Thrashers.Today.Com

By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Blues 4, Thrashers 2

Top of the Slot: Up 2-1, the Thrashers hung young Ondrej Pavelec out to dry, subjecting the netminder to 47 shots as the Blues rallied to send Atlanta to its fifth loss in the past seven games.

The Good: Pavelec gets the loss and gave up three goals, but as was the case in last weekend’s loss to Columbus, the tally would’ve been far worse was it not for his stellar effort between the pipes. Down 1-0, Colby Armstrong tied the game with his fourth goal, off a Ron Hainsey assist, less than two minutes after the Blues grabbed an early advantage. Nic Havelid notched his first goal of the season, off assists from Slava Kozlov and Todd White, with 85 seconds left in the first.

The Bad: Where to begin … oh yeah, where we ALWAYS seem to look first: shots on goal. St. Louis 47, Atlanta 30. This team has been outshot in 21 of its 23 games this season. Penalties hurt this team time and time again, and Sunday was no exception: Nathan Oystrick got bumped off the puck, subsequently got called for hooking, and the Blues cashed in, snapping a 2-2 tie with 8:15 to go. The Thrashers looked lethargic and largely uninterested, despite the fact they were off Saturday while St. Louis played. D-man Mathieu Schneider injured his shoulder and likely will miss a week.

View from the Sports Garage: And to think, I nearly offered the suggestion of stopping by Philips Arena on our way home from a Thanksgiving retreat to the North Georgia mountains to check out the game. Boy, that would’ve been a downer type of ending to the holiday weekend, eh? Another wretched performance. That five-game winning streak is a thing of the past now – Atlanta is 1-5-1 since. Gotta think there are going to be some changes, and head coach John Anderson alluded to as much in his postgame comments. It stinks because this team is so capable of playing good hockey, and we saw it during the five-game streak. Now, the Thrashers have sunk to the bottom of the NHL standings as December dawns. Should they remain there by the end of the month, it will be time to look to 2009-10, and time to unload this roster.

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Thrashers at Canadians
7:30 p.m. Tuesday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Capitals 5, Thrashers 3

Top of the Slot: The winning streak didn’t last long for the Thrashers, who fell behind 4-1 early in losing for the fourth time in five games as Alexander Ovechkin netted a hat trick for the Caps.

The Good: Guess Todd White has recovered from that head-first crash into the boards last Thursday against Pittsburgh. White, who scored twice in Tuesday’s win at Toronto, netted two assists against the Caps. Ilya Kovalchuk finished with two assists. Bryan Little scored his 10th goal of the season and also recorded a helper, assisting on Slava Kozlov’s 12th goal. Nathan Oystrick scored his first NHL goal and finished plus-1. The Thrashers finished 2-for-3 on the power play.

The Bad: The big, early deficit … ugh. Ondrej Pavelec kept the Thrashers in Saturday’s loss vs. Columbus, but the youngster couldn’t turn the trick Wednesday. He gave up three goals on just 11 shots in the first period, and allowed a goal seconds into the second. Garnet Exelby and Ron Hainsey won’t remember this game fondly, each blueliner finishing minus-3.

View from the Sports Garage: Hard to operate when you find yourself down 4-1 just 21 minutes into the game. The Thrashers’ defense simply didn’t have an answer for Ovechkin, who scored three of Washington’s first four goals and finished with a four-point night. Tough not to be able to carry over the momentum from Tuesday’s inspired win at Toronto. Back home Friday night …

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Thrashers vs. Predators
7:30 p.m. Friday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 6, Maple Leafs 3

Top of the Slot: In their first game since their worst performance of the season, the Thrashers stormed to a 3-0 lead en route to breaking a three-game losing streak.

The Good: Lots and lots of good things happened for Atlanta on this night. Todd White scored twice. Colby Armstrong, Ilya Kovalchuk, Chris Thorburn and Mathieu Schneider added one goal each. Assists on the night came from Slava Kozlov (two), Nathan Oystrick, Bryan Little, Marty Reasoner, Jim Slater and Eric Boulton. Schneider finished a plus-3, as 13 Thrashers ended the evening on the plus side. Kovalchuk challenged Toronto defenseman Ian White verbally and with his fists, firing up an already motivated Atlanta squad. In goal, Johan Hedberg halted 32 of 35 shots for the victory.

The Bad: Gonna have to dig deep here to find something negative … the Thrashers were outshot again, 35-30. It was a chippy affair, one in which the Thrashers took 10 penalties for 26 minutes.

