DEL.ICIO.USThrashers’ Christensen looks to thrive on top line
Second-year center will play alongside Kovalchuk and Williams
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, September 15, 2008
It’s more than 2,300 miles from his home in Edmonton to his job in Atlanta, but Erik Christensen drove it gladly, and not just because he sat behind the wheel of a BMW while Slayer songs blasted from the speakers.
Christensen was driving toward opportunity, the kind of opportunity he has waited for all his life. The Thrashers plan to make him their first-line center.
Rich Addicks/raddicks@ajc.com
Erik Christensen, 24, who was acquired by the Thrashers from the Penguins in the Marian Hossa trade last season, has scored 35 goals in his NHL career.
When the Thrashers hit the ice on Saturday for the first day of preseason camp, Christensen will be driving an attack with Jason Williams on one wing and scoring sensation Ilya Kovalchuk on the other. How well Christensen succeeds will go a long way toward determining whether the Thrashers can improve on last season’s second-to-last finish in the Eastern Conference.
Christensen welcomes the challenge in just his second full NHL season, especially after the frustrations he endured in 2007-08. He spent most of the season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, stuck behind two of the league’s best centers. With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin skating on the top two lines, the Penguins didn’t know what to do with Christensen. His playing time varied between low and very low, about 12-1/2 minutes per game.
“I was all over the place. I was third line center, fourth line center, fourth line wing, third line wing. I was bouncing around constantly,” Christensen said. “It was tough to get in a groove, tough to know what the team wanted from you.
“They sort of had their fill of scoring players. You were left to wonder, what do they want out of you?”
He welcomed the trade to the Thrashers in the Marian Hossa deal, though it sent him from a team headed for the Stanley Cup finals to one that would miss the playoffs. But a medial collateral ligament sprain in his right knee limited his chances to show his new team what he could do. He says he’s 100 percent healthy now. There might not be another Thrashers player more eager to get going.
“This is easily the longest summer I’ve ever had,” he said.
Christensen, 24, has scored 35 goals in his NHL career, but the Thrashers say he’s the right man to hand the keys to the first line.
“We certainly are going to give him that opportunity,” general manager Don Waddell said. “He’s got the skill level and the skill set to play with guys like that.”
“He’s got a really good shot. He’s got quick hands. He’s a good skater. He’s a strong skater,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said.
Anderson would like to see Christensen do a better job of holding onto the puck. The biggest challenge, though, could be holding onto his composure.
“Having to deal with the pressure of being that No. 1 guy, a lot of guys don’t want it because of the pressure of having to go and maybe score a goal in the last minute,” Anderson said. “Gretzky thrived on it. So did Messier. That’s what we want him to learn.”
Christensen has proven he can score when given the chance. His 54-goal, 54-assist season for Kamloops six years ago gave him the Western Hockey League scoring title.
But can he succeed as a scorer in the NHL, for a team that badly needs someone who can complement the nearly 50 goals Kovalchuk has averaged the last three seasons? No other returning Thrashers player scored more than 17 goals in 2007-08.
“Juniors is way different than pro,” Anderson said. “There’s way more pressure.”
Christensen said he can handle it. His No. 1 task?
“Just believing in myself,” he said. “I want to come into the season knowing the opportunity is there and knowing that I’m capable of taking advantage of it.”
Services »
