Hole's been plugged...

The Blues signed free agent Brendan Bell, late of the Ottawa Senators. He played 53 games with the Sens last season, so I'm wondering about a few things. What's the situation with Brewer? This makes it look like he's going to be out for a looong time, though if necessary they can send Bell down to the Rivermen if Brewer makes it back this season.

I'm also wondering about Petro - my money was on him making the big club this season. What gives?

Confirming what (most) Thrashers fans already know...

And Moose says NO.

And stated for truth at PuckDaddy - Johan Hedberg: Shootout God. According to NHL.com, he holds the league all-time record for SV% in shootouts at .820. That's 11 goals allowed on 61 shots. Fear the pokecheck! He also leads with winning percentage at .800, or 12-3.

Check your "that looks like his regular season SV%" jokes at the door. Hedberg had a good one for back-up goalies (as well as a decent GAA) until he signed with the defensive black hole that were the Thrashers for a while, he was the only goalie who managed to have a winning record last season, and posted a .928 SV% in the 2 playoff games he played for the Thrashers in 2007 with a 2.56 GAA. Compare with Kari's .849 SV% and a 5.59 GAA.

Some people have an irrational love of Kari, and that is fine. I know Hedberg's flaws, but sorry - he's still my fave Thrasher hands down. He might not be the best, but that's never been a qualifying factor for me.

Shameless Cross-Promotion

Yeah, I have this card somewhere. No, I won't make a Mrs. Janney joke.

James from Cycle Like the Sedins realized that in the midst of the huge re-draft that my Earliest Hockey Memory article would probably get bumped. So, well, loyal reader(s), here you go: my first hockey memories... of the Blues, of course.

Kari Injury Update

Wow, that's a post title I would never imagine I would type.

/sarc

Anywho, Lehtonen had back surgery a week or two ago after signing his contract (understandable, and I'm guessing DW knew this was coming) to repair a herniated disk that happened during his flu bout. This had nothing to do with conditioning or his groin, but does not prevent it from being just as frustrating as it always is. It coming so close to the beginning of camp and the start of the season is, though, extremely concerning. Who starts the season? Will Kari be good to go? Is Pavelec ready yet? How many games will this cost us, and will it keep us out of the playoffs? *sigh* As the Goalie Turns, live from Philips Arena.

Waddell expects Kari to be good to play at camp - he should be rehabbed in 4 weeks, and camp is the first week of September. This is encouraging, but what if he doesn't heal on schedule? What if he tweaks it at camp? I want him to be healthy. I want him to play a full season and play out of his mind. I WANT TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. We can't do it without him. Kari fan or not, you have to admit that a healthy Kari is necessary, which is why I get so frustrated when something happens to him.

Polak's back...

The St. Louis Blues have re-signed D-man Roman Polak to a 2 year contract extension.  This has been an ongoing saga over the off season, but now that he's re-signed our top 6 are set.  The thing is, Brewer's probably not a go, and Weaver is 7th man material.  I would not be shocked to see Petro make the big club this year. 

Sorry for the lack of updates...

Been helping a friend out painting her house. Anywho, we signed Evander Kane, re-signed Boris Valabik, and Kari Lehtonen has had surgery to fix his herniated disc from last season. No clue why it wasn't fixed at the beginning of the summer, but he should be back for camp.

A Few Thrashers in the Media...

Just some audio links:

• Army on 640 AM Toronto
• Army on Project 9-6-1 Atlanta
• Rich Peverley on 640 AM Toronto
• Evander Kane on 680 AM Atlanta
• XLB on 640 AM Toronto

Good God, is it preseason yet?

RFA Re-signings... for a limited time.

The Atlanta Thrashers re-signed goalie Kari Lehtonen and forward Colby Armstrong to one-year contracts. Kari's is $3 million and Colby's terms have not been released, though I'm sure that they'll leak soon. I'm not thrilled with a 1 year contract for Armstrong. He will be a UFA at the end of this season, and if we're not in playoff contention we'll wind up selling him. There is a lot of speculation that he'd rather be elsewhere (like Pittsburgh) and teams have been inquiring about him for quite some time. I'd prefer it if he stayed here - Army/Reasoner/Crabb is a pretty good 3rd line.

