After Pens Down Bolts, Thrashers Look to Thank Them...

....with a loss of course!! Tonite the Atlanta Thrashers welcome Sidney "Cro(tch)by" and the merely .500 Pittsburgh Penguins to town in an early season battle for 8th place in the conference. Surprisingly -- perhaps not really when you take a closer look -- the Penguins have struggled to an 8 - 8 - 1 record in 17 games thus far. Even more unusual is the fact that these Penguins have done better when migrating to another team's building with a 5 - 3 - 1 road record versus a dismal 3 - 5 - 0 record in their brand new, state-of-the-art CONSOL Energy Center. Of course, the Thrashers are certainly not unfamiliar with the phenomenon of playing unpredictably at home as they come into tonite sporting a modest 3 - 3 - 1 record at Philips Arena. Luckily, the Thrash are 2 - 1 - 1 in their last four contests at the "Bulb" with a win over Buffalo (in OT), a highly entertaining shoot-out loss to the defending Stanley Cup Champs and, most recently, a resounding 5 to 1 triumph over a rusty and sluggish Minnesota Wild club.

But let's go back to the Penguins and their up and down roller-coaster ride of a season thus far. The Pens misfired coming out of the gate by losing their first two games of the season. A win over the struggling Devils was a short-lived salve on a miserable 1 - 3 - 0 season-opening wound. However, the Penguins played like the Pens we expect to see on a nightly basis when they reeled off 4 straight wins including dominant performances against Philly (on the road) and Ottawa in the cavernous -- relative to the old Igloo -- confines of CONSOL Energy. But that streak came to an abrupt end when they ran into the defensive buzz-saw known as Jaroslav Halak and the St. Louis Blues, who clipped the Pens by a margin of 1 to 0 in overtime. Since that time, Pittsburgh has failed to win consecutive games going 2 - 5 - 0 in their next 7 games before dismantling the Tampa Bay Lightning with 3 goals in the 3rd period of their game last nite to avenge an early-season loss to the Bolts in Tampa. The Pens come to Atlanta hoping to put an end to that unusual streak of mediocrity with a win at Philips Arena, where they've won 3 times in the last 4 visits.

Why has Pittsburgh struggled so mightily and succumbed to mediocrity so far this season? Most notably, the Pens have missed the presence of their best defensive center, Jordan Staal, who is also capable of adding some consistent secondary scoring punch to their line-up. In addition, star forward Evgeni Malkin has failed to find his mid-season stride and his paltry 4 goals and (-5) plus/minus rating has been an early-season bugaboo for a Pens team struggling to find scoring balance. In aggregate terms, the Penguins have scored what seems like plenty of goals (52) in their first 17 games, but scoring has come in fits and spurts for the Pens, who have also yielded an alarming total of 47 goals against. During their woeful 2 - 5 - 1 stretch, the Pens scored only 20 goals, managing just 2 goals or less in 4 of those games. More troubling was the number of goals they gave up in that period as they surrendered a total of 27 goals, a shade over 3 goals per game! Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of that terrible stretch was the miserable performance of Cup-winning goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury, who comes into tonite with just 2 wins on the season and a gaudy 3.23 GAA as well as an atrocious save percentage of only .860!!

So as you can see, there are quite a few similarities between the visiting Penguins and the hosting Thrashers, who come into tonite's game with their first win in 3 games and a record of 7 - 6 - 3 on the season. While their record is good enough for 17 points and a virtual tie for 8th place with the Pens, the Thrashers have had more than their share of struggles incorporating a new system and several new players within that framework. So far the results have been mixed and the Thrashers are trying to figure out how to play a more responsible defensive game to match their surprisingly productive offense, which has netted 51 goals of its own in 16 games. Unfortunately, the Thrashers have given up goals like a prize give-away contest all season long and must build upon their recent 5 to 1 effort against Minnesota if they are to stay in the mix for the bottom few seeds of the playoff race. Hopefully, the return of center Bryan Little, who missed 6 games due to a concussion, will help the Thrashers limit a Pens' offense that has struggled to produce consistently due to the loss of Staal as well as a dearth of scoring from their wingers.

Disturbingly, the Thrashers have been at the bottom of the league all season long when it comes to shots allowed, as well as prime scoring chances yielded, and they must find a way to limit the opportunities for a still-potent Pittsburgh club whose 2nd leading scorer is Pascal Dupuis...yeah, THAT Pascal Dupuis!! Nonetheless, the Thrashers will want to take advantage of favorable match-ups against Pittsburgh's mediocre bottom lines. Sidney Crosby will most likely get his goal and probably an assist or two, but the Thrashers should be able to produce many scoring chances of their own. The bigger question may be what will Pittsburgh get in goal from either Fleury, who just earned his 2nd win of the season last nite or Brent Johnson, who carried the Pens for the first month before giving up 12 goals in his most recent 177 minutes of action? For the Thrash, Ondrej Pavelec will get the nod and a chance to not only build on his stellar 32-save performance versus the Wild, but also erase the demons of tragic Penguins' losses past. Rather than furnish the frightening numbers, we'll just say we hope that Pavelec forgot all about his past games against Pittsburgh when he fainted on opening nite and leave it at that.

As for the outcome tonite, it's anyone's guess as to who will come out on top. Will Pittsburgh carry lots of momentum into Philips after the drubbing they layed on Tampa last nite or will they fall prey to bad habits formed during their wildly erratic first five weeks to the season? The same can be said for Atlanta, who has struggled to play "their game" and play it consistently for a full 60 minutes. Even during their best performance (since Opening Nite against Washington) of the season Thursday, they demonstrated lapses in their effort as well as in their defensive awareness. Luckily for them, Pavelec was up to the task and he gave them a chance to win in convincing fashion as opposed to the Chicago game when his poor-decision making perhaps cost them a regulation win. I do think we'll see plenty of goal-scoring again tonite and the game may wind up being a race to the 4th goal; it may even take an overtime period to decide it.