Thrashers.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Red Wings 4, Thrashers 0 (exhibition)

It may have been only an exhibition game, but the gap between the defending Stanley Cup champions and the next-to-worst team in the Eastern Conference last season was apparent Sunday afternoon.

Out-shot, out-hustled and out-played in every aspect of the game, the Atlanta Thrashers dropped to 1-2 in preseason, falling hard at Detroit in a game that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate.

Detroit dominated puck possession, outshooting the Thrashers 38-14. In the first two periods, the Thrashers mustered just eight shots on goal. By the time the second intermission arrived, it was 3-0 Detroit.

Ilya Kovalchuk was very quiet in his first preseason game, finishing with a minus-2. Kari Lehtonen didn’t have a good preseason debut either, allowing three goals (Detroit scored an empty-netter with time running down in the third). The Thrashers gave up a goal while down two men in the second period.

Atlanta comes home to play host to the Red Wings on Wednesday at Philips Arena. The Thrashers round out the exhibition schedule with home games against Nashville Friday and St. Louis Saturday.

The regular season starts with a home game against Washington on Oct. 10.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Addressing the blueline was priority No. 1 for the Atlanta Thrashers in the offseason, and the upgrades continue now that the preseason has started.

The Thrashers sent three players to Anaheim Friday for veteran defenseman Mathieu Schneider, a two-time All-Star with 19 years of NHL experience. Heading to Anaheim: veteran defender Ken Klee, winger Brad Larsen and minor-leaguer Chad Painchaud.

And even though the 39-year-old Schneider is on the downside of his career, he’s still a big-time improvement for a defense that allowed the most shots and the most goals in the NHL last season. In 2007-08, Schneider tallied 39 points – 12 goals and 27 assists. Put those numbers with who manned the Atlanta blueline last season, and Schneider would have finished first in points, first in goals and second to Tobias Enstrom in assists.

Adding Schneider, who helped Montreal win the Stanley Cup in 1993 and earned All-Star nods in 1996 and 2003, to a defensive corps now featuring free-agent signee Ron Hainsey and first-round draft pick Zach Bogosian, and the Thrashers’ defense figures to be markedly improved this season.

What’s appealing to me about this trade is how little Atlanta actually gave up in acquiring a guy who last season finished at plus-22 and averaged more than 22 minutes of ice time. Klee, 37, was a disappointment and maybe the slowest player on the team. Larsen showed promise – I always liked his hustle – but the Thrashers have wingers running out of their ears (both here and in the high minors). Painchaud is a fourth-round prospect who scored nine goals last season while splitting time between Chicago and Gwinnett.

Gotta give Don Waddell credit – and believe me, that’s hard to do at times – for pulling this off. A good trade. You look at the Thrashers’ D now, and you see Schneider, Hainsey, Enstrom, Nic Havelid, Garnet Exelby and Bogosian. That’s a pretty good top six, if you ask me, and I’m really intrigued about a seventh D-man, the 6-foot-7, 240-pound Boris Valabik.

An improved defense really looks good now.

Blues 9, Thrashers 4 (exhibition)

Playing for the second time on back-to-back nights, the Thrashers were blown out at St. Louis, evening their preseason record at 1-1.

Brett Sterling scored twice for Atlanta. Eric Boulton and Todd White each added a goal. Encouraging for White, who was the first line center in a disappointing campaign last season, to light the lamp.

Atlanta trailed 3-2 after one period and 5-3 after the second, before the Blues blew it open in the final 20 minutes. The Thrashers play at 5 p.m. Sunday at Detroit.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 4, Predators 2 (exhibition)

It’s a win. It doesn’t count in the standings. Nobody except maybe head coach John Anderson – standing behind an NHL bench for the first time – will remember this one for long.

But it’s a win nonetheless. The Atlanta Thrashers opened their exhibition schedule Thursday night with a 4-2 victory at Nashville, in a game where many of the top players from both teams were at home.

According to published reports, that last part of the last paragraph didn’t make it to the Nashville public-address announcer, who proclaimed “Kari Lehtonen” was manning the crease for Le Thrash.

Eh, no. That was Ondrej Pavelic who donned the pads for Atlanta on this night, and he turned away 36 of 38 shots to get the win in goal.

Offensively, Garnet Exelby scored the first goal. Meaningful? You betchya. Ex is a D-man, and high on Anderson’s to-do list is getting the Thrashers’ blueliners more involved on the offensive end. Grant Stevenson scored twice, and Junior Lessard added a goal.

You don’t want to read too much into an exhibition game, certainly. But still, winning is good. And this is a good start.

Atlanta plays tonight at St. Louis.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Training camp is in full swing, and so too is the anxiety surrounding who is going to man the pivot on the Atlanta Thrashers’ top line this season.

Erik Christensen, acquired from Pittsburgh in the Marian Hossa deadline deal, emerged as a not-so-clear-cut favorite to center the first line after the first two workouts. That was before Christensen went into the boards during Tuesday’s intrasquad game and left the ice with a shoulder injury.

Published reports Wednesday give fans a reason to breathe easy, though, as results of an MRI were negative. Still, I wouldn’t expect Christensen to travel with the team to this week’s exhibition games tonight in Nashville or Friday in St. Louis.

