Some Thrashers links from around the intertubes:

• AJC: Atlanta wins consecutive games
• AJC: Thrashers Report
• Montreal Gazette: Kovalchuk keeps chugging along
• Montreal Gazette: Habs hang rookie Price out to dry
• Canadian Press: Game summary

In another interesting story that isn't Thrashers-related, the Columbus Dispatch takes a look at the art of faceoffs. It's a good read.

Is it just me or was that the most complete game the Thrashers have played this season? The power play didn't score, but other than that it was a pretty solid game from start to finish. I can't fault the Thrashers for giving up two power play goals to the best power play in the NHL, especially after they killed off a pair of 5-on-3 advantages (one of them compliments of a phantom call on Ken Klee). That was a huge accomplishment but it clearly wore out the penalty killers who gave up the tying goal with less than two minutes remaining.

Some highlights for me:

• Eric Perrin's goal to tie the game in second period. He parked out in front of the crease and banged the puck home despite being surrounded by four Montreal players.
• Slava Kozlov's beautiful steal leading to the second Atlanta goal in less than a minute. That's why you pressure defensemen. they make mistakes.
• Johan Hedberg's spectacular play from start to finish. He made huge saves all night long and can't be faulted on either Montreal goal. 6-0 all-time in the shootout.
• Bryan Little and Ilya Kovalchuk's shootout goals (at the end of this highlight video). Little has greatly exceeded my expectations this season and he earned his shootout attempt. Did you notice his reaction after he scored on it? Nothing. He just skated back to the bench as if he'd done it a million times. Meanwhile Ilya Kovalchuk is finally confident going in one-on one with a goalie. Goalies beware. Kovalchuk is going to break 50 again this season.
• Marian Hossa's jump and defense. He didn't get on the scoresheet but he was instrumental in setting up the Perrin goal. He had eight shots and was the most aggressive penalty-killing forward on the team. He's a little snake-bitten but he's driving to the net and getting chances. Given his recent history against them, I expect big things from Hossa when he faces Ottawa on Thursday.
• Niclas Havelid. He's been upstaged by Toby Enstrom this season but he was almost flawless on the penalty kill and was instrumental in killing Montreal's two-man advantages. It was his best game of the season and if it's a sign of things to come then Atlanta's defense is looking a whole lot better.
• Tobias Enstrom continues to be one of the best things to ever happen to the Thrashers. the kid has poise to spare and was a steal as an eighth round draft pick back in 2003. He's currently second among all NHL rookie in time-on-ice per game, just a shift per game behind New Jersey's Andy Greene. Another 27 minute game and he'll probably pass him. He's also leading all rookies in blocked shots.
• Garnet Exelby stepped up in a big way, throwing his weight around with six registered hits, all the while staying in position.
• The 13-2 edge in shots for the Thrashers in the opening frame. When was the last time they started like that?
• Chris Thorburn and Mark Popovic. They aren't doing anything spectacular but they aren't making mistakes either. It took them a while to get into the lineup but now that they've each been in for two straight games they're making it hard for the coaches to pull them.
• A second straight game holding the opposition to two goals (three if you don't count the empty-net goal in Nashville). Moose's goals against average is going down and his save percentage is going up. You knew it was just a matter of time, but it's still good to see. Now Don Waddell is faced with a tough decision- does he keep riding the hot goalie or does he give him a break before he wears down? With no back-to-back games until Nov. 9-10 it wouldn't be hard to play Hedberg in the next three, but Pavelec was told he'd get a start on the road trip. It's not a bad problem for Waddell to be faced with.

Did you see anything that I might have missed? What was the highlight of the game for you?

** Quick Update**

The Falconer has a great little recap up as well and Yellowdog has one over at Talking Thrash.

No major news out of Montreal concerning the lineup. McCarthy and Sterling are scratches again in keeping with the coaching staff's tendency to keep the lineup the same after wins. Pascal Dupuis will skate during the warm-up and will be a last minute decision. So Popovic is on defense and the only question is who gets bumped if Dupuis can play. My assumption is one of Boulton and Thorburn will sit with Boulton being more likely to play based on seniority.

Johan Hedberg gets the start in net.

In an odd twist, all three of the Thrashers' wins have come against Original Six teams. Who do they play tonight? An Original Six team.

