34-31-12: 80 Pts.	44-26-7: 95 Pts.

Atlanta's record against Pittsburgh: 0-2-0

Evander Kane makes his return to the Thrashers as a wing on a line with Rich Peverley and Bryan Little, which I really, really like.  Good timing for (another) do or die game.  The Rangers beat the ever loving hell out of the Bolts 5-0 last night, giving them 80 points on the season - and since they have the tiebreaker on us, 9th place.

The Thrashers played well on Thursday, but not enough to win.  They blew a golden chance to scoot up in the standings, and they basically have to win their last four games in a row to make it, pending the completion Philly's collapse.  Next four opponents?  Pittsburgh, Washington, New Jersey, and again, Pittsburgh.  I really hope that these teams, since they've all clinched anyway, just take the nights off.  Like that'll happen - especially since Geno and Gonchar are back tonight for the Pens, and Kubina and Arty are questionable for us.  Wooo, Chelios.  Feel the rush.

Make sure you wander over to The Pensblog today and check out their GDT, and I'm assuming later tonight their wrap-up.  Photoshops and hilarity abound!  Hey, I admit it, I read them daily.  And I've liked the Pens since I was a little kid.  That being said, the Thrashers absolutely MUST win.

Oddly enough, Hedberg has better overall stats this year than Flower, albiet from a smaller sample size.  He even has one more shutout.  I'm not really comparing the two, but I am using these stats to make my argument that Hedberg's having a career year, and we really probably should ink him for just one more season.

Tonight's goalie matchup, from DailyFaceOff.com:

Personally, I think he deserved it.

Wait... a blogger calling out one of their team's own players?  Don't we usually blindly defend even the dumbest things guys on our own teams do?  No.  If you're a good hockey fan, you can admit when one of your own guys screws up - not every call is biased against your team, even if you're Atlanta.

When you watch the offending hit at first, it happens so fast you don't catch it.  Luckily the Comcast SportsNet guys take the liberty of re-playing it about a dozen times in super slo mo.  Witness.

Upon further watching, it becomes obvious that he leads with his fist.  Perreault leaned back when he saw what Army was getting ready to do, making it look probably worse than it was, but still - who hits like that?  Yes, it was head on, but leading with your lower arm in a hit is just cheap.  Not as cheap as leading with your shoulder to their head, but it's unnecessary... especially when you see that Perreault was getting ready to pass the puck for a Caps' breakaway attempt.  That passing lane that Army needed to be in?  Nope, not there - because he took himself out of position for a stupid hit.

He's out for the next two games (he'll be back Tuesday) because of a stupid decision that thankfully didn't have more ramifications in the game than it it - a hit like that could have provoked a Caps onslaught.  It's a miracle we held them to 2 goals all game, so frankly I'm thankful that they didn't decide to go wonkers on us and light Pavelec up as a response.

Nope, no in-game ramifications.  He just removed himself from half of the Thrashers' last little playoff push right when hopes are dimming the most, all over some stupid hit.  I know he's a great locker room guy and good PR for the fans, but he's an assistant captain of this team, and selfish stupid behavior like that shouldn't be tolerated.  Frankly, if he walks this summer I wouldn't be upset.  I've had issues with him and his play all season, and I'm tired of the weird borderline hits.

Ok, it was.  The St. Louis Blues managed to blow another 2-0 lead to the Nashville Predators in their 3-2 loss, basically eliminating them from the race (there's a 1% chance of them making it).  The first period was full of vim and vigor, but as the second period progressed, the team's "gotta win" effort slumped.  Jackman and Brewer both were on the ice for two of the goals, and a lack of push by them let the Predators drive by.  They floated.

Do people *really* fear the beard?

There's some debate over on Game Time about accountability and whose fault it is, courtsey of this quote from goaltender Chris Mason:

I'm definitely not going to signal anybody out, but some guys showed up and worked as hard as they could and some guys didn't. When you're in a desperate situation like we are, we need everybody to come and compete, and we didn't have that.

