Thrashers.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Throughout this miserable 2008-09 season, the Atlanta Thrashers have frustrated their disjointed fan base with uneven play, unrealized potential, unfulfilled expectations.

But now that the Thrashers certainly will be spending most of late spring watching the playoffs, a funny thing has happened:

The Thrashers actually are resembling the type of team so many of us thought they could be way back when this season started.

Atlanta won a franchise-record sixth consecutive game Monday night, totally dominating Southeast Division-leading Washington on national TV, cruising to a 5-1 victory.

Yes, Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t play, watching the proceedings while healing from an upper body injury. Yes, the Thrashers’ D remains giving as ever, the Caps pounding Kari Lehtonen for 50 shots.

But Lehtonen continues his evolution — finally, perhaps?! — to elite netminder status, stopping 49 shots and carrying the shutout into the final two minutes of the game. Just ask Alexander Ovechkin how good Lehtonen is … the Russian Master had 10 shots on goal, yet came away with nothing to show for it other than frustration.

The younger Thrashers, remade thanks to several recent trades and transactions, looked faster, hungrier, and dare we say better than a Washington team that figures to play on into May. Atlanta used their speed and hustle to take control of this one, and while Lehtonen had to work far harder than he should have, the Fin was equal to the task.

Six in a row … won’t mean much as this season winds down, but the promise of next year is there for all to see.

Maybe one of these years, that promise will be fulfilled early enough to make next year this year.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — The kid is back.

Zach Bogosian, out for the past two months with a broken leg, was activated by the Atlanta Thrashers for tonight’s game against Carolina. Bogosian, the team’s top pick in June’s NHL entry draft, suffered a broken leg Oct. 28 against Philadelphia, his eighth game of the season with the big club.

Bogosian is viewed as the blueline star of the future for this team. Even though he’s only 18, Bogosian did enough during his eight games with the Thrashers to merit his remaining with the major-league club for the remainder of the season. He’ll likely serve as an upgrade to an Atlanta defense that came into tonight’s game with the worst goals against average in all the NHL.

To make room on the roster, the Thrashers placed defenseman Garnet Exelby on injured reserve. Exelby was injured earlier this month and probably will be out for at least a month.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — So his goal scoring is down and his team is in the tank. But with that said, the thought of trading Ilya Kovalchuk is so ridiculous, I shouldn’t even waste blog space in the wide, wide world of the Internet to address it.

But I will anyway.

Frustrated Atlanta Thrashers fans and even a couple of columnists and bloggers have floated the suggestion that Atlanta’s management look around and see what the Thrashers could get for Kovalchuk, an All-Star who is considered one of the top offensive players in the NHL even though he has just 11 goals through 29 games this season.

What, you want NOBODY to show up at Philips Arena?

Hockey is a hard-enough sell in Atlanta, especially with the Falcons winning, the Hawks winning, and both Georgia Tech and Georgia heading to good bowl games. Add in the fact the Thrashers have been as pleasing to watch this season as a seizure, and the mere notion of trading one of the NHL’s most exciting players is silly.

To a point, I understand the other side of the argument. Kovy is a free agent after the 2009-10 season and odds are he won’t be back unless he sees a concerted effort to put a contender on the ice … that would be a playoff contender, not a lottery-pick contender.

To deal the sharp-shooting winger now definitely would net the Thrashers a stable of quality players. How many? Four, maybe five, I’d say. But then again, is it worth it now, with a year and a half still left on Kovy’s contract, with the team playing so far below expectations?

No, you don’t make this trade. Not now. We’ll see where things stand next December. For now, take the notion of trading Kovy and file it away with last year’s fruitcake.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Another week dawns, another week following a forgettable stretch of hockey by the Atlanta Thrashers.

If you’ve quit following the dose of bad news that’s been surrounding this team’s putrid play of late, nobody can blame you. Indeed, when you know this team is going to lose the moment skates hit the ice, it’s hard to be motivated enough to watch and cheer.

The Thrashers were able to grind out a point in Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Rangers at Philips Arena, a game in which Atlanta rallied twice from one-goal deficits with scores from Joey Crabb (his first career goal) and Ilya Kovalchuk (finally breaking into double figures with his 10th of the season).

But Johan Hedberg allowed Scott Gomez’s backhander to slide through for the game winner just 18 ticks into extra time.

Then came Friday and Saturday’s home-and-home with the high-flying Bruins, who blew the Thrashers out of the rink. Friday’s game at Philips was the worst effort of the year, as Boston built a 4-0 lead just 11:56 into the contest, and the Thrashers actually changed goalies twice.

Saturday wasn’t much better. The final score was a little more respectable – the Thrashers lost 4-2 – but the effort was pretty poor, as well. The B’s led 2-1 after a period, added a score late in the second and pushed it to 4-1 before Marty Reasoner’s fifth goal of the season made the final outcome a two-goal loss.

The Thrashers sit in a three-way tie for last in the NHL standings with the Islanders and Lightning at 22 points. Atlanta has coughed up 110 goals, highest total in the league. Since winning five games in a row last month, the Thrashers have just six points (two wins, two OT losses) in their past 13 games (2-9-2).

