45 Shots, a Thrashers loss, and that's a good thing?

Yes. Ok, the loss, no (even though we are still 3 points out). But the day after losing our superstar player and we have 45 shots on goal, with the shooting spread out and everyone picking up slack? Hello, vindication of my theory. Had Neuvirth not been on fire tonight (or had Theodore been in net), we could have easily won this game - Washington's defense is a bit porous. Ours was no better, allowing two goals in quick succession, though honestly, Boris was hurt and Oduya had never played with us before so he had no clue what to expect. Welcome to the Thrashers, where in your first game you get more than 20 minutes of ice time! Oh, and Bergfors - you're on the first line. Have fun.

The lines for tonight were:

Little - Antropov - Bergfors
Kozlov - Peverley - Afinogenov
Kane - Slater - Armstrong
White - Reasoner - Thorburn

Honestly, looks good. Slava had 5 SOG tonight, so maybe the sitting woke him up, or maybe he's still emo about Kovalchuk. Meh, whatever. Not going to argue - he got an assist. Bergfors played very well with Little and Antropov. He pressures directly to the crease, which is something I've opined about us doing for a long time. Now if we can get someone to just stand there a la Tkachuk (but with more teeth) for rebound goals, we're all set.

I'm not going to judge life after Kovalchuk based on a team that's on a 13 game win streak and who could (and probably should) win the Cup. I'm really not judging our playoff chances yet seeing as how close we are and the fact that Waddell's hinting at being sellers. But I don't sense that doom that I did when Hossa left, and that's a good thing.

Special congrats go to Toby Enstrom, whose goal tonight gave him 40 points on the season - the new franchise record for most points by a Thrashers defenseman in a season. Li'l guy's been in the league less than 2 years and he already owns 2 franchise records. Ok, now, can we sign him to an uber extension now and not worry about any Toby Drama later on? Hmmm?