The biggest question here is, though, did Mason show up? Not just this game, but a few times before.  He always seems to let in a softie of the night.  That isn't a knock on him as a player, considering the fact that he was outstanding down the stretch last year and has been fairly solid all season long (2.53 GAA, .913SV%).  His numbers aren't those of a elite NHL starter.  Look at the top goalies in the league (opens in new window):

It's Vokoun and Huet level.  The former is considered elite, and the latter's considered a bust.  Why? Because of the SOG allowed each game.  Huet's SV% is an awful (for a starter) .895, and Vokoun's is .926  Chicago allows only 24.8 shots a game (1st in the league) while Florida is a league last 34.2.

Mason's stats fall somewhere between the two.  They're by no means awful, and considering that the Blues allow a middling 30.3 SOG a game, they're not surprising.

Chris Mason is an average goaltender, on an average team.  It fits.  The question should focus on what would the Blues be if we had a goaltender like Vokoun? Would we have won a few more 1 goal games, or would we have maintained the lead in the 3rd period more?  You'd have to go back and watch every single solitary goal and figure out if Mason was at fault, or if it was a defensive breakdown, to really get a good grasp of how many additional points we would have.

But honestly, even if it got us 4 more wins, we would be at 91 points, or 8th place.  The Blues really need to look at if it's ok to place our eggs in the offensive basket (big mistake this year) and go for a sniper this off-season, or break down and finally - for the first time since possibly Cujo - acquire a starting elite goaltender.

As we have seen in Phoenix and Buffalo, a team can ride a goalie all the way to the postseason, but only if the rest of the team's up to standards - Florida's an excellent example of a wasted goaltender.  And elite goalie on the Blues, however, wouldn't have quite the problem.

Tooting my own horn (which seems to be the only horn I have to toot tonight), I just wanted to direct you to my Calder Profile on Niclas Bergfors over at NHLHotStove.com. Falconer suggest I do a Toby for Lady Byng one, so that might be in the works, or maybe another Behind the Mask profile on Chris Mason.

Well, ok, that one's a behind the beard.

Gentle Jeebus, Atlanta's last five games are awful.  And it starts off juuuuuust with who we want to play while we have a chance to hop Montreal.

34-31-12: 80 Pts.	49-15-12: 110 Pts.

Season Series against Washington: 0-4-0

Please to harass our good friends at Rock the Red, but polite-like, of course.

Maybe the Caps'll take the night off.  I mean, it's not like they have anything to lose, and I'd rather play us in round 1 than the Habs, eh?  Here's the goalie matchup from DailyFaceOff.com - and yes, Pavelec's numbers are awful here, but he's on a really good streak, so let's pray that continues:

And on to the Blues...

As a fan of the Atlanta Thrashers, one would think I'd be immune to hearing people bemoan teams in "inappropriate markets."  Cities where the average winter high is above freezing are unworthy - unworthy, I tell you! - of a hockey team.  The fans?  Just a tiny, expendable base who aren't as worthy of being graced by the outstanding sport of hockey as, say, people closer to the Arctic Circle are.  Would anyone really notice if hockey left Tampa Bay, Florida, or Atlanta?  How about Nashville?  Phoenix?

Yep.  These people have no clue that they have hockey in Nashville.  They're just in line for a Brooks & Dunn concert.

I've always been of the opinion that hell YES people would notice.  Maybe not as many as would catch on if the Habs suddenly vaporized, but just because teams in these cities have a lot of other sports to compete with doesn't mean that people don't enjoy these sports.

More after the jump.

As of right now, though, I'm plotting what beer to go to Kroger to buy so I can make it through tonight's matchups.

33-31-12; 78 Pts.	28-25-18; 69 Pts

And for the Blues:

46-21-7; 99 Pts.	36-30-9; 81 Pts

All right, fine - in my opinion, there are no ramifications, aside from me being obnoxious about how much I love the sport to those around me.  But, believe it or not, thereare a few valid psychological reasons that women love the sport, and the impact genetics and evolution of the species has on how genders look at the game - or sports in general.

