Thrashers not fretting over slow start

John Anderson scored 282 NHL goals and once scored in a Toronto Maple Leafs’ record 10 consecutive games.

So it was no surprise Friday when the Thrashers’ coach demonstrated for his forwards how he wanted them to run a shooting drill. The surprise came when he missed the open net.

Players laughed. Anderson smiled. And, no doubt unintentionally, he accomplished one of his coaching objectives.

Yes, laughter was heard and grins were seen at Thrashers practice, where the serious work of trying to shed a three-game winless streak peacefully coincided with an atmosphere where the noun “game” and the verb “to play” never seemed out of place.

Anderson said all summer he wanted to make the rink a fun place for his players, and that became an especially important concept the day after a 1-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

The team that started the season with a 7-4 victory has had tough times since, with an overtime loss, a two-goal loss and a one-goal loss in its past three games.

“You look at the last few games, they’ve been close games for us,” said forward Colby Armstrong, one of the team’s alternate captains. “The second you start getting down on yourselves it makes it even tougher. We can focus on the positive things and go at the game with that right now. We’re trying to work day in and day out at getting better, and I think it’s paying off.”

That payoff has yet to show up on the statistics sheet. The Thrashers have scored four goals in their past three games combined, and they have come up empty on 15 consecutive power plays. They put a season-low 25 shots on net in Thursday’s shutout loss. It’s funny when the coach misses the net in a drill, less funny when the players continue to miss the net, or don’t shoot at it, in games.

Numbers don’t always tell the whole story.

“It’s unfortunate we lost [to New Jersey], but I will tell you it was our best game to date,” Anderson said. “What I mean is I thought our effort was there, I thought we were trying to do the things we wanted to do as a team. We had a couple of faux pas, but everybody has those. For the most part, it was our most complete game.”

“It’s just a matter of burying our chances,” Armstrong said. “We got some pretty good chances. It’s there. It’s just getting some bounces. At the same time, those second chances are key for us, so we have to work at battling to the net and getting those second opportunities.”

They can make the first shot more effective by taking better angles. That’s one of the things Anderson was demonstrating Friday.

“That wasn’t demonstrating,” Anderson said. “That was ruining the drill, quite honestly.”

Etc.

Anderson also looked to improve the offense by tweaking his lines on Friday. He switched Armstrong with Jason Williams; Armstrong re-united with former Penguins teammate Erik Christensen, and Williams joined Marty Reasoner. If Anderson sticks with those combinations tonight, it will be Williams’ third line in four games. … The Thrashers have been starting strong but hitting a mid-game lull. They’ve outshot their opponents 45-34 in the first period but been outshot 68-36 in the second and 43-34 in the third.