Kari Lehtonen is expected to make his first start for Atlanta since late October tonight at Philips Arena against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Lehtonen has been out with a lower-back injury, one that occurred while he was recovering from flu-like symptoms during a trip to New York.
This move also means Ondrej Pavelec, the goalie one minute away from a shutout just 61 game minutes ago, is being sent down to Chicago, leaving Johan Hedberg as Atlanta’s backup.
Lehtonen will need lots of game action to get back into shape, but having the No. 1 goalie back in the net could do marvels for the Thrashers defense. There will now be consistency in net for the first time since October, and he will have plenty of motivation to perform well.
Not only will Lehtonen find himself responsible for trying to turn Atlanta’s struggles around, he’ll have plenty of doubters to silence who say he may be too fragile to be a team’s number-one goalie. After his struggle with injuries last season, he was given a one-year contract by Atlanta to prove his value to the franchise, and now he has one less month to do it.
These motivations along with an instilled confidence with a consistent netminder could push away the “grey storm cloud” that head coach John Anderson joked has been around this team all season.
INJURY UPDATE
Garnet Exelby has a small fracture in his right foot, an injury that wasn’t revealed in X-rays and needed an MRI to diagnose. Mathieu Schneider is also expected to return after suffering a shoulder injury a few weeks ago.
Boral can be reached at jboral@scoreatl.com.
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