Thrashers.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

ATLANTA — Another week dawns, another week following a forgettable stretch of hockey by the Atlanta Thrashers.

If you’ve quit following the dose of bad news that’s been surrounding this team’s putrid play of late, nobody can blame you. Indeed, when you know this team is going to lose the moment skates hit the ice, it’s hard to be motivated enough to watch and cheer.

The Thrashers were able to grind out a point in Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Rangers at Philips Arena, a game in which Atlanta rallied twice from one-goal deficits with scores from Joey Crabb (his first career goal) and Ilya Kovalchuk (finally breaking into double figures with his 10th of the season).

But Johan Hedberg allowed Scott Gomez’s backhander to slide through for the game winner just 18 ticks into extra time.

Then came Friday and Saturday’s home-and-home with the high-flying Bruins, who blew the Thrashers out of the rink. Friday’s game at Philips was the worst effort of the year, as Boston built a 4-0 lead just 11:56 into the contest, and the Thrashers actually changed goalies twice.

Saturday wasn’t much better. The final score was a little more respectable – the Thrashers lost 4-2 – but the effort was pretty poor, as well. The B’s led 2-1 after a period, added a score late in the second and pushed it to 4-1 before Marty Reasoner’s fifth goal of the season made the final outcome a two-goal loss.

The Thrashers sit in a three-way tie for last in the NHL standings with the Islanders and Lightning at 22 points. Atlanta has coughed up 110 goals, highest total in the league. Since winning five games in a row last month, the Thrashers have just six points (two wins, two OT losses) in their past 13 games (2-9-2).

The Thrashers already are 11 points out of the final playoff spot, and unless this team can put together a quick winning streak in the next two or three weeks, we’re going to spend the second half of this season talking about who is and who isn’t going to be here after the trading deadline.

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