Marian Hossa, Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov, Keith Tkachuk.
If you want to know why the Atlanta Thrashers suffered a humiliating sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers, look no further than those four.
I had predicted the Rangers would win this series, but honestly, I never expected such a meek, tepid effort by the Thrashers.
You look at the impressive regular season stats of Hossa (43-57-100), Kozlov (28-52-80), Kovalchuk (42-34-76) and Tkachuk (7-8-15 in 18 games as a Thrasher), and expect these four to power your offence in the playoffs.
No disrespect to the Rangers, who’ve been a better defensive team over the past 2 ½ months than their record indicates, but in previewing this series, it was reasonable to assume the Blueshirts would have their hands full with Atlanta’s top four forwards.
Instead, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Kozlov and Tkachuk seemed to barely cause the Rangers defenders to break a sweat.
The results speak for themselves.
Coming into Game Four of this series, Hossa and Kozlov had no points, Kovalchuk one goal and Tkachuk two assists.
In Game Four, when the Thrashers finally showed a bit of life, Tkachuk had a goal, Kovalchuk and Hossa picked up an assist each, while Kozlov was again held off the scoresheet.
That, folks, is embarrassing. In fact, it’s pathetic.
Those guys went unseen for so long that they could've been reported as missing persons.
Yes, the Thrashers as a team had a horrible series, one everyone involved with the team from owner to fan will be keen to forget.
Head coach Bob Hartley will be questioned for months over his flip-flopping of goalies Kari Lehtonen and Johan Hedberg. Indeed, Hartley may have done irreparable damage to Lehtonen’s confidence by not returning with him in Game Two and then leaving him to the wolves in Game Three.
The Thrashers lacked quality blueline depth all season, something management perhaps should’ve paid more attention to last summer and at the trade deadline, especially considering the king’s ransom it paid for a playoff rental like Tkachuk.
Still, things might’ve been different if their best players had played at their best.
Kovalchuk can at least look ahead to more opportunities for playoff glory. Kozlov at least has two Stanley Cup rings from his time with the Detroit Red Wings as proof of his playoff ability.
For Hossa and Tkachuk, this series only provided their critics further proof that they cannot elevate their play in the post-season.
Hossa has a few more years in Atlanta to try to prove his critics wrong. Tkachuk, on the other hand, may have done serious damage to his value this summer as an unrestricted free agent.
Perhaps there’s a deeper reason why those four top forwards failed so miserably. Maybe they were nursing hidden injuries, or maybe the Thrashers are chafing under Hartley’s demanding style.
Regardless, when you go into a playoff series, you expect your best to be at their best. None of those four appeared to be playing through pain, and if there are off-ice conflicts, they should be put aside once the game begins.
Hossa, Kovalchuk, Kozlov and Tkachuk were the Thrashers best players. They were supposed to be at their best against the Rangers.
They weren’t and that’s why the Thrashers will be booking late-April tee times.
Hartley is done in Atlanta! Waddell should follow him out the door given his miserable assembly of not only the Thrashers, but also the US Olympic Team. Hartley, it seems, has lost the dressing room and what appeared to be lack of preperation sent this team out in the first round. Lehtonen will be back, but he'll need a new coach to motivate him and help regain the confidence I'm sure he lost after Hartley's inability to support him.
I'm not convinced that Hartley is to blame. He's put in a lot of time since he became the coach of the Thrashers grooming this team to win. Atlanta set franchise records for points and wins this season, and won their division for the first time. This series was one of bad bounces for Atlanta and unbelieveable luck for New York. I'd say Atlanta's top four did indeed underperform, but lady luck was not helping them a bit. And Atlanta just couldn't come back from fluky goals and a lackluster effort. Oh well, at least they'll raise the divison banner next year. And hopefully they'll show up during next year's playoffs.
Flat-lanta forgot that hockey is a physical game. They seemed so disinterested in even making an effort to put the body on any of the Rangers top players. Game 3 was a pathetic performance on their part, my son's Bantam team could have scored 7 against them that night. I thought Hartly didn't play the match ups right. You can't put players like Hossa and Kozlov on the ice against the Jagr/Straka combo. They should have put a tight checking line against them and made them pay each time they touched the puck. To the credit of the Rangers, Nylander played out of his mind. I've never seen him step up his game to that level before, he really was lights out.
Couple of comments. First no Goaltending in this series for Atlanta. Second who would've thought Avery would outscore all the Thrashers. And look out whoever plays the Rangers in round 2, it looks like Jagr has an itch to win. As for GM and Coach, I was under the impression that for Waddell to keep his job that he needed to get the team to the playoffs. I guess will see as now the thrashers have been swept and traded alot of prospects and picks to get tothis point.
