Canes Oust Thrashers 1 - 0 In "Smash-balls" Almost Thriller

In tonite's pre-season exhibition performance the Atlanta Thrashers gave a spirited effort, but came out on the short side of a 1 - 0 score. The Canes scored the only goal of the game on a somewhat botched D to D exchange behind the cage in which a loose puck somehow slipped through the grasp of an otherwise very sharp Chris Mason to a wide open Jeff Skinner, who slammed home the puck into a wide open net. In particular, it was an especially disappointing outcome for Zach Bogosian, who made the ill-advised pass towards a helpless Toby Enstrom. The puck didn't quite reach its destination and instead ended up in the back of the Thrashers net.

But tonite was indeed a glimpse of a new brand of "smash-balls" hockey (a term my girlfriend and I coined whilst watching the bombastically physical affair) in which the Thrashers demonstrated a strong will to back-check defensively and forecheck relentlessly when on the attack. The effort was strong from just about every Thrashers player on the ice, but the offensive chemsitry wasn't quite there. Although they had a few golden chances to score, the boys in blue couldn't capitalize on rebound chances or connect on passes when afforded a rare odd-man rush. But when the Thrashers got their best chances of the nite, goalie Cam Ward was more than up to the task.

Overall I, as well as the lovely K-belle, were particularly impressed with the dogged and fierce forechecking effort in which every Thrashers player, to a man, seemed more than pleased to greet their Carolina counterparts with a hard hit. And when Carolina did manage to mount a counter-attacking rush, the Thrashers blueline was very aggressive with active sticks in passing lanes and unafraid to block a shot when necessary. There were only a couple of instances in which the Thrashers were "hemmed in their zone", to quote Coach Ramsay, for a stretch of more than 25-30 seconds. At times, defense to offense break-outs were a bit sloppy, but as the game wore on, the Thrashers players seemed to be much more decisive with the puck in their own zone.

Lastly, before I get into a couple of quick-hitting comments on individual performances, I must mention that there is still much work to be done on the power play; getting more pucks on net with the man-advantage will be key as the Thrashers may struggle early on this season with offensive output. There were a couple of power plays in which the puck was passed decisively and effectively around the umbrella and a few bombs made their way to Cam Ward for juicy rebound chances. But alas, the Thrashers couldn't corral the loose pucks in time for grade-A chances. And there were a couple of blueline breakdowns leading directly to penalties that negated powerplays. However, I can't think of one odd-man rush allowed by the Thrashers, short-handed or when at full strength 5 on 5. The only ones I recall were when the teams skated 4 on 4, but the goalies were both stellar in those situations, especially Cam Ward.

Player by player analysis:

Dustin Byfuglien -- I was delightfully surprised at how poised and in control of the game he was on the blueline. I expected a couple of bad decisions or some inadequate skating, but don't recall anything of the sort. Buff was decisive with the puck, extremely active (and effective) with his long reach / stick and not afraid to bring the puck up the ice with a full head of steam. He seemed to gel very nicely with Johnny Oduya, who is as smooth as silk on the other side.

Brent Sopel -- despite a bit of a slow start in which "Sopes Star", as K-belle dubbed him, actually stumbled trying to shadow a Canes player behind the net, Brent was cool as a cucumber with the puck making several great outlet passes to clear the zone. His positioning was flawless and he never seemed to screen Mason. As always he was the consummate shot-blocker with 4 for the game. He seems like the perfect stabilizing addition to this dynamic blueline.

Zach Bogosian -- when we saw Zach on skates for the first time tonite, we both exclaimed "holy (crap)balls!" because we were startled by how big and mean he looks. Goodness gracious the kid has not only added 15-20 pounds this offseason, but he has seemingly grown another inch or two into a menacing heavyweight. And he had no problem dishing out the punishment with several heavy hits throughout the evening. I'm just not sure how the statistician only counted 3 hits on the evening for him. He was still a bit slow at times with his decisions and a couple of times his gaffes led to a quality chances for the Canes, one of which was deposited into the net.

