Thrashers survive Rangers comeback bid to win 6-4
Wednesday afternoon I was sitting in my office when a knock came on the door. It was my friend Sal from the mailroom who had a package for me. He just sat it on my desk without comment. When I pealed back the plain brown paper wrapping, all that I found inside was a soiled, soggy milk carton.
I looked up and asked, “What…what is this? What does this mean?”
Sal replied, “It’s a message from Todd White. It means your milk carton sleeps with the fishes”.
A message…from Todd White? Why, what for? I mean, what in the world did I ever do or say about Todd White that would make him want to send me such a message? Hmmm…??
Later in the evening, I then found out why he wanted to get my attention. White suited up in a New York Rangers blue shirt and scored a goal against his former team. Trailing 5-2 to the Thrashers, Whitey backhanded home a rebound to pull the home team to within two. Atlanta forward Fredrik Modin allegedly was defending White on the play.
It was his first goal of the season and it turned what was a comfortable Thrashers lead into what would become a bit of a nail-biter just moments later. White’s goal was then followed a few minutes later by another, pulling the Rangers to within one. Brian Boyle did the honors this time as he was left alone on the far post.
Eric Boulton is congratulated by his Thrashers teammates after scoring his first goal of the season. He wasn't the only player notching his first in the 6-4 win over the New York Rangers Wednesday night (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Someone in a Thrashers jersey really needed to just clear him out from in front of the goal, should have put a hit on him, should have …ahem…popped that Boyle when they had a chance.
However, with the score 5-4, Andrew Ladd’s empty netter iced the game for the Thrashers fourth win of the season.
“It was kind of stupid to let them back in the game,” Nic Bergfors said afterwards. “We stopped working a little bit there and they took care of it, but we got it done”. Bergfors scored his first goal of the season in the victory, an unassisted top-shelf blast from the right side that put Atlanta up 3-2 in the second period.
Bergie wasn’t the only Thrasher who found net for the first time this season. Bryan Little also did so when he sliced his way through the defense and beat Marty Biron. That tally tied the game at one-all in the first period. Later in the game Eric Boulton joined Little and Bergfors in getting off The Schnide as he scored off a rebound to provide what would turn out to be the deciding goal.
Alex Burmistrov set up Evander Kane on a goal in the second period to put the Thrashers up 2-1. It was the first NHL point for the rookie forward.
Another first for this team…in holding New York to 28 shots on goal, it was the first time Atlanta has held an opponent to less than 30 SOG all season. It only took nine games to do so. I wish I could report that they also outshot the opposition for the first time this fall, but the Thrashers only got off 26 of their own.
What was not a first, however, was seeing the Thrashers’ defense let up another goal due to sloppy play around their goal. A turnover early in the first period led to a Ryan Callahan goal that put the Rangers up 1-0 only 38 seconds into the game.
Also, and I try not to hold netminders solely responsible when goals are allowed, but the Sean Avery wrap-around tally that tied the score at two all was due to Chris Mason’s slow reaction to Avery’s move around the back of the net. The Thrashers goalie then was unable to get to the post before the puck was snuck in.
For the game, Mason stopped 24 of the 28 shots he faced.
By winning in New York, Atlanta improved their overall record to 4-4-1 and bumped their road record to 3-2-1.
And finally, I want to thank my good friends at Guston’s restaurant in Kennesaw for hosting a small group of us Wednesday night to watch the game. Donnie runs a great little place there and he set us up in a nice private room to enjoy the night’s festivities. The lovely and charming Katie took great care of us, providing some much-needed “mojo” when the Thrashers really needed it.
Thanks guys…we’ll see ya again next Wednesday.
And I’ll see you all at Philips Friday night when the Thrashers get a chance to make amends for the giant, steaming pile of FAIL that they dropped on the ice last week against the Sabres.
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141 comments Add your comment
Rawhide
October 28th, 2010
2:35 pm
Bloggers are talking about Kane’s goal which was good but Little’s goal will be the best in the NHL all year. He went almost endd to end, faked out a couple, roared past a couple and cut in front of the goalie shielding the puck with his left leg before flipping in between the goalie’s pads.
Jimbo – I spent a few minutes reviewing last night’s highlights during lunch. Gotta agree with ya about Little’s goal He undressed Sean Avery and Marc Stall coming through center ice and the blueline before taking Biron to school.
Great stuff.
Now, speaking of taking another look-see at the highlights…I took another gander at the Avery wrap-arounder. I still think Mason should have gotten over quicker, but one thing I really noticed today was the less-than-assertive checking of Brent Sopel when the puck was behind Mason’s right shoulder. It was as if Sopes went over to give an obligatory bump, then let him slip off to the other side of the net.
