Great observations on the Atlanta bench. I know the Thrashers have a rep for getting involved in some ugly games, and with May and Lappy running around trying to start shit all night, I thought this might get interesting in the 3rd with the Avs out of it. Kudos to Hartley for keeping his team focused. All the more reason for me to miss him.

It was really interesting watching the bench of both teams last night at the game. During the Skrastins ceremony May was leaned over the boards talking to Sutton from Atlanta. He kept sitting down and getting back up to poke his head around the glass to talk to him. My guess is that May wanted to schedule a fight for their first shift out. Call it May’s Deadmarch syndrom if you will. Sutton didn’t take the bait at all and watching Hartley on the bench he was yapping at the refs during a lot of May’s shifts. Especially at the end of the game when Lappy, May and Sakic(!) shifted on the ice for an offensive zone faceoff. Atlanta in a very un-Hartely like fashion weren’t about to take the bait last night. Hartley read the crowd nicely and there was no reason to give the Avs a lift after that fisrt period with a fight.

Svatos isn’t doing much this year for a couple of reasons. First, he’s lost his nasty edge and physical play. That goes against every bit of common sense for a guy that’s so small but it’s what got him going last year and fed his game. Second, he has got the “yips” big time. When the puck gets on his stick he’s like a car on rail road tiles. He “expertimented” with a longer stick during the preseason but went back to the shorter stick. The short stick is great for getting shots off around your feet, and getting the puck up quickly, it can even be effective when cycling the puck on the boards but that’s not his game. Anyway, when you get a really short stick like that it’s like having a short golf club. The angle of the blade to the stick goes up. To give an extreme example, if the average player has a 45 degree angle from the blade to the shaft, Svatos has something closer to 90 degrees. So even if you get the puck on your stick with a forecheck, it just rolls under your blade the further you stretch. So in sum, he’s a very one deminsional player. The puck fed to him on his stick withing six feet of the net. He can’t even beat defensemen one on one anymore because the puck keeps sliding off his stick. All these things have destroyed his small mans disease which is what made him so great last year. He played a brand of pissed off hockey and that edge is totally gone.

Regarding tradeable commodities; the obvious entry to that list has to be Theodore, but he’s almost not tradeable because nobody would want him. I’d actually like to see Brunette stay, as long as he doesn’t cost too much, as he’s one of the few physically strong forwards we have, and has great hands around the net. He can make room for the younger guys down low.

Arnason is just too much of a Jekyl/Hyde situation. Some games he looks like Daniel Briere and some games he looks like… well, Tyler Arnason.

I can’t figure out why Svatos hasn’t done anything this year. Anybody got any ideas on that?

And as usual, any trade that would bring Tanguay back I would pretty much kill an animal on live TV to make happen.

Defense continues to be their weakness. While I don’t care to see two offensive minded defensemen paired up, there were some positive things happening defensively when Leopold and Liles were on the ice together in the 3rd period. It’s past time put Clark and Skrastins in a 2nd pairing role if those guys are going to be joined at the hip. If they can play the minutes I’d like to see Leopold and Liles on the first pairing. Put Klee with Sauer on the last pairing and throw in the towel on Vannanen while looking for a good stay at home defenseman for the left side during the offseason or at the trade deadline.

Tradeable commodities for me are; Svatos, Brunette, Vannanen, Sauer and if the deal is sweet enough, Hejduk.