Thrashers must improve in second half of back-to-back games

Aug 09 2008

Published by bud006 at 9:18 am under Thrashers Analysis Edit This

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – If there is one thing that is as tough on a hockey team as anything, it’s playing on back-to-back days. Just ask the Atlanta Thrashers, whose season in 2007-08 was doomed in part by their poor play in the second game of back-to-back days.

Eighteen times last season, the Thrashers played on consecutive days. They won the second game just twice (Dec. 23 over St. Louis; Feb. 1 over Washington).

Two wins, 13 losses, three shootout defeats in those 18 games, representing 21.9 percent of their schedule. In eight of those 13 losses, Atlanta lost by three goals or more. My personal favorite (or non-favorite, I guess you would say): the 10-1 drubbing the Thrashers took in Buffalo one night after losing to Montreal at home in a shootout. Those two games marked the beginning of a stretch where the Thrashers lost 15 out of 21, tumbling out of playoff contention.

This year, the schedule isn’t quite as daunting. Atlanta has 15 back-to-back games on its slate for 2008-09. Certainly, the Thrashers have to win more than two of those final games in those back-to-back sets to improve on their 34-40-8 record of a season ago.

Some of the more-imposing back-to-backs on the schedule include:

Oct. 24-25: at Detroit, at Boston.
Dec. 2-3: at Montreal, at Ottawa
Dec. 30-31: at Toronto, at Carolina
Jan. 20-21: vs. Montreal, at Philadelphia
Feb. 15-16: at Anaheim, at Los Angeles
March 20-21: vs. Detroit, at Tampa Bay