THRASHERS CONTINUE HOT START WITH VICTORY OVER DEVILS

Sure, they’ve only played four games but the Atlanta Thrashers look like a potential playoff qualifier.  On Friday night, they improved their record on the NHL season to 3-1-0 with a 4-2 victory on the road against the New Jersey Devils.  After a scoreless first period in which the Devils outshot their opponent’s 15-4, and a 1-1 tie heading in the final frame the Thrashers put three goals in the board in the final twenty minutes to earn the victory.

NHL hockey bettingfans that had an eye for value were rewarded for backing the Thrashers as +150 road underdogs, and they covered on the puckline as well with the outright victory.  The Bruins dropped to 3-3 SU and against the spread with the setback.  The 6 goals scored pushed against the total.  Atlanta, oddly, has one OVER and three pushes in their four games to date.  New Jersey has split their NHL totals this season evenly at 3-3.

Atlanta has played the fewest games of any NHL team and hadn’t seen action since last Saturday.  They appeared a little rusty early on as the Devils swarmed around their net, but were kept in the game by the stellar goaltending of Ondrei Pavelec.  They found their legs in the second and completely outplayed the Bruins in the third, as forward Colby Armstrong observed:

"We started off a little slow, probably a little bit had to do with that time off, but we got better and better every period.”

 Pavelec has started the last four games in place of injured Kari Lehtonen.  When Lehtonen does return, Atlanta will all of a sudden have an abundance of riches in net and may have to move one of their starters or backup Johan Hedberg.  Pavelec said that he doesn’t think about that as it’s completely beyond his control as is the scheduling of the Thrashers’ games:

"I don't look around because I can't control those things. All I can control is my effort and my play. If you're winning, you don't feel tired."

The Thrashers didn’t get any help from team captain Ilya Kovalchuk and Rich Peaverly—who scored two goals—said that’s more a sign of Atlanta’s depth than anything else:

"The overall team effort in the second half of the game was stellar. We took advantage of the chances we got. That just shows the kind of depth we have. We have tremendous players on every line that can score. That's important. Kovalchuk scores a lot, but when he doesn't score it's nice to know other guys can chip in."

Atlanta has two games remaining on their current road trip, with visits to Buffalo and Montreal.  They’ll return to the Phillips Arena next Thursday to host the Washington Capitals.  New Jersey will host the Carolina Hurricanes this weekend before hitting the road next week for games against the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins.