A few days ago I had the opportunity to work with George Lane of Talking Thrash on a sort of foreign exchange student program, hockey style. Basically we each wrote some information about each others teams to give some information for some of our own readers who might be a little rusty on the enemy. Here are my responses about the Rangers. Here are George’s responses about the Atlanta Thrashers:

The game is on the line. Who do you want to have the puck?
Marian Hossa. This guy can create a play out of nothing, or take on a double team and win. He has great vision and passing. This doesn’t matter in the playoffs, but he was money in the shootout, too. He is fast, can return checks, and is physical enough to win the board battles. His real advantage though is that no matter how many times a player hits his hands or tries to poke check the puck away, he never loses control of it. Plain and simple, if the game is on the line, Marian Hossa has the puck.

Which player is going to step up in the playoffs that was relatively quiet in the regular season?
Bobby Holik. GM Don Waddell has signed big checks to have him on the team, and for the purpose of his experience in the playoffs. He leads the Thrashers in playoff games played, with 134. The fact that Holik is a former Ranger who enjoys revenge when playing New York also will come into play. In his career against the Rangers, he has 63 games, and has tallied 41 points and a rating of +11. Look for him to make a big impact.

What could be the team’s Achilles heel this series?
The power play, or as we call it, the power pass. When the Rangers take a penalty, expect a lot of passing around the perimeter, and very few shots. With guys like Alexei Zhitnik, Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa, Slava Kozlov, or Keith Tkachuk on a power play, you would expect more goals. Hopefully Coach Bob Hartley will get creative and fix the unit, but if he is not able to, then that will be the Achilles heel in the series.

What is the one aspect of the team that could single-handedly win the series?
I am going to go with two guys on this one. The first is Kari Lehtonen. He is a young goaltender, and tends to be streaky. When is good, he is absolutely dominant and can steal a few games in a row. When it’s not doing well though, it is a different story. The other guy is Slava Kozlov. He has 114 games played in the playoffs, and has his name on the Stanley Cup. He also has 12 game winning goals in playoff play. He, like Lehtonen, is very streaky, and tends to score goals in bunches. If he gets hot, he will dominate the series.

Who is new to the playoffs, and how will they handle the pressure?
The Thrashers have 7 guys on the active roster that have never played in the playoffs. These are Kari Lehtonen, Eric Boulton, Garnet Exelby, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jimmy Slater, Andy Sutton, and J.P. Vigier. There is also two guys that have been healthy scratches and probably won’t see playoff action: Steve McCarthy and Derek MacKenzie. The only two players I am worried about are Kovalchuk and Lehtonen. The other guys don’t play huge roles on the team, and won’t have the chance to make huge mistakes. I think they will handle their individual jobs well. I also think that Lehtonen will be able to handle the pressure. He has plenty of high-pressure experience in the playoffs in his junior and Finish leagues. I expect great play for him. Kovalchuk is very emotional, and if there is any player that will be affected by the pressure, it is him. If anything he will try too hard and turn the puck over, but he has been on fire recently and is on a 4 game goal streak. He will be fine.

What has been the normal four line roster, first power play squad, and first penalty kill unit?
Bob Hartley is notorious for changing lines every other minute just for fun. The top two lines are mostly static and the defense stays the some, but don’t expect everything else to stay for very long. Scott Mellanby and Jon Sim are also very interchangeable depending on how the game is going.

Kozlov-Belanger-Hossa
Kovalchuk-Tkachuk-Mellanby(Sim)
Vigier-Holik-Larsen
Boulton-Slater-Sim(Mellanby)

Havelid-Zhitnik
De Vries-Exelby
Sutton-Hnidy

PP 1 – Zhitnik, Havelid, Kovalchuk, Tkachuk, Hossa
PP 2 – de Vries, Hnidy, Kozlov, Belanger, Mellanby/Dupuis

PK 1 – Dupuis, Belanger, Zhitnik, Havelid
PK 2 – Vigier, Larsen, de Vries, Exelby

How do you feel the goaltender will do, and if something were to happen, how do you feel about the backup?
Like I said above, I think Kari Lehtonen will do great. The battle of young goaltenders will be one to watch. If (knock on wood multiple times) something happens to Lehtonen, or he gets tired, I have utter confidence in our backup, Johan Hedberg. He is 4-0 in his last 6 games, with a 1.83 GAA. He was assigned to the game on April 6 at Carolina, and won it to clinch the division title. He also has playoff experience, having played in 20 games. I actually would argue that Hartley start Hedberg in the second of the back to back games in New York. He can handle the pressure, and will perform well.

Now study up, there will be a quiz Thursday night.

-Inferno

Posted by inferno272 on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 2:12 pm.