AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 28
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Yet Another Painful One-Goal Loss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Thrashers out-shot the Boston Bruins 33-28. They held Boston to but four shots on goal in the third period while at the same time launching twelve against Manny Fernandez. Atlanta won the battle in the face off circle to the tune of 39-17. Kari Lehtonen was sharp in the goal…stopping 26 of the 28 shots he faced.
Fernandez, however, was sharper and the Big, Bad Boston Bruins slipped out of town with a 2-1 win over the Thrashers.
Atlanta dropped a pair of 1-goal games over the weekend and is now 5-12 in such games this season. Friday night’s was a high-scoring 5-4 affair in which the Thrashers blew 3 one-goal leads.
Boston swept the season series with Atlanta, taking all four games played by scores of 5-4, 7-3, 4-2 and 2-1. It’s the first time the Thrashers have gone an entire season without as much as a point versus Boston.
The Bruins are now an amazing 27-5-4 and their 58 points are tied with San Jose for tops in the NHL…although the Sharks have one game in hand on the Bruins.
Other Bruins Stats That’ll Make You Green With Envy
Boston has scored now an amazing 132 goals for the season and have allowed but 80, a +52 difference.
The Beantown Bears have won eight straight for the first time since the end of the 1992-’93 season.
Boston is 14-0-2 in back-to-back sets this year, 7-0-1 on the front end, 7-0-1 on the back end. Consistency, you know.
Fernandez is now 12-2-1 with a 2.02 GAA and .930 SV%, while Tim Thomas is 15-3-3 with a 2.04 GAA and .935 SV%.
Marc Savard… remember him? … has 11 goals, 32 assist and is an NHL leading +23 on the season.
Meanwhile, Back At The Blueland Ranch
Despite playing the best team in the conference, possibly the league, very well overall and watching Kari make a quality start in his third game back after missing 21 games…the results were still all-too familiar for the Thrashers. The loss now drops the team to 12-20-4 and leaves them on a pace to finish with 64 points.
In contrast to Boston’s 132 goals…Atlanta has surrendered 132.
Since the “five game winning streak that means we are a ‘good’ team” of a month and a half ago…Atlanta is 5-14-2. Also since that time, the Thrashers have accrued a grand total of one victory on home ice in the past 11 games played in Philips Arena.
In holding Boston to only 28 shots, Atlanta has held their opponents to fewer than 30 SOG twelve times in the 36 games played so far. That’s a pretty good stat for this team. Unfortunately, they are only 6-5-1 in those games for 13 points.
After scoring 3 goals on 3 power play chnaces Friday night, the Thrashers went OH-fer five on the man advantage Sunday. To their credit, Atlanta’s penalty kill held Boston to the same OH-fer five stat.
If the New York Islanders win against the Rangers Monday night, the Thrashers would be tied with them for last place in the NHL. Considering that the Thrashers are 3-0-0 against the their fellow cellar-dwellers this year…that means the Thrashers have netted but 22 points versus the rest of the league and the Islanders have earned 26.
Bryan Little did score yet another goal for Atlanta. Going back to last week’s 4-2 win on Lonnnn-Gisland, Little has netted 6 of the last 8 Thrashers goals and his 18 goals lead the team.
And Finally…
Since the trade deadline deal last February 26 that sent Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis away in return for Erik Christensen, Colby Armstrong and other futures, the Thrashers are 17-30-8 in 55 games. That’s a points winning percentage of .382.
To give you a clear understanding of just how many years Don Waddell has set this team back over the last two season’s worth of dead-line deals…in the 2001-02 season, Atlanta’s third year in the NHL, they had a .329 Points%. In the 2002-03 season, the Thrashers 4th year, they had had a .451 Points %. So right now we’re somewhere between the two.
March 4, 2009…mark your calendars.
