AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 21
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Flyers = Streak-Killers Again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Back on the 16th of November, the Atlanta Thrashers went into Philadelphia riding a 5-game win streak. The Flyers got out to a 3-1 led halfway through the game…the Thrashers mounted a third period comeback to tie the score at three…but a minute forty after leveling the game, Joffrey Lupul pulled the rug out from under the visiting Thrashers.
Streak over.
Wednesday night, the Thrashers returned to Philly…coasting in this time on a three-game win streak, the only such string of success since the last time the two teams met. The Flyers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after Randy Jones’ sharp-angle goal from the right wing a buck forty-four into the second…but again, the Thrasher mounted a third period comeback.
First, Eric Perrin’s unassisted goal… then the AK-47 line pulled the team to within one on Kovy’s goal assisted by The Peever and Army…finally, Chris Thorburn’s second goal in as many games tied it with nine minutes and eleven second left.
But, just like the last time, it all turned out to be a cruel, hideous trick…a deception of the darkest, most sinister kind…as we had no sooner sat back down on our sofa when Mike Knuble shoved back a rebound to un-knot the score only 1:32 after Thorny’s heroics.
Coach John Anderson then said, “%&$#@%”!
I could not agree more.
Atlanta has fallen to the Flyers 13 consecutive times now. The last time the Thrashers even gained an overtime consolation point from their tormenters was October 26, 2006 when they fell 3-2 in a shootout. You may remember that one as “the ‘ol goalie-switch-a-roo game” in which coach Bob Hartley tried to inject some stratigification into the skills competition by replacing Hedberg, who had played the entire 65 minutes, in the net with Kari Lehtonen.
It didn’t work.
The last time Atlanta actually beat the Flyers? Well, you’ll have go all the way back to Nov. 18, 2005 when Michael Garnett earned is first ever NHL win in a 6-5 overtime thriller. Scoring goals that night for the Thrashers…Kovy with a pair, Bobby Holik, Peter Bondra, Patrik Stefan, (to tie the game with 7 seconds left in regulation) and Greg De Vries in OT.
What were you doing on Dec. 21, 2003? Well, chances are if you’re a Thrashers fan, you where watching them beat Philly 4-1 on that Sunday night. It was the last time Atlanta beat the Flyers in regulation…over five years ago. The Thrashers road the Metro to that win as Ronald Petrovicky netted a pair. Kovy and Kozlov also scored as Marc Savard had two assists and Randy Robitaille had a helper as well. The winning goalie was Byron Dafoe.
Yeah…it’s been a while.
What Are The Odds?
Last Wednesday the Illinois Lottery started up a promotion with the Chicago Blackhawks. See, each game, a single fan would be chosen at random from the crowd in attendance and if…IF…the Blackhawks scored a goal that night at exactly the mid-point of the game, the 10:00 mark of the second period…not one second after or before…then that lucky cuss would win one million buck-a-roos!
Well…Monday night, five days after the promotion started, the Blackhawks hosted the Minnesota Wild. Min-EE-SOO-tah won the game 4-1 as Niklas Backstrom stopped 40 of 41 shots the Hawks took on him.
The one that got through? Yup, you guessed it…right on the 10:00 mark of the second period. Martin Havlat’s tally made a millionaire out of season ticket holder Cary Stolarczyk.
To me, the odds of that happening are 1:3600 in a regulation game seeing how thats the amount of seconds there are in a 60-minute game, 1:3900 for an overtime game. Not a very scientific manner to calculate such odds, I know…but you get the picture.
Darren Rovell of CNBC puts the odds of such an occurrence this way.
Either way you figure it…it’s not something you would guess could happen just days after the inception of such a promotion.
The question that I have is this: What would have the longer odds… the same thing happening again to make another fan a millionaire…or the Atlanta Thrashers beating the Philadelphia Flyers again before it would happen?
I Don’t Care…Start Kari
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The last time Kari Lehtonen faced the Philadelphia Flyers was three night’s before Halloween…and the results were as frightening as anyone could imagine. Philly dropped a seven-spot on the Kari while Antero Niittymaki was shutting out the Thrashers.
If I recall correctly, the 28th of October was the single greatest sales night for NHL’s Center Ice package as tens of thousands of hockey fans throughout the land reached for their phones to purchase the ability to watch any game other than that one, which was being nationally broadcasts on Versus.
I don’t care…start Kari against the Flyers.
