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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Thrashers Perfect Rx For Ailing Pens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Pittsburgh Penguins had lost five straight games and six of their last seven…being outscored 24-8 and not being ale to score more than two goals in those games. They had just suffered a 4-0 spanking at the hands of the Rangers in New York the night before.
Fortunately for them, they came home to find a most welcome guest, the Thrashers, and beat them 3-1.
The Pens had gone 31 straight power plays with nary a goal going back over the last seven games. They scored two power plays goals against the Thrashers Tuesday night.
Sidney Crosby entered Tuesday’s game against Atlanta having gone four straight without scoring a goal. Over the past seven games, he had scored but one goal and in the past seventeen games he scored only twice. Crosby hadn’t scored a power play goal since November. 13th.
Sidney Crosby scored a power play goal against the Thrashers.
Pittsburgh played nearly the entire game minus one skater after Ruslan Fedotenko left with an injury having played but 35 seconds. They played the last half of the game with only 16 skaters after Pascal Dupuis left the game after playing but 6:53.
It didn’t matter as the Atlanta Thrashers proved to be the perfect prescription to what ailed the Penguins. I’m sure they will be feeling much better in the morning.
The Thrashers of late have proven to be quite the elixir for tired and weary teams as, for the third consecutive game, Atlanta faced a team on the back end of back-to-back sets. Those three teams have skated away with a total of five points. In fact, going back to the 2-1 loss to Boston two Sundays ago, the last four times the Thrashers have face opponents playing their second game in as many nights…Atlanta is 1-3-0, picking up two points while giving away seven.
Much like their last game in which a less-than-average Lightning team drubbed the Thrashers 4-1, a slumping Pittsburgh team scored all the goals that they needed for the night before surrendering a consolation goal late in the third period.
And exactly like Mike Smith of Tampa Bay did Sunday at The House Waddell Built, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped the first 27 shots the Thrashers took on him, before losing the shutout bid on the 28th and final Atlanta shot.
Kari Lehtonen is now 4-10-2 on the season with a .902 SV%. He lowered his GAA to 3.37 by allowing but 3 goals in 59 minutes of work. Kari is now 2-5-0 since returning last month from his back injury, allowing 23 goals in those seven games. Two of his four wins have come by way of the shootout, leaving him with only a pair of regulation wins in sixteen decisions over the course of half a season.
Atlanta is now 13-23-5 at the halfway point of the season. The 31 points put the dead-on to net 62 for the season. If so, that would be 14 points off last season’s pace…which was 21 points off the mark the year before that.
This, my friends, is what Bruce Levenson refers to as “moving in the right direction”!
The New Jersey Devils will be rolling out the red carpet for the Thrashers Thursday night as they will be looking to bounce back from Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Carolina.
Oh, There You Are Jason
With about four minutes remaining in the game up in Pittsburgh, I watched as a wide open Jason Williams fumbled a pass in front of the Penguin’s net. It was at that point that I realized…Jason Williams was in the Thrashers lineup!
He sure has a way of disappearing into the walls, doesn’t he?
Thus, I propose a new nickname for him…Casper.
Life Post Hossa/Dupuis Trade
Last February, as you’ll recall, the Thrashers traded away Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis to the team they just lost 3-1 to, the Pittsburgh Penguins. In return, they received Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen…future prospect Angelo Esposito and the Pens first round draft pick. They were 29-30-4 in the 63 games played on the day of that trade.
Since that day, the Thrashers have played 60 games and have a record of 18-33-9.
The next trade deadline in now eight weeks away.
Congrats Don
The 13-23-5 record the Thrashers have is a points winning percentage of .378. To put that in perspective, Atlanta’s second year in the league saw them play to a 23-45-2-12 which was good enough for a .370 points winning percentage. Congratulations Don, you have successfully set this team back to an expansion era franchise less than two years removed from it’s one and only playoff appearance.
That HAS to be some sort of record.
More Fun With Numbers
The Thrashers collected seven victories in the first sixteen games of the season. In the last 25…they have managed but six.
Four times this season Kari Lehtonen has been blessed with facing fewer than 30 shots on goal. He is 0-4-0 in those games.
In order to simply get to last season’s disappointing record of 34-40-8, Atlanta will have to go 21-17-3 in the second half of the season.
In order to simply have a “break-even” season…82 points…they will need 51 points in the last 41 games. That’s something like 24-14-3.
In order to qualify for the playoffs…about 94 points…the Thrashers would need to go 30-8-3.
Just sayin’…
And Finally…
Before we leave the subject of the Pittsburgh Penguins…I wish to share with you a most excellent observation that MB posted over on Mike Knobler’s blog. It has to do with the similar draft situations the Thrashers and Pens found themselves in between 1999 and 2003. Similar draft positions, similar positions picked…but look where the two teams are now.
Nicely done, MB.
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