Thrashers gain some players, lose others

Two key Thrashers who have yet to play in December are expected to play tonight at Philips Arena. Two others who have played key roles won’t be on the ice.

Kari Lehtonen, out since October with a back injury, will start in net, coach John Anderson said Friday. Mathieu Schneider, out since Nov. 30 with a shoulder injury, returns on defense.

Goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who played 11 games in Lehtonen’s absence, has been sent back to Chicago. And Garnet Exelby, a fixture on defense through the team’s first 30 games, said he will miss about three weeks with a hairline fracture of his lower right leg.

Lehtonen said he’s healthy and fit. The big thing to watch tonight against Tampa Bay will be how he handles the mental part of the game.

“It’s going to take a little time game-wise to get going, because practice is a lot different, but it shouldn’t take too long,” he said. “It’s just getting used to reading the plays and getting used to the speed again. It’s going to be a challenge, but I’ve done it before, and I just need to get it going again.”

Lehtonen shut out the New York Islanders last season in his first NHL game after missing 16 games with a groin strain. Three years ago, the Thrashers won seven of their next nine games when Lehtonen returned from missing 35 games with a groin injury.

The Thrashers could use a similar reaction now. They’ve lost 12 of their last 15 games.

“Kari brings a certain stability in there,” Schneider said. “He’s very consistent with what he brings night in and night out, especially when he’s healthy. The most important key to winning in the NHL these days is goaltending. When you look around the league, the top teams, their goalies won games for them night in and night out. … He’s as solid a goalie as you’ll see in the league.”

Lehtonen is 5-6-2; Johan Hedberg and Pavelec are 5-11-2 combined. Anderson pulled Pavelec in two of the team’s past three games. In the other game, though, Pavelec almost scored a shutout, and Schneider and Anderson said the Thrashers’ recent problems have been more about the skaters than the goalies.

“You need that support structure in front of them, which we haven’t had on a lot of our nights when we’ve lost,” Schneider said.

Perhaps Schneider’s return can help provide it. He had a plus-five rating in the four-game stretch leading up to his injury.

The addition of Schneider, though, coincides with the loss of Exelby.

Exelby had been playing on the injured leg for 2 1/2 weeks since getting hit by a shot in a game. X-rays failed to detect the fracture, but an MRI on Thursday found it.

“The last few games, it was a lot worse. [Wednesday] I couldn’t even walk on it,” said Exelby, who wore a soft cast Friday and wasn’t on crutches.

Exelby had played in all of the Thrashers games before sitting out Thursday’s against Pittsburgh. He has four assists and averages 17:08 of ice time per game, fifth among Atlanta’s defensemen.