Don Waddell saw enough from Darren Haydar on Thursday night to give him
another chance tonight against the Islanders. It seemed that almost every time
there was an Atlanta scoring chance in the 4-2 loss to the Leafs that Haydar was
on the ice. He played on the power play and finished the night fourth among
Thrasher forwards in ice-time, trailing only Kovalchuk, Hossa and White.
He'll stay on the second line tonight with Little and Perrin while Larsen and
McCarthy will remain healthy scratches, giving you the same lines as Thursday night:
Kovalchuk- White- Hossa
Perrin- Little- Haydar
Kozlov- Holik- Dupuis
Boulton- Slater Thorburn
Havelid- Enstrom
Klee- Exelby
Zhitnik- Popovic
Lehtonen
Hedberg
The big news though is who is in goal. Kari Lehtonen will get his first NHL
start since October 19, which happened to be Waddell's first night behind the
Thrashers' bench. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet but I can guarantee
you that Kari wants to put the first seven games of the season behind him and
bounce back under his new coach. It worked for a certain Russian sniper, didn't
it?
As for the Islanders, they started the season strong but are 4-5-1 in their
last 10 games and have slipped to eight in the Eastern Conference. they've been
held to two or less goals in 11 straight games but goaltending has bailed them
out and kept them afloat. Look out for DiPietro and Satan
who both have a history of performing well against Atlanta. DiPietro is
4-3-1 all-time against the Thrashers and Satan has 11 goals in his last 10 games
against us. It will also be Andy Sutton's first game against his old team, so
keep an eye on him as well.
My keys to the game are pretty simple. Shoot from everywhere and score first.
Score ugly. Stay out of the box because the Isles rely heavily on their power
play to keep them in games. My magic 8-ball says that if the Thrashers can notch
four goals they win this game. I want two of those four to come from players
that aren't on the top line of Kovalchuk, White and Hossa. Ideally one would be
from Slava.
What are your thoughts?
Update: Craig Custance is actually in New York (I'm in Marietta) and he says Thorburn has moved up to the Holik line and Dupuis is taking his spot with Slater and Boulton. I suspect Waddell is rewarding Thorburn more than he's punishing Dupuis, but at some point Dupuis has to go from getting lots of chances to actually finishing on those chances. Also- DiPietro gets the night off, assuming Wade Dubielewicz doesn't get pulled.
