HTML clipboardBlink and everything can change.Barry Melrose addressed the media around 11:15 this morning and at that pointenforcer David Koci was on waivers. Melrose said that he wanted to keep him inthe organization and he was hoping that he didn't get claimed because he likeshaving a heavyweight on the team."That's why the United States has a nuclear arsenal," he said, pausing foreffect. "It's called a deterrent. Do you think Boogard is in the lineup becausehe's gong to get 10 goals? I don't think so."He probably won't be happy to hear thatKoci was claimed by St. Louis. On the other hand, he has a new player towork with. The Lightning claimed Matt Pettinger off re-entry waivers from theCanucks (TSN has it as Mike Pettinger). They also put Jason ward on waiverstoday. He hasn't played in the regular season so that has little impact on theirroster.Also on waivers today according to TSN- Ken Klee. Darren McCarty cleared, asdid Kyle Wellwood.As for the players suiting up tonight, Melrose is concerned but optimisticthat his team will turn it around. They're 0-2-3 but all five of those losseswere by one goal. They're giving up a lot of shots but getting greatgoaltending from Mike Smith and Olaf Kolzig. Smith and his unearthly .944 savepercentage get the nod tonight. Kolzig is only stopping 92% of the shotshe faces. So the big issue for Tampa is scoring. Lecavalier, St. Louis and Prospal eachhave three points but after that it gets pretty thin. Recchi and Ryan Malonehave a goal each. Gary Roberts has no points. Likewise for Radim Vrbata. Melroseis confident his stars will break out and get hot at some point though, andunfortunately they have a tendency to do so against the Thrashers. Vinny Prospalhas 50 points in 43 games against Atlanta. That's significantly higher than hispoints per game average over the course of his/nhl career. He also had six goalsand 10 points against us last year. St. Louis feasted on the Thrashers too, withnine points in eight games (probably as assists on Prospal's goals). So look outfor Prospal, who is playing wing with Lecavalier and St. Louis. Steven Stamkos is centering the second line after a strong showing againstMinny. He's tentatively slated to skate between Malone and Adam Hall. Stamkos isa well-spoken kid who is getting a lot of good advice about adjusting to beingan/nhl center as an 18-year-old from Vinny Lecavalier who did the same thing adecade ago.As for the much-maligned TB defense that's going up a league-worst 36.6 shotsper game- look for Paul Ranger to make a difference and for his fellowblueliners to learn from him. Melrose was asked if Ranger is better than heexpected him to be. His answer was pretty clear."Yes. Yes. By far. Paul is awesome." He added that "He's big. He's a great skater. He's a great passer.""If you have guys that are tentative and they watch Paul play and they watchhim take the body, and watch him jump into the play and pass the puck, all of asudden they're doing the same things," Melrose explained. "Great players dothat. Great players change the way the other guys play."Ranger and Meszaros will play against Kovalchuk's line.But enough about the Lightning. Let's talk about the Thrashers.There are no changes to the lineup for tonight. Kari Lehtonen will start ingoal. Colby Armstrong will play. Brett Sterling and Nathan Oystrick made thetrip but are both healthy scratches.Zach Bogosian is fairly sure that he only faced Steven Stamkos once lastseason (Bogosian might have missed a few games due to suspension for someextra-curricular on-ice activities) but he knows him from the/nhl draft andcombine. He referred to the center as a "good kid." For the record, Stamkos ismore than five months older than Bogosian. In case you were wondering, Bogosiandoesn't feel any pressure to score, even though Drew Doughty, the second overallpick, scored last night. He sees their situations as being very different.Doughty is being asked to be a top pair guy and run the PP. Bogosian is beingeased in a bit more and playing with some solid veterans in Schneider, Hainseyand Havelid. Bogosian added that he's just playing his style of game, andbesides, "Scoring isn't everything." So says Zach Bogosian.The theme of John Anderson's morning scrum was coming together as a team.Tonight is what I would call the first real road game of the season. TheThrashers played in Florida but it was the second night of back-to-back games sothe team got to Florida late the night before so there was no chance to relax orenjoy Miami. In contrast, the team went out to a nice