What’s that? Lifetime against Philadelphia, Lehtonen is 0-7-0 with a 3.80 GAA and .883 SV%, you tell me.
I don’t care…start him Wednesday night in Philly.
It’s the back end of the back-to-back games, you say?
I don’t care…he can rest during the All Star break. Put him between the pipes.
You remind me that Kari Lehtonen has even intimated in the past that Niittymaki has something on him. Whether it’s at the NHL level or at the youth level, he said that his fellow Finnish countryman “owns” him.
Hmmm…Has anyone actually seen the Kari voodoo doll Antero has hidden in his glove?
Anyway, I don’t care…start Kari to-freakin’-night!
Yup…I know all of the excuses why Moose should start against the feared Flyers. The last game…his overall record against them and Niittymaki…back-to-back games…blah, blah, frickin’ blah!
I bloody well do not care…start him!
Heck…Moose is only 1-6-1 vs. Philly with a 3.69 GAA and .871 SV%. So what are you really gaining?
Kari’s the hot goalie…he should start.
Since entering into last Friday’s game during the great come-from-behind win against the Leafs, Kari has stopped 74 of 78 shots. That, boys and girls, is a .949 SV%. Two of the four goals that he has allowed came via power plays…one a 5 on 3 type. And you don’t put someone on the end of the bench when they are doing that for you.
Start him.
In Tuesday’s 4-2 win over a very good Montreal team, Kari turned away 34 of 36 shots…including all 18 that the Canadiens got through to him during the third period.
Start him.
This is Lehtonen’s year to show once and for all the #1 gig here in Atlanta is his and his alone…or not…and the first half did not exactly go his way. He only has the rest of the second half to show he can handle it full-time. Sometimes that will mean he has to pull both games on consecutive nights…it’s a big-boy job after all and he was brought here to be a big-boy player. This is his year to officially “grow up” and take the job and make it his. I think he finally started to do this last Friday night…he has continued to do so over the past two games…don’t rob him of the opportunity to continue in his maturation process.
And, as I’ve stated before…he can’t beat his “Niittymaki jinx” sitting on the bench.
Start him.
Besides…like I said last week, the aliens didn’t bring a Moose with them.
Start Kari….against the Flyers…Wednesday night.
Meanwhile…On The Scoring End Of The Ice
I was listening to the post-game show while driving home and the guys replayed a seven-second bite from Dan Kamal during last Saturday’s radio broadcast from Nashville. Kamal asked…and this may be paraphrasing slightly…“Can it be that the return of Zach Bogosian and the acquisition of Peverley has really meant this much”?
Well, it sure is a bit coincidental, isn’t it?
In the four games that Bogey has played in after returning from his conditioning assignment… and Waddell’s plucking of The Pevs Dispenser from the waver wire… the Thrashers are 3-1-0 and have outscored the opposition 17-10.
Obviously there is more to it…but their contributions cannot be diminished.
As for The Peever… in his first four games in a Thrashers uniform, he’s got a pair of goals, (one an overtime game-winner), five assists and is a +6.
So, all those saying, “Sure, Peverley has looked good, but it’s only three games”…are you now saying, “OK, but it’s only FOUR games”. If so, I can understand that. But what’s the limit you’re going to put on the “But it’s only been, (fill in number here), games” comment?
Five?…Seven?…Ten?
Apparently Zach Bogosian liked his one-goal and one-assist game in Nashville so much…he decided to duplicate it again versus Montreal. Initially it was Thorburn getting credit for Atlanta’s fourth goal, but I guess replay showed that it was Bogey’s after all.
In the four games since his return, he’s a +5 with his first two career goals and first two career assists.
Not to be overlooked…kinda poetic justice that some lower-line guys have gotten into the scoring party lately, isn’t it? Especially seeing that the energy and zip that they brought in the Toronto game seemed to be the spark the team needed. Tuesday it was Chris Thorburn and Erik Christensen netting goals while Slater, Reasoner, and Thorburn chipped in assist…Boulton with a pair of helpers.
And Finally
I had a wonderful pre-game chat with riceowls8891. I think he’s one of those who are moving from the cautiously skeptical of Peverley to hopefully optimistic. Either way, thanks so much for coming over and sharing your kind words and thoughtful insight.
Also, I met Steve and his little tax-exemption Max…who plays in goal for one of the teams over at the Duluth Ice Forum. In about 15 years, I look forward to writing about Max after winning a game for the Thrashers!