Todd White, who unperformed as the front-line center last season – the first of a four-year deal he signed in the summer of 2007 – will be on the trip. There are some who would like to see youngster Bryan Little get a crack at the No. 2 pivot, but the simple fact is the Thrashers aren’t paying White a ton of jack to play on the third line.

I don’t see Little as being ready to man the front line just yet. Jason Williams, penciled in for now at right wing on the top line, could move to center if Christensen doesn’t work out. Stay tuned.

First-round draft pick Zach Bogosian appears to have recovered from a hip flexor injury suffered in last week’s Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament title game. Bogosian probably won’t be on this week’s trip, either, but I fully expect him to win a roster spot. One interesting thing is Bogosian can actually be with the Thrashers for the first nine games this season without it counting toward his contract. After nine games, Bogosian either can be returned to juniors and it not count as a year on his contract.

Dude is too gifted, and too rugged – even at age 18 – and the Thrashers’ defense needs upgrading. Unless he’s just overwhelmed, I think Bogo is here to stay.

We know Tobias Enstrom is here to stay. The second-year D-man, who was a rookie All-Star pick last season, has been signed to a four-year extension. Good move.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Finally, we’re here. Training camp opens Saturday morning for the Atlanta Thrashers. After an offseason of bemoaning last season’s disaster, of chasing and missing some free agents, after bringing in help for the blueline and a couple of wingers, the time has come.

Lace up them skates, boys. The season is almost here.

We all know nobody outside Atlanta is expecting much out of this team. That’s a fair assessment, given what transpired with this team last season and the fact that, for the new people brought in, there are plenty of question marks to try and answer and holes to try and fill as the countdown to opening night Oct. 10 ramps up in earnest.

But for all the problems that have beset this franchise the past year and a half – from the firing of Bob Hartley to the ownership situation, from Brian Campbell saying no to the speculation of whether Ilya Kovalchuk is two seasons away from playing elsewhere – I sense a team that’s in a different place than this time last year.

The Thrashers of 2007-08 may have started training camp as defending Southeast Division champions, but it was a fractured bunch. Hartley already had lost the team, in part because of his inability to rely on younger players, partly because of the goaltending flip-flop that made the previous spring’s playoff sweep to the Rangers all the more disconcerting. That malaise spilled over into the season.

The results: we all know they weren’t pretty.

But a new day has dawned. New head coach John Anderson is such a breath of fresh air for a franchise that really needs a charge of enthusiasm. Anderson’s waited more than a dozen years for an opportunity to coach in the NHL. He knows these players. He pledges to employ a “chameleon” system that will adjust to exploit what the opposition does worst. He has no problem handing responsibility to young, unproven players, knowing that sometimes all a player needs is a coach to say, “I believe in you.”

Anderson will believe in his players … all of them. You certainly can’t say that about Hartley.

Training camp opens Saturday, and 51 players will hit the ice with their NHL dreams right in front of them. For all the ridiculous stories out there about the Thrashers being on the move at some point in time, it’s not happening. This team is here to stay. It has a dedicated fan base that demands excellence, but knows it’s a process. That process may be longer than some hope in producing a consistent contender, but you don’t walk away in the middle of the job.

Saturday, the Thrashers go back to work. The whistle blows on this season soon. It’s time to grab the hard hat and lunch pail and get to it, pushing to get this franchise back in the playoffs. It may seem like foolhardy bravado on the eve of training camp, but so be it.

I think this team can get there, can get back to the playoffs, can re-ignite this fan base and this city. But it starts right now. The pursuit of spring glory is why we are here in the first place, and it’s slated to begin on a Saturday morning in mid-September.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Impressive as they were in the round-robin portion of the Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament, the Atlanta Thrashers could not slow down the Dallas Stars in the second half of Wednesday night’s championship game.

After battling back from a 3-1 first-period deficit to tie the game with two goals in the first 6:19 of the second, the Thrashers were steamrolled, allowing five unanswered goals in losing 8-3 in the tournament final.

The highlight for the Thrashers was a two-point performance from first-round draft pick Zach Bogosian. The 18-year-old defenseman, who impressed during his play in the tournament, tied the game at 1-1 on a power play goal at 13:54 of the first. After Angelo Esposito – acquired in the Marian Hossa deal at last season’s trade deadline – scored at the 2:09 mark of the second, Bogosian and Grant Lewis assisted on Danick Paquette’s game-tying goal, the power-play tally coming at 6:19 of the second.

But the Stars grabbed control from there, taking the lead just 1:53 after Paquette’s goal. Dallas scored seven minutes after that to carry a 5-3 lead into the second intermission, and broke it wide open with three goals in the third.

Spencer Machacek, who also played well in the tournament, assisted on Esposito’s goal. Bogosian, Paquette and Carter Bancks each led Atlanta with four shots on goal.

Chris Carrozzi took the loss in goal, stopping just 20 of 28 shots.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – If you blinked, you missed Glen Metropolit’s first go-around as a hockey player in Atlanta.