I published this over on St. Louis Game Time a while back, and it was one of my better received pieces, but got a bit lost in the shuffle over there on a busy news day.  It's one of my favorite things that I've written, and I figure now that I might be attempting to get a wider audience than my old blog, this would be a good place to highlight it again.

Tuesdays With Hildy: Me Tarzan, you hockey fan?

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Last night's 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was frustrating on a few levels.  It was Cam Ward's first night back, so everyone expected him to be less than sharp.  Yeah, strike one.  The Bruins lost to the Sabres, giving the Thrashers a chance to tie for 8th.  Strike two.

Oh, and I got 8 free seats to share with friends.  Of course, that was strike three.

With only six games left, and two of those at home, the Thrashers have to play out of their mind absurd hockey to make the playoffs.  I know that by looking at the standings alone it looks like we have a good chance - still 2 back of Boston, and 4 of the Habs and Philly. But you have to think about who you're working with here.  The Bruins gave us a good chance, and we blew it against an easily beatable team.  Our record against the Southeast is miserable, and as Ben noted over on the game recap, playoffs begin at home.  Our record within the division is 8-9-2; the only team that we can manage to beat is Florida who are responsible for half of our wins.  You can look to our record against other divisions, especially the Atlantic, and go "Hey, we can hang with the big boys!"  We can't beat the three teams beneath us in the standings save for one.. and this is in the Southeast Division.  If we do squeak in, we'll play the Caps first round. I'm sure that  would go swimmingly.

Oh, and we have 2 more games remaining against them, so if you want proof that the Scheduling Gods hate us, there you go.

The power play is weak, the team caves under pressure... there are lots of signs there that this team isn't ready for the big show.  On paper and personnel on the ice wise, absolutely they are.  But they're playing timidly, dare I say it... fragile.  They're reflecting what they hear in the locker room.  Before tonight's game they better hear whatever they got an earfull of on Saturday, because we're playing Toronto, who have been absolutely outstanding down the stretch.  Gustavsson has won 7 games straight, and of course he's starting tonight.  The Leafs are 5-1-1 in their last 7.

I've always said that the Leafs aren't a bad team - they just need to find their footing.  But boy, is this a hell of a time of year for teams like Toronto and Carolina to get going.  You have to think of it this way though: if the Thrashers miss the playoffs, they can look back at the last 5 (or 6) game losing streak, or that streak in December... or all of those one goal losses, and they can say "That's what cost us."  They have the ability - the penalty kill has been outstanding, as has the pressure  on net - but they seem to lack the drive.  They're scared of success.

This team is frustrating.  Thanks to Brandon and James over at NBC's Pro Hockey Talk a chance to get some of this off of my chest.

It's funny how not having a decent record over your franchise's history can lead to rumors of re-location.  I mean, just look at the Columbus Blue Jackets.  Rumors abound!

Wait, what - they don't?  They're in a "traditional Northern United States Market?"  Ohh, ok.

There's something about the untraditional that scares people.  There's even something more scary about something untraditional with even a modicum of success potential, and people know that if the Thrashers get going and have solid season a few years in a row, they'll be a hot ticket in Atlanta, and they won't be able to have the rumor roundups.

It's much more fun for the guys on Sportsnet to throw out speculation that the Thrashers are having cash flow problems (according to Don Waddell in about a million interviews and at a couple dozen town halls says no - we're in the black) and are in danger of moving.  The ownership situation, which even Gary Bettman called out as just a clusterfark, gives people who would love nothing more than to see the Thrashers fail an out to back up their claims of sale and moving.

It's no secret that the Atlanta Spirit are looking for a new investor - for both of their teams.  They hired Goldman-Sachs to find one for them in August.  The Hawks and Thrashers, though, are a package deal thanks to naming rights being attached to both teams remaining in Philips Arena.  They leave, Philips leaves, and good luck figuring out how to get a new sponsor in these awful economic times.

Despite the fact that the Winnipeg rumors were squashed like a bug earlier this year, some people really really feel that the Thrashers are a done deal here and are on the move to sunnier pastures - like Seattle.

More post-jump...