Anderson: Can’t play that way and make playoffs
Just back from the Thrashers’ practice facility. There was no on-ice workout today, just gym work and meetings.
I will have a Q&A with Ondrej Pavelec online and in print.
OK, I see some loyal folks are fussing about the lack of coverage from Ottawa. I hear you. I have spoken to our online folks about making sure a story gets online when they are on the road – especially when it’s not televised. I’m sure it was just an oversight.
I did talk to Anderson about the Ottawa game – along with several players. Here is the item from the story I wrote on Monday.
“Two days after the Thrashers’ first loss of the season, Anderson was still not happy with his team’s effort. The Thrashers dropped a 4-2 decision to Ottawa on Saturday. After allowing two goals in the first two and half minutes, the Thrashers tied the score by the end of the first period. However, the Senators pulled away with goals in the second and third periods.
“I don’t think we competed as well as we should have,” Anderson said. “We did not compete in the corners. We weren’t as good as we were in St. Louis (a 4-2 win Thursday). I hope it doesn’t bite us in the rear end 50 games down the road.
“We can not play that way and expect to make the playoffs.”
There was no doubt Anderson was annoyed at the effort. A total opposite of what happened in St. Louis. I think he was more annoyed at the fact that the Thrashers lost after pulling even. That was a bigger issue than falling behind early.
The players said much the same thing – including Ilya Kovalchuk.
Now, let me see if I can answer some of the other questions from yesterday’s blog.
JLH: See above. Hope that helps.
Smoothie: There was no shuffling of lines at practice. Everything was the same.
Darkhorse, Brendan: Thanks for the kind words about the Eric Boulton story. I do appreciate it. Other than effort, I don’t forsee any adjustments right now. The second line has yet to produce but stay tuned to see if there is any juggling. It is early, only three games in.
Tom: I hope what I wrote above helps. My apologies.
FormerIslesFan: Thanks for the link!
That’s it folks. We’ll be back at practice tomorrow (yes, with a fully charged battery!)
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13 comments Add your comment
ChippersLoveChild
October 13th, 2009
2:06 pm
Eh we won 4-2 in St. Louis, minor detail, just saying…. Nice to see some quotes about the game on Saturday considering we have nothing else to base anything on.. Also any idea on whether Moose gets the call Friday or Saturday? I’d rather see him go against Jersey, just my opinion though.
Chris Vivlamore
October 13th, 2009
2:13 pm
ChippersLoveChild: Sorry. I will fix that. No word on what game Moose will start. Anderson doesn’t like to say. I keep asking. He just said Moose will play one of the back-to-backs.
Russian
October 13th, 2009
3:17 pm
I want to see Moose in NJ. Pavs should take care Buffalo.
IllegalCurve.com » Blog Archive » On the Beat: Healthy scratches in Toronto, Sami Salo out 4-6 weeks and new top lines in Washington
October 13th, 2009
4:00 pm
[...] Thrashers’ lines remained the same at practice today. No shortage of offense in Atlanta; if only they could start paying attention [...]
Brendan
October 13th, 2009
6:00 pm
It’s great to see Anderson talking about the playoffs in October. This is a good sign. It’s easy to say, “Ehh, it’s one game and there are 79 more to go.” That’s the seed of complacency. And he’s giving it the boot EARLY ON.
j nes
October 13th, 2009
7:47 pm
I agree Brendan. With the fragile state of this franchise, it is good that Anderson is showing concern. On the positive side, the Thrashers are only 1 point out of a playoff spot with 3 games in hand…I’m just sayin.
Darkhorse
October 13th, 2009
11:18 pm
Agree also. I hoped he and the team were PO’d they lost a very winnable game the other night. I hope they continue to remember it at practice and leading into the next game on Friday. As soon as everyone on this team and front office demands the best from themselves each game and expects to win each one, then we may start to see a legit run to the playoffs.
Tom
October 13th, 2009
11:25 pm
“OK, I see some loyal folks are fussing about the lack of coverage from Ottawa. I hear you. I have spoken to our online folks about making sure a story gets online when they are on the road – especially when it’s not televised. I’m sure it was just an oversight.
THANK YOU.
Tom
October 13th, 2009
11:28 pm
To follow up Chris, you guys were in a great place to give extra coverage especially since the game was not on television. In this wonderful era of cell phones a couple quick calls and a blurb with the full AP coverage and you would have been hero’s.
But thanks for bringing it up with the online folks. While the Thrasher fans are not numerous, we are loyal, and we tend to congregate at the AJC driving a fair few page views I bet.
Brendan
October 13th, 2009
11:44 pm
It is a curiosity to see that Calgary has already played its seventh game before Atlanta has its 4th game on the schedule. So, of course, at this slow pace of season, we’ve got all kinds of games in hand on most of the Conference. I’d be curious to see if Atlanta has played the fewest number of games of the NHL’s 30 teams. At 2-1-0, I’m not concerned. Not yet.
Besides, I’m promised, by VOW, not to scream about this Thrashers team until at least Halloween. I am going to honor my vow.
KQuark
October 14th, 2009
3:22 am
I have Center Ice and their was still no Thrashers coverage.
Gary Bettman is the worse comish in all of sports. Even with Center Ice we don’t get the games on Versus because Versus is owned by Comcast and they jacked the prices so high that DirectTV canceled. I don’t blame DirectTV, I got a discount because of the lack of Versus games this year, it’s all the NHL and their collusive behavior with Comcast.
The worse thing that ever happened to the NHL was giving the contract to Versus instead of ESPN. Even if ESPN did not give them the same money it was worth it because now ESPN does not even cover the NHL any more AT ALL. So the NHL has almost zero visibility in the US outside of hockey cities. What a cluster, well you know.
Fan from Carolina
October 14th, 2009
8:50 am
I hate seeing Atlanta lose up in Ottawa since the entire province of Ontario still thinks the Southeast division is weak, especially the Toronto fans. They just can’t accept the Hurricanes and Lightning Cup wins, the Panthers showing up in the Cup finals and of course the current Washington team. All in this decade. In the meantime the leafs can’t even make the playoffs never mind the winless start this year. If they go 0 for 82 they will still cry about the weak Southeast and how they play such tough teams all year. I don’t want to see anymore Thrasher losses up there this year. This is one of the few times I want to see the Lightning clean Ottawa’s clock tomorrow night.
J.B.
October 14th, 2009
9:16 am
Congrats to Chris Vivlamore. I don’t know the circumstances of how, but FoxSports.com picked up his Boulton/Enforcer article:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/10207516/Don‘t-label-him-just-an-enforcer#