AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 01
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Is There Anyone Here Who Knows How To Play Defense?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kari Lehtonen should pick up the phone first thing Monday morning and contact a good lawyer. The reason? To sue for lack of support and abandonment by his teammates.
In the past two games, the Thrashers goalie has taken to the ice only to find that the other skaters wearing brown birds on their chest are still in the locker room mentally. Because the defense in front of him has been so ill prepared to start the past couple of games, Kari has taken more rubber to the face than a possum on GA-20.
Thursday night against the Islanders, he lasted for only 13 minutes and 10 seconds. In that time, he faced 15 shots…surrendering 4 goals. New York then took another five in the opening period after Johan Hedberg relieved him and had 30 by the end of the second.
20 shots on goal in the first and 30 after two periods. Pretty tough to play any worse that that, right?
Uh…no. Saturday night, Carolina launched 21 SOG in the opening period and had 32 by the second intermission.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Thirty-two shots on goal in 40 minutes of play? Oh, for the good old days when it used take an entire game for an opposing team to get off 30+ shots on the Thrashers goal!
IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO KNOWS HOW TO PLAY DEFENSE?!?!
sigh….
Anyway…against Carolina, however, Kari came ready to play. He looked like this time he was ready…mentally prepared even… for the inevitable onslaught of flying biscuits inside of his kitchen. It was as if he has finally accepted the fact that he simply is not going to be the beneficiary of solid defensive play in from of him on a consitent basis.
Not from this team at least…not anytime soon.
In Atlanta’s 2-0 loss to Carolina, Lehtonen turned away 38 of 40 shots. The two that got passed him were the result of Atlanta’s defense getting caught with their pants down…allowing Canes’ skaters to move in 1 on 1 on Kari. The first time was on a Thrashers power play as Schneider and Kozlov were beaten. The second one saw Bogosian racing to try and catch up to the play. Both situations occurred in the first.
Lehts shut them down the rest of the way, giving his team a chance to get back in the game. Unfortunately, the Thrashers were not able to solve the mystery that was Cam Ward and the Carolina defense all night. You know…the same type of conundrum that they faced in Dallas Tuesday night with Marty Turco and the Stars.
But even though his teammates could not find there way in front of him, Lehtonen continued to battle and the puck was not able to find it’s way past him. At one point in the second, after stopping yet another Carolina shot taken from close in, Kari tossed the puck to the ice in disgust.
I have the distinct feeling that instead of tossing it down on the ice…he really wanted to shove it firmly up one of his defender’s…well…uh, somewhere that sounds similar to “ice”.
Last summer, Kari was signed to a one-year deal. Many felt this was because Don Waddell and the Thrashers organ-I-zation wanted this season to be the one in which Lehtonen took this full-time gig and finally ran with it once and for all…or be run out of town. Well, if indeed we’ll see the Thrashers and Kari part ways this summer…it may be a non-contested divorce from Lehtonen.
Now…About That O-Fense
Atlanta was not able to match the Hurricane’s first period shot total of 21 as they were allowed but 19 shots for the entire game.
The Thrashers have now been shutout in two of the three games since the All Star break. In fact, in the nine periods played in this week, they have been held without a goal in eight. All four goals scored in the past three games came in the third period of Thursday’s loss to the Islanders. Going back to the Philly game just prior to the All Star Game, the Thrashers have score goals in only two of there last twelve periods.
What’s that old line by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first ever head coach John McKay back in 1976 when he was asked about the execution of his team?
“I’m all for it”.
Nasty Nesters Take Wing To Carolina
Sally Cersosimo and 150 of her friends made their way out of the Nasty Nest in Blueland and winged it to the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Funny…I thought birds fly south for the winter.
Anyway…it was quite the showing and it’s just too bad that the team couldn’t show up with as much fire and passion that Sally and Co. did.
Must Be The Hour
Mike Knobler’s recent blog…in which he discusses the Thrashers’ play of late…is titled, “Worst Stretch Of A Bad Season”. As always, it’s very well delivered.
However, upon forst glance, I thought the title read…”Worst STENCH Of A Bad Season”,
It would have worked too.
Fragile And Scared And Embarrassed…Oh My!
“Fragile”: A word used twice by John Anderson to describe his Thrashers team in the post-game interview. It’s a word used to illustrate this team’s mindset too many times over the past two seasons. In fact, if you created a drinking game using the words “fragile” and “Thrashers” being used in the same sentence…we would be snot-faced for the better part of the winter.
“Scared”: A word used, I believe, by Darren Eliot about the way this team is approaching games now. It should be a word used to describe the way some of these players feel in regards to their job security here…or the way the general manager who has overseen this mess for too long now feels about his job.
“Embarrassed”: The reason given by Eliot as to why this team is playing “scared”…as in, they are scared of being embarrassed out there.
Fragile…scared…and embarrassed. These are not three words that you want used to describe your hockey team.