View from the Sports Garage: After being so disgusted with what I saw inside Philips Arena on Saturday I couldn’t bring myself to blog about this team for two days – that, and I had a ton of other things going on as well – I was greatly and pleasantly surprised with the effort shown Tuesday night. This is a key stretch for the Thrashers, and back-to-backs on the road are never easy. Nothing like starting that stretch with three goals in the first 27:04. Great to see Kovy get a goal, and then go after Ian White. Another good game for Todd White. Strong play in the offensive zone all night from all four lines, a rare sight indeed. Great first win, great skid-buster. Now, let’s see how much jump the boys have tonight in D.C.

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Thrashers at Capitals
7 p.m. today

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Penguins 3, Thrashers 2

Top of the Slot: Tied at 2-2 entering the third period, the Thrashers gave up the game-winner with 2:40 left, losing for the second straight game.

The Good: Slava Kozlov’s bounce-back season continued with his 11th goal in the first period, off assists from Ilya Kovalchuk and Mathieu Schneider, who returned from a hip injury. Jimmy Slater got his second goal, a wrap-around effort, to tie the game at 2-2 in the second. Eric Perrin and Toby Enstrom assisted on that goal, which came 84 seconds after Sidney Crosby (BOO!) broke a 1-1 tie. Ondrej Pavelec weathered a 16-shot second period, finishing with 28 saves on 31 shots. Slater won five of his seven face-offs and skated strong in his nine minutes of work.

The Bad: Where, oh where, has Kari Lehtonen gone … not saying Pavelec played poorly, because the kid actually played well. But just how bad is Kari’s back injury that has shelved him for three weeks? Chris Thorburn continues picking up penalties at bad times; his interference penalty set up the game-winning goal. Schneider picked up two minutes for high-sticking in the second. Todd White, who has played very well, left the game in the third after going head-first into the boards.

View from the Sports Garage: Nothing puts me in a worse mood than Crosby doing something good against the Thrashers. Tough game to lose, but you can say that anytime you lose by one goal at home. You also can say you believe this is one that got away, and these are the games the Thrashers MUST win if they are going to be a legitimate playoff contender. Tied at 2-2 entering the final period at home, Atlanta had an opportunity to make a statement. Perhaps the statement is, after two straight losses, this team isn’t as good as what we saw during the five-game winning streak. Time will tell. Nonetheless, I’m excited about what could be with this team. I’ll be in Philips Arena on Saturday for my first look in person at this team. Speaking of Saturday …

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Thrashers vs. Blue Jackets
7 p.m. Saturday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Flyers 4, Thrashers 3

Top of the Slot: After battling back from a pair of two-goal deficits, the Thrashers gave up the game-winner with 6:17 left as their winning streak ended at five games.

The Good: The Thrashers showed plenty of heart in fighting back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1. Erik Christensen scored his first goal of the season to make it 2-1 in the second period. The second line continued to shine, Bryan Little and Slava Kozlov netting goals in the third as Atlanta tied the game at 3-3. Ilya Kovalchuk recorded two assists. Ron Hainsey finished plus-2 and had an assist. Garnet Exelby also notched an assist.

The Bad: The Thrashers’ defense was far from stellar in the first two periods, allowing 28 shots in the opening 40 minutes. Johan Hedberg allowed four goals on the night, the game-winner on a shot where Moose just didn’t get down quick enough to stop it. Really, puck should’ve been stopped.

View from the Sports Garage: Well, the win streak is over. Instead of talking about a franchise-record sixth straight, the Thrashers left Philly wondering what could’ve been had they not been outshot 28-11 in the first two periods, if Hedberg had stopped the game winner … oh well. It was a better effort than the Thrashers displayed in that 7-0 whipping Philly hung on them last month at Philips Arena. Time to shake this one off and take a few days off until the Sidney Crosby Circus comes to town.

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Thrashers vs. Penguins
7 p.m. Thursday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 3, Hurricanes 2

Top of the Slot: Break up the Thrashers! One of the NHL’s hottest team made it five in a row Friday night, tying a franchise record for longest winning streak by downing division-rival Carolina for the second time in five days.

The Good: Maybe Marty Reasoner needs to skate against the Canes all season. Reasoner scored his fourth goal of the season, his third in two games against Carolina, to open the scoring midway through the first period. Eric Perrin netted his first goal of the season early in the second. Slava Kozlov gave the Thrashers a 4-2 lead 4:12 into the third, in the dying seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage. Bryan Little, Ron Hainsey, Eric Boulton, Jim Slater and Colby Armstrong notched assists. Johan Hedberg was solid in goal, turning away 27 shots to earn the victory. Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t score, but he led the team with seven shots.