Rookie goaltender Carey Price is getting the start for Montreal. The Thrashers have a tendency to make rookies look good in net (Ellis in Nashville, Elliot from Ottawa), so hopefully that changes tonight. the Canadiens happen to be on a four-game winning streak and are 2-1-1 at home. the thrashers will have to be disciplined since Montreal has the best power play in the NHL, even without Sheldon Souray.  fortunately their penalty kill isn't so hot, so the Thrashers might be able to take advantage of that if they can draw some penalties. According to The Forechecker's spreadsheet Jim Slater and Bryan Little have drawn the most penalties for Atlanta.

I'm feeling optimistic about this one. If Marian Hossa can get on the board early it'll be Atlanta's game to lose.

Here's your official game preview in case you haven't seen it yet.

Despite being in the middle of a string of seven straight road games the Thrashers were able to practice at home in Duluth this morning. They got back from Chicago late Saturday night and had the day off yesterday before coming to the the rink today. They'll head to Montreal in a few hours for tomorrow night's game.

On the ice it was business as usual. GM and interim coach Don Waddell had some previously scheduled meetings to attend during the road trip so he didn't come back to Atlanta after the Chicago trip. He'll join the team in Montreal.

Assistant coaches Brad "Beast" McCrimmon, Steve Weeks and Tony Borgford ran the practice and used the same basic line combinations as Saturday night with a few exceptions. Bryan Little left the ice early with some minor soreness so Pascal Dupuis took his spot between Ilya Kovalchuk and Darren Haydar. Garnet Exelby got nicked in the face and had to get stitched up so he left as well, throwing off the defensive pairings. Kozlov, Holik and Larsen stayed together as did Hossa, White and Perrin. Sterling and Boulton took turns with Slater and Thorburn. Check out Tom's new blog "Talkin' About Practice" for more details about the actual drills.

After the practice I had a chance to talk to Bobby Holik and Nic Havelid about the Thrashers' recently improved play that has led to them being 3-2-0 since Waddell took over the coaching duties.

Holik commented that the main struggle for this team has been and will likely continue to be consistency. They played well at home against the Rangers to earn their first win then didn't show up in Tampa Bay. They beat the Leafs in Toronto and then let up against the Predators. Ideally they'll follow up Saturday's win with a strong effort in Montreal and start to build some momentum.

Asked about the team's improved play Holik was optimistic but cautious.

"Well, we are getting better at certain things. We're playing with more structure, and better as a team, but we have a long way to go. I think we can sharpen up in a lot of ways but the biggest thing is going to be bringing the same attitude and effort to every game, and even to every practice."

The difference since Waddell took over has been puck control, both in the opposition's end and coming out of the defensive zone according to Holik.

"We have a better breakout. We're controlling the puck a little better. It's nothing to write home about and we still have a long way to go. We're improving, but but that's we can really say at this point."

That improved puck control led to a 3-2 win on Saturday, marking the first time this season that an opponent has scored less than three goals against the Thrashers.

In Nic Havelid's eyes the improved defensive effort was the result of the forwards working together with the defense.

"We had a good defensive game (in Chicago) but it's not about the defense. It's about playing together in our own end and the forwards did a good job coming back hard through the neutral zone to help us out. We're playing more with the puck and that's giving us some confidence."

With three games left in the road swing the Thrashers have the opportunity to finish strong before coming back home to face the Capitals (click here for ticket deals- password 'wrighb'). Two or more wins would have them a winning record on the trip which would have to be considered a major achievement given how the season started.

Personally I think Montreal is a winnable game and we always seem to play well against the Senators. Now if we could just find a way to beat Tampa in their own rink...

Some other tidbits:

• Ondrej Pavelec is waiting on a new mask with a Wolves theme. He might get it delivered to him during the road trip. He's using Milan Hnilicka's old Thrashers mask but he doesn't like the way it fits.
• Kari Lehtonen has a new mask on the way as well. Gone are the anime girls. They'll be replaced by Optimus Prime.
• TSN was on in the locker room and they showed some replays of the Randy Jones hit on Patrice Bergeron. The general consensus was that Jones cold have hit him in a much safer way.
• Slava Kozlov joked around coming off the ice, holding his stick across his body making it impossible to get through the gate. I wouldn't call Slava a jovial man by any stretch of the imagination, but he has a pretty good sense of humor in that odd Russian way.
• One of Ken Klee's kids went out on the ice with him after guys started coming off the ice. He's just learning how to skate and was excited to get out there with his dad.
  

The Thrashers finally held a team to less than three goals in a game and it resulted in a 3-2 win over Chicago. Good things happen when you get goaltending and decent defense. The Thrashers move to 3-8-0 overall, 2-2-0 on this road trip and 3-2-0 under interim coach Don Waddell.