Done beating that horse now…bottom line is we came away with the two points, three Thrashers got off The Schnide and Ladd and Kane continue to perfom as well as or above what we had hoped for this fall.
Alan R.
October 28th, 2010
2:35 pm
Pavelec recalled, Mannino demoted to Chicago. As per C-Viv
litz
October 28th, 2010
2:41 pm
I’ve heard ‘em describe pinballing on the broadcasts too … despite the fact that an incredibly shrinking number of the fan base (e.g., the younger folk) have probably neither seen nor played pinball …
(They’ve probably never seen or heard of whack-a-mole, either)
Makes you feel old, doesn’t it?
R. Stroz
October 28th, 2010
2:45 pm
Pavelec gave up four goals on 23 shots in his AHL rehab game.
Yep, Pavelec is ready, to flop again.
SomaAtl95
October 28th, 2010
2:50 pm
Sara – The game was on Charter. For SD and HD there are 2 channels, SportsSouth and Fox SportsSouth. One channel apart. It didn’t help that Fox SportsSouth had other things listed, but they did show the game. See my posts earlier griping about it.
Poor Ol' Family Man
October 28th, 2010
2:55 pm
Anyone else notice how QUIET it was last night? Sometimes it’s just the lack of strategically-placed microphones, etc…..But this was different. I know we Thrasher fans take quite a beating, but this was MSG for crying out loud! The announced crowd was 17,900 and it sounded more like 2 or 3,000. We went to opening night against the Caps and the Bulb was absolutely more energized than the mob last night with 2,300 less fans…..Not even close.
Can someone tell me why Little’s been carrying moves like that around in his back pocket for so long? I swear I thought I was watching someone else in his uni last night when he just took the play over from end to end. I even had a flashback of Big Arty when he went end to end in his first Thrash home game last March 4th. I still have that NHL On The Fly highlight on our DVR. Every time I watch it, I just shake my head and say, “That’s just friggin’ amazin’ man!” And it is……..
World Be Free
October 28th, 2010
3:05 pm
P.O.F.M. – I said the same thing about last night’s lack of noise! Madison Sq. Garden is normally good for some noise, sounded more like Calgary than NYC!
DWTOO
October 28th, 2010
3:16 pm
Lab Rat/Other Buffalo trolls – always open season on Sabre fans on this blog. Most are decent folks, but, it’s the case where the fools ruin it for most. The minority seem to have left their manners at home or in take a bit too much liquid courage and act like jackasses.
Hey WBF – do you like the fact that the Sabres have gone back to the 70’s look? Those sweaters are classics.
Nate
October 28th, 2010
3:26 pm
I nominate last night’s Bryan Little goal for scoring highlight of the year!
hockeymom92
October 28th, 2010
3:29 pm
Probaby a little late in the day to mention the blackout thing, but am just getting to a point where the eyes are not watching. We have U-verse – went to FSSHD where games was suppose to be on – said it was blacked out and lo and behold it came on around 8ish – much to the middle daughter’s disgust. Not sure what was going on.
Anyway – it was a really good game to watch for a change. Happy it finally appeared on the tube. Now if we could just bring some of that mojo home – wouldn’t that be somethin’?
LAC
October 28th, 2010
3:31 pm
Could this happen ????
New Jersey loses all games on road trip… Then they fire coach upon return.
Then… Put #17 on Waivers, Nobody claims him, then Re-Entry waivers,Nobody claims him,
then send him to AHL, he refuses to report, violation of contract, No More $100 Million dollar statue in N.J.
I bet that “could” happen… He is killing New Jersey !
Nice game last evening. Lots of hustle and grit. Nice to see #10 & #18 score, about time !!!
Agree Modin needs to go and go now, enough with these former players they
have years ago, Modin is NOT the same player he was in Tampa, he is not of
NHL quality at this point in his career. Was sick to see todd white score, just awful !
GaVaHokie
October 28th, 2010
3:59 pm
Not sure Kubina wanted to re-up here
WBF… actually he did, he just wanted to be paid “fairly”… he actually ended up taking less money to play in Tampa. Interesting timeline on this subject… click the link and scroll down to 2010/04/14, then read everything above it.
http://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hockeynews/hockey/player-pn.cgi?476
Russ
October 28th, 2010
5:04 pm
Hokie – That sounds more like Kovalchuk’s version of “wanting to be here”. If he wanted to re-sign with Atlanta why would he leave for a year shorter contract and less per season than what Atlanta offered? It sounds to me like he was set on going back to the Lightning.