The Bad: The Thrashers allowed two power-play goals, and made life tough on themselves into the game when Boris Valabik took a holding penalty with under five minutes left and Atlanta clinging to a one-goal lead. Kari Lehtonen did not play again, but hey, the Thrashers are perfect since Kari left the lineup, so does anybody care? The Thrashers were outshot (again) 29-25, but again, a win is a win. We shall not complain!

View from the Sports Garage: If you’ve been away for a couple of weeks, traveling on business or maybe taking a vacation, you’d be shocked if you looked at the NHL standings this morning. There sits Atlanta, 7-7-2 on the season, six points out of the Southeast Division lead. The past three victories – one against Buffalo and two against Carolina – really have been impressive. Another good performance Friday night, where the Thrashers played strong hockey in their offensive zone, were solid on the blueline, got good goaltending … impressive to play like this against Carolina. That’s two wins in hand against one of the teams in the Southeast. Any win in division play is big. Need to continue the momentum into Philly Sunday. This Thrashers team is vastly different from the one the Flyers embarrassed 7-0 at Philips Arena last month.

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Thrashers at Flyers
7 p.m. Sunday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 5, Hurricanes 2

Top of the Slot: The Thrashers rode two goals from Marty Reasoner and a four-goal unanswered streak to take complete control against the Southeast Division winners, running their winning streak to four games and pulling within four points of the division lead.

The Good: Reasoner hadn’t played well through the first 14 games of the season but boy he had a ton of jump and really looked good Sunday, scoring his second and third goals of the season, finishing at plus-2. Jason Williams scored his fourth goal in the past three games and added an assist. Ilya Kovalchuk scored his sixth goal of the season and also had a helper. Ron Hainsey added a goal and an assist. Bryan Little, Eric Perrin, Erik Christensen and Chris Thorburn each added an assist. In goal, it was Johan Hedberg and he was solid, making 35 saves.

The Bad: Kari Lehtonen still is not back, having not played in the past four games due to back problems and the flu. With four days off until Friday’s rematch with the Hurricanes, maybe Kari can finally get well. Slava Kozlov’s point-scoring streak ended at six games. Atlanta was outshot 37-22, and only mustered three shots inside the final 20 minutes.

View from the Sports Garage: Looking at the Southeast Division standings this morning, you’d never think the Thrashers had slogged their way through a miserable start to the season. This team is flying right now. Yes, the first two wins of this streak were against teams that aren’t very good. But any weekend during which you win at Buffalo and at Carolina is a really good weekend. We’re starting to see some guys get on track, like Williams, like Reasoner. It’s a byproduct of chemistry, of now having 15 games with each other under their belts. In a way, it stinks that this team doesn’t play again until Friday. They’re on a pretty good roll right now.

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Thrashers vs. Hurricanes
7:30 p.m. Friday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 5, Sabers 4 (OT)

Top of the Slot: Jason Williams buried a rebound 48 seconds into overtime, as the Thrashers won for the third straight game with a resilient performance.

The Good: Man, the Slava Kozlov, Todd White, Bryan Little line is carrying this team offensively. Kozlov’s goal-scoring streak ended at four games, but he finished with three assists and a plus-2. White scored once and finished plus-1. Little netted two goals and added a helper, finishing at plus-2. Nic Havelid continued his good work with an assist and a plus-2 rating. Then there was Williams, who scored the first goal and the last goal, ripping home the game-winner off a rebound of Ilya Kovalchuk’s one-timer. Speaking of Kovy, he finished with two assists. Johan Hedberg was shaky in goal early, but was spectacular late, finishing with 28 saves. Atlanta scored on two of its three power-play chances, White power-play goal eight minutes into the third tying the game, and Williams’ game-winner in OT.

The Bad: Hedberg really looked rough in the early going, so much so I was fearful I was seeing the end of Moose’s career in Atlanta. Ondrej Pavelec has looked great, and with Kari Lehtonen poised to return from back and flu problems for Sunday’s game at Carolina, a goalie’s gotta go. Colby Armstrong took two of the four Atlanta penalties, one of which led to a Buffalo goal.

View from the Sports Garage: Beating the Panthers and Islanders, two teams that share space with the Thrashers near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, is one thing. Beating Buffalo – the second-best team in the East – on the road, in a game where you have to bounce back from three one-goal deficits, is something altogether. It’s the biggest victory of the year, bar none. A three-game winning streak, and this one was impressive because the Thrashers dug deep and really worked hard in the third period and overtime. Honestly, when the Sabers went up 4-3 late in the second period, I thought Atlanta was in trouble. But the Thrashers kept working. They earned this one, folks. It was great to see. Look at White (15 points), Kozlov (14 points) and Little (14 points), all three leading the team in scoring. That line is playing with amazing chemistry and jump. I hereby apologize for all the bad things I said about White in the offseason and preseason, ha ha! Just keep playing this way, boys! Now it’s on to division-leading Carolina. A win in regulation brings the Thrashers to within four points of first place … yeah it’s early, but so what!

