DEL.ICIO.USThrashers to consider captain carefully
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, September 18, 2008
New coach? Check.
New players? Check.
AP
New Thrashers coach John Anderson plans to first designate four assistants and then choose a captain from among them.
New captain? Check back later, and the Thrashers might have an answer.
Atlanta’s NHL team opens camp Saturday without a go-to leader on its roster. It’s the first time in franchise history the Thrashers head into a season without a captain.
Coach John Anderson said he plans to name four assistants and eventually choose a captain from among them.
“We’re going to run with some assistants first, and we’re going to let our leader emerge,” he said. “I think it’s more important to make the right choice than to make the quick choice. We have some people in mind. We have some people we’d like to have step up. Let’s let it happen. Can you imagine how hard it would be to have to take the captain off somebody’s shirt? That would not just destroy the player but really hurt your team emotionally, also.”
Last season’s captain, Bobby Holik, signed a free-agent contract with the New Jersey Devils. Three current players are among last season’s alternate captains: Niclas Havelid, Ilya Kovalchuk and Vyacheslav Kozlov.
The lack of a clear choice as captain underscores the transition taking place on the roster, where much of the talent is young. The team finished last season second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, and few experts project a better result for 2008-09.
The key offseason additions are free-agent defenseman Ron Hainsey, first-round draft pick defenseman Zach Bogosian, free-agent forward Jason Williams and free-agent forward Marty Reasoner. None scored more than 13 NHL goals last season.
“I think that people, they look at our team on paper, and they’re not sure exactly what they’re going to get.” Anderson said. “I think we’re going to surprise a few teams this year.”
Anderson promised more offense and said he expects to get it from a variety of players, including veteran centers Todd White and Eric Perrin and the entire group of defensemen.
The Thrashers also hope for a bounceback season from Kozlov, who scored 28 goals two seasons ago but only 17 last season, when a shoulder injury bothered him for months. He had postseason surgery on the shoulder and on a knee.
“We’ll monitor a little bit of his contact the first week or so [of camp],” Thrashers general manager Don Waddell said, “but it’s nothing that’s going to hold on long term.”
Kovalchuk, who scored 52 goals last season, might be the one clear star. But he sounded optimistic he would have more help than he did in 2007-08.
“Everybody is looking for a rebound,” Kovalchuk said. “Hopefully everybody is in great shape. I am ready to go. I’m very excited with all the changes. I think we got faster, and hopefully we’re going to do much, much better.”
Anderson is also looking for more from goalie Keri Lehtonen.
“We don’t want to burn him out, certainly, but certainly we want to go to the whip on him,” he said. “We want Kari to play 60 games, and I guess his play will dictate that, too.”
Fifty-one players report today for physicals, with the first on-ice workout Saturday morning and the exhibition opener Thursday at Nashville. The team plays five additional exhibition games, the final three at Philips Arena, before opening the season at home against the Washington Capitals on Oct. 10.
Anderson will have to cut his roster to 23 players by then.
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