6:47 PM | Link to this
Thefan - Ya know, I ran across Darren Eliot in between periods Friday night. We were discussing just that point.
After a few comments about the game in general, I made the comment about how I thought more games should be televised…at least not have so many in a row not on the air. He told me the TV schedule has always been to televise 61 or so games per year.
I can understand that…but the away games should be on the air for the fans to see.
By Thefan
November 15, 2008 7:23 PM | Link to this
This is going to be a third game in row not on TV.It sucks man
By Alan
November 15, 2008 9:13 PM | Link to this
Philthadelphia is currently beating Montreal 2-0.
By Sara
November 15, 2008 11:36 PM | Link to this
five-hole and Alan don’t forget about Kulda. He was Bogo’s partner in juniors and played well last season for Anderson in the play-offs. So really it’s Enstrom, Hainsey, Bogosian, Kulda, Oystrick, Valabik, and XLB - a full seven-man set! How sweet is that? And with that many good players, we could potentially expend one for an upgrade at forward if necessary. And at least looking at that, it makes the Coburn thing sting just slightly less (it would have helped if we had traded him for something a bit more useful and longer-lasting but as Brendan would say, bygones).
By Nikita
November 15, 2008 11:39 PM | Link to this
Just wanted to settle the Chris Thorburn: Hot or Not? question once and for all. I vote Hot. PJ, ranallo, Sara, Melvin, and all the other ladies and man-lovers in the house — hands in the air. Wave ‘em like you just don’t care.
On a more serious note, Alan, I’m cautiously optimistic. More optimistic as our southeast division rivals continue to self-destruct. Honestly, I thought Carolina would be our toughest SE division rival, and that’s not looking so. Washington looks o.k., but I feel pretty confident about the Thrashers being significantly better than everybody else, assuming they continue to build on Anderson’s system.
Also, I think it bears noting that while both the PK and PP suck, the PK sucks considerably less. Also, something I like about Anderson is his use of relatively rigid line combos. I’m sure it helps build chemistry.
By five_hole
November 16, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this
PJ, ranallo, Sara, Melvin, and all the other ladies and man-lovers in the house … I had no idea if ranallo was male or female, but Melvin? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Melvin?
Nikita I’m also a fan of keeping forward lines intact. It helps build timing; knowing how a winger is going to react in a given situation. This is something that’s bothered me about virtually every single coach the Thrashers have had. Players are not homogeneous commodities. This one is faster, that one has better hands, the third is tough along the boards, etc. Find what works & keep them there.
Sara I’m not defending Waddell, and I’m certainly not over trading Coburn for he-who-must-not-be-named, but I do remember at the time, Waddell saying that he thought we had depth at the position. Other than signing Hainsey & drafting Begosian, you’d have to say he was correct.
By Midtown Melvin
November 16, 2008 10:58 AM | Link to this
OH, Nikita girl…you are SOOooo right about Thorburn!! He can stir my drink any night of the week!
Mmmm-Mmmmm-MMMM!!!!!
But you got ranallo all wrong. He is definately a vagitarian! No meat in his diet!
By kracker
November 16, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
Ya need to work to raise your ‘net profile Melvin ….”Midtown Melvin” isn’t returning any pics on google images.
By Sam
November 16, 2008 12:05 PM | Link to this
Thanks Sportsouth for saving me watching last games, not. Maybe they should continue not showing games for the rest of the season and Thrashers will continue winning.
And yes, I am going to be at Philips every now and then but because of DW´s agressive ticket price increase I am giving my vote with my wallet. Only vote I can give to him.
By Nikita
November 16, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this
I was completely right about Melvin. Bt not so much about ranallo, who I thought was a chick. Sorry, ranallo!
By Rawhide
November 16, 2008 12:44 PM | Link to this
Speaking of ranallo…I guess I should do the right thing by him and warn him that there is a new blog posted…so don’t begin a discussion here.
By ranallo10 (in AT)
November 16, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Nikita — No worries, my girlfriend (the reason I now have the “in AT” tag) will get a laugh out of that.