Anderson not happy after another loss

Don’t hold on too tightly to your Thrashers roster. By the time the team returns to Philips Arena next week, it could be obsolete.

Thrashers coach John Anderson has had it with losing and has had it with some of his players.

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Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com

Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec snags puck for one of his 43 saves in the game.

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“We’re going to look at the whole situation, look at what we have, what we have in the minors and figure out what steps need to be taken,” Anderson said Sunday after the Thrashers’ sixth loss in their last seven games, 4-2 to the St. Louis Blues.

Atlanta (8-12-3) finished November tied with Southeast Division rival Tampa Bay for last place in the NHL with 19 points. Division leader Washington has 29.

Now is not the time for patience, Anderson said after a post-game meeting with general manager Don Waddell. It’s the time for change.

“We’re not playing as good as we can play right now, and we’ve got to figure it out right away,” Anderson said. “It’ll get so far out of hand that we won’t be able to reel it back in.”

Thrashers fans might be used to seeing their team lose, but it’s a new experience for Anderson, who is in his first season as an NHL coach after 13 seasons as a minor league coach, all of them winning ones.

Before the season, Anderson said it would take time for the Thrashers to learn his systems. Sunday, though, Anderson said systems aren’t to blame for the way his team is playing. And it’s clearly frustrating him.

Sunday, a Blues team that should have been fatigued from having lost to Edmonton a day earlier in St. Louis instead showed all the energy.

“After maybe the 10-minute mark in the second period, we stopped competing down low,” Anderson said. “That was a team that played yesterday. They just dominated us down low in our zone.

“We’ve got to compete more. We stopped competing.”

The Blues put a season-high 47 shots on goal. Ondrej Pavelec made 43 saves, an NHL career high, the most saves a Thrashers goalie has made all season and the most he has made since a February game with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. But Pavelec’s brilliant performance could only do so much.

“He played an unbelievable game,” Thrashers defenseman Niclas Havelid said. “We hung him out to dry tonight. We played 20 minutes out of 60, and that’s not good enough.”

Havelid’s first goal in more than a year and Colby Armstrong’s fourth of the season gave the Thrashers a 2-1 lead through the first period. After that, it was all St. Louis.

Keith Tkachuk tied the game and got his 1,000th career NHL point when he knocked in a rebound on a power play at 15:03 of the second period. Brad Boyes scored the tap-in game-winner at 11:45 of the third period, on another power play.

The Thrashers have the worst penalty kill in the league, allowing opponents to score on 26.2 percent of power plays.

Anderson’s search for answers continues with a practice today, then in games Tuesday at Montreal, Wednesday at Ottawa and Saturday at the New York Islanders. They don’t play another home game until Dec. 10, and by then something has to change.

“We played a good first period, and then we stopped playing,” Pavelec said. “It’s a frustration. It’s another close game, and we lost again. We need to win a game, and it doesn’t matter how.”