Thrashers' Armstrong day-to-day

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Colby Armstrong was skating on a line with Rich Peverley and Evander Kane as the Thrashers returned to practice Monday following Saturday’s season-opening victory over Tampa Bay. Armstrong is currently on injured reserve with a groin injury suffered during the exhibition season but has been practicing with the team while on IR.

“[Armstrong] is day-to-day, so we’ll have to see how he is before he gets back in the lineup. But certainly as soon as he’s healthy, he’s going back in,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We are just experimenting right now. ... I want to make sure he’s comfortable if that’s the line he’s going to be with.”

Marty Reasoner had been practicing on the line with Peverley and Kane. Monday he was skating with a group of forwards including Eric Boulton, Jim Slater, Chris Thorburn and Josh Gratton.

The Thrashers have the maximum roster of 23 players, with Armstrong and Kari Lehtonen on injured reserve and will have to make a move to activate Armstrong. Gratton was placed on waivers Monday and could be sent to the team’s AHL affiliate in Chicago if he is not claimed by another team.

Newcomer Christoph Schubert, the defenseman claimed on re-entry waivers from Ottawa on Friday, was paired with Anssi Salmela in his first workout.

“It’s nice to be with the boys on the ice and get to know them a little bit better,” said Schubert, who expects to be ready for the Thrashers next game Thursday in St. Louis. “It was a good practice, a good skate. It’s nice to be back on the ice.”

The Thrashers play their next five games away from Philips Arena.

Valabik injured

Defenseman Boris Valabik fell and had to leave the ice during Monday’s practice. He fell while skating backward alone and spent several minutes on the ice before he headed to the bench. He was favoring his right leg as he walked to the locker room.

Anderson had no update on Valabik’s condition immediately after practice.

“It scared me because he went down hard,” Anderson said. “I guess when you’re 6-foot-7, there is no other way to go down but hard.”

Things to work on

The Thrashers’ 6-3 opening win was not without room for improvement. They let a 4-0 lead slip to 4-3 before pulling away.

“We gave up too many odd-man rushes, but we took care of that,” defenseman Pavel Kubina said. “You are up by four goals, you’ve got to finish the game better. We’ve got to be smarter. We’ve got to be way better in our zone.”

Following the game, Anderson said the team had trouble reading rushes. He said his staff has broken down half the game tape.

“We had a great win but we have a better tape,” Anderson said. “All the little things that we did wrong, we’ll have a chance to review and shore up. I’ll trade wins for mistakes any day of the week. One thing that it did confirm was that we have to play to our strength, which is scoring goals. We don’t want to stop our offense but we do have to shore up our defense a little bit.

"There are little things we can do, like leading with our sticks instead of our bodies. Making sure what we call danger zones, five feet on each side of the line, pucks have to come out. The puck has to move forward past the danger zones. Little things like that we saw creeping in.”

The Thrashers were outshot by Tampa Bay, 39-28. Atlanta was 27th in the NHL last season in shots-against per game (32.7).

Props for Boulton

Anderson credited Boulton’s third-period fight with Tampa’s Todd Fedoruk for changing the momentum of the game, when the Thrashers’ lead had slipped to one goal. However, it was the assist he had on Salmela’s first-period goal that really caught Anderson’s attention.

“I have to give Boulton credit on the second goal. He showed poise down low with the puck,” Anderson said. “We’ve been on him for a year because he’s so big and strong, he gets [the puck], we want to make sure he does the right thing with it. He made a beautiful pass to Anssi to get a goal.”