The Thrashers already are 11 points out of the final playoff spot, and unless this team can put together a quick winning streak in the next two or three weeks, we’re going to spend the second half of this season talking about who is and who isn’t going to be here after the trading deadline.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Two games in Canada this week, two ugly losses for the Atlanta Thrashers.

No need to even go through the gory details of a wasted two days north of the border for a team that occupies the very bottom of the NHL with 19 points.

(Want some perspective? The San Jose Sharks have two more WINS than the Thrashers have points. Yikes!)

Down 3-0 at Montreal on Tuesday, the Thrashers scored three goals in 59 seconds, two by Ron Hainsey and one by Chris Thorburn. They still lost.

Wednesday, the Thrashers were outhustled, outmuscled and outclassed by an Ottawa team that’s 12th in the Eastern Conference, losing 4-1.

So now what? What does this team do?

It clearly is a team that’s listing at the moment, threatening to turn completely on its side and slip beneath the water’s surface. And to think, it’s not even Christmas yet. Could this season be over before we even flip the odometer over to 2009?

Yes. It could very well happen. The Thrashers, for whatever reason, have gotten away from the good hockey they played during their five-game winning streak in November. Atlanta is 1-6-1 since running off those five in a row, and the way they’ve played during that stretch is — to be frank — inexcusable from any so-called professional sports team.

There has been very little spark, very little jump, very little hustle. The Thrashers are getting outworked on every spot of the ice. They aren’t converting on the power play. They are committing dumb penalties. They are getting nothing offensively from Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the game’s most dynamic scorers who is mired so deeply in a scoring slump, he skated with Atlanta’s checking line Tuesday night in Montreal.

That’s how bad it’s gotten for a team that many of us thought wouldn’t be great, but would be a hell of a lot better than this.

I don’t know what the answers are, but the Thrashers better uncover them soon. Granted, they are only seven points from the final playoff spot, and they are 12 points behind Southeast Division leader Washington. But with 13 games left in December, this team’s season has boiled down to this sobering thought:

Unless the Thrashers start winning, and soon, this season is over.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Blues 4, Thrashers 2

Top of the Slot: Up 2-1, the Thrashers hung young Ondrej Pavelec out to dry, subjecting the netminder to 47 shots as the Blues rallied to send Atlanta to its fifth loss in the past seven games.

The Good: Pavelec gets the loss and gave up three goals, but as was the case in last weekend’s loss to Columbus, the tally would’ve been far worse was it not for his stellar effort between the pipes. Down 1-0, Colby Armstrong tied the game with his fourth goal, off a Ron Hainsey assist, less than two minutes after the Blues grabbed an early advantage. Nic Havelid notched his first goal of the season, off assists from Slava Kozlov and Todd White, with 85 seconds left in the first.

The Bad: Where to begin … oh yeah, where we ALWAYS seem to look first: shots on goal. St. Louis 47, Atlanta 30. This team has been outshot in 21 of its 23 games this season. Penalties hurt this team time and time again, and Sunday was no exception: Nathan Oystrick got bumped off the puck, subsequently got called for hooking, and the Blues cashed in, snapping a 2-2 tie with 8:15 to go. The Thrashers looked lethargic and largely uninterested, despite the fact they were off Saturday while St. Louis played. D-man Mathieu Schneider injured his shoulder and likely will miss a week.

View from the Sports Garage: And to think, I nearly offered the suggestion of stopping by Philips Arena on our way home from a Thanksgiving retreat to the North Georgia mountains to check out the game. Boy, that would’ve been a downer type of ending to the holiday weekend, eh? Another wretched performance. That five-game winning streak is a thing of the past now – Atlanta is 1-5-1 since. Gotta think there are going to be some changes, and head coach John Anderson alluded to as much in his postgame comments. It stinks because this team is so capable of playing good hockey, and we saw it during the five-game streak. Now, the Thrashers have sunk to the bottom of the NHL standings as December dawns. Should they remain there by the end of the month, it will be time to look to 2009-10, and time to unload this roster.

Next
Thrashers at Canadians
7:30 p.m. Tuesday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — The reduction in the number of games NHL teams play against their division rivals this season – from eight to six – opens up more opportunities to face teams from the opposite conference.

For the Atlanta Thrashers and the Nashville Predators, that’s a great thing. For hockey in the South, that’s a great thing.

Sporadic scheduling between teams in the Eastern Conference and those in the Western Conference has meant rivalries like Atlanta/Nashville have suffered in previous seasons. But not in 2008-09, as Atlanta and Nashville will play twice, once on each team’s home ice.

Two teams, separated by just four hours of interstate highway, hooking up twice a season. Yep, good move NHL.

The first meeting is tonight at Philips Arena, and you can bet with the Thrashers not exactly spinning the turnstiles at a fever pitch, there will be quite a few folks who make the trek down Interstate 24 and I-75 from Nashville to check out the game in Georgia’s capital city. Conversely, I’d imagine quite a few Thrashers’ fans will make the journey north to Nashville for the Jan. 17 matchup (I’m actually considering making that trip myself).