Vitamin Z
October 28th, 2010
5:21 pm
NHL.com had highlights from the Rangers perspective (commentators). And while you are there, check out the Devils game. Kovy looks horrible and Brodeur let one of the wrap around goals a la Avery.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?intcmpid=nav-video-main
michael
October 28th, 2010
5:26 pm
scratch modin. bring in the fly I think a stewart pevs pettersson line would be awesome. or rather has the chance to.
Red Light
October 28th, 2010
5:57 pm
The difference in Chris Tamer and Ron Hainsey? An investment of about $3.75 million per year and one of them couldn’t skate and still managed to play 339 games in a Thrashers uniform. Hainsey may not be playing well, but he is definitely no Tamer.
goose
October 28th, 2010
6:45 pm
LAC- Kovy has a no movement clause for the next three or four years.
Litz- as a representative of “the younger generation” I can say that we know what pinball and whack a mole are and pinball is still popular(just in a more virtual format).
Also go to the wolves page and look at the highlights from paves game. Not his best but better it happened there and not here (3g on 22 shots)
http://www.chicagowolves.com/
Poor Ol' Family Man
October 28th, 2010
8:04 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but can’t either party waive a particular clause in any contract? Players waive no-trade clauses all the time just to get the heck out of Dodge.
If Kovy wants out and if the Devs want him out, then they can find a way out……But I bet Grossman got paid a big chunk of his up front. Wouldn’t it be crazy if, after all of the contract shenanigans over the summer, the Devs & Kovy suddenly came out and said they’ve agreed to part ways after just a few games into season ONE?? This is a FIFTEEN YEAR contract!!!!!!!
Then again, after I saw Pavs laid out like a tuna on ice a couple of minutes into the season opener after nobody even touched him, I don’t think anything in the NHL would surprise me anymore!
goose
October 28th, 2010
8:35 pm
they could trade or waive if both sides agreed to it. I kind of think that would not happen though.
Hockey Biltong
October 28th, 2010
9:51 pm
Geaux Le Trashiers!!!!!!!!!
Brendan
October 28th, 2010
10:27 pm
LAC, I’m not sure the Devils can put Kovalchuk on waivers, since he cannot be moved to the AHL, due to a no movement clause. But if they chose to simply cut him … I’m not exactly sure they can do that. They might be able to, but if they did … they’d get absolutely nothing for his loss, other than salary relief, once another team claims him. It’d be far better to attempt to trade him. Los Angeles was very interested in him. Lou could pluck assets from the Kings for Kovalchuk. Lou would have to take on some of the Kings higher salaried players to make the deal possible.
I don’t foresee any situation where the Devils would trade Kovalchuk. But if Kovalchuk could be placed on waivers, let’s not forget that the Islanders made Kovy a 10-year/$100 million contract. They’d certainly claim him, at 15-years for the SAME PRICE. So would the Thrashers, if you think about their offer to Kovy, which was $101 million over 12-years. At the end of the day, the Thrashers would probably jump up and down to have Kovalchuk at LESS than what they were offering. The cap hit Atlanta offered was $8.41 million, essentially. They’d be getting him at $6.67 million instead. I think many teams would be interested in Kovalchuk as a waiver claim, even at full price. Let’s also not forget something … several random posters came here to state, “I’ll never go to another Thrashers game! Not re-signing Kovalchuk is unforgiveable!” In theory, those posters would return to Philips Arena, with Kovy back. Truthfully, I do believe the Thrashers home attendance, since losing Kovalchuk, has been noticeably less. Some of that is protect vs. ownership fielding a team at the league minimum. But some of it, let’s face it, are Kovy fans … trying to punish the Thrashers for not making the team an attractive one for a Kovalchuk re-signing.
Personally, I cut the cord long ago. With no hard feelings. I can’t blame the guy for leaving, or refusing to re-sign at ANY price. The way I see things, Kovy will actually finish his career in NJ, unless both sides feel a trade somewhere else would be for the best. And that somewhere else … will not likely be Atlanta.
haryezul
October 28th, 2010
11:18 pm
hai
haryezul
October 28th, 2010
11:20 pm
sya dan sahlan
Alan R.
October 29th, 2010
12:10 am
So would the Thrashers, if you think about their offer to Kovy, which was $101 million over 12-years. At the end of the day, the Thrashers would probably jump up and down to have Kovalchuk at LESS than what they were offering.
That’s a major league PASS.
No thanks. As much as we could probably use the extra scoring punch, I don’t want it at the expense of having a selfish player on the roster.