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Thrashers at Hurricanes
3 p.m. Sunday

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 4, Islanders 3

Top of the Slot: Slava Kozlov continued his scoring tear and Ondrej Pavelec made 24 saves in goal, sparking the Thrashers to a season-best two-game winning streak.

The Good: Wow, the offshore surgeries on his shoulder and knee have made one heck of a difference for Kozlov, who looks like he’s 10 years younger. Two more goals Thursday, giving him five in the past four games and eight on the season. Kozzy finished a plus-3, as did Bryan Little and Todd White, each of whom notched two assists as the second line dominated. The top defensive pairing shined. Nic Havelid finished a plus-3, and Toby Enstrom picked a good time for his first goal of the year, snapping a 3-3 tie with 8:31 left on a shot from the point. Pavelec looked comfortable between the pipes. Off the ice, Kari Lehtonen – out with back problems and the flu – is expected to play tonight at Buffalo. Jason Williams scored on the power play, and Ilya Kovalchuk added an assist.

The Bad: The Thrashers played without Mathieu Schneider, who injured his hip and will miss at least the next two games. Atlanta looked lethargic for a big part of the second period and it hurt, as the Islanders scored twice in a 17-second span to take a 3-1 lead. Boris Valabik, promoted from Chicago to add depth to the blueline, finished minus-1 and earned a two-minute tripping penalty. Chris Thorburn took a hooking call with 10 seconds left, but the Thrashers weathered a 6-on-4 at the finish to earn the win.

View from the Sports Garage: Boy, it’s been a while since this team won two games in a row. How long? Try Feb. 15. And you had to wonder if it was going to happen while watching this team slip into a shell in the second period. But head coach John Anderson lit a fire under the boys during the second intermission, and Atlanta responded with one of its better periods of the season to close things out. Kozlov is playing like he’s 27, not 37. Smooth and steady, the veteran is leading the way. Little and White looked fantastic, as did Enstrom. A really good victory for a team that, despite its early-season struggles, finds itself only six points behind division-leader Carolina.

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Thrashers at Sabers
7:30 p.m. today

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By Bud L. Ellis
thrashers.today.com

Thrashers 5, Panthers 3

Top of the Slot: A win, at long and blessed last, as the Thrashers broke a 15-day, six-game winless streak by riding Ilya Kovalchuk’s three-point night at Philips Arena.

The Good: Kovy woke up; now, somebody keep him awake. The front-line left-winger and one of the NHL’s most explosive players has been asleep for most of the season so far, but No. 17 broke out in a big way Sunday: two goals, one assist, and very active on the offensive end of things. Definitely a good sign. Slava Kozlov and Bryan Little continued their good offensive work, each scoring their sixth goal of the season. Todd White added an empty netter and an assist. One night after being scratched, Erik Christensen returned to the ice with a pair of helpers. All of it was plenty for Ondrej Pavelec, who earned the victory in his first start of the season in goal, stopping 18 of 21 shots.

The Bad: Kari Lehtonen was scratched for the second consecutive game. The organization describes the starting netminder as being “under the weather.” It’d probably be more accurate to describe Lehtonen as being “under the weathering avalanche of shots allowed by the Atlanta defense this season.” Up 4-1 after Little’s goal with three minutes left in the second, the Atlanta defense broke down and allowed two goals in the next 6:17, allowing Florida to pull within one goal.

View from the Sports Garage: So this is what a win feels like, huh? Only the third one of the year, but hey, you gotta start the upswing somewhere. Might as well be here. Kovy finally cut loose, netting his fourth and fifth of the season in the first 31 minutes of the game. The second goal, on the power play less than four minutes after Florida cut a 2-0 Atlanta lead to 2-1, seemed to give the Thrashers a much-needed spark. As for the other K in the scoring punch, Kozlov extended his goal-scoring streak to three games, netting his fourth in the past three games. That’s six points in his past five games. Pavelec played well, considering he didn’t know he was being called up until mid-afternoon Saturday (he stopped six shots in the third period in Saturday night’s loss at New Jersey). The Thrashers took only three penalties and outshot the Panthers 31-21. Good win, without a doubt, and definitely encouraging signs on offense, as the Thrashers netted their most goals in a game since scoring seven in the home-opening win over Washington way back on Oct. 10. Now it’s time to take three days off and get ready for the Islanders on Thursday at home.

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Thrashers vs. Islanders
7 p.m. Thursday

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