I’m sure some people will say yes. But, answering truthfully, I would have guessed 9-12 goals on the year for Bogosian, and playing something like 20-23 minutes a game. He’s one shy of nine (9) goals now. With how much more season to go? And Bogey can play 27:00 per game, if Anderson needed it from him. I don’t mean to bring up a sore subject, but if only Atlanta could have held on to Braydon Coburn, what a defensive corps we might have. Even if you used Coburn exclusively on the 2nd pairing, that’d be tremendous. Bogosian-Kubina, Coburn-Enstrom, Hainsey-Valabik (Popovic, Salmela, Schubert). Forget I said anything.

Re: Scheduling … it has been bizarre. A rush of games, then nothing for 4-5 days. Hard to believe the Flyers have only played 16 games all year. I don’t have a good read on the Flyers this year. They seem like a solid playoff team, but where will they finish in the field? It might be 6th, 7th or 8th. And let’s look at Montreal. I’ll tip the cap to EOB for being one of the first to say that “Despite all their spending, Montreal might not be improved, and could miss the playoffs.” They are not in playoff position. Granted, it’s early. But from what I’ve seen, I’m not filled with confidence that the Habs can do any better than last year, when they TIED Florida for the 8th spot. Montreal went in, due to tie-breakers. In many respects, I do feel a bit sorry for young Carey Price. Carey Price did not pressure GM Bob Gainey to trade away Jose Theodore, or to threaten Gainey with some ultimatum if he didn’t let Cristobal Huet go. And now, it’s Halak and Price, “for better or for worse.” Wanna get GM Bob Gainey hot under the collar? Suggest that Carey Price isn’t an upper echelon goalie, worthy of 5th overall pick in the draft. He’ll tell you what an idiot you are, point to his Stanley Cup rings, and tell you that you don’t know anything. Alllrighteee then, Mr. Gainey.

Yes Brendan, Max got a nice goal. What I thought was nice about it though is how he was on the same page with Peverley. If you didn’t dvr it, watch it on the nhl.com if they show the whole play. As soon as the puck was going towards Peverley, Max took off and that got him open. Kudos to Peverley for feeding him that breakaway.

I got to admit Brendan, when Bogosian got that goal, the FIRST thing I thought of were those three dirty words. I asked myself “gee, how many goals is this guy on pace for”?

We did give up more SOG again, but all this is doing at this point is instilling my confidence in Pavelec (even though yeah it was Moose today). But the big thing people said about Lehtonen was “well he takes on 30+ shots/game!” Even though most goalies in the league do that, now our own Thrashers goalies are doing it AND winning.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=506116&navid=DL|NHL|home

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=506012&navid=DL|NHL|home

Shifting gears, what a great afternoon of hockey!! Woo-hoo!! EOB is gonna rail against me on this one, but that goal, by Finny, as the 2nd stanza came to a close, was ELECTRIFYING!! It was HUUUGE. There’s a nice difference between heading into the 3rd down a goal, compared to even.

Congrats to the PP unit, for going two outta three (2/3) today. Bogosian got his 8th. (On pace for … just KIDDING! Just Kidding.)

What else? Another day at the office for Rich Peverley. Two assists there. And finally, Slava Kozlov gets off the Schneid, tipping the ferryman, for the ride. Congrats to Kozlov, for the 1st of the season.

At +1 today, were White, Enstrom and Kozlov. At -1, were Boulton, Slater, Thorburn, Armstrong, E.Kane, and Bogosian. At -2, was Ron Hainsey. But Hainsey played the most minutes of our blueliners, at 24:42. Enstrom was next, at 24:19. Then Enstrom, at 19:31. Followed by Schubert, at 18:15, Popovic, at 15:54, and Salmela, at 12:26. Popovic, Schubert, and Salmela were all “even” on the plus-minus today.

Kovalchuk had an assist, while playing 23:18.

Remember our ol’ friend and Captain, Steve Staios, for the Inaugural season and Year Two? Well, he was in the sin bin when Bogosian tallied. But if you’re thinking Staios is irrelevant in today’s NHL, gaze at his minutes played this afternoon: 20:38. That’s not too shabby. I always liked Staios. He was no “franchise player,” but it wouldn’t have killed us to retain him a while longer than we did. Bygones.

Odd game…what I saw of the first was lackluster; Oilers seemed to hold sway in the second, but then Max tied it up with less than a minute left; Thrashers were dominant for much of the third, though Edmonton put on good pressure in the closing minutes.

Moose stood strong and…get ready for it…Slava got off the schneid!!!! Quick one-timer from White after Todd and Peverley did some nice work behind the net…Slava moved to the slot and buried it. Sweet. Hope that gets him going.

Oh, and Cogliano (sp?) for Edmonton can flat out fly.

Another home win, which I think evens up our record at Philips.