Nashville lost a tough 1-0 decision Tuesday to St. Louis, a game in which the Preds launched 47 shots on goal. That’s gotta make for a restless night for either Johan Hedberg or Ondrej Pavelec, one of whom will be between the pipes for the Thrashers.

Atlanta’s lost three of its past four after reeling off five consecutive victories. Atlanta needs a win for confidence, and a victory over Nashville not only would move it to 20 points on the season, it would be a nice first shot for the season in a rivalry that’s only going to get better with time.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Capitals 5, Thrashers 3

Top of the Slot: The winning streak didn’t last long for the Thrashers, who fell behind 4-1 early in losing for the fourth time in five games as Alexander Ovechkin netted a hat trick for the Caps.

The Good: Guess Todd White has recovered from that head-first crash into the boards last Thursday against Pittsburgh. White, who scored twice in Tuesday’s win at Toronto, netted two assists against the Caps. Ilya Kovalchuk finished with two assists. Bryan Little scored his 10th goal of the season and also recorded a helper, assisting on Slava Kozlov’s 12th goal. Nathan Oystrick scored his first NHL goal and finished plus-1. The Thrashers finished 2-for-3 on the power play.

The Bad: The big, early deficit … ugh. Ondrej Pavelec kept the Thrashers in Saturday’s loss vs. Columbus, but the youngster couldn’t turn the trick Wednesday. He gave up three goals on just 11 shots in the first period, and allowed a goal seconds into the second. Garnet Exelby and Ron Hainsey won’t remember this game fondly, each blueliner finishing minus-3.

View from the Sports Garage: Hard to operate when you find yourself down 4-1 just 21 minutes into the game. The Thrashers’ defense simply didn’t have an answer for Ovechkin, who scored three of Washington’s first four goals and finished with a four-point night. Tough not to be able to carry over the momentum from Tuesday’s inspired win at Toronto. Back home Friday night …

Next
Thrashers vs. Predators
7:30 p.m. Friday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 6, Maple Leafs 3

Top of the Slot: In their first game since their worst performance of the season, the Thrashers stormed to a 3-0 lead en route to breaking a three-game losing streak.

The Good: Lots and lots of good things happened for Atlanta on this night. Todd White scored twice. Colby Armstrong, Ilya Kovalchuk, Chris Thorburn and Mathieu Schneider added one goal each. Assists on the night came from Slava Kozlov (two), Nathan Oystrick, Bryan Little, Marty Reasoner, Jim Slater and Eric Boulton. Schneider finished a plus-3, as 13 Thrashers ended the evening on the plus side. Kovalchuk challenged Toronto defenseman Ian White verbally and with his fists, firing up an already motivated Atlanta squad. In goal, Johan Hedberg halted 32 of 35 shots for the victory.

The Bad: Gonna have to dig deep here to find something negative … the Thrashers were outshot again, 35-30. It was a chippy affair, one in which the Thrashers took 10 penalties for 26 minutes.

View from the Sports Garage: After being so disgusted with what I saw inside Philips Arena on Saturday I couldn’t bring myself to blog about this team for two days – that, and I had a ton of other things going on as well – I was greatly and pleasantly surprised with the effort shown Tuesday night. This is a key stretch for the Thrashers, and back-to-backs on the road are never easy. Nothing like starting that stretch with three goals in the first 27:04. Great to see Kovy get a goal, and then go after Ian White. Another good game for Todd White. Strong play in the offensive zone all night from all four lines, a rare sight indeed. Great first win, great skid-buster. Now, let’s see how much jump the boys have tonight in D.C.

Next
Thrashers at Capitals
7 p.m. today

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Lifeless. Listless. Embarrassing. Horrid. Wretched. Putrid.

You get the idea.

I attended my first Thrashers game of the season tonight, and let’s just say I was disappointed in what I saw. Or actually, in what I didn’t see.

I didn’t see anything that resembled an NHL team. I didn’t see hustle. I didn’t see jump. I didn’t see promise. I didn’t see hope.

It’s just one game, but my goodness, it was horrible.

Tonight’s 2-0 loss to Columbus featured perhaps the worst game I’ve ever seen Ilya Kovalchuk play. Turnovers. A fanned swing on a one-timer. A frustrated star who slammed the door to the bench so hard after one rotten shift, you could hear it echo through half-empty Philips Arena.

Ondrej Pavelec kept this from being a 4-0 game in the first period. Columbus hit the post early on. It could have been a lot worse than it was.

The second line of Slava Kozlov, Todd White and Bryan Little generated scoring chances. Jason Williams played OK. Garnet Exelby got into a fight and hit everybody in sight. He played well. So, too, did Toby Enstrom and Ron Hainsey.

But after that … nope. The rest of the Thrashers need to donate their paychecks from tonight’s game to charity.

Or pay back the folks – including myself – who watched this disastrous excuse for hockey we were subjected to tonight.

Full gamer tomorrow. I’m out.

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