Those of you who have watched the Atlanta Thrashers at home this season know the all-too-familiar recipe for a home loss.
Feed off the lack of energy from the late arriving crowd. Spot the opponent a few goals with a weak first 30 minutes or so of hockey.
Show up late in the second and third periods. Fall just short of the win.
Well, after a three-game deviation from that game plan, the Thrashers were back at it again on Thursday night at Philips Arena.
The only difference this time is that they came away with a point against the Boston Bruins.
It’s a shame, if Atlanta played a complete hockey game, you have a feeling things could be different.
Without further fanfare, let’s take a look at the fave-five, Thursday night edition.
1) Is there a better $800,000 bargain out there than Maxim Afinogenov right now? You have a feeling that something very special is brewing with the Thrashers “Rushing Russian” line of Ilya Kovalchuk, Nik Antropov and Afinogenov.
The trio scored all three-goals on Thursday, including the game-tying goal by Afinogenov late in the third period.
After a few years in Buffalo Sabres’ coach Lindy Ruff’s doghouse, the 30-year-old Russian forward is clearly having fun again. You couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face after the tallied the equalizer and fell to the ice like a little kid in Kovalchuk’s arms afterwards.
Through 18 games, Afinogenov has 19 points (eight goals and 11 assists), one shy of the 20 points (6 goals and 14 assists) that he posted in 48 games with Buffalo last season.
2) Antropov scores (finally). Thus far this season, Antropov has become Kovalchuk’s version of Scottie Pippen to Michael Jordan. Time-and-time again, he has set up the Atlanta superstar and notched the assist – until Thursday.
Antropov finally got onto the goal side of the Thrashers’ scoresheet (and my fantasy team’s as well), deflecting Tobias Enstrom’s shot from above the left faceoff circle in the second period.
Now only Jim Slater and Marty Reasoner remain as goalless Thrashers this season.
3) Pavs was sharp, but the Bergeron was sharper in the shootout. What a ridiculous play by Boston’s Patrice Bergeron in the extra session.
The 24-year-old center turned Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec’s knees to jelly with a sensational move to tally the lone goal in the shootout. He came stick side, but made a quick deke move before going glove side.
Pavelec committed and it was ballgame.
4) It’s a shame Opie had to lose this one. The Atlanta netminder was very good once again on Thursday night, stopping 39 of 42 shots in the loss and bailing the Thrashers defense on a number of occasions.
He stymied Michael Ryder on the breakaway. He stopped Derek Morris on a 2-on-1 break. But he couldn’t stop the Atlanta breakdowns that lead to three goals in this one.
It is worth noting that all three regulation goals came off of deflections in this one.
“He hit (Zach) Bogosian’s stick,” Pavelec said of the third tally of the night, a wide-angled shot by Ryder. “It’s nobody’s fault. It was three bad bounces.”
5) The powerless play against a powerless opponent did the Thrashers in. Granted, Boston is sensational on the penalty kill. But the Thrashers were fourth in the league power play coming into this one and they had plenty of chances to chime multiple goals into the net with the man advantage on Thursday.
But the power play unit was a bit disjointed, finishing just 1-for-7 and failed to get a shot off on both a 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 advantage in the third period.
In contrast, the struggling Boston power play unit, which entered this one last in the league, tallying just nine times out of 70, finished the night 1-for-2 up a man.
Quote of the night: Afinogenov on his celebration with Kovalchuk – “He just like lifted me from the ice and we fell down together. That was nice.”
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