New Year's Eve Showdown - Thrashers at Canes Preview
by Bob Wage on Dec 31, 2008 11:00 AM EST
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PrintThe Atlanta Thrashers will take on the Hurricanes tonight in the traditional New Year's Eve "Classic". This will be the seventh time the franchise has played on New Year's Eve. They have a record of 2-4 in the previous holiday contests, including a loss to the New York Islanders last year.
Atlanta is coming off a tough 5-4 overtime loss in Toronto last night while the Canes have not played since their 4-2 loss at home to Boston on Saturday night. The Thrashers are 5-12-3 in their last 20 games, including a 5-4 loss to the Canes last week Friday night. The Canes are 5-4-3 in the month of December, a month where the team played against mostly playoff bound teams. Coach Paul Maurice is looking for better results in the coming month because the team's competition will drop off a notch.
Look for Cam Ward to be in net for the Canes. Johan Hedberg played for Atlanta last night. Will he have the night off tonight or has coach John Anderson lost complete confidence in Kari Lehtonen?
Bryan Little is on a roll while Ilya Kovalchuk has not scored a goal in 10 games, the longest such drought in his career.
Eric Staal usually lights up Atlanta. Not only did he have a hat trick in the third period of last week's game, but he has scored more career points, (37) against the Thrashers than he has against any other NHL franchise.
The Canes would like a few other players to start lighting the lamp as well. For instance, Rod Brind'Amour has scored just once in the last 19 games.
The game has a late start time of 8PM and will be broadcast locally by FS Carolinas. This will also be an HD broadcast.
Notes:
There is a basketball game at 2, so expect traffic delays if you show up early. (Also expect bad ice).
The franchise will be celebrating the New Year with free party favors, a band, and a free champagne toast at midnight. They will also have a fireworks display at 12:30.
Have a happy!
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Little scored again last night.
Also, Anderson hinted that Kovalchuk might have new linemates tonight. He’s been playing with Thorburn and Reasoner (three goals and 12 assists in 14 gams since the switch). Since Kozlov-White-Little is playing so well, that would mean Kovalchuk being centered by Erik Christensen or Jason Williams, perhaps with Colby Armstrong on the right?
Blueland Blog (http://thrashers.portspaces.com/post/blueland/hedberg_in_goal_tonight.html) says Lehtonen in net tonight.
by Cory on Dec 31, 2008 11:17 AM EST reply actions
I am probably the only person who feels this way: They have got to work out a way to NOT have basketball and hockey on the same day!!!
I feel there is a big enough gap in the schedules of NC State and the Carolina Hurricanes that there is no need for there to be a basketball game at 2 and a hockey game at 8. It is senseless!!!
hahaha…. hopefully the basketball game isn’t a 6 overtime epic or anything like that!!!
if it could happen to anybody……
by Mateo on Dec 31, 2008 11:35 AM EST reply actions
Coach Anderson has not lost any confidence in Lehtonen. Kari has just recently returned to the line-up after injuring his back. He didn’t want to risk putting his back to the test with back to back games with travel. He made a solid choice in putting Hedberg in goal last night.
BTW look forward to seeing you all on 1/31/09! Huge crowd of thrashers fans traveling down for a huge road trip game!
I can’t believe they are scheduling a basketball game and a hockey that same day as well. I don’t get it.
by HockeyWench on Dec 31, 2008 12:05 PM EST reply actions
Back to Kaberle……did anyone read the article from Tracking the Storm? Interesting article on the topic.
by TylerA on Dec 31, 2008 12:54 PM EST reply actions
Huge group of Thrashers fans traveling DOWN? Cool… have fun in Florida guys and girls!!!
by Mateo on Dec 31, 2008 1:32 PM EST reply actions
I think the Sabres loss last night means we are still “tied” with them for the 8/9th spot and caught up in games.
so 2 points are much needed.
by neaux on Dec 31, 2008 2:05 PM EST reply actions
Are you sure this is an HD broadcast? The Canes website and the NHL website says Sports South has the HD broadcast, and not FS Carolinas.
by IggyReilly on Dec 31, 2008 3:25 PM EST reply actions
Iggy-
This is from the Hurricanes press release-
Broadcast Notes: The Hurricanes’ television partner, Fox Sports Carolinas, continues its coverage of live Hurricanes games on Wednesday as Carolina hosts Atlanta. Wednesday’s game will be the 28th of 65 Carolina Hurricanes regular-season games on Fox Sports Carolinas during 2008-09, and the sixth of 15 of those games to be produced in high definition. As always, play-by-play voice John Forslund will call all of the exciting action and former professional goaltender Tripp Tracy will provide analysis for Hurricanes games on Fox Sports Carolina.
I don’t know the exact channel it’s on though. Good luck!
by Bubba on Dec 31, 2008 4:41 PM EST reply actions
Time Warner and DirecTv both still list Fox Sports Carolinas as “Fox Sports South.”
it’ll take them a year or two to catch up….
by Mateo on Dec 31, 2008 5:05 PM EST reply actions
Appreciate the info. 591 is the channel for FSN HD broadcasts in the greensboro area for anyone interested. It almost never shows in the channel guide what is actually on for the time period, so don’t let that discourage anyone.
For what it is worth, Sports South is a separate channel. SPSO on your guide is the abbreviation. It is the local carrier for Thrashers games. I was going by the nhl.com broadcast schedule, which lists a little (HD) next to the carrier when an HD broadcast is available. I got a little disappointed when I got my new tv and not a single FSN broadcast had that for the rest of the year, but apparently I can’t rely on it.
by IggyReilly on Dec 31, 2008 5:31 PM EST reply actions
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