Thrashers lose, but don’t expect major deals

Don Waddell would love nothing better than to give Thrashers fans a 30-goal scorer for Christmas. But the shelves are empty, and today is the last shopping day.

NHL rosters freeze at midnight tonight and don’t thaw until midnight Dec. 27. Waddell said Thursday night he doesn’t expect to make any deals today.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of teams, but it just seems like around the league there’s been very few trades being made,” the Thrashers’ general manager said. “It’s hard to make trades anymore.

“There’s so many injuries right now around the league. Everybody’s looking for players. Nobody’s looking to give players up.”

Waddell hasn’t been looking for draft picks, either. He wants a player who can help a Thrashers team struggling to stay out of last place in the Eastern Conference. They could have used some help Thursday night as they lost 6-3 to visiting Pittsburgh, Atlanta’s 12th loss in its last 15 games.

The league’s worst penalty kill yielded two more power play goals. Ondrej Pavelec, who came within 1:18 of a shutout two nights earlier at Ottawa, stopped only eight of 13 shots before being pulled less than midway through the second period. But the biggest problems for the Thrashers were the breakdowns that created scoring chances, chances a team like the Penguins takes advantage of more often than not.

“There’s things that veterans are doing that you just can’t do if you’re going to win,” defenseman Ron Hainsey said. “That’s just the reality of the situation. … We can’t make mistakes at their blue line, at our blue line and give them rushes back that end up in our net. We just can’t do it. And it’s not young guys. It’s guys that have been around for awhile. It’s something that needs to be corrected before we’re going to be going in the right direction.”

The Thrashers outshot their opponent for the fourth time in 31 games this season, and it wasn’t close. That 31-20 statistical margin suggested Atlanta had done a lot of things right. A lot, though, wasn’t the same as enough.

“When we play against the upper echelon, we have to play excellent,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We can’t let little mistakes creep into our game, because we pay for it. We’ve got to be spot on for 60 minutes. We can’t let little stupid mistakes cost us games, because we get so far behind we can’t catch up.”

The Thrashers had hoped to put pressure on Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who was playing for the first time since injuring his groin Nov. 15. But Fleury was solid.

Meanwhile, Pavelec struggled. Pittsburgh scored on two of its first four shots, and its fifth goal came from long range and nothing to obstruct Pavelec’s view.

The Penguins got two goals from Evgeni Malkin and one each from Jordan Staal, Matt Cooke, Philippe Boucher and Miroslav Satan. Marty Reasoner, Bryan Little and Colby Armstrong scored for the Thrashers. It was Armstrong’s third goal in two games.

Defenseman Garnet Exelby missed the game with a lower body injury. Scott Lehman, who woke up Tuesday on a Chicago Wolves road trip, landed in Atlanta at 5 p.m. and made his NHL debut.

He was the fifth player to join the Thrashers from the AHL this season. It probably would take additions from the NHL, though, to change Atlanta’s fortunes.