18 October 2007

Minor update on Lehtonen

From AJC.com:

Lehtonen suffers groin injury
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/18/07

The Thrashers got their first win of the season with a 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers Thursday, but lost starting goalie Kari Lehtonen in the process.

Lehtonen left the game with nine saves with what the Thrashers said was a strained groin.

Even after hurting his groin, Lehtonen scrambled to make two key saves, including a one-timer from New York's Ryan Callahan to preserve an early lead. As soon as the Rangers' power play was over, Lehtonen slowly skated off the ice, banging the boards with his stick in frustration.

He was replaced by Johan Hedberg who allowed three power play goals in the last 10:43.

Lehtonen will reportedly get an MRI once the swelling goes down.

General manager and interim coach Don Waddell said he may call up top prospect Ondrej Pavelec, who is 2-0 for the Chicago Wolves, to back up Hedberg.

Lehtonen has been bothered by groin injuries during his Thrashers career.


And from NHL.com:
Thrashers goalie Lehtonen leaves game against Rangers with groin strain
Canadian Press
Oct 18, 2007, 8:33 PM EDT

Kari Lehtonen injured his troublesome groin again Thursday night and had to leave a game against the New York Rangers.

After covering a shot at the side of the net with 8:30 remaining in the opening period, Lehtonen got up slowly and, bending over, skated toward the Atlanta bench. He slammed his stick against the boards in frustration before heading to the locker room.


Photo by AP


Johan Hedberg took over in net with the winless Thrashers leading 2-0. The team announced during the first intermission that Lehtonen had a strained groin and wouldn't return.

Lehtonen played only 38 games in the 2005-06 season, missing 2½ months because of a groin injury. He passed up a chance to play for his native Finland in the 2006 Turin Olympics and trained extensively the next summer to build up his muscles.

Last season, Lehtonen played a career-high 68 games for the Thrashers, helping them win the Southeast Division and make the playoffs for the first time. He was off to a slow start this season along with the rest of the struggling team, coming into Thursday's game with 0-4 record and 4.72 goals-against average.

The guys over at The Fastest Game (on Earth) have posted about how/why Kari should be the next to go. We here over at FWH are confident in saying that, were Waddell to trade Lehtonen, then Waddell would be the next to go. Pavelec up and coming or not, you can't break a goalie, then put him out to pasture.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Guys! This is Neb Canuck from the Fastest game... on my blogger identity, of course!

I wouldn't think it would be all that surprising for Wadell to finally shoot himself in the head instead of the foot, would it?

Thanks for the comment on our blog! I had no idea that there was any sort of head-bashing going on! In the Canadian media, Atlanta is not one of the teams that gets much attention -- unless they're in the process of getting whooped by the Rangers! So, while you say it's no secret, to me it may as well have been!

And finally, we've listed you too! :)

Tiffany said...

Hah, LOVE your login name!

Well... we're speculating that Wads is a me-first kinda guy. And sure, it would come as not surprise to watch him throw the entire time, perhaps excepting Kovy, under the bus in order to save himself, he would have to be certifiably insane to cut Lehts loose at this point.

We add the caveat that we're total Lehtonen homers though!

Hey heyyy you're Canadian? Nice. Attention north of the border! Yeah we play a nice little game on ice down here. Of course the announcers tell the fans when there's an icing call or an offsides call, but hey, everyone's getting the swing of it!

By the way, you know it was the Thrash that whooped up on the Rags, eh? ;-)

Unknown said...

lol, thanks for the compliment on the name!

I see your point, doublefold. Not only is it true that Wadell is a me-first kinda guy, but because of that he'd be willing to stick with Leht, if I get your drift. They've picked him as a franchise goalie, and to bail out now would be to stick his head under the proverbial guillotine.

And as for the Thrashers, I've liked them as a team for a while now! However, as I'm sure is the case in Atlanta, local teams get ten times the coverage that distant ones do. Combine that with the fact that Canadians see all 6 Canadian teams as "local" in comparison with the States (even though Buffalo is waaaay closer to Toronto than Vancouver!), and it's understandable that there's less room for relatively "small" teams like Atlanta. Aside from the long-established squads like New York (Rangers) or Detroit, the 6 Canadian teams hog the spotlight up here! :P