Big Weekend For The Thrash

The Thrashers play tonight on Long Island and tomorrow at home against the Blues.  They have been a better team then their record indicates and this weekend to start making the record match the level of play.The team currently sits at 6-5-1.  This is a decent record by itself but not nearly where it should be.  The home record is a big concern,currently at 1-4.  On the road the team has been great, posting a 5-1-1 record.

All of the losses at home have been very similar in how they unfolded.  The team started off slow getting behind by a couple goals and then started to basically dominate play for the better part of 40 minutes.  During those 40 minutes the team will make a few stupid mistakes giving the opposition a couple more goals.  Usually in the third period the Thrashers will really turn up the heat, but in the end always fall one goal short.

This type of game is very frustrating to watch because these games easily could and should be wins of the fairly comfortable variety.  There are several home games coming up over the next few weeks and they need get out of this habit of starting so slow at home before it starts really hurting the playoff chances.  This team plays at the level of a 4 or 5 seed in the east 90% of the time, but that 10% collapse is costing them many important points.

Tonight is a road again against John Tavares and company.  On paper it looks like a game we should win.  I don’t think the Isles have the offensive firepower to match the Thrash, Kovy or not.  Since it is on the road I expect a win.  Tomorrow at home is where they will really need to start the turnaround.  It is an early start time and faceoff will be about 19 hours after the conclusion of tonights game.

I think this is a very crucial weekend for this team because they need to break this bad habit early in the season before it becomes a huge problem.

-Chris Telford

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