dinner last night as ateam and had a few hours to bond and get to know each other better, and they didit without the coaches who ate at a different restaurant."The team has to go a little bit on their own and not be under my watch24/7," Anderson said. "They need that break from me. They have to listen to meat the rink because I have a captive audience but they don't have to listen tome at seven or eight o'clock at night."To Anderson it's all a start to the bonding process that he hopes continuesthroughout the season."That's just the start of what makes you want to go to war with the guysitting beside you. To know them on a personal basis and not just from sittingacross from them in the locker room. That will come with time and as we go alongwe're going to do stuff for team-building. It's a process."Without enquiring about specific players, Mike Knobler asked Anderson what hesays to players who aren't scoring. Anderson's answer was simple yetinteresting. He doesn't worry about it as long as those players are gettingchances. If they aren't getting chances he sits down with them to figure outwhat they can do differently to get themselves in the position to score, whetherit's gong to the net or positioning themselves better.Anderson sees some similarities between where the Lightning are now with nowins in five games and where the Thrashers were entering Saturday's game afterthree straight losses. He expects them to come out hard and the Thrashers mayhave to weather a storm for the first little while. The key to the game, in my eyes, is to shut down the stars (especiallyProspal) and sow those seeds of doubt that sprung so often in the Thrashers'minds last season. Last year you could sense that when the Thrashers trailedthey started to think "Oh no. Not again." Those are the kinds of thoughts theThrashers need to have the Lighting thinking. If they can get them to do thatthen I like our odds.That's it for me for now. It's time to enjoy the weather and the water. I'llbe blogging during the game for those who want to follow along. And FYI, the CNNpiece on Colby Armstrong will air November 6 during the day and will re-airmultiple times before living on the CNN site. Details to come.Source
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Morning Skate Update From Tampa
HTML clipboardBlink and everything can change.Barry Melrose addressed the media around 11:15 this morning and at that pointenforcer David Koci was on waivers. Melrose said that he wanted to keep him inthe organization and he was hoping that he didn't get claimed because he likeshaving a heavyweight on the team."That's why the United States has a nuclear arsenal," he said, pausing foreffect. "It's called a deterrent. Do you think Boogard is in the lineup becausehe's gong to get 10 goals? I don't think so."He probably won't be happy to hear thatKoci was claimed by St. Louis. On the other hand, he has a new player towork with. The Lightning claimed Matt Pettinger off re-entry waivers from theCanucks (TSN has it as Mike Pettinger). They also put Jason ward on waiverstoday. He hasn't played in the regular season so that has little impact on theirroster.Also on waivers today according to TSN- Ken Klee. Darren McCarty cleared, asdid Kyle Wellwood.As for the players suiting up tonight, Melrose is concerned but optimisticthat his team will turn it around. They're 0-2-3 but all five of those losseswere by one goal. They're giving up a lot of shots but getting greatgoaltending from Mike Smith and Olaf Kolzig. Smith and his unearthly .944 savepercentage get the nod tonight. Kolzig is only stopping 92% of the shotshe faces. So the big issue for Tampa is scoring. Lecavalier, St. Louis and Prospal eachhave three points but after that it gets pretty thin. Recchi and Ryan Malonehave a goal each. Gary Roberts has no points. Likewise for Radim Vrbata. Melroseis confident his stars will break out and get hot at some point though, andunfortunately they have a tendency to do so against the Thrashers. Vinny Prospalhas 50 points in 43 games against Atlanta. That's significantly higher than hispoints per game average over the course of his/nhl career. He also had six goalsand 10 points against us last year. St. Louis feasted on the Thrashers too, withnine points in eight games (probably as assists on Prospal's goals). So look outfor Prospal, who is playing wing with Lecavalier and St. Louis. Steven Stamkos is centering the second line after a strong showing againstMinny. He's tentatively slated to skate between Malone and Adam Hall. Stamkos isa well-spoken