I know I did … and I spent some time writing about the team he played with here way back in 1995-96. Metro laced ’em up for one game with the old Atlanta Knights of the old International Hockey League. I wrote about the Knights for my college newspaper, and while names like Stan Drulia, Chris LiPuma and Mike Greenlay pop to mind whenever I think of the Knights, Metro’s name escaped me.

Guess I was covering something else the night he skated for the Knights.

Anyway, I do vividly remember Metro’s second stint in Atlanta. Playing for the Thrashers in 2006-07, he scored 12 goals and tallied 16 assists in 57 games, as Atlanta missed the playoffs by the slimmest of margins in a season that saw the Thrashers employ, I don’t know, 19 different goaltenders due to injury?

But I digress.

Why am I writing about Metro in the middle of the night, when I should be sleeping? Two reasons. One, I was thinking about former Thrashers’ players who have made an impact on the team and fan base in a positive light. Heaven knows we hear so much about the folks who do wrong, who crash cars, who get in trouble with the law, who brush off fans. Metro always was a fan favorite, one who would sign autographs and go out of his way to make fans feel like they were part of the team. He did that in Atlanta during his one season with the Thrashers.

Two, I found a story about Metro’s rough childhood as I was searching for info about his career, and that one game he played with the Knights way back when. I didn’t find anything about his time with the Knights, but the story about what Metro endured as a child and the plight of his imprisoned brother really moved me. I think you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I did. Metro’s in Philly now, hoping to push the Flyers toward the Stanley Cup.

Back to the Thrashers, the prospects team hits the ice tonight for the championship game of the Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament. Some really fine play by the younger Thrashers during their three games in round-robin play. Hopefully they can finish it off with a win in the final tonight against Dallas.

Training camp opens Saturday. Yep, we’re getting close to hockey! I get the sense from talking to folks here who do follow the Thrashers – yes, for those of you not in Atlanta, there are really hockey fans in Atlanta – that this team is going to be better than all the pundits and experts think. I hope so, at least.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Certainly nobody expects the Atlanta Thrashers and Detroit Red Wings to be playing for a berth in any type of final this season.

But it happened Tuesday night, and the Thrashers prevailed, moving into the championship game of the Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament.

Spencer Machacek scored a power play goal in regulation, then added a score in the shootout as the Thrashers downed the Red Wings 3-2 on Tuesday night, moving Atlanta into the tournament final tonight against Dallas.

Machacek and Matt Lyall scored in the shootout, and Chris Carrozzi stopped Francis Pare in the final round of the shootout for the Thrashers, who won their first two games in the tournament with back-to-back shutouts.

Detroit scored first in this one, taking a 1-0 lead on a power play goal in the second. The Thrashers rallied with a shorthanded goal from Riley Holzapfel at 8:07 in the third. Machacek gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead two minutes later, scoring on the power play off an Arturs Kulda assist.

The Red Wings tied the game at 2-2 with 2:24 to go in regulation, and neither team scored in the two overtime periods, setting up the shootout.

The Thrashers spent most of the night in the penalty box, finishing with 26 minutes of penalties. Holzapfel and Machacek each led the Thrashers with four shots on goal. First-round draft pick Zach Bogosian finished with two shots on goal and two penalty minutes. Carrozzi stopped 29 of 31 shots.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Nobody’s going to go running to the box office demanding playoff tickets based on the showing of the Atlanta Thrashers’ team of prospects so far at the Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament.

With that said, it’s good to see any team wearing the Thrashers’ jersey win … since we didn’t see it too many times last season.

Following Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay, the Thrashers improved to 2-0 in the tournament with a 3-0 shutout of the New York Rangers on Sunday. Atlanta scored twice in the first period and added the third goal midway through the third.

The Thrashers started fast, Tomas Pospisil scored just 29 seconds into the game on an unassisted goal. Atlanta made it 2-0 at the 15:16 mark of the first, Angelo Esposito – who came to the Thrashers in the Marian Hossa deal – lighting the lamp on the power play with assists from Matt Siddall and Paul Postma.

Spencer Machacek added the final game at the 9:13 mark of the third. It was more than enough for Ryan Daniels, who turned away 23 shots in goal in posting the shutout.

Through two games, Atlanta has not allowed a goal on 49 shots. First-round draft pick Zach Bogosian did not have a shot. Machacek finished plus-2, as did Pospisil and Rylan Kaip.

Atlanta finishes up play with a Tuesday meeting with Detroit. The tournament concludes Wednesday with games to determine first place, third place, fifth place and seventh place.

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA – Quick blog this morning, but wanted to let you know the Thrashers opened the Traverse City Prospect Evaluation Tournament with a 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay on Saturday.

Paul Postma scored the game’s only goal in the first period, on assists from Matt Lyall and Spencer Machacek at 14:56. From there, Chris Carrozzi made it hold up, making 26 saves between the pipes to preserve the shutout.

Atlanta went 0-for-8 on the power play in a chippy contest that saw each team penalized eight times. First-round draft pick Zach Bogosian recorded one shot on goal for Atlanta.

The Thrashers continue play in the tournament today against the Rangers, and face the Red Wings on Tuesday.

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