Thrashers’ defenseman scratched Thursday

• SCHNEIDER SCRATCHED: Defenseman Mathieu Schneider was scratched Thursday after he injured a hip flexor in the morning skate. He will not make the trip to Buffalo and Carolina but shouldn’t miss much more than that.

“We don’t expect it to be long at all,” general manager Don Waddell said.

Schneider, the oldest player on the team at 39, has four points (one goal and three assists) in 12 games.

The Thrashers called up Boris Valabik, the 6-foot-7 defenseman, from Chicago to take Schneider’s place in the lineup. Valabik, 22, had one goal and two assists in 11 games for the Wolves. He was plus-8, tied for second-best on the team.

Valabik played seven games for the Thrashers last season, taking five shots without a goal in 16:41 of ice time. He took 42 penalty minutes. A first-round pick in 2004, Valabik was in preseason camp with Atlanta.

Schneider has the distinction of ranking last out of 663 skaters in the NHL in plus/minus at minus-11. He led the NHL with the longest streak of games at either plus or even last season for Anaheim at 32.

He hasn’t spent a lot of time sweating it.

“I’ve always believed that that’s one of the most overrated stats in this league,” Schneider said. “I’ve gone through stretches where I can’t be minus no matter how bad I play. I’ve gone through stretches playing as well as I can and I’m still minus. I don’t really put a whole lot of weight into that. I seem to step on the ice every time a goal is getting scored against us the last couple weeks.”

• LEHTONEN CLOSE: Goaltender Kari Lehtonen participated in his first full workout in a week in Thursday’s morning skate and aims to return during this weekend’s road trip, either tonight in Buffalo or, more likely, Sunday at Carolina.

Lehtonen missed his third game against the Islanders. He felt sick the day after his last start against the Rangers on Oct. 30 and the following morning, on Saturday, woke up with tightness in his lower back.

“It’s getting a lot better,” Lehtonen said. “Yesterday I skated 25 minutes, and today I was able to go an hour and 15 minutes, so it’s getting a lot better but not quite yet today.”

• SIM RETURNS: A knee injury kept him out most of last season with the Islanders, so former Thrasher Jon Sim saw his first action at Philips Arena since leaving as a free agent after the 2006-07 season. He welcomed himself with a power-play goal in the first period.

“It’s definitely fun to come back and play,” he said. “The fans reacted well to the way I played [as a Thrasher], so it’ll be nice to get back out in front of them again.”

— Carroll Rogers