Toby Enstrom -- not much to say here as he's simply a great skater who makes good decisions with the puck. Still gets pushed around a bit, but he seems to be in mid-season form. But I'm not sure about the Enstrom / Bogosian pairing due to Zach's untimely decision-making. Perhaps start Bogey with Sopel, who is so calm and positionally sound to take some of the pressure off of Zach until he really hits his stride. Noah Welch had his moments when he really put the squeeze on the opposition near his own net, but I just don't see him making this squad over the more diverse and skilled Freddy Meyer. Valabik is in trouble and Kulda will need to play in Chicago to get needed ice-time.

Alexander Burmistrov -- back-checking banshee who always seemed to magically appear at his own blueline to knock the puck away from a Canes' puck carrier or thwart a potential rush. This kid who shall heretofore be known as the "Burmese Python" -- because he strikes quickly to squeeze the puck right off your stick -- has a very good shot at making this team. He did not seem like a boy among men tonite. He is excellent defensively and he had a couple of near misses on the attack including one pseudo breakaway in which he got off a quick wrister that was partially deflected and may have hit the crossbar before going out of play. In one other particularly memorable play, Burmie got the puck deep, took it behind the net before getting leaned on by a D-man into the opposite corner. Alex refused to relinquish the puck and staved off the check and eventually drew a holding penalty on the surely frustrated Canes D-man.

Okay, due to the fact this is getting obnoxiously long -- tough to filter through all of the thoughts running through my head since it was my first look at a lot of new players tonite -- I will try to keep the comments to one-line brief descriptions or adjectives:

Freddy Modin -- a bit slow, but a true pro. Knows the game and doesn't make dumb plays.

Rich Peverley -- slick puck handling tonite, good speed through neutral zone and F/O wizard.

Freddy Pettersson -- hardest working player on the ice, not afraid to shoot and willing to go to the net for redirects and put-backs...too bad there weren't many.

Andrew Ladd -- seemed a bit off tonite, perhaps too slow for the top 6. Had a couple of good chances thanks to Bryan Little but couldn't convert.

Bryan Little -- fast as usual, good puck sense and hard working at both ends, seems to be getting more comfortable in the F/O circle where he was a respectable 7 of 16 in draws.

Ben Eager -- big, fast freight-train of a human who loves to hit, drew an instigator on Tim Gleason and was, well, eager to throw-down in defense of his mates and his honor.

Chris Thorburn -- looked completely comfortable at the pivot making good decisions with the puck and even making a few deft passes to Eager and Stewart for chances. As usual, very good on the penalty kill. Solid.

Niclas Bergfors -- seemed to be the most sluggish on his skates, perhaps a bit too much idle time in Sweden waiting for his deal. He "efforted" at times, but got gassed a bit prematurely on the back-check. Had zero chemistry with Riley Holzapfel, but worked a pretty give and go with Burmie for a good look that nearly led to a goal.

Machacek & Holzapfel -- the effort was there, but they are simply outclassed for this level. Machacek can be an effective cal-up in the event of injury, but time to cut bait with "wood apple" I'm afraid to say. Anthony Stewart was good on the forecheck and dished out some punishing hits, he even dropped the gloves off a face-off, but without any finishing touch, don't see him as anything as an injury call-up, God forbid.

All in all, a very rousing and entertaining nite of hockey at the Bulb. The effort was there most of the nite and the Thrashers had more stretches of dominant puck possession than the Canes. And the "shot clock" confirmed it as they led in shots for the nite to the tune of 32 to 29. At one point midway through the 2nd period, the shots were 17 to 9 in favor of the T-birds, but a couple of penalties thwarted their momentum. Still a lot to "polish up" for the regular season, but already the boys seem to be gaining a level of comfort within Coach Ramsay's "smash-balls" system! If nothing else, the rest of the NHL is not going to enjoy a "polite" reception from the boys in blue anymore as long as Coach Ramsay is around.