The Thrashers may have lost 5-2 in Washington but the game was so much closer than that.
Atlanta opened the scoring to go up 1-0 and entered the second period tied 1-1. Caps goalie Michael Neuvirth stole the show in the second, stopping 22 Atlanta shots. 22 shots. If not for his heroics the Thrashers could have busted the game open, but instead Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom connected for the second time to put Washington up 2-1 on an odd-man rush. Down 2-1 in the third the Thrashers gambled a little bit and got caught on another rush, falling back 3-1. Just over a minute later Jason Chimera made it 4-1 with the only goal that Pavelec had a chance of stopping.
Rich Peverley got a short-handed breakaway later in the third and got credit for a goal when Alex Semin knocked the puck into his own net after a Neuvirth stop. That made it 4-2, but the Thrashers couldn’t overcome a strong Washington performance. An empty-netter made it 5-2 in a snowy nation’s capital.
Overall it was a strong effort against an absolute juggernaut of a team, especially since the Thrashers played a defenseman down for more than two periods after Boris Valabik left the game with a lower body injury.
The newcomers acquitted themselves fairly well given that they’d never practiced with the team, or even met most of the players until this afternoon. Johnny Oduya logged 20:38 and was -1 with three blocked shots and two hits to his credit. Niclas Bergfors was also -1 and logged 12:53 wile taking four shots. Neither player got time on the power play but Oduya played 4:35 on the PK, second only to his new partner (for now at least) Ron Hainsey. Bergfors player mainly with Antropov and Little, which is the spot Ilya Kovalchuk occupied.
Overall the Thrashers played well- they hustled, outshot the Capitals 45-32 (12 of which were on the power play) and didn’t look like a team that had just traded its leading scorer. Great effort, even if the result wasn’t there. Washington has now won 13 straight games, so it’s not as if they were playing a struggling squad.
By the way, Toby Enstrom’s first-period goal was his 40th point of the season, which means he now owns the franchise record for points by a defenseman in a single season, and there are still about seven weeks of action left before the season comes to an end. Ron Hainsey held the previous record with 39 points.
I mentioned snow earlier, and it’ll keep the team in Washington overnight and the plan is for them to fly to Atlanta in the morning. Stay tuned for more on that. Obviously there will be no morning skate, which means no update about lines and whatnot, and probably no chance for me to talk to Oduya and Bergfors.
Good effort, bad result. Outshooting Washington like that is quite impressive considering they’re the best team in the world right now. If anyone was dissapointed by Oduya or Bergfors, they’ll take a bit of time to really get in, but they’re going to be in top shape soon.
I’ve also recently noted that the Thrashers have not been under .500 all season. If the Thrashers keep playing the way the did tonight, they can surely beat worse teams. The future may be bleak, but I’m always optimistic.
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Hey Ben- any update on the status of tonight’s game? Are they able to get out of DC?
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Per Tweeter, they headed down I95 in a bus (escorted by 4 snowplows), to catch a flight from the Richmond, VA airport.
Hawks game in DC tonight’s been cancelled … Wizards can’t get out of Orlando, and Hawks can’t get out of Atlanta.
- litz
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Hoping the Thrashers arrive safely back and with a little time to rest up before the game. It’s a biggie!
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Yeah I’ve noticed that the comments section of the blog is being spammed big time. I dont get it, arent there better places to post bad weblinks?
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Not sure what game you watched, Ben, but:
Just over a minute later Jason Chimera made it 4-1 with the only goal that Pavelec had a chance of stopping.
is untrue. Pavelec had a chance to stop all except the Ovechkin power play goal. The others were quite stoppable. See, Pavelec got worked over bigtime. Notice the last three goals were all glove side high.
I like Pavelec. He’s got the potential to be a really great goalie. He kept us in a lot of games at the beginning of the year, so I really like to have a goalie with the potential to steal some games whe the rest of the team is having an off night. However, Pavelec needs work – and lots of it – on his glove side. That is a MAJOR weakness, and it needs to be fixed ASAP.
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Ben, is Waddell traveling with the team or is he already in Atlanta? Just wondering if STH meeting is still on for 6:00.
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Alan I really can’t blame Pavelec on those 2 on 1s or 3 on 1s. He really had no chance on those. Again this team gives up too many odd man rushes and it’s whats killing this team right now. That and the inability to score goals. Sure Thrashers had 40+ shots and plenty of scoring chances but not many was really Grade A scoring chance. Most of the shots I saw in 2nd and 3rd period was wristers and slap shots from further out that Neuvirth got to see. It seemed like each time a Thrashers player shot the puck is was either right into the pads or chest of Neuvirth. I didn’t see a whole lot of traffic in front or many players really crashing the crease. Anyway getting back on point that 4th goal I agree that should have been stopped. It was a good shot top right corner but still, he could see it all the way.
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i thought a good overall effort. a few small mistakes but the caps dont miss anything right now.
we will see better results if thats our energy lvl for 60 min a night.
early penalties slowed a really good start for us.
oh and also, theres the fact that the caps r the least penalized/most physical team i have seen. refs knew it and gave us some make up calls later.
oduya is gonna like the green light he gets here, bergfors and his linemates had some great forechecking shifts
better results await, i just hope we have enough to get in the top 8
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Overall, I was proud to see our the team reacted in the aftermath of the transfer of Kovy.
The new players obviously needs adjustments to get along with their new teammates.
The Cap’s were too strong, too good and their goaly was in his game at 100%. Even if the Thrashers outshooted the Cap’s the shoots were mostly not very dangerous for Neurath and there was not enough traffic in front of the net.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to this team, but the need to prove collectively that they can survive Kovy’s trade to the Devils.
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In case you all didn’t see this in The Hockey News, here is what Kovay actually thinks of the Thrashers:
………Coming to the Devils in a blockbuster five-player deal with Atlanta will give the 26-year-old Kovalchuk his first real chance to compete for a Stanley Cup.
“I am very excited,” he said after taking part in the pregame skate for Friday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “This is the fist time in my career I got a chance to play for a first-class organization, the team who won three Stanley Cups. You just look around the locker room, and guys like Marty Brodeur, legends in this game, and it’s very exciting.”
This just puts an exclamation point on all of this. Never wanted to stay here. Period. BS’d everyone until his Agent spilled the beans about what they really wanted…so DW pulled the trigger. Just as well. Not the class act that we thought he was, that young Mr. Kovalchuk……nope, not at all. He’s better off in that dump they call Newark.
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No one seems to remember that New Jersey use to be the joke of the league back in the 80′s. In fact it was so bad Gretzky was quoted as calling it a ” Mickey Mouse ” organization right after they crushed them. This was when he still played for Edmonton who was pretty much destroying everyone during that time.
I do not believe Kovy thinks that we are not a first class organization, he just used a poor choice of words and was likely only paying his respect to his new team. But I do think that he wants to play for a big market team and now has the opportunity. Good luck Kovy.
We will have our opportunity to shine in this league very soon and will do just fine without Kovy. This team has a ton of talent and will be a force to be reckoned with soon.
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