Notebook: Thrashers sweating no future lockouts

The Thrashers face a lot of problems, but labor strife isn’t one of them.

The team’s NHL Players Association representative says he doesn’t expect the union to exercise its option to force the league to renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement for the 2009-10 season.

“We’ve had two pretty good years under this CBA as players,” Garnet Exelby said. “I’d be surprised if anybody wanted to reopen it.”

NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly met with all 30 teams to conduct the vote on whether to terminate the current CBA. The result will be announced this month. The Thrashers’ vote took place during their early December trip to play the New York Islanders.

There are a lot of issues between the players and management. Management would like to get rid of no-trade clauses. Players want a bigger share of league revenues. Players and management both face the prospect that the salary cap, which has risen every year, might drop a bit heading into next season.

The elephant in the room is the current economic distress in the United States and Canada. The NHL survived a lockout that forced the cancellation of the 2004-05 season, but against the backdrop of layoffs, foreclosures and diminished retirement accounts feuding millionaires would face a huge public relations problem.

“We have to take into account what we’re saying to fans,” Exelby said.

Crabb promoted

The new lines Thrashers coach John Anderson used Wednesday night at Carolina meant a promotion for rookie Joey Crabb, who stepped up from the fourth line to the third. The 14 minutes, 34 seconds Crabb played against the Hurricanes was the second-most ice time he has had in an NHL game.

“I think I have the same role as far as going out there and creating by hard work and making chances through hard work,” Crabb said after his first game with Marty Reasoner and Colby Armstrong. “It worked all right. We didn’t get anything great, but it worked OK.”

Crabb came closest to scoring a goal. He skated in on Cam Ward but couldn’t push the puck past him.

“I thought I had him, but it didn’t quite go,” Crabb said. “What are you going to do?

“[Wednesday] would have been a great night to have a comeback. It would have helped us out a ton both points-wise and mentally, but we didn’t get it done, and that’s been the story for the past couple of weeks.”

Looking good

Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward was surprised to hear he had allowed Ilya Kovalchuk’s first goal in 10 games.

“That’s hard for me to believe, because the guy is such a gifted player,” Ward told reporters. “Sure enough, he wanted to pick on me, I guess. He made an excellent shot. The guy’s got a lot of skill, and he’s got a tremendous release.”

On a roll

Bryan Little’s goal-scoring streak ended at four games, but the Thrashers forward extended his point-scoring streak to five games with an assist on Kovalchuk’s goal. Todd White had the other assist and has points in 10 of his last 11 games. Slava Kozlov is due to start putting the puck in the net again. His six-game goal-less streak matches his longest this season.