Thrashers Notebook - November 5, 2009: Same ole story dooms Thrashers at home

November 5, 11:11 PMAtlanta Thrashers ExaminerPhil Foley

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Raffi Torres celebrates one of his two cakewalk goals in Atlanta's 4-3 loss to Columbus on Thursday.

(AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Are the Atlanta Thrashers playing their home games in Blueland or Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania? Because the Thrashers seem to be stuck in a continuous Groundhog's Day loop at home.

A familiar pattern emerged once again at home in Atlanta’s 4-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Step one, come out with all the energy of the sparse Philips Arena crowd.

Step two, allow the other team to build a multi-goal lead.

Step three, fight back just enough from the deficit to make the game competitive.

Step four, drive back drive back home to your suburban or in-town Atlanta home without a point.

Such has been the Thrashers way in four of five home games this season.

Anyhow, let’s get to that dubious five after yet another Thrashers home loss.

1) Defense, oh defense, where have thou gone? This one pretty much can be summed up as follows: Columbus penetrates into the Atlanta zone, sends Raffi Torres down low. Atlanta’s blueliners key in on the strong side and Torres waltzes into the unoccupied part of the doorstep. Cross-crease pass. Goal. Bye, bye Thrashers.

If it happens once, not a huge deal, it is what it is. But when it happens twice, well, something is wrong with the defense.

“Those two goals were pretty much empty netters,” said defenseman Pavel Kubina, who scored the game’s last goal. “We overplayed the puck and two guys covered one guy on one side and no one covered (Torres) on the other side. We’ve just got to be better in the defensive zone and talk more.”

Maybe the Thrashers should contact the Verizon dude to make sure that their fellow Thrashers can answer the question, “Can you hear me now?”

2) More shots, less wins. Conventional wisdom gives the edge to the team that has more shots on net. Occasionally, you may lose those battles.

However, the Thrashers somehow have outshot their opponents in their last three games at home. Their record? You guessed it, 0-3-0. Ah, only in Blueland.

3) The streak had to end sometime. Rich Peverley has been sensational picking up the slack for Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk, riding a career-best eight game points streak. But all good things have to come to an end and Pevs’ streak did on Thursday night.

The former Nashville Predator tallied 12 points (five goals and seven assists) during his reason stretch of sensational hockey.

4) There are 60 minutes in a hockey game. Yes, even at home. I know the atmosphere hasn’t been the best at Blueland and it’s particularly dreadful here as the crowd makes its way through Atlanta’s legendary traffic to the arena during the first period. However, in order for the Thrashers to succeed, they are going to have to figure out another way to motivate themselves so that they have that little jolt of energy to start a hockey game.

“I have no idea (why we’re struggling here),” said Atlanta goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, who steered aside 17 of shots on Thursday. “If I knew it, I’d be rich. It’s a real tough question, but we have to find (an answer) right away.

“If we want to make the playoffs, we can’t lose home games. We’ve played good on the road, but we have to play good at home.”

Ummm… Ondrej, if you haven’t realized it yet, you are kinda rich – maybe not quite Kovalchuk rich, but pretty darn well off compared to the rest of us.

5) Sunday, kids come free (kinda). The Thrashers have this neat promotion going for certain Sunday matinee games this season. Buy one adult ticket, one of your kids 12-and-under gets in free.

A neat way to expose that favored child of yours to hockey at a reasonable price.

To take advantage of the promotion, click here.

If you can’t make it on Sunday, the other Kids Days are November 15 vs. Edmonton, November 22 vs. the Bolts, March 7 vs. Carolina and March 14 against the Coyotes.

Quote of the night: “The very first game we played, I had the guys stay in a hotel,” Anderson said before joking that GM Don Waddell might not like the added expense. “Maybe we have to stay there (again). We’ll try to win any way we can.”