2008-2009 ATLANTA THRASHERS
OVERVIEW
2008-2009 marks the 3rd year that the Thrashers have been led by GM Sutaria. In his rookie season under control in 2006-2007, the Thrashers finished 7th in the conference and swept their first round match with Montreal before an epic collapse versus Florida in round 2(had a 2-0 series lead). The following season (2007-2008) the Thrashers won the Presidents Trophy as they had a fantastic regular season and met the 8th seeded Nordique in the 1st round. The Thrashers were heavy favorites but lost in a game 7 to the Nordique which was a massive disappointment for the organization. Since then changes have been made as a bunch of roster moves were made bringing in new players for the 2008-2009 season. The roster is as follows:
Line 1:
Morrow-Datsyuk-Pominville
Line 2:
Cogliano-Belanger-Holmstrom
Line 3:
Pandolfo-Brodziak-Nilsson
Line 4:
Pesonen-Adams-Cowan
D
Pairing 1:
Hamrlik
Salo
Pairing 2:
Clark
Staios
Pairing 3:
Hejda
Exelby
G
Starter:
Khabibulin
Backup:
Ellis
"We are happy with the lineup that we have. We feel in goal we have 2 capable goaltenders in Khabby and Ellis and don't have a concern there. Up front we feel the top line of Morrow-Datsyuk-Pominville will be a huge force to reckon with and we feel our 2nd and 3rd lines can contribute offensively as well. We have a mix of vets and youth on those lines. Homer, Belanger and Pandolfo bring the veteran leadership and guys like Cogs, Nilsson, and Brodziak bring the youth that is necessary to compete. You have some scorers in there, some passers and some two way players so we feel that balance along with our top line gives us a good top 3 lines. Adams and Cowan should give us 5-7 minutes on our 4th line that will be important. Pesonen is the player who we feel will develop the most this season. We're giving him a shot this year to play a handful of shifts a night. Being on the NHL Penguins, he could very well put up 20 plus goals on that team and have a increase in responsibilities next year. He's a player to look out for.
On defense we have some guys who can put the puck in the net in Hamrlik, Salo and Clark. Staios brings us a stay at home type guy who can chip in once in awhile and Hejda logs a lot of minutes with the NHL Blue Jackets' so we feel he can play well on the 3rd pairing. Exelby should play 7-9 minutes a night for us as well.
Overall we can't wait for the season to start.
Atlanta Thrashers 2008-2009 Regular Season Preview