Kari, well, a 1 year contract doesn't bother me. He's only played over 60 games in one season because every other year he gets hurt, which costs the team games. He can be either a liability, or he can be outstanding. I wish he would pick one and stick with it so we know what to do. It's unfair to the team.

Schedule Thoughts.

I'm cool with the Blues' schedule despite the fact that there's an absurd gap in the amount of time we play a Central Division rival... well over a month between the 2nd game against Detroit and our 1st game against Chicago.

The Thrashers' schedule is *weird*. What is up with the gap between home games to start the season? October 3rd to October 22nd? No home games between the 22nd and the 7th? Uh, that's Christmas and New Year's break for a lot of people. The Olympics have made the NHL's schedule trunicated for February, so we have 17 games in March... 12 of them (!) and home. I like the concept of 12 home games in a month, but dude - that's about a quarter of all of our home games in ONE MONTH'S TIME.

Finally, we close against the Pens. Did someone not get that memo that it's fun to win the home closer? Can we not pencil in Tampa Bay or something like we usually do?

Time for my annual Sybil game!

The schedule is released at 3:00 Eastern today and I will have links for both the Blues and Thrashers. But... well... Rawhide, you just made my day with the leaks that you have.

THE BLUES ARE COMING ON NOVEMBER 8TH.

That is all.

Edit: Atlanta plays St. Louis in St. Louis for their first home game after the Sweden road trip on October 8th. 2 games this year? Oh, you're too kind hockey scheduling guys... though I don't dig the 20 day break between Thrashers home games right off the bat. We've been waiting a while... come on. I have some season tickets to burn.

Just a quick word of thanks...

I was fiddling around with my statcounter.com account, and caught a few hits from some hotel out in Duluth (gee, wonder who's staying out there). I just wanted to reiterate how much I and the other Thrashers bloggers appreciated the chance to go out and talk to our prospects on Saturday. I haven't been able to go out there for any of the rest of camp because the drive is satan, especially going home at rush hour, but I had a blast watching practice on Saturday. Best of luck to all of the prospects, and thank you again for tolerating our silly blogger questions on Saturday.

We all always appreciate the level of access that Thrashers bloggers and fans have to our team, and we're thankful of the special relationship that the team has with the community. There are some definite perks in not being a big market, the least of which is Nik Antropov being able to go to Kroger and not be stalked by reporters. Enjoy it, Nik!

Guys, quick, put on a towel... (now with sound!)

Someone let a girl in here! Nah, it was just me today at camp with the aforementioned Thrashers bloggers (and I almost forgot Rawhide, AKA Ben Tiller, from the AJC - it was nice to finally meet you!), and I managed to prepare some questions for a few of the guys.

When I say managed to prepare (and keep in mind that this is summer vacation) I mean I did 4 days of research of stats, compiled player statistical sheets, read every profile on Hockey's Future, took notes as to what these guys' strengths and weaknesses were, and wrote 4 questions each for 10 players that I wanted to talk to. So, yes, one could say that I went in there totally unprepared for any sort of interview. This was my only chance to talk to some of these guys, and I didn't feel the need to waste it.

The first player I talked to was Zach Redmond (if you're interested in hearing my inane questions, please, do listen - and then thank TimmyF from Thrashing About for the audio). Zach is a defenseman who plays for Ferris State. He was noted for his mobility, and he did not disappoint. I paid probably the most attention to him on the ice today out of all of the skaters. He is extremely fast, can poke away a puck in a heartbeat, and once managed to do a cool soccer move to kick a puck away from an oncoming player. For a 7th round pick in the 2008 draft, he looked fantastic. Quite frankly, he outperformed individuals who were drafted higher than he was. He looked to be trying to map the play in his mind while the offensive player was working, which flummoxed the other guy.

