Thrashers lose to Lightning, lose Little to injury

The one real bright spot of the Thrashers’ season walked up the tunnel to the locker room with 5:12 left in the second period Sunday.

When the Thrashers returned to their bench for the third period, goal-scoring leader Bryan Little wasn’t with them.

Little’s contused ribs weren’t just painful to him. With Little able to play only 5:44, the Tampa Bay Lightning drubbed the Thrashers 4-1 and sent them into last place in the NHL’s Southeast Division.

Thrashers coach John Anderson said he didn’t know how long Little would be out but that rib injuries typically take weeks not days to heal. Anderson was more concerned about the rest of his team’s lack of effort. The Thrashers supposedly were trying for their first two-game winning streak since the first half of November. But their coach wasn’t sure they were trying.

“Our give-a-crap level was like at zero,” Anderson said. “After we have a big win [Friday] against Vancouver, against a real good hockey team, we throw that game. I’ve got to question whether anybody cares in that locker room. That’s a joke.”

Tampa Bay goalie was 22 seconds from a shutout when Erik Christensen’s follow shot trickled past him. Smith rarely had to extend himself to stop Atlanta’s other 27 shots on net.

It was such a bad night for the Thrashers they couldn’t even handle a simple line change. Early in the third period, Nathan Oystrick collided with Slava Kozlov near the Atlanta bench and Oystrick’s stick went flying.

Later in the period, Kari Lehtonen stopped Ryan Malone on a breakaway, only to have Malone, who had skated past the net, backhand the puck in off Lehtonen’s skate.

“That kind of sums up today,” said Lehtonen, who stopped 31-of-35 shots. “We did some good things, but it always ended up being bad.”

Martin St. Louis scored twice, once by redirecting a pass from Vincent Lecavalier and once on a shot from the slot off a feed from Vaclav Prospal behind the net. Steve Eminger scored the first goal on a power play just 2:48 after the opening faceoff.

Tampa Bay snapped a six-game losing streak at Philips Arena, where the Lightning hadn’t won since Feb. 22, 2007.

The Thrashers badly need Little this week as they finish a stretch of 14 games in 26 days. They leave today on a three-game road trip to Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Florida.

Little began Sunday tied for seventh in the NHL with 19 goals. That makes him perhaps the one player on the Thrashers experiencing continued success this season.

“He’s having a great season. He’s kept us in games,” forward Chris Thorburn said. “He’s gotten us goals when we needed them. Hopefully he’s not gone for long.”

However long he is out, it’s a big loss.

“You take a Malkin or a Crosby out of Pittsburgh’s lineup or you take a Lecavalier or a St. Louis out of Tampa Bay’s lineup, it changes it drastically,” Anderson said. “Having said that, hopefully our team doesn’t revolve around one 21-year-old. At some point you have to rally and say, ‘I’m going to step up.’

“Nobody played well tonight, nobody, goalie right on up, just very average. And we can’t have average now.”