Earlier today I said scoring contributions from Kozlov and Hossa would go along way in getting the Thrashers a win. It wasn't exactly a bold statement, but two Kozlov goals later the Thrashers have a win under their belts. Kozlov was rewarded by being put back on a line with Marian Hossa for a few shifts at the end of the game.

Special teams were the name of the game as four out of the five goals came with a man in the penalty box. The Thrashers went 2-5 on the PP while Chicago was 2-8 with their second goal coming late in the third period to bring them within a goal of tying things up.

Special credit to Ilya Kovalchuk and Toby Enstrom who were on the ice for all three Atlanta goals. Kovalchuk finished the night +1 with a goal and two assists while Enstrom added an assist of his own. Darren Haydar also had an assist. Kudos to Todd White as well. He played a whopping 9:01 short-handed and was only on the ice for one of Chicago's two power-play goals. The Thrashers' penalty kill has been improving but by bit and that improvement has coincided with an increase in ice-time for White.

The Thrashers got into a bit of penalty trouble as tempers flared late in the game, resulting in misconduct penalties to Thorburn and Holik and an unsportsmanlike call to Johan Hedberg but Atlanta weathered the storm. I believe the 20 minutes in penalties are a season high for the Thrashers but without having seen the game (which wasn't televised) I'm not too concerned. Frankly, if they're going to take penalties I'd rather they be for roughing and high-sticking than holding, interference and tripping (there were a few of those too). I don't mind if we take a few extra penalties for being overly aggressive, especially given how passive the team has played on occasion this season. A little aggression and nastiness is a nice change of pace.

Looking at the stats sheet, ice time was divided fairly evenly among the forwards and defensemen with Mark Popovic playing the least on the blueline and Jim Slater seeing the least time up front. Hossa and Kovalchuk led the way with five shots each, followed by Kozlov with three. The Thrashers got clobbered in the faceoff circle, winning just 39% of their draws.

Overall this was a much-needed win that came at the perfect time. The Thrashers might be in the midst of the seven-game trip but they're coming home to Atlanta for a day off tomorrow and a practice on Monday before heading to Montreal for Tuesday night's game. Coming home on a high note will be a nice change of pace and hopefully it helps get some momentum going heading into the last three games of the road swing.

Thanks for stopping by. I have some lineup changes for you for tonight's game in Chicago (which isn't being televised by either team, so it won't be on Center Ice and there won't be an NHL highlight video).

Dupuis, Sterling and McCarthy are out- Larsen, Thorburn and Popovic are in. Everyone is healthy.

Without trying to read too much into the changes, Dupuis only has one point and while he hasn't played badly that I recall he hasn't stood out in a positive way either. Sterling has done relatively well and has three points but a night in the press box against a physical team like Chicago certainly won't hurt the rookie. McCarthy is a team-worst -12.

Larsen will play with Holik and Kozlov. Thorburn will skate with Boulton and Slater. Popovic will be paired with Zhitnik.

This is a great chance for Thorburn and Popovic to show that they deserve to be in the lineup on a regular basis. It's their job to make it hard for the coaching staff to scratch them again.

I really, really like the Slater line. They looked great together in the preseason and they bring a ton of energy and grit, especially with Thorburn out there. I do believe Chicago leads the league in fighting majors. Heavyweight David Koci is on the IR after a run-in with Zdeno Chara but they still have superpest Tuomo Ruutu and physical defenseman James Wisniewski. they're not an overly big team, but they're quick and they're physical. The Thrashers have lacked a physical element lately (that's part of the reason they're taking so few penalties these days) and putting in Larsen and Thorburn should help remedy that.

If the Thrashers can shut down super-rookie tandem of Patrick Kane (who had more points through nine games than Ovechkin or Crosby had in their rookie years) and Jonathan Toews they should be alright. Chicago is a mid-level team when it comes to offense and is 17th in the league in goals against per game. If Atlanta's offense can get rolling (some scoring from Hossa and Kozlov would be a step in the right direction) they have a great chance to pick up two points.

You can listen to the game online here or through 680 The Fan's website.

Thrasher Johan Hedberg and Atlanta Hawk Zaza Pachulia are featured in Jezebel Magazine's current 50 most beautiful Atlantans issue. Everyone loves Moose, and Zaza is quite the character too. Pick up a copy if you get a chance.

Word out of Nashville is that tonight's Thrashers lineup will be the same one hit the ice for the win in Toronto on Tuesday. Johan Hedberg will hold down the fort in goal, forcing Ondrej Pavelec to wait at least one more game before he gets his first NHL start.

