If We Only Had a Marty Reasoner!! "The Party" Doin' Work...

A lot of folks in Thrasherville, as well as fans in parts unknown, have been complaining and teeth-gnashing over the fact that the big piece (literally) acquired in the early summer trade with Chicago has been playing defense and not power forward for our hockey club. Indeed, the Dustin Byfuglien blueline experiment is a slow-dripping titration too tedious for many fans, but the largest tragedy purported by many is the fact that we gave up a potential 30-goal scorer in Jeremy "Scorin'" Morin, who was drafted in the 2nd round by then GM Don Waddell in the spring of 2009.

But to me, that sort of talk is just a bit premature. It is well-documented that Jeremy is not much of a skater, and in watching him play a couple of pre-season games for Chicago, I saw this to be very true. Morin is a very unpolished hockey player, who possesses extremely good hands as well as a bit of "nasty" in his game that caused GM Rick Dudley to describe him as a "miserable SOB" to play against. However, as astute hockey observers like to point out, only roughly 15-20% of 2nd round selections ever make it to the pros for any significant length of time -- more than 100 games played. And in trading for a potential game-changer like Big Buff, you have to give some to get some, although some think we should've played our hand a bit more stubbornly before giving in so graciously to GM Stan Bowman of the 'Hawks.

And that train of thought brings me to the conclusion that perhaps we did give up too much for Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, prospect Akim Aliu and, of course, Byfuglien. But not because we gave up Jeremy Morin; he has plenty of time to prove himself a bust (but I do hope to see the young lad make good for himself in the NHL one day). No, you see, the reason I didn't jump for unmitigated joy the day of the trade is because we were forced to give up a guy by the name of Martin Reasoner, whom I believe would have been the perfect leader and captain for our currently very green roster of kids. And to top it all off, Marty is having his best start to a season since his first year with Atlanta in 2008.

Believe it or not, after three games, Marty Reasoner would be leading our team in scoring as he has already potted two goals to go along with two primary assists (for linemate Radek Dvorak) in three west coast road-trip games, two of which were against perennially stingy foes Vancouver and Calgary. Marty's 4 points leads the Panthers and his +2 rating is tied with current linemates Cory Stillman and Dvorak for team best. In fact, Marty has already been elevated to the 3rd line and even plays occasional 2nd line minutes on a line that is a combined +6 with 4 goals and 4 assists in 3 games. Of course, he is still money in the face-off circle ("Say what?! You neeeed ME??") and is relied upon heavily as one of the Panthers penalty-killing experts. By the way, the Florida PK is perfect thus far, although they have only been short-handed six times.

I realize that Marty is a role-player and not the secret elixir to cure our team's somewhat impotent offensive attack, but there is no doubt that Reasoner would further help cement the foundation of the Thrashers bottom six where there seems to be confusion as to which trio comprises our lock-down checking line. Judging by the stats -- plus/minus and Corsi -- I would have to say its the trio of Ladd - Little - Bergfors. However, most observers think Bergie is being wasted on the Thrashers' third line when he should be playing more minutes with Nik Antropov and perhaps Dustin Byfuglien instead of Fredrik Modin, whom Coach Ramsay seemed to prefer early on as a pairing partner for Antropov. Regardless, Reasoner seems to be playing with a renewed energy and thriving in a place where he is being counted on for more in an average of 3 or 4 more minutes per nite.

Just think how things might be different if Marty Reasoner were still in the line-up for the Thrashers. It would free up a player like Bryan Little to play the pivot on one of the top two lines instead of Nik Antropov, who continues to struggle in the face-off circle, thus hurting puck possession for his more plodding line. Or it might allow a guy like Andrew Ladd, who has top six potential and the skill-set to thrive alongside mates like Rich Peverley and say, Evander Kane playing the off-wing. Then you could reunite Bergfors with Little (at center though) and Antropov as they were, without a doubt, our most effective offensive threat in the final 22 games last season.

No offense to Nigel Dawes, Anthony Stewart or even Jimmy Slater, but Marty Reasoner would provide more veteran leadership and on-ice savvy to a line-up that is struggling to find its identity. The only line to have gelled just yet is the 4th line, but that is more a by-product of superior players (Eager and rookie Alex Burmistrov) playing against weaker players in favorable match-ups. Chris Thorburn deserves much of the credit as well, but that's a separate entry for another day. After seeing Freddy Modin play 5 games so far in person or on TV, I'm not convinced he should be blocking guys like Ladd or Little, and especially Bergfors, from playing more minutes on a "scoring" line. And right now, having a 32 year-old Marty Reasoner looks a heckuva lot better than an aging Freddy Modin, who recently turned 36 and hopefully received a clean bill of health -- for the first time in 3 years -- as his birthday present.