With Lehtonen out, it's up to Hedberg now

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They stopped responding to Bob Hartley. Nor did the Thrashers compete particularly well in front of starting goalie Kari Lehtonen. Now, for at least the next month, the Thrashers will be playing in front of somebody they all agree they want to rally around.

Johan Hedberg will be the starting goalie for the next four to six weeks after MRI results revealed that Lehtonen has a serious groin strain. You won't find a more popular player in the Thrashers' dressing room than Hedberg.He's considered the hardest worker and gets more out of his talent than anyone on the team.

Last season, his first in Atlanta, Hedberg earned the Player's Player Award, given each season to someone teammates identify as the ultimate team player.

If this team won't play well for Hedberg, they won't play well for anyone.

"He's the ultimate, I tell you what," captain Bobby Holik said. "One day we were talking and one of the new guys, and I agreed, said they've never seen a better man or harder-working player in hockey than Moose. Not just the player, but the guy. I've never seen anything like it ... that man is the most honest, hardest-working guy in the business."

And if you think Holik is sugarcoating or full of hyperbole, than you don't know Holik.

By comparison, here's what he had to say about Lehtonen.

"We can't sit around and wait for him," Holik said. "He's out. He needs to do what he needs to do to get back to 100 percent and stay healthy for the season. That's what he needs. We'll take care of our business, he'll take care of his."

That said, this team didn't play like they were giving anything extra in front of Hedberg in Tampa Bay on Saturday. Interim head coach and general manager Don Waddell commented after the game that the Thrashers hung Hedberg out to dry. They gave up too many passes in front of him. They allowed too many shots from the slot.

"And obviously," defenseman Garnet Exelby added, "the breakaways are unacceptable."

But now they know that until December, Hedberg likely will be their goalie. Part of the reason he was brought in from Dallas in 2006 was because of a successful stretch he had while Stars starting goalie Marty Turco was out. At one point during the 2005-06 season Hedberg won four consecutive starts in Turco's place.

The Thrashers could use that kind of performance now.

"He's been put in this position before," Waddell said. "[Teammates] know when Moose goes out there, they're going to get 100 percent from him. When you get that kind of return as a player, that's what you're going to give him to help him out as much as you can."

With the Thrashers playing seven of their next eight games on the road, Waddell said rookie Ondrej Pavelec will make his first NHL start some time soon. Hedberg will start Tuesday night against the Maple Leafs. After that, Waddell wants to keep his options open based on how the team is playing.

Pavelec made his NHL debut in the third period against Tampa Bay and allowed one goal. When he finally turned his cell phone on this weekend, he had 30 messages waiting for him.

"I'm living my dream right now," Pavelec said. "I watched these guys on TV last year, and now I'm sitting in the dressing room with these guys ... Bobby Holik, Marian Hossa, those are some of the best players in the NHL and I can play with those guys. It's great."

 

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Toronto should be interesting


Now we know the extent of Kari Lehtonen?s injury (4-6 weeks), and Bobby Holik summed it up best: ?We can?t sit around and wait for him.?

Johan Hedberg will take over for the time being, with Ondrej Pavelec waiting in the wings. Ideally, the team would like to see Hedberg get hot and not need to turn to the rookie, but Pavelec will play during this road stretch - it?s too much of a grind for one guy.

But there?s more. All indications point to a complete restructuring of the lines for Tuesday?s game against the Maple Leafs. It looks like Slava Kozlov and Marian Hossa will be split up, for really the first time since I?ve been on the beat. Look for Hossa to play in Haydar?s spot on the kid line. So it?s not really the kid line anymore. I kind of feel for Haydar, since he?s been playing pretty well with Little and Sterling, but at 1-7 you can?t keep rolling out the same lines. If the Kozlov, Hossa and Perrin line is blown up, look for Perrin to land in Slater?s spot on the Kovalchuk/White line. That bumps Kozzie down to the third line with Holik and Dupuis.

We?ll see how they look at the morning skate in Toronto, but that gives us something to talk about today anyways, right?

Don Waddell still hasn?t contacted any candidates about the coaching opening, but he?s sharpening his list. He spent a lot of Sunday reaching out to his contacts around the league to get a feel of what people thought of the guys he?s looking at. While Don is refining his short list, I?m in elimination mode. While I was in Tampa, I found out Mike Sullivan?s contract won?t allow him to leave during the season, so that eliminates one guy who I thought might be a good fit. I had also mentally eliminated Pat Burns because of his health issues, but now reports are surfacing that he?s interested in getting back into coaching. I think Wolves coach John Anderson will get a fair shake for this job, which is really all he wants. He?s definitely interested. And just because Waddell is behind the bench, don?t cross Brad McCrimmon off your list. Everything with Hartley happened so fast, I think Don wanted to get a first-hand look at what was going on. McCrimmon ran practice today since Waddell obviously has a lot going on.

Other than Lehtonen, this team is pretty healthy. They face a Toronto team in nearly as much turmoil as the Thrashers. There?s a goalie rotation, when there probably shouldn?t be. Fans are already calling for the head of GM John Ferguson. And I wonder when the heat will start to build on head coach Paul Maurice, if it hasn?t already. It should be an interesting trip.

 

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Leafs' misery adds company


The day dawned bright and sunny yesterday, except over Lakeshore Lions Arena where the dark cloud that has hung over the Maple Leafs was once again in evidence.

