Antropov Looks to Impress in His First Return Trip to Gotham

Can the "Big A" find his scoring touch in his first trip back to the Big Apple and, in the process, earn his ticket for a one-way flight off of Schnide Island?

Before embarking for his team's trip to New York yesterday afternoon, Coach Anderson shared some of the sage advice he imparted on Nik Antropov with ajc.com beat reporter Chris Vivlamore: "We talked to him about shooting more. He had like six or seven shots on net last game. His total [for the year] is 18. That’s my point to him. I think he got the message. The other thing we talked about is he’s a little stationary in front of the net. I want him in front of the net but a little bit more mobile so that any pucks that kick out, he’s not starting from a standing stop; he’s got a little movement so he gets to loose pucks first.”

Thrashers fans everywhere can only hope that the monstrous center of the Atlanta Thrashers takes Coach Anderson's advice to heart and applies it wisely tonight in his first game against his former mates at Madison Square Garden, where he managed to pot 3 goals and dish out 4 assists in only 8 games as a Ranger. Antropov has been a very welcome addition to Atlanta's potent attack and he would probably like for nothing more than to score his first goal of the season at the famed Garden: “It’ll be something special,” he said on Wednesday. “I played with those guys and we had a pretty good end of our season and made the playoffs. [This game] will be a special game for me.”

Antropov may have a few more juicy goal-scoring chances as superstar Ilya Kovalchuk did in fact travel with the team to NY and hopes to play in tonight's contest. With Kovy on his LW creating havoc just inside the blueline, Antropov may have some extra time and space with which to operate in front and around the goal-mouth. His first deposit of the year in the enemy cage would surely be a catalyst for a team looking for a spark on the road.

But more importantly is the potential stability Kovalchuk's return would mean for the team's line-up. With Kovy, and hopefully rookie Evander Kane, the Thrashers have a much more balanced and dangerous attack in which 3 of the top 4 lines are a threat to score at any time. Hopefully, the overall team defense will get a boost as well since the Thrashers have been yielding an average of 3.57 goals per game in the last 10 games.

Luckily for the Thrashers, the Rangers have suffered some recent injuries (Gaborik, Dubinsky, Drury and stud goalie Henrik Lundqvist) and have lost some of their early season mojo struggling to a 3 - 6 - 1 record over their last 10. In those 10 games, the Rangers have surrendered 35 goals to opponents while only netting 24 of their own. The Thrashers hope to exploit the vulnerable Rangers on the road where their record is an impressive 5 - 2 - 1 thus far.

Johan Hedberg hopes to continue his stellar play from Sunday, 11/8, in which he made 30 saves in regulation and played like a Moose-possessed in the shoot-out win. Moose has always excelled in shoot-out games and just so happens to sport a stellar 8 - 3 - 2 career record against the Rangers, not to mention a sensational 2.02 goals against average. Quick, someone find me a chicken and an altar so I can make a jinx-removing sacrifice for the benefit of our goalie!!