Wolves 4, Flames 1 (with video)

Kari Lehtonen made his return to the AT&T Center tonight for his ... can it be called a debut? His on-ice debut after pulling that oh-so-fragile groin muscle of his (alternately referred to as the glass groin)*. And our shining star shone pretty fucking bright. 2nd star of the night in all the AHL!

He made 27 stops on 28 shots, not allowing a goal until 59:50 when one slid past. AND got an assist on the first goal, coming from Alexandre Giroux. Hamburglar's (sorry K! You're in Chicago!) post-game quote:

Photo courtesy ChicagoWolves.com

"I felt good out there for the most part. But because I haven't played in about six weeks, there were a few things I didn't like in the way I followed every puck. We got the win, which was the most important thing. Everyone expected me to play great coming from the NHL. It was good to have that kind of pressure on me."

OK you know what? I'm going to let that slide. I'm not going to bring up the six other pressure games with high expectations in which he collapsed. Because it's in the past, and in hockey, we look forward, we don't dwell on the last game, or any that came before. I hope to everything hockey and holy that Clutch Kari is re-emerging. Because that would pretty much be the guarantee of clinching the Division yet again. With Hoss and Kovy turning it on, Little and Enstrom lighting it up, and Waddell kicking ass and taking names behind the bench, the only thing the team is having a hankerin' for is a goalie no one has any doubts about.

Be that guy, Kari. Be that guy.


Small note: Kari's wearing last year's helmet still, which is hopefully indicative that he intends to debut the Optimus Prime one back in Blueland.

* hope you read the sarcasm in that. Maybe I need a flashing SARCASM! sign.

EDIT: Now, with video highlights! Thank you like a thousand times over to the Chicago Wolves for letting me shamelessly borrow this clip. Visit their website! Buy stuff from them! (Note: Chicago Wolves legal deprtment, please don't sue me!)Did I mention, please don't sue me? Yeah. That.

Hey look! Kari's on the front page of the Wolves site:

Lastly - don't believe everything you see on the internet. Kari does NOT have a facebook account, nor a MySpace account. There are (were?) at LEAST two MySpace accounts under the name Kari Lehtonen and on Facebook. They're fakes. Yes, some NHL players do legitimately possess both Facebook and MySpace accounts, however, Kari is not one of them. Whether other Thrashers have them or not, I couldn't say, but Ben says no.