On eve of season opener, Thrashers feature question marks

Oct 09 2008

Published by bud006 at 6:43 am under Thrashers Analysis Edit This

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — And here we are, on the eve of the start of the new Atlanta Thrashers’ season. The new third jersey – ugly as it may be – has been unveiled. The opening-night roster has been set. Everything is ready to go.

Now, it’s time to drop the puck.

I’ve tried in the past two months to paint as realistic a picture as I can about this team. The other team I cover, the Atlanta Braves, had a great team coming out of preseason, until injuries and underperformance and the inability to come through in the clutch torpedoed what could have been a very special season.

No such thoughts about Le Thrash as they get ready to skate against the Caps tomorrow night at Philips Arena, the first of an 82-game season that, in all likelihood, will end after 82 games. I’ll say it right now: as much as I’d love to be covering an 83rd game this season, I just don’t see it happening.

But I do see the potential for progress and, after last season, I’ll take that as a good step forward.

Of course, offseason free agent signings and trades and high draft picks and a new coach and retooled lines don’t mean squat when the clock starts ticking from 20:00, when the puck slides away from center ice, when the game begins. It’s up to the six guys on the ice and the man behind the bench to make it happen.

I think we’ll see signs this season of a northward turn, but let’s face it: if this team went much further south, it wouldn’t be a hockey season. It’d be a journey toward the center of the Earth.

I like what the Thrashers have done with their defense. Again, it couldn’t have been much worse than it was last season, but adding Mathieu Schneider and Ron Hainsey, and the promise of Zach Bogosian, is enough to make me think Atlanta won’t lead the league in shots allowed or goals allowed this season.

I like just about everything I’ve heard from John Anderson. He shoots straight when it comes to evaluating his player’s performance. There will be accountability and stability behind the bench this season, a far cry from what we saw starting late in the division championship season of 2006-07. I like his aggressive, up-tempo style. It will take time to employ, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

That’s not to say I don’t have plenty of questions about this team. Can Jason Williams give Atlanta a big scoring threat on the top line, opposite Ilya Kovalchuk? Can Slava Kozlov stay healthy and bounce back from a miserable season last year? Can Bryan Little continue his development? Can Todd White actually look like a center who belongs in the NHL? Can those upgrades on the blueline do what I think they can do? Can Kari Lehtonen stay healthy and perform more often like a top-10 goaltender and less often have fans screaming for Moose (Johan Hedberg)?

I don’t know the answers. The Southeast Division is going to be tough. Washington looks great. Tampa Bay, off to an 0-2 start, nonetheless stands to be a totally different and vastly improved team. Carolina should have a good season. That’s three teams right there, within Atlanta’s division, that figure to finish ahead of the Thrashers. That only leaves five playoff spots left, and you don’t have to tick through the Eastern Conference for very long to come up with five teams that, as it stands right now, should finish ahead of the Thrashers.

But that’s why you play the games, don’t you? Otherwise, you’d just run a computer program, save yourself the late nights of staying up to watch, save yourself the coin you spend to go to games. You’d just hit a button and see what record spits out.

Getting back to the playoffs won’t be easy, and I don’t think that should be the overarching barometer on whether or not 2008-09 is a success for the Thrashers. Yes, you play the game to win, and the goal for every team should be to win the Stanley Cup.

But it’s a process. Atlanta fell about as hard and as far as a team can plunge last season. The time to start the climb back toward respectability is at hand. It will be interesting to see just how many rungs up the ladder this group can go during the next six months.