I asked him how he thinks that he would fit into Anderson's system. Zach is a puck moving offensively minded defenseman who was 6th on his team in scoring last year and who was also a +14, so he can score and he also can remember what position he plays. Zach said that he had not really spoken to Coach Anderson at length about specifics, but from what he had watched of us play, he feels like the style that is expected of the defense is something that he could fit extremely well into. He wasn't too positive about making the big club this year, but if he continues the way that he has been, he will make it in good time. He looked to need to put on a little weight, but not too much as he does not need to slow down - his speed is a major strength. When I asked him what he thought his strength was, he mentioned his stick skills. I would agree, though his foot skills weren't half bad either.

While some were crowded around Postma and quite a few other popular players, I decided to wander off the beaten path - and I honestly didn't think of any questions for Klingberg, either. Sad, I know. Anyway, I have an affinity for goalies and always focus on their skills. Ed Pasquale impressed me today, but he was not in the room for the questions. Chris Carozzi was, however, and I did have a few questions for him.

This was probably my worst Q&A of the day, because I didn't want to be insulting. Not in a bad way, but everything that I noticed today about his lateral movement was not stellar. When he dropped to the butterfly, he dropped. And stayed there. His push left to right (and vice versa) was not particularly strong and a few people scooted pucks past him because of that. Also, his glove hand was not nearly as quick a Pasquale's. Blocker/stick side he was perfectly fine. I didn't want to go up to Chris and ask him if he thought he needed to work on this, because he's the hockey player and I'm the dork with the computer. Thankfully, when I asked my canned "what do you consider something you need to work on?" question, those were the first (and only) two things out of his mouth. He said that he works with a trainer one-on-one practically constantly on fixing those issues and he knows that they're a problem. I find that comforting to know that he can recognize an issue and work very hard to correct it.

When I asked what he felt he had in common with Kari's style of play (weak glove side aside), he said that he feels that he has a strong ability to see where the play's moving and to react appropriately to prevent the goal. I noticed that he did not drop early on shots on him and he did try his best to move before as the puck was shot to block. This might be to compensate for his lack of lateral movement.

I posted the audio of the interview with Kane (and if anyone could please tell me the WHL's leading scorer last year, let me know so I can tell Hockey's Future), but one thing that struck me was the fact that he was a +51 last year. I asked him what he plans on doing to maintain that defensive responsibility in the NHL. He said that he realizes that one-way players are exciting and serve a purpose, but it's better for the team in general to make sure that you maintain a 2-way focus and be aware of every player on the ice. Something very specifically he said that he liked is that he has a responsibility to his coaches to be the best two way player he can be, because he knows that expectations for him are high and he does not want to disappoint. His family apparently instilled a great work ethic with him, because he seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to make the squad this year. My main concern would be weight - he needs to add a little bit more (again, not enough to slow him down because he is extremely fast) to maintain a competitive edge against some of the bigger guys that the league has to offer.

Needless to say, I did not get a chance to talk to everyone today that I wanted to - especially Ben Chiarot since I was scared I was going to fudge his name. Ben played with (though not on the same line as) Petro on the Ice Dogs of the OHL, and I wanted to ask him questions about his playing style and if he picked up anything from Petro. See, gotta work some Blues something in there somewhere.

Here's a teaser.

I shall have a full synopsis of some Q&A I did today with some of the guys at prospect camp up tomorrow. Thank you so much to the Atlanta Thrashers for allowing us this access to the prospects. It was great meeting the guys at the Blueland Chronicle, The Blueland Outsider, Timmy from Thrashing About, Lisa from the Thrashers 411, and the amazing Falconer from BWA.

Hopefully I shall be allowed to mooch some of the photos from Getting Pucks Deep since so many of mine look like this - I need a new camera.



As a teaser, Timmy was smart enough to bring a recording device to the locker room, so he has the Q&A we did with Kane over on his site. Please give it a listen - I'm the girl on the tape asking about stats and stuff trying to be "smart."

Brewer Still a Ways Off.

Brewer still hasn't taken to the ice after his hip surgeries yet (reports say he's having issues even picking his kid up). Thankfully, Norm Sanders gives us hope with his outstanding run-down of the Blues prospects at Pro-Orientation Camp so far. Jay McKee has been bought out (and has been signed to the Pens as a replacement for Hal Gill), which leaves 6 defencemen spots on the team: Brewer, Johnson, Polak, Colaiacovo, Jackman, and Weaver. But, of course, most teams travel with 7, and Alex Pietrangelo is fighting for a spot. As mentioned before, he and Johnson have been practicing together with Al MacInnis, so I would not be completely shocked to see him take Brewers place for the time being, and when Brewer comes back Weaver becomes the 7th man. If you have someone like Petro in the system, and he is apparently ready, you do not waste that talent at all.

