Two days before the Winter Classic, the Atlanta Thrashers turned in a classic stinker at the Garden.
The Thrashers mustered just 18 shots and Tuukka Rask set aside all of them to extend the Atlanta losing streak to six after a 4-0 loss at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
Byron Bitz netted his fourth goal of the season and Marco Strum scored on the power play for the Bruins, which has won nine straight against the Thrashers.
“I don’t know if we are competing,” Atlanta forward Colby Armstrong said. “Look at the game. We are giving up chances, two on one, three on two, and breakaways. We start falling asleep at times. Even at a time like this, guys are tense, guys aren’t loose and playing the way we know how. I think it is something we got to battle through right now.”
With the Winter Classic set for Fenway Park on Friday, one would have thought that Boston may have been overlooking the lowly Thrashers.
Someone forgot to tell the Bruins.
“Well they didn’t look past tonight, because they played very well,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We were hoping that would happen, but the reality is they played very well.”
Well, indeed.
Boston opened up the contest with a flourish, posting three goals in the game’s first 17 minutes to chase Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec for the second time this season.
Pavelec, who was named to the Czech Republic Olympic team earlier in the day, looked anything other than Olympic-ready. The netminder, who entered December with a 1-5-0 record with a 5.03 GAA in seven starts, looked terrible in this one, stopping just seven shots before giving way to Johan Hedberg.
Hedberg, who was passed over by the Swedish team earlier in the week, looked more like the Atlanta netminder who should have his bags packed for Vancouver in February.
The Moose steered aside 19 of 20 shots in the game’s final 43 minutes, but the damage was already done.
Bitz opened the scoring, redirecting Shawn Thornton’s blast from the left point to give Boston a 1-0 edge at the 6:33 mark of the first before Strum doubled the advantage with a rebound tally at 12:56 of the frame.
Steve Begin extended the lead to 3-0 with a blast from the right point that the young Atlanta goaltender simply did not pick up with 3:10 left in the first period.
Pavelec’s night was over.
Hedberg stood tall against a furious Boston assault, stopping 14 shots in the first and second periods, however, the Thrashers offense was nearly non-existent in this one.
Atlanta made things easy for Rask. The Thrashers, who are known for finishing with a flourish, got worse as the game went on, posting seven shots in the first, six in the second and five in the final period.
The effort just wasn’t there on Wednesday night as the losing streak continued to grow.
“It is the way it has been going for us the last six games here,” Armstrong said. “I think earlier in the year we stole some games. I don’t think we played as well but that is not happening with us right now. We just have to find a way right now and it is tough.”
How bad did things get for Atlanta?
They mustered one shot in four power play opportunities. They were outchanced, 14-3, through the first 40 minutes. They were beaten to the puck over and over again.
In sum, a team that shed those all-too-familiar labels of hapless, lowly and anemic for the first half of the season returned to that all-too-familiar form on Wednesday.
They were shut out for the first time this season in a rather forgettable fashion.
By the time Patrice Bergeron put the puck into the Atlanta net 14:56 into the middle session, 11 Boston players had found the scoresheet, including former Thrasher Marc Recchi, who had a pair of helpers.
In contrast, there was little good for the Thrashers, who had just 11 players record a shot.
“The game tonight was not typical of how we have been playing,” Anderson said. “The last three or four were much better and tonight we just threw a stinker up there. I think Boston smelled a little blood. Give them credit, they played very hard and very well. We were the absolute opposite spectrum of that.”
Ilya Kovalchuk saw his 10-game points streak snapped in this one for the Thrashers, who have lost eight of their last nine away from Philips Arena.
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