It’s a big, big week for the Thrashers.
After playing 10 games in 29 days the Thrashers, who have played the fewest games in the NHL, will play four in six days, facing Montreal tomorrow, Columbus back home in Atlanta on Thursday, the Islanders on Long Island on Saturday, and the Blues at Philips on Sunday.
Despite having played 1-5 games fewer than anyone else in the conference the Thrashers are in good shape with a 5-4-1 record and just a point out of second place in the Southeast Division. They might only be in 12th in the East right now, but their 11 points have them just three back of 6th place Ottawa. A few wins over this four-game stretch will go a long way in moving them back up the standings. We really won’t have a good feel for where the Thrashers fit into the points race until the game-played number evens out though.
And here’s a stat for you- the Thrashers haven’t played a sub-.500 team yet this season. sounds impressive doesn’t it? It is, at least until you realize only six of the 30 teams in the NHL have losing records. Still- other teams have been beating up on Toronto, the Islanders, the Hurricanes, the Wild and the Ducks, but the worst team Atlanta has faced (from a record standpoint) is Montreal, and they’re 7-7-0. Hopefully they can be moved into the “teams with losing records” after tomorrow night’s game at the Bell Center.
Some other team stats for you:
- The Thrashers have scored 34 goals and allowed 29 for a +5 goal differential 10 games into the season.
- Three of the Thrashers’ four losses came by one goal.
- Atlanta’s power play is ranked 3rd in the NHL (27.8%) while the PK has slipped to 9th at 82.2%.
- The Thrashers are scoring 3.4 goals per game (6th in the NHL) and the defense is allowing 2.8 (12th in the NHL).
- The Thrashers are ranked 6th in the league in faceoff winning percentage (51.7%).
Some player stats:
- Rich Peverley has scored nine points during his current seven game point streak. His 13 points lead the team. He’s on pace for 106.6 points. The franchise record is 100.
- Zach Bogosian has five goals in 10 games, which ties him for NHL lead in goals by a defenseman. The franchise record for goals by a defenseman is 10. Bogosian is on pace for 41.
- Nik Antropov’s 10 assists lead the team and put him 13th in the NHL in assists.
- Ondrej Pavelec’s .924 save percentage is good for 5th in the NHL.
Tomorrow night’s game won’t be on SportSouth which means I’ll be doing a live blog. Look for it around game time. Thursday’s home game versus the Blue Jackets (who are 27th in the NHL in goals against per game at 3.46) is another Thrashers Thursday, which means you can get $15 tickets.
good work Ben! We need 6 points this week!!
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Looks like Bogo is on pace to shatter the D scoring record.
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12th in the east is 4 places out of the last slot for the post-season. Not exactly a position of power going into the playoffs…and that’s playing just 2 games WITHOUT Kovalchuk. We’re only ahead of Carolina, Toronto and Florida, who are having abysmal seasons so far. Even the Isles have more points than us.
IMO, the Thrashers’ main objective right now is to re-sign Kovalchuk. We’ve got to show we can stay at least within striking distance of a playoff berth, for Ilya to consider us a team he will commit to long-term. And, IMO, that’s got to happen before the end of the year to avoid the media mayhem that surrounded Hossa before the trade deadline. That kind of distraction this team doesn’t need.
I wish I shared your optimism…I’m ready to be proved wrong. I want Ilya signed long-term and I want to be paying for playoff tickets in Atlanta. But allowing 51 SOG, even though its a win, isn’t the mark of a well-executed game plan, IMO. Even if Pavs can perform like that every night, he shouldn’t be asked to do it.
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You should “love blog” more often.
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Sam- you missed the point- they’re in 12th because they’ve played 1-4 games less than the teams ahead of them. The Thrashers are in a position to make up some serious ground.
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“Tomorrow night’s game won’t be on SportSouth…”
Does SportSouth have an allergy to televising games from Canada, or do they have a days-old college football game to replay?
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With the disparity in games played, it might help to show the standings in a “Points per Game Played” format.
Do that now and the Thrashers are 8th in th East. Room for improvement, but not bad.
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Wayne – Center Ice is your friend.
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only 10 goals by a D-Man is very surprising to me
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Actually Montreal did have a losing record at the time Atlanta played them. So they were the first sub-.500 team played.
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Being in 12th place means we’re…er, in 12th place. Games-in-hand provide opportunity. Assuming we’re going to win them all is premature, IMO. But hey, let’s do it!
The big point, IMO, is that Ilya’s unsigned.
And mediocrity should never be acceptable. We’ve got a payroll in the middle of the pack. We’ve got more depth than ever before. Why are we discussing how 12th place is OK? We should be busting our butts to win the division so we play a weaker team in the first round of the playoffs. As it is, we’re a good 10 points behind Washington.
I hope we make the most of the opportunities these 1-4 games in hand offer. I want to win and re-sign Ilya. But selling 12th place like its not-that-bad, is misleading.
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GOALTENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIVE IT!!!!!!!
LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!
GOTTA HAVE MORE OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOALTENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thrashers HAVE to play 60 minutes. No ifs ands or butts about it. They can’t allow Montreal to have a 10 minute 5 on 5 powerplay and expect to win! Looks like Anderson swapping Kozlov and Peverley. Maybe new line mates will help get Kozlov and Little going. I guess sometimes playing the with the same linemates all the time gets stagnant and players have tendancies to do the same things each game. I may get bashed but Kozlov and Little have been pretty invisible all season. Ya they have a few assists but that’s about it. It would be sweet if Thrashers could go on a 4 game win streak. That would jump them up in the standings in a big way. Go Thrashers!!!
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Sam, evaluating standings after normalizing for games played doesn’t assume we’re going to win them all going forward. It doesn’t assume anything, in fact. It just shows more accurately how we’ve performed to date relative to the rest of the league.
I’m guessing accuracy isn’t on your agenda, however.
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Hey, Waddell might be able to use these lines on Ilya in negotiations….”No, really, 12th place isn’t really 12th place. See, we’ve got these games in hand, so its almost like we’re in 8th place. Really. Now sign on the dotted line, Ilya.” LOL.
The record this month will speak for itself. Let’s hope its got us in 8th place. Kovy wants a Kup. And the Thrash need Ilya.
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7th now.
I see math, common sense, and negotiations aren’t your strong suits. Come see me when you want to buy something that’s very, very expensive.
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