Antropov back in lineup despite net crash

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nik Antropov was a game-time decision but the forward was in the Thrashers lineup on Tuesday night against St. Louis.

Antropov crashed into the net in Monday night’s game against Toronto. He missed several shifts, but finished the game.

Antropov and Niclas Bergfors, a healthy scratch in five of the previous six games, took part in the pre-game warm-up before a final decision was made by Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay.

With Antropov able to play, Ramsay went with the same lineup he’s used in recent games. Ben Eager and Bergfors were the healthy forward scratches.

Fatigue a factor

Despite Monday night’s 6-3 victory over Toronto, Ramsay is concerned with the mental fatigue of his team. The Thrashers struggled for long stretches against the Maple Leafs. It’s a symptom of playing nine games in 14 days,the coach said. 

“I thought it was because we started pushing pucks into the middle of the ice,” Ramsay said of the periods of poor play. “We did it on our forehand. We did it on our backhand. We found various ways to push the puck into the middle of the ice. Now it’s turned over and away they go. That’s something that we had gotten much, much better at.”

Tuesday night’s game against St. Louis was the eighth game in the busy stretch, which ends Thursday night in Boston before two days off for Christmas. The Thrashers were 4-1-2 in the previous seven games.

Ramsay has been aided by the recent play of all four lines, eliminating the need to shorten his bench.

“It makes a big difference when you are playing nine in 14,” Ramsay said. “You get to play everybody and everybody has to participate. Otherwise, how to you survive this type of schedule?”

Franchise record for blocks

The Thrashers set a franchise record for most blocked shots in a game with their 33-block effort on Monday night against Toronto. They are tied for the NHL lead with a season total of 584 blocks. Blocked shots were not an official stat for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

Defenseman Brent Sopel leads the team with 85 blocks, good for fourth in the league.