It goes without saying that atlanta did grossly underperform, but even more so, new york just hands down laid a beating on them. and to lay the majority of the blame on atlanta would be doing a disservice to the job done by the rangers and their coaching staff. they came out of the gates ready to win from game one. they played phenomenally on both ends of the ice, had championship calibre goal-tending, had good pp and pk, and forced atlanta into taking a lot of dumb penalties. it seems as though many people are still looking at the rangers as a bit of an afterthought. it doesn't really seem fair with the way they turned around their season after the trade deadline. they are playing at an elite level, and hopefully a second round victory as well will improve their standing to some.
I'm certainly not overlooking what the Rangers have done, in fact, I believe I noted that in the post. The Blueshirts did a tremendous job shutting down the Thrashers and deserve their accolades, but to be blunt, the Thrashers didn't help their own cause, and that's because their best players simply weren't. Heck, even a couple of New York papers (the Post and Daily News) acknowledged that fact.
I'm sort of disappointed. I expected this series would be at least 6 games. For the Rangers, this is the best thing to happen to anyone in that locker room. Having been in Atlanta's position last season, they absolutely had to win this series. Every time Jagr's line hit the ice, they out-hustled, out-hit, and out-skated every guy out there for the Thrashers. Same thing for Shannahan's line. They were just so hungry for this series.
The Thrashers really didn't play terribly as a team. I think the goaltender swapping was a bad call. Lehtonen should have been on the bench after the first period. It was unfair to him, and it was unfair to his team. Your goalie gets sacked for 3 goals early in the game, and you think he's still got confidence? Terrible call.
In terms of the overall play, the Thrashers looked like a young team with the playoff jitters throughout the series. Now, when you see guys like Kozlov and Tkachuk on the roster, you have to blink a few times and say to yourself, "What?" These two, particularly, should have been the leaders on and off the ice. Neither happened, and that hurt the team.
When all's said and done, it's really simple. The Thrashers' stars didn't shine, and the Rangers brought their paddles.
God this series was so sweet for Tampa fans... no doubt Waddell is in a bind now...
I'm at a loss to see whats better: the Thrash re-sign Tkachuk and lose more draft picks, or they let him go and they gave up a lot for nothing. I must admit, I honestly cant stand the entire franchise, Ilya I-like-to-spit-on-people Kovalchuk or Bob Hartley, who has a tedency to send out the goons anytime his team is losing, even in a meaningless regular season game.
your team had me on the edge of my seat yesterday. I loaded up on Devils in one of pools and the series was just about 3-1. This is bad for Tampa as this series is now a three game series with a fresh start at home for Brodeur. Should be an interesting finish.
Last edited by Ryan7878 on April 19th at 12:55 PM.
Hartley is a very overrated coach.. They lost a game and he freaked out and pulled his young netminder after game 1. Then in game 2 the other keeper playes well other then a fluke goal and a real bad defensive beeakdown then he gets pulled. The thrashers are a very heavy wing team with weak centers and we all know that rarly wins in the postseason. And also he changed line combos way to much
No argument from me, Pat. I really hope the Lightning beat the Devils. It would be nice to seek out some vengeance against the Devils, but I'd rather lose to Ottawa in 4 games than deal with a serious loss to Buffalo.
At the start of the season the Thrashers goal was to make the playoffs. That they did. While they did #### the bed once they got there, they still reached their goal. So how can someone be fired for achieving their Goal?
trickyb: they almost didn't make their goal. Remember, the club was in free fall in February and in danger of missing the playoffs, which spurred Waddell into his short-sighted panic acqusitions of Tkachuk and Zhitnik. Yes, they stabilised the situation and the Thrashers rallied to clince the divison title, but it came at the cost of their future, and the playoff result was disappointing to say the least. Someone should be accountable for that, and I think Hartley will be under the microscope next season.
The same could be said for the Rangers, Spector. Shannahan was hurt for a while, and they slipped through February. I don't think grabbing Sean Avery was desperation so much as it filled a much-needed role. The way I see it, the big difference is the Rangers are still playing. It was pretty much do or die for both these teams.
chaas: grabbing Avery helped, no question, but as Larry Brooks of the NY Post noted, what perhaps truly turned things around was trading Aaron Ward, who'd butted head with Jagr, for Paul Mara. I wouldn't call that trade a panic move but rather one of necessity.And unlike the Atlanta deals, the Rangers didn't give up potentially key parts of their future for those quick fixes.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
