The only outward sign that it was Ilya Kovalchuk’s first game in Philips Arena as a visiting player was a string of letters posted at the top of Section 412 that read “KOVALCHUMP”, but at the end of the game that sign might as well have read just K-O because that described the Thrashers chances of making the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs. With a 3-0 loss, combined with the Flyers victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, Atlanta was officially eliminated from playoff contention.
“It is frustrating,” said Nik Antropov after the game. “We had everything in our hands. We could have continued to go on.”
It was apparent that from the outset the Thrashers didn’t have Lady Luck on their side as Atlanta wasted odd man rushes in both the first and second periods without even mustering a shot on them. In the first Bryan Little got past his defender and stood free in between the circles but couldn’t handle the bouncing puck as he headed for the net. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur then swiped the puck away, sending Little and the puck into the boards.
Then, in the second, with Atlanta already trailing 2-0, Maxim Afinogenov broke free when his defender fell to the ice. Afinogenov was tailed by rookie Niclas Bergfors, who ironically was traded from New Jersey in the Kovalchuk trade, but Afinigenov’s pass was too hard for Bergfors to handle, and it bounced away harmlessly to the right of Brodeur.
In the other half of the Bergfors trade was Kovalchuk, who struggled all-night against his former team. In the first period he was raucously booed when he first skated on the ice and each subsequent time he touched the puck. Kovalchuk however did not see it that way and was even to find whatever scant cheers were in the crowd. “Half the fans were booing, half were cheering, that’s nice.” Although he would probably disagree it appeared like Kovalchuk was affected by the attention as he made multiple mistakes, which led to turnovers on each of his first couple of touches. By the third period he had settled down though and even had a chance for an assist, but Jamie Langenbrunner was unable to redirect Kovalchuk’s pass past a sprawled Johan Hedberg. “I move on and I’m excited to be a part of this organization, and I’m just looking forward to the playoffs.”
Besides all the outside spectacles it was much of the same in a Thrasher-Devils matchup. Brodeur played excellently even if he only needed to make 19 saves to preserve his seventh shutout victory against Atlanta. Last year Atlanta was the team that sent Brodeur to the injured reserve, and this year he used the Thrashers poor offense to become the first goaltender to reach 600 career wins.
In the home locker room though the only talk was about the team’s third straight season without an appearance in the playoffs. “We knew what our position was going into this game,” said goalie Johan Hedberg. “It’s a very disappointing feeling knowing you are not going into the post season.”
But in the eyes of Coach John Anderson missing the playoffs was more about bad luck than a lack of effort.
“(I’m) very disappointed to say the least. I think they gave what they had… it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Like tonight we just played but we didn’t have any savvy around the net. It wasn’t for a lack of trying and that’s one thing that a coach likes to see. We’re still growing as a team… just those little streaks really killed us. We tried to stay away from them but sometimes when you get on a roll it’s hard to stop.”
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