A Moment of Silence.

The great player, yet horrible broadcaster, Bernie Federko, is being moved to between the benches for on-ice analysis during St. Louis Blues games on FSMW. Bernie's loved around St. Louis for his play on the ice, but as far as his work in the broadcast booth, well... just look at a GDT on GameTime from last season and you'll see the mocking of his "Mason would have liked to have had that one back!" calls. He was not particularly good. At all. Period.

Bernie's been replaced by Darren Pang, late of the Phoenix Coyotes (who might be having issues with their TV broadcast rights - more to come on that when I can find more info). Pang has also broadcast on NBC, TSN, and ESPN, and is a well-respected broadcaster who lends the Blues telecasts a note of national credibility.

Perhaps now we can be part of one of the Sunday games on NBC? PLEASE? We're as exciting as the Blackhawks and Detroit. Hell, we outplayed Chicago last year. Cut us some slack.

I will be attending the Thrashers Prospect Camp Saturday

Got a question for this guy?

I've been allowed to participate in the media Q&A after the sessions (*gasp* I know - me of all people... weird)... if anyone has any questions that they would like me to ask the guys, please let me know in the comments. I'll do my best to try to weasel my way in there. Or at the very least, maybe they'll take pity on poor li'l ol' me and do some chivalrous thing or something.

Naaaahhhhhhhh - I'll just ask the questions. I refuse to milk women's lib around hockey players. That would make me look all puck bunny, and I'm so not that.

Thrashers Re-sign Center Jim Slater...

... people who have overly high expectations have heart attacks en masse. Film at 11.

Come on, yes he was a 1st rounder (30th overall in 2002), but he knows his role on the team, does it well, and works his ass off. Cut him some slack, can we?

Hello, #1 Defensive Pairing.

Blues' Johnson and Pietrangelo are ready - STLtoday.com

Good to see that not signing Woywitka (good luck on the Stars, buddy) has left a bit of an open spot on defense. Petro and Johnson will be at prospect camp this week with the young guys, and I'm sure will garner most of the attention. Johnson sounds like he is in top condition, as does Pietrangelo. They're both complimentary of each others' playing styles, and when you have Johnson saying something like this, well...

Regarding his pairing with Pietrangelo, Johnson said: "We want to be like (Al) MacInnis and (Chris) Pronger when they were here ... to have that tandem that everyone fears to play against."

No, we have nothing to look forward to at all with these two young kids. Healthy EJ, mono-free Petro... A lot of people point to Chicago as the youthful success story of the league. That's all well and good, but when they can't afford to sign their youth after next season, I think more people will be taking notice of a team that includes these two guys, Oshie, Perron, Berglund, and whoever else works their way up through the system. Our prospect system was rated #1 in the league by Hockey's Future for a reason.

Prospect Camp Schedules.

The Blues' pro-orientation/prospect camp/young kids on ice or whatever they're calling it starts tomorrow, the 8th. Oshie, Johnson, Petro, and others will be available for autographs after some of the events, and it's limited to the first 1500 fans who get to the Ice Zone at St. Louis Mills.

Also starting this week is the Thrashers' prospect camp on July 10th at the Duluth Ice Forum. There isn't a cap on attendance.

Mmm... more seafood salad.

The Atlanta Thrashers re-signed UFAs Nathan Oystrick and Joey Crabb to contracts, terms pending. Details can be found at the official Atlanta Thrashers website.

Crabb is a prime candidate to fill in at Stuart's 3rd liner position, and Oystrick was reliable as the 6th and occasionally 7th defenseman. These are pretty useful depth signings for the Thrashers.

Now, about those extra goalies...