As much as the scratched guys (Thorburn, Popovic and Larsen) might deserve to play, if I was the coach I'd probably be hesitant to tinker with the lineup that earned the win against the Leafs. there's still work to be done but that squad did plenty of things right. They shot every chance they got, they controlled the puck coming out of their own end and into Toronto's end, and they moved on the power play. to me, the movement on the power play is huge. the first few games of the season players staked out a certain piece of territory when we had a man advantage and they didn't budge form that spot unless they were forced to chase a loose puck. Now they're cycling and shifting positions at the point and down low. It's causing the defenders to move around and that creates open lanes and clear shots on goal. Yes, passes are being missed and occasionally someone passes to empty space because someone isn't where they were expected to be, but that's part of trying something new. The power play is doing the right thing and it will pay off once the players get used to it.

As for Nashville, they're 2-6-0 overall but they won their first two games. Yes, that means they've lost six straight. They've also been shut out in the last two of those games. Hopefully that doesn't mean they'll be taken lightly. Nashville is a fast, physical team that can catch you off guard. They have several underperforming players that could break out if our defense isn't careful, and they're power play has been lethal at home. I expect them to come out hitting in front of their own fans, but if the Thrashers can actually score first and get out of the first period with a lead they might be able to deflate the Predators who are just as 'fragile' as the Thrashers were heading into the Toronto game. A big game from Marian Hossa and/or Slava Kozlov sure would help, as would a defensive effort that gives up less than four goals.

The game will be on SportSouth at 8 pm. Here's your preview and Game Notes.

It was a night of firsts for the Thrashers when they beat the Leafs 5-4 in a shootout in Toronto.Their first road win of the year. The first time they'd scored more than two goals in a road game. Their first shootout of the season. Toby Enstrom's first NHL goal. Eric Perrin's first goal as a Thrasher and first multi-point game of the season.

Ilya Kovalchuk played like a man possessed and willed his team to a win, scoring a goal, assisting on two more and scoring the shootout winner. He was on the ice for all four Thrashers goals, led the team and shots and looked like he was having the time of his life. Bobby Holik is the captain and Marian Hossa gets the chants, but right now this is Ilya Kovalchuk's team. Remember this when the All-Star ballots come out in a few weeks. It'll be a travesty if Kovy doesn't get voted onto the team in his adopted home city.

As for everyone else- what a great effort. It wasn't a flawless win but it was the kind of effort that will lead to more wins than losses, even if it was against another team that's struggling. We're still looking for solid goaltending but Hedberg made some amazing saves to keep the Thrashers in the game. In the end they bailed him out after he failed to cleanly cover the puck in the dying seconds of the game. It never would have happened if the skaters had been able to clear the puck under pressure, but the were exhausted from trying to fend off the Toronto onslaught. Give the Leafs credit- they battled back from three one-goal deficits and never quit.

How about Steve McCarthy breaking up a 3-on-1 on his own? I'm not sure I've ever seen someone pull that off so effectively. McCarthy has struggled in his own end this season and has the worst +/- on the team, but I'm tempted to give him a bit if a pass because the off-season was so much longer for him. He stopped seeing game action last February and that has to take a toll on one's confidence and instincts. He was classy about the whole situation though and re-signed with the team this summer with the intention of earning a spot. I'm willing to give him some more time to round into form.

And then there was the play of Ilya's linemates. Kovalchuk, Perrin and White combined for three goals, four assists, and 11 shots and were a cumulative +4. I'm not sure what Don has in mind for the other lines but if I were in his shoes I'd be keeping this one together for a while longer.

Jim Slater, Darren Haydar and Eric Boulton didn't see a lot of ice-time and it wouldn't shock me if one or more of them sat out the Nashville game so Chris Thorburn could play. None of them touched the ice in the third period and only Haydar saw power-play time.

The flip side of that is Tobias Enstrom who logged a game-high 28:05 including 6:28 on the power play and 2:07 shorthanded. He's being trusted in all situations and he won't even be 23 until Nov. 5. It's probably safe to say he's the most outright talented defenseman on the team and he might be the most gifted blueliner the franchise has ever had.

Oddly enough, if you were able to chop 15 seconds off of the beginning and end of regulation time in this game the Thrashers would have won 4-2.

The win moves the Thrashers within a point of the Rangers and has them in striking distance of Florida, Washington and Buffalo. It also ties them with Phoenix and Nashville. The Thrashers travel to Nashville on Thursday and Ondrej Pavelec could get his first NHL start.

