Thrashers need to pump up power on power play

Oct 20 2008

Published by bud006 at 6:00 am under Thrashers Analysis Edit This

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Oh-for-21 and counting …

I feel like I’m still covering the Braves, who lost 29 consecutive one-run road games before finally breaking the streak at the tail end of the regular season.

Now that I’m into hockey season and my Thrashers’ coverage, I find myself writing about another skid.

The Thrashers have not scored a power-play goal since netting three of them in the season-opening victory over Washington on Oct. 10. Atlanta has come up empty on its last 21 power plays, a streak that has to be a primary concern for head coach John Anderson.

One of the many changes Anderson has made to this team is to pull Ilya Kovalchuk off the point and move him around on the power play. Kovy, of course, has as hard a one-timer as anybody in the NHL, but having No. 17 floating around the circles and behind the net gives goaltenders and D-men something to think about.

But it hasn’t work so far. It doesn’t matter where Kovy is. It matters where the puck is, and far too often, it’s skidding toward the other end of the ice with a Thrasher or two in pursuit.

Puck possession is the most important element in the power play, and the Thrashers haven’t done a good enough job of that during their power outages against Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey and Buffalo.

It’s up to the guys on the point – Mathieu Schneider, Toby Enstrom, Ron Hainsey, etc. – to do a better job of keeping possession, of allowing Atlanta to set up in the zone. Do that, and you’ll see the power come back on, and soon.