BJ Crombeen Re-signed to a 2 Year Contract

It was leaked yesterday on Twitter, and Norm Sanders had a bit on it today.  The Blues re-signed chippy 3rd liner BJ Crombeen to a 2 year contract.  He had 11 goals and 17 points in 66 GP with the Blues.  He managed a hat trick in a game  against Nashville as well.  I have a soft spot for grinders, I can't help it.  Grinders and back up goalies, for some reason, capture my attention more than the superstars.

Thrashers Pre-Season Schedule is Out

Here we go!  I'm disappointed that the Blues won't be down here like they usually are thanks to the games in Sweden, but all in all, it looks pretty sharp.  They keep it in the Southeast Division, except for the 2 games against Nashville and two prospects games against the Preds as well.  I only have to wait until the 21st of September to SEE LIVE HOCKEY.  Heck, the 14th if I feel like driving to Duluth.

Thursday	Sept. 17	Nashville Predators	Nashville	8 p.m.
Friday	Sept. 18	Tampa Bay Lightning	Tampa Bay	7:30 p.m.
Monday	Sept. 21	Carolina Hurricanes	Philips Arena	7 p.m.
Wednesday	Sept. 23	Nashville Predators	Philips Arena	7 p.m.
Friday	Sept. 25	Carolina Hurricanes	Raleigh, NC	7 p.m.
Sunday	Sept. 27	Tampa Bay Lightning	Philips Arena	5 p.m.

Atlanta Thrashers Prospect Games
Day	Date	Opponent	Site	Time (EST)
Monday	Sept. 14	Nashville Predators	Duluth IceForum	7 p.m.
Tuesday	Sept. 15	Nashville Predators	Duluth IceForum	1 p.m.

What is this guy's problem?

This isn't the first time that Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch has gotten his knocks in on the Thrashers. In his latest article about the miracle re-signing of Rick Nash (he of the "I'm sure I could get more money after this year if they don't make the offer that I want" statement), right off the bat in the opening paragraph, he says this:

Star winger Marian Hossa wouldn't even negotiate a contract extension with the Atlanta Thrashers during the 2007-08 season, so he was traded to Pittsburgh. Jay Bouwmeester took the same path out of Florida this season, ending up in Calgary last week. Unless something changes in Atlanta, the Thrashers risk losing Ilya Kovalchuk before or after next season, too.

Helpful to research crap before you write it. Hossa and Waddell were in some sort of negotiations for a good bit of the season before Hoss decided to leave so he could join a ready made winner, lose, join another ready made winner, lose, and then leave to torture Chicago.

Kovalchuk basically had to tell Waddell "I want Antropov" and he gets Antropov. He probably had some sort of say in the Kubina signing. Talks start with his agent halfway through July... things are seriously looking up for the Thrashers and there's a good chance Kovy re-ups here.

What is exactly with this guy and his need to rip on the Thrashers? Same amount of time in the league - 10 years. Same amount of superstar talent coming and going. Same number of actual superstars - 1. Same number of phenom goalies - 1 (I give Kari benefit of the doubt). Same number of playoff wins - 0. Is he trying to make the BJ's into something they're not? "Yeah, we're not amazing, but at least we're not Atlanta - har har har!"

Nice inadequacy complex. Hm. At least we've managed to have a Divisional Championship banner hung. The highest you guys have ever finished - 3rd place, is it? We might not be the best team ever, but we really don't deserve the pot-shots taken at us by a columnist whose team name is an abbreviation for oral sex.

Log Jam.

We now have 5 goalies signed (or, well, 4 signed and one with a QO): Kari, Hedberg, Pavelec, Peter Mannino (late of the Isles) and Drew MacIntyre (apparently late of the Preds and the Manitoba Moose).

This puts the team in an interesting position. Waddell has said that if the return is good, he wouldn't hesitate to trade a goaltender. Turple's gone, so we needed a replacement for him with the Wolves. Despite his 3 games of NHL experience (and outstanding goaltending against the Blackhawks), Mannino's numbers and lack of pro experience points to him being the Turple Replacer.

MacIntyre, however, seems to be geared up to be the Wolves' #1. He had better numbers than Pavs in the AHL with the last two seasons, and it would be a waste to have him back Pavelec up. The question now is, what of Pavelec? Is Kari gone, and is Pavs our new #1? Is Hedberg retiring/going back to Sweden, and is Pavs Kari's back up? Or, finally, are we packaging Pavelec with someone for a big trade coming up?

