Lehtonen practices, no timetable for NHL return

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen practiced with the team Monday after returning from a two-week conditioning assignment at AHL Chicago. There is no timetable for Lehtonen, returning from two off-season back surgeries, to play his first NHL game since April 11, 2009.

“Kari is not going to go just yet,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We’ll see what he looks like on a day-to-day basis. I don’t want to set him up to fail. I want to make sure he’s 100 percent ready to go in and make an impact for us.

“I don’t know exactly what we are going to do. We might carry three [goaltenders]. We still have two or three weeks to decide.”

Anderson said Lehtonen will join the team for its three-game road trip to Denver, Minneapolis and Chicago, which begins Wednesday.

For his part, Lehtonen said he believes he is NHL-ready. He went 1-2-2 with a .899 save percentage and 2.67 goals-against average in four starts in Chicago.

“The first couple of games over there were pretty tough,” Lehtonen said after Monday’s practice where he got a significant amount of work. “They got a lot better and I feel really good. We got what we needed from it. ... [Playing an NHL game] is going to be different, but I think I’m ready to take that next step.”

Valabik injury

The Thrashers believe defenseman Boris Valabik has a torn ACL in his left knee that may require surgery. However, the team will wait several days for the swelling to go down before re-examining him and determining how to proceed.

Valabik, who missed 27 games at the start of the season after breaking his foot, was injured in Friday’s game against Washington. He sat out Saturday’s game against Florida and did not practice Monday.

The Thrashers are carrying six defensemen with a seventh, Christoph Schubert, on the injured list. He has missed 10 games with a knee injury. Anderson said there are no immediate plans to call up a player from AHL Chicago. However, a decision could be made to add another defenseman on Thursday with back-to-back games on Friday (Minnesota) and Saturday (Chicago).

Schubert, who has not resumed skating, is not close to returning, Anderson said.

Bergfors power-play bound

Niclas Bergfors, who scored the game-winning goal in Saturday’s victory over Florida, will likely see time on the power-play unit in the near future. Acquired in the Ilya Kovalchuk trade, Bergfors will be an option once he gets more practice time with the team.

“The Bergfors kid, he’s got eight power-play goals, so you’ve got to put him in,” Anderson said. “Without a practice it’s kind of difficult to put him in and say, ‘Go do some magic.’ That’s why we didn’t play him on the power play [Saturday], but he’s going to get some time obviously. Hopefully he can do something good.”

See you in March

The Thrashers' three-game road trip, which opens Wednesday in Denver, will take them into the Olympic break. They won’t play again until March 2 when they face the Panthers, the first of 12 home games in the month, opposed to just five road games.