Posted by TheHockeyGuy on 12th February 2010
They are both gone.
The two issues, involving two players, that faced the Thrashers for much of the season finally have been resolved. The ongoing contract negotiations with Ilya Kovalchuk could not be completed, and the franchise player was traded to New Jersey. The ongoing back issues with Kari Lehtonen appear over, but with two other goaltenders on the roster he was traded to Dallas.
Without the potential distractions, one question remains. Where do the Thrashers go from here?
“I think for us as a team, all these things have been happening very quickly,” goaltender Johan Hedberg said. “It’s a huge adjustment for this organization, this franchise. As a group it brings us closer together, but it’s up to us. We have to do it, inside this [locker] room. We can’t wait for Kovy to come in and score four or five goals or Kari to come back and stand on his head. Right now, it’s us. It puts more pressure on us, but it’s also something that, hopefully, is going to make us pull harder together.”
Defenseman Pavel Kubina said the team spoke about the situations with Kovalchuk and Lehtonen, but they were not issues on the ice.
“You always talk to your teammates about what is going on and what’s going to happen,” Kubina said. “They were traded. But when you step on the ice you worry about the team and you try to do your best. I don’t think it was a distraction at all.”
Click here to read the full article – By Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Posted by TheHockeyGuy on 3rd February 2010
Bryan Little won’t breathe a sigh of relief just because he scored two goals Saturday.
He had already made the mistake of thinking one goal was enough to end a season-long scoring slump. Live and learn.
The Thrashers forward scored twice against Nashville last weekend, raising his season total to eight goals after 54 games. He’s well off the pace to match the 31 goals he scored last season.
“I’m not looking at it that way because goals are hard to come by right now,” Little said. “I think that’s kind of been the problem. I had slumps this year and I’ve scored a goal and kind of went, ‘That’s a relief.’ That was probably not what I should have been doing.
“Now that I’ve scored two goals, hopefully I can get on a roll and keep going and keep hungry for more.”
Little’s two-goal performance matched his total from his previous 17 games. He would have to score nearly a goal a game for the rest of the season to surpass the total he set last year in his first full NHL season.
“I think the biggest thing for me this year has been mentally,” the 22-year-old said. “Last year I had such a quick start. I had a couple goals in the first game. This year it took me [11] games to score my first goal. It was a bit of a downer at the beginning of the season and I think I just got frustrated.
“It seemed like everything I shot last year was finding a way to go in. This year everything I’ve shot has found a way to stay out. I started thinking about it more and kept getting more frustrated.”
Click here to read the full article – By Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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