AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 09
Monday, February 9, 2009
A Few Quick Shots
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My apologies for being a tad tardy with this posting…I spent last evening with the Divine Mrs. R and the two tax exemption after the game…seeing as I have to wing my way to Miami this afternoon for a few days. Then…I was having some issues with the publishing website today…..blah, blah, blah….
Anyway…I would like to first mention what a pleasure it was to have met Jackie along with her daughter Erin at the game yesterday…as well as Tom, the “lurker”. Also, I had the pleasure of meeting face to face our own Nikita. And it was nice it was to have seen Eileen and SA again after far too long since we were last able to chat.
And now, about the game…
Another Nitty-Gritty Loss To Philly
Someone verify this for me, but I do believe that Nittymaki is a Finnish word that means, “Beater of little brown birds”. If not that, then something close to it I’m sure… because Antero Nittymaki is now 13-0 against our Atlanta Thrashers after the Flyers’ 3-2 win at Philips Arena Sunday afternoon. Philadelphia has taken the last 14 straight between the two clubs.
Mike Knobler reports that the only streak similar is the 17-0 mark that Chris Osgood has against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nittymaki could match that by sweeping the Thrashers again next season.
Sunday, the Flyers net minder stopped 29 of 31 shots that Atlanta was able to get off on him.
Four of Nittymaki’s thirteen victories this season have come against the Thrashers and he’s 13-4-4 overall with 2.48 GAA and .921 SV%. In the two games played in Atlanta this season, Nittymaki and the Flyers beat the Thrashers by a combined score of 10-2.
Pierre McGuire On The Flyers Hex On The Thrashers
This morning, Pierre McGuire was a guest on XM’s “Hockey This Morning”. When the subject of Philly’s domination of the Thrashers, he basically stated the obvious…that Philadelphia was “better” than Atlanta. “Better” position by position.
Well…(DUH5).
But, even when Atlanta was skating their way to 97 points and a division championship in 2006-’07…and Philadelphia was on their way to the worst record in the NHL with 56 points…the Flyers still managed to sweep the Thrashers that year.
Helping Or Hurting
So…is playing Mathieu Schneider these days helping or hurting the cause in regards to showcasing him for possible trades?
With only a buck-thirty two elapsed in Sunday’s game, Schneids was sitting in the sin-bin for a holding call…caused because, well, he was just flat-out beat by a Flyer crossing the blueline. Later in that period, Jeff Carter scored the games first goal after Schneider had pinched too far up and was caught out of position…leaving the Flyer wide open and Todd White was not able to close the gap.
Right now, I would much rather see him viewing the game from the press box and allowing Oystrick to have more starts.
Ice Hockey…Its Easy As One-Two-Three
Someone needs to let John Anderson and his Thrashers know that the NHL still plays all of their games with three 20-minute periods. The first 40 minutes are not “warm-up” time. Since the 4-2 win against Montreal back on January 20…the Thrashers have exactly one goal in the first two periods during the last seven games.
In those seven games, Atlanta has been outscored 18-1 in the first two periods.
Congrats Ilya
Saturday morning, the Kovalchuks welcomed Philipp into the world. All accounts are that momma and baby are doing just fine. He is Ilya’s second child…joining three-year old sister Carolina.
“He’s a big boy”, the Thrashers captain said of his boy, “hopefully we’re going to give him a stick pretty soon”.
Hey Ilya…can he play defense?