kid who is getting a lot of good advice about adjusting to beingan/nhl center as an 18-year-old from Vinny Lecavalier who did the same thing adecade ago.As for the much-maligned TB defense that's going up a league-worst 36.6 shotsper game- look for Paul Ranger to make a difference and for his fellowblueliners to learn from him. Melrose was asked if Ranger is better than heexpected him to be. His answer was pretty clear."Yes. Yes. By far. Paul is awesome." He added that "He's big. He's a great skater. He's a great passer.""If you have guys that are tentative and they watch Paul play and they watchhim take the body, and watch him jump into the play and pass the puck, all of asudden they're doing the same things," Melrose explained. "Great players dothat. Great players change the way the other guys play."Ranger and Meszaros will play against Kovalchuk's line.But enough about the Lightning. Let's talk about the Thrashers.There are no changes to the lineup for tonight. Kari Lehtonen will start ingoal. Colby Armstrong will play. Brett Sterling and Nathan Oystrick made thetrip but are both healthy scratches.Zach Bogosian is fairly sure that he only faced Steven Stamkos once lastseason (Bogosian might have missed a few games due to suspension for someextra-curricular on-ice activities) but he knows him from the/nhl draft andcombine. He referred to the center as a "good kid." For the record, Stamkos ismore than five months older than Bogosian. In case you were wondering, Bogosiandoesn't feel any pressure to score, even though Drew Doughty, the second overallpick, scored last night. He sees their situations as being very different.Doughty is being asked to be a top pair guy and run the PP. Bogosian is beingeased in a bit more and playing with some solid veterans in Schneider, Hainseyand Havelid. Bogosian added that he's just playing his style of game, andbesides, "Scoring isn't everything." So says Zach Bogosian.The theme of John Anderson's morning scrum was coming together as a team.Tonight is what I would call the first real road game of the season. TheThrashers played in Florida but it was the second night of back-to-back games sothe team got to Florida late the night before so there was no chance to relax orenjoy Miami. In contrast, the team went out to a nice dinner last night as ateam and had a few hours to bond and get to know each other better, and they didit without the coaches who ate at a different restaurant."The team has to go a little bit on their own and not be under my watch24/7," Anderson said. "They need that break from me. They have to listen to meat the rink because I have a captive audience but they don't have to listen tome at seven or eight o'clock at night."To Anderson it's all a start to the bonding process that he hopes continuesthroughout the season."That's just the start of what makes you want to go to war with the guysitting beside you. To know them on a personal basis and not just from sittingacross from them in the locker room. That will come with time and as we go alongwe're going to do stuff for team-building. It's a process."Without enquiring about specific players, Mike Knobler asked Anderson what hesays to players who aren't scoring. Anderson's answer was simple yetinteresting. He doesn't worry about it as long as those players are gettingchances. If they aren't getting chances he sits down with them to figure outwhat they can do differently to get themselves in the position to score, whetherit's gong to the net or positioning themselves better.Anderson sees some similarities between where the Lightning are now with nowins in five games and where the Thrashers were entering Saturday's game afterthree straight losses. He expects them to come out hard and the Thrashers mayhave to weather a storm for the first little while. The key to the game, in my eyes, is to shut down the stars (especiallyProspal) and sow those seeds of doubt that sprung so often in the Thrashers'minds last season. Last year you could sense that when the Thrashers trailedthey started to think "Oh no. Not again." Those are the kinds of thoughts theThrashers need to have the Lighting thinking. If they can get them to do thatthen I like our odds.That's it for me for now. It's time to enjoy the weather and the water. I'llbe blogging during the game for those who want to follow along. And FYI, the CNNpiece on Colby Armstrong will air November 6 during the day and will re-airmultiple times before living on the CNN site. Details to come.Source
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