Few teams in the NHL have given up more shots per game this season than the Thrashers, and by few I mean one. That one team happens to be Toronto. They also trail the Thrashers in faceoff percentage (47.6% vs. 47.0%) and they're only one spot ahead of Atlanta in goals-against per game (the Thrashers are 30th with 4.50 and Toronto is 29th with 4.11).

If there's another team in the NHL that's searching to find an identity as much as the Thrashers are it's the Maple Leafs right now. they're coach and GM are on the hot seat. Darcy Tucker is out indefinitely. They don't know who their starting goalie is. Their defense is giving up shots like it's going out of style and the whole team is prone to taking bad penalties which isn't good when you're ranked 26th in the NHL in penalty-killing.

There are no easy games in the NHL and the Thrashers have certainly made things hard on themselves with the way they've played most of the time, but if there's a time for them to take advantage of a tam in disarray this is it.

You can expect to see some pretty different line combinations tomorrow night in Toronto and Craig Custance has a rundown of what he saw in practice today. Changing the coach is rarely enough to turn a team around on its own so it's no surprise that Waddell is tinkering with the lineup. Not only does it give him the chance to try new things, but it also sends a message to the players that their roles may not be as defined or as safe as they thought they were. Every message from a coach has more impact on a player when the player knows that the man sending him over the boards for his next shift is also the guy that can send them down to Chicago or trade them if he thinks they aren't pulling their weight.

After Thursday night's win we know this team can play. After Saturday night's loss we know they can still stink up an arena. Which version of the team just got on the plane for a week-long swing through Toronto, Nashville and Chicago?

Update: Goalie Ondrej Pavelec was recalled from Chicago (AHL) and Kari is on the IR with a groin injury.

Hi Blueland, Micah Hart filling in for Ben this morning while Mr. Wright returns to his native Canada.

Obviously, an interesting morning skate today after the goings-on in Duluth yesterday. From an observer's point of view, the team appeared loose on the ice. I'm not exactly sure what you are supposed to act like the day after your coach got fired and you've lost six in a row, but I thought the guys looked better than I'd have expected.

Here are the line combinations for tonight (in no particular order):

Kozlov-Perrin-Hossa
Kovalchuk-White-Slater
Sterling-Little-Heydar
Larsen-Holik-Dupuis

Enstrom-Havelid
Zhitnik-McCarthy
Exelby-Klee

Chris Thorburn, Mark Popovic, and Eric Boulton are scratches.

After the skate, I caught some of what the guys were saying in the locker room about the change, and it was about what you'd expect.

No one threw Hartley under the bus, they all said pretty much the same thing: the players are to blame for the bad start, but something needed to be done to try to turn things around and it's much more difficult to replace 23 players than one coach.

Marian Hossa said he expects the team to play with a little more puck possession now and not do as much chasing, but that's about as far as anyone went in terms of discussing what will be different.

Don Waddell addressed the media afterwards as well, and you can listen to the full Q and A here.

Waddell sounded confident that the team could still get on track for this season, and though he may make some changes going forward it appears tonight the lines will stay mostly intact. He did mention, like Hossa did, that they will be attempting to play more of a puck-possession game, so perhaps that will be something that will help get this team off the schneid.

It would be somewhat apropos for this team to get their first win of the season against their playoff nemeses from a year ago, would it not?

Update: Sorry, I forgot to mention - Kari will be in goal tonight...

UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINNER!!
Congrats to Andy S. for winning today's blog trivia contest and earning himself a pair of tickets to tonight's game, courtesy of the Thomas Eye Group. Andy was so thorough in his answer, I'm just going to paste it in it's entirety:

Answer:

Thrashers against Rangers last year:
Points: Hossa: 8 (3G,5A), Kovy: 5 (2G,3A), Kozlov: 5 (1G,4A)
Penalties: Boulton: 12 PIM, Exelby: 7 PIM, Kozlov: 6 PIM

Rangers against Thrashers last year:
Points: Nylander (not a current Ranger): 6 (3G,3A), Jagr & Straka: 4 (1G,3A)
Penalties: Orr: 14 PIM, Hollweg: 7 PIM, Nylander: 6 PIM

***



If you were around last season you already know the drill, but here's a quick refresher. Read the question below, go digging for the answer and then send in your best response. We'll sift through the responses, weed out all of the ones that are wrong and then randomly draw a winner from the correct responses. Trivia closes at 2 p.m. and the winner will be notified by email before we post the result.