They can't stay out of the penalty box. They can't stay out of the public's doghouse. They can't stay out of the loss column. The only place they consistently have been able to make a positive impression is on the magnetic resonance imaging machine printouts.

Yesterday it was Darcy Tucker, who missed practice and then announced he would be sidelined indefinitely with undetermined ligament damage in his right knee.

So, let's review on what general manager John Ferguson Jr. has staked his future:

a) A leading scorer who could walk up to Methuselah and say, "Hey, kid ..."

b) A No. 2 centre who, through no fault of his own, suffers a groin injury every time he ties his laces.

c) A candidate for MADD poster boy of the year.

d) Carlo Colaiacovo, the best defensive defenceman nobody has ever seen.

This team is attracting more calamity than the average meadow muffin collects flies.

Tucker and coach Paul Maurice both said the injury occurred in the third period of a 6-4 loss Saturday to the Chicago Blackhawks, although there had been speculation since early September that Tucker wasn't his usual truculent, snit-disturbing self.

"I think it happened early in the third period along the boards. But it wasn't that big a thing," Tucker said yesterday. "I played the rest of the game. I went home. It wasn't until the next morning that it was swelling and really sore."

He underwent an MRI Sunday. "We'll have to wait three or four days until the swelling goes down, but right now we think it's not a surgery issue, it's a rehab issue," Maurice said.

It is the latest setback in what has been anything but a banner start to the season for Tucker or his team.

"Hopefully we'll get a brace made and I can come back fairly quickly. I've always been pretty good in being able to come back from these kinds of things," said Tucker, who in nine games this year has just one goal and four assists. He refused to blame injury for any of his perceived shortcomings, although he did get a hint this summer that there might be trouble ahead.

"I'd felt something during training but it wasn't that bad," he said.

Maurice said the team hadn't noticed anything adverse in camp. "I felt that his skating was better than ever -- his stride was nice and long. Darcy felt good but everyone has different pain thresholds. I think if someone did a top-to-bottom MRI on Darcy he would have 50 different issues. A lot of times he just plays through them."

He was, according to Maurice, just the usual Darcy -- who as one reporter of the feminine persuasion noted yesterday had a puffy lip that Melanie Griffith was to die for, almost making him blush.

But, to be honest, he has not been the "usual" Darcy, that impact player he was at the end of last season, when he came back from a broken foot to all but will the Maple Leafs into a playoff spot. How much of that is circumstantial and how much of it is a dropoff in performance is debatable. There have been games when he has been virtually invisible.

If nowhere else, Tucker always could be counted on to show up at the penalty box. This year, he has made Alex Steen and Matt Stajan look like goons: Both have more penalty minutes. In the real Darcy world, that just couldn't happen. Not that this has been entirely Tucker's doing, or undoing. His role has changed. He's mostly playing on the third line and has given up prime power-play time to Jason Blake, which is a little like giving a guy a couple lines in a movie and then expecting him to come out looking like Brad Pitt.

"The main thing is it'll need rest and treatment and then I'll try to come back at 100%," Tucker said. "If I try to play at less than 100% you're not doing anyone, including the team, a favour."

He's right, and the evidence -- if not a complete confirmation -- of that, some believe, is there to be seen in the first nine games.

 

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Stralman gets call

In the waning moments of practice yesterday, coach Paul Maurice beckoned a group of veterans led by Mats Sundin and Bryan McCabe to centre ice and had a heart-to-heart huddle with them.

While those involved would not reveal the content of the chat with their coach, no one would have blamed Maurice if he would have advised them to "abandon ship!"

Adversity, after all, continues to haunt the Maple Leafs like a bad Halloween prank, a trend that continued yesterday.

To recap:

- Gritty winger Darcy Tucker revealed that he has ligament damage in his right knee and will be out indefinitely. Tucker, who signed a four-year deal with the Leafs last season that pays him about $3 million US annually, had been off to a slow start this season.

- Injured regulars Kyle Wellwood (groin) and Carlo Colaiacovo (knee) also remain sidelined indefinitely, with no firm date set for a return. Wellwood was working with a power-skating expert after practice, with Maurice hoping the workout "helps his flexibility and ability to manoeuvre" as part of his rehab process.

- Given the team's recurring defensive woes, rookie Swedish defenceman Anton Stralman was called up from the American Hockey League Marlies and worked out with the team. Stralman had no idea if he'll be making his NHL debut against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight, but don't count anything out.

"It'll be a game-time decision," Maurice said of Stralman. "He played well at camp and down (with the Marlies) so we have no worries putting him in there."

"He skates well, moves the puck well and reads the game in front of him quite well. We'll make a decision at game time and if he's in the lineup we'll expect him to do all those things he has done well for the Marlies."

Stralman, who had five points in five games on the farm while going minus-one, was asked if the stint at the AHL level has helped his development.

"A little bit," he said. "But there is a big difference between the AHL and NHL, especially in terms of speed. It's just nice to be practising up here again and, hopefully, I'll get to play."

After the Leafs do battle with the Thrashers they will embark on a stint that features 10 of the next 16 games on the road. Having gone through a home-heavy early season schedule at just 3-4-2, a win tonight -- even if it still is October -- is practically imperative.

"There are 82 must-win games in the season if you think about it," captain Mats Sundin said. "But there is no doubt there is urgency here. You need to be at least 10 games over .500 at the end of the year if you want to make the playoffs."