Poor Ol' Family Man
October 29th, 2010
1:51 am
More ghosts from the past updates:
Clarke MacArthur – 6 G, 2 A in 9 games. Yes, that’s a 54 G in 81 games pace while Kovy has scored 3 G in 9 games, or a 27 G in 81 games pace.
Colby Armstrong – 1 G, 0 A, 11 PM in 8 games. Suffered finger injury this week against the Panthers requiring surgery. Out 4-6 weeks.
Wow……Maybe Mac really was worth all that money after all? Nobody’s more surprised than me. Seems like a huge bargain (through 9 games anyway) compared to the $100 Million Man!
World Be Free
October 29th, 2010
5:03 am
GaVa-was a big fan of Kubina so I have to say I was disappointed when he was not resigned. I thought deep down he wanted to head back to FLA where he already has root. Duds decision.
DWTOO-I like the new/old jerseys, though I have yet to see them where their 3rd jersey in play. I liked their black jersys the best, the one with the “mad sheephead” that was supposed to be a Buffalo crest.
LAC-interesting post, good to have you back. Not sure how much of that will happen, but I can tell you we are lovin’ what is happening in NJ. Lam is getting his due. ATL management is looking pretty smart getting rid of Kovy, his ego and getting quality in return.
Poor ‘Ol-folks in Buffalo are even more upset about C-Mac, theis the Sabres gave up on him first!
Dwayne
October 29th, 2010
8:14 am
MacArthur Park will fade away like the cake that was left out in the rain.
GaVaHokie
October 29th, 2010
8:38 am
They shouldn’t have allowed Kubina to make it to July 1st, that was the beginning of the end. I don’t think Kubina was pulling a “Kovalchuk”, I really think he would have stayed if the deal was made in a reasonable timeframe… I gotta think Yzerman tampered a bit once it got closer to July 1st.
kracker
October 29th, 2010
8:50 am
Kubina was only here for a short time (one season) and it was a tumultuous season at that, with the Kovy BS going on. He still had a house and family in TB which = overpaying to keep him in Atlanta. I assume that Dudley made Kubina what he considered to be a fair offer, just like any other player. I’d say it was a pretty easy decision for Kubes to go back to his home in TB once he saw Duds offer wasn’t a wheelbarrow full of cash.
Smoothie
October 29th, 2010
9:04 am
Keep in mind that Tampa offered that extra third year on his deal. Can’t blame the guy for taking the extra year of stability at the end of his career. It seemed like he liked ATL and got a decent offer from Duds but it had to be “super delicious” for him to forego a return to his “homebase”. He prolly prefers flat, easier golf courses.
Acer
October 29th, 2010
9:08 am
MacArthur is already fading. He’s scoreless in last two games and he only has two points in his last six games.
Acer
October 29th, 2010
9:09 am
*five games, not six.
kracker
October 29th, 2010
9:27 am
I think Mac had a few early games with goals the same way that Stewart and Thorburn had an early flurry. MacArthur will probably outscore Thorburn and Stewart combined unless Thorburn ups his game quite a bit. The coaches, both in the Anderson and Dud/Ramsay camps, keep saying he can do it so I remain hopeful that more Thorburn minutes will equal considerably more points.
d
October 29th, 2010
9:28 am
Great article on the Kovy/Devils problem in SI:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jim_kelley/10/28/kovalchuk.rypien/index.html?eref=sihp
World Be Free
October 29th, 2010
9:59 am
Smoothie-in front of Gorin’s at 6:30?
Rawhide
October 29th, 2010
10:07 am
OK gang…big game against the Sabres tonight. Looking forward to seeing ya’ll down at Philips.
As you’ve already heard, Opie will be back with the Thrashers…which is great news. And with that, I’ll be keeping a special eye on the activity in front of Atlanta’s goal on both night’s this weekend.
Brendan
October 29th, 2010
1:18 pm
I doubt Kubina was going to stay here, even if Atlatna offered over $4 million-per-year, for all three years. I think his heart was in TB. He has a house there. He won his Cup there. He knew, when he got traded here, that it was a one-year stint. Barring the Thrashers knocking on the door of the Cup, Kubina was gone.
Alan R., the Thrashers did make him a $101 million offer. If they didn’t want the player, why make the offer?
R. Stroz
October 30th, 2010
12:09 am
LAST!
Hockey Biltong
October 30th, 2010
12:09 pm
After last!
R. Stroz
November 1st, 2010
7:57 pm
LAST AGAIN!
Rawhide
November 1st, 2010
9:54 pm
R. Stroz – Nope…again.