Exhibition in winning: Thrashers win preseason opener

Sep 26 2008

Published by bud006 at 7:59 am under Thrashers Recaps Edit This

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.