These goalie signings are more than a depth move. Mannino's too good to be sent down to the Gladiators. Something's brewing, and damn it all to hell, we have to wait until next week to really see what it is. I'm not even going to attempt an educated guess, because all three scenarios I mentioned are feasible. Moose is 36, and as much as I adore him for what he brings to the locker room (and the fact that he's pretty constant on the ice), retirement might be in his head. Pavelec was injured part of this season, contributing to poor numbers. But while he was up with Atlanta, his 3-7 record, .880 SV% and 3.61 GAA did not make him look like the goalie of tomorrow. He looked horrible in many of his losses - overwhelmed, even.

Waddell has the neverending issue of Kari Lehtonen and his injury prone self. He has played 1 season where he managed to make it the whole time. He can turn in outstanding performances that are jaw dropping, and then just have a total meltdown on the ice (the first game against Philly comes to mind). There's no consistency there. There's talent - lots, and lots of talent. But just no ability to turn in the same caliber of performance at least most nights.

I absolutely cannot wait until this week and we figure out who the hell our top 2 goaltenders are, if it's even solved by then. We might not even know until after camp.

He's baaaaack...

Per a tweet by Andy Strickland, the Blues have re-signed Hannu Toivonen to a 1 year, 2 way deal, presumably to replace Chris Holt. For a 1st round draft, Toivonen's been more than a mild disappointment, most recently seen when Legace went down season before last.

I certainly hope that he's matured. A lot.

More Thrashers Signings.

The Thrashers re-signed Chris Thorburn to a 2 year deal, keeping the Greek Gods line intact. I'm actually pretty thrilled with this... our 4th line works their asses off (pardon my French) and without Exelby here any more, we need someone who is willing to throw down other than Boulton. Thorburn is always more than willing to step up, even though the results might not be what he'd like.

The hair is always magnificent. Evidence:


Also on the Thrashers' signing agenda - a top 6 forward. We filled that need with Nik Antropov today. He's a strong Right Winger who will probably be on Kovy's line (which means re-uniting the Little White Russian line, I hope). Dealing Stuart allows Army to move back to the 3rd line.

Antropov had 59 pts in 81 GP last season, and was a -14 on a fairly average Toronto team. I honestly don't put a lot of stock in +/- stats (which is why I'm ignoring Kubina's career -101 or whatever horrible number that is). Yes, Todd White and Slava Kozlov had more points than he did last season, but Kovy (per a tweet by Andy Strickland) basically made this happen - he played with Antropov during the lockout. Here's what Don Waddell had to say:

"Let's look at it this way," Don Waddell said yesterday. "If we improve the team and make Ilya happy, it makes all of us happy."

Waddell did wonderfully at the draft and he's doing pretty well at getting free agents so far. I wouldn't be shocked to see Kovy re-sign by August.

Speaking of Kubina, Falconer has an analysis over at BWA that would blow anything I'd write out of the water... but allow me to say that a D man who scores 40 points a season is an upgrade over one who scores 7, at least in John Anderson's system.

Trade News.

X'll be cookin' up some fun in Toronto now, I suppose.

Just got home from vacation and am tired as poop, so no big write-up until tomorrow. Stuart and Exelby (not the hair!) have been sent off to Toronto for Kubina and Stapleton. I'll do a compare/contrast on stats tomorrow. This seems like a salary dump for Toronto, but Kubina's a 40 point a year guy... our top 4 defensemen are pretty solid with the scoring.

He's not afraid to bandy about some fisticuffs with batshit crazies, either.

The Blues signed Ty Conklin to a 2 year contract as a back-up to Chris Mason. ConkBlock stepped it up in Detroit when Osgood was going through his funk, and he also had to step in the previous year when Fleury was injured in Pittsburgh. He's a more than capable back-up, and this gives us an extremely solid one-two tandem in goal. Also, we're now all set for a Winter Classic and a Western Conference Championship accompanied by a heartbreaking loss in the SCF. So, well, yay!