Rick Dudley knows a thing or two about putting together a winning hockey team from his stints in Buffalo, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Chicago.

He’s taken on another major project with the Atlanta Thrashers, a team that has made the playoffs only once in its 11-year history and faces questions about how long it can survive in this city.

Dudley was promoted to general manager Wednesday, part of a wide-ranging shakeup in which previous GM Don Waddell was bumped upstairs to team president and coach John Anderson was fired.

Despite all the changes, Dudley doesn’t believe it will take that long for the Thrashers to become a perennial postseason franchise — and put aside that speculation about going elsewhere.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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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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“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

“It’s a lot of fun,” Afinogenov said. “We are winning games and playing with these guys is unbelievable.”

It wasn’t the Panthers’ night. In a bizarre play early on, Florida’s Tomas Vokoun was taken off the ice on a stretcher after he was hit squarely in the head by the swung stick of his own defenseman on a wild evening at Philips Arena.

Florida’s Keith Ballard swung his stick in frustration after an Ilya Kovalchuk first-period goal, striking Vokoun on his mask. Even as the goaltender was falling back into the goal, Ballard swung his stick again, striking the goal post.

Click here to read the full article – By Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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The Thrashers have won three straight, two by shutout, with Johan Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec minding the net. The two of them have stopped a combined 106 of 110 shots in wins over Detroit, Carolina and Philadelphia. That’s a save percentage of .964.

“When they are on top of their games and they feel good about themselves, they want to play,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We are blessed with two real good goalies right now.”

Remarkably, both rank in the top 10 in the NHL in save percentage. Hedberg, who earned his 12th career shutout Saturday against Philadelphia, is tied for second in the league with a .932 save percentage. He trails Buffalo’s Ryan Miller by just .001 point. Pavelec, who posted his second career shutout Wednesday in Detroit, is tied for eighth with a .921 percentage.

Click here to read the full article – By Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Kovalchuk, the Thrashers’ captain, was expected to miss three to five weeks after suffering the injury on Oct. 24. He was tied for second in the league with nine goals when he was struck on the foot by a puck against the San Jose Sharks.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

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General manager Don Waddell said Wednesday he remained “confident” that a new deal with the Thrashers’ franchise player would be reached and sooner rather than later.

“I don’t think it’s going to get done before opening night,” Waddell said. “We’re going to talk again in the next 24 hours but I don’t see it getting done.”

Waddell later added: “I don’t think we’ll be talking about this at Christmas time.”

Waddell previously said he’d thought there would be a new deal struck before the start of the season. Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Click here to read the full article – By Chris Vivlamore of Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Lehtonen, 25, earned a 19-22-3 record with three shutouts, a 3.06 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage in 46 games for the Thrashers last season. He led Atlanta goaltenders in games played, wins, shutouts and save percentage and tied a team-record with a five-game win streak from March 6-16. During the win streak, Lehtonen had a 1.18 goals-against average, a .966 save percentage and two shutouts.

Click here to read the full article – By of ESPN.com

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