Zero Hero

Apologies for the absence earlier this week, it’s been a pretty busy week visiting relatives at the other end of the country is actually quite time consuming. It also means that any in depth posting has not been done, in its place this will be a quick Daytona style race around the Thrashers and Hawks games last night one which was more successful than the other. The Hawks headed up to Milwaukee to face the Bucks while the Thrashers stayed home to shut out the Capitals. Oops did I just spoil the ending, well seeing as I already mentioned it...

THE THRASHERS SHUT-OUT THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS! I just had to put that in capitals (no pun intended) just to make sure I realised that it really happened. It was just the Thrashers fifth win in seventeen games, a slide that has seen them holding a one point lead over the Carolina Hurricanes for the final play-off spot. The Thrashers had been outscored 13-5 in their last three losses including the 7-1 embarrassment at the hands of Tampa Bay in Sunday afternoon. With Ovechkin and the Capitals occupying the fifth seed spot this was another tough one of the slumping Thrashers who were just hoping to get to the All-Star break in the play-off picture. Thanks to another outstanding performance by Ondrej Pavalec the Thrashers painted themselves back into that picture just in the nick of time. Before the game it came out that All-Star defenseman Tobias Enstrom would miss two-to-four weeks with a broken finger that meant, combined with Evander Kane still not being able to go, it was a pretty under strength Atlanta team that took the ice against the Caps. Well nobody told Pavs that. He made 36 saves for his third shut-out of the season and, once again, was the Thrashers saviour. Nobody needed a big game more than Pavalec who was slumping as bad as the team and had lost his reliable back up thanks to Chris Masons injury. It’s no secret the esteem that I hold Pavalec in and believe that he should at least have been considered for the All-Star game, he wasn’t and it’s actually great news, he really needs the rest. As do the rest of the team who now have the opportunity to rest up and try and get fresh for the stretch run. If they can get anywhere close to how they played at the beginning of the year we could see a richly deserved postseason appearance.

The Hawks weren’t quite as lucky as their icy brethren, losing in the icier climes of Wisconsin against a short-handed Bucks team. The best news for Atlanta was the return of Al Horford and Marvin Williams. Al started and played an astounding 39 minutes, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. It has been my theory for a long time that the Hawks actually made a mistake in the summer by paying superstar money for an above average guard in Joe Johnson, I wasn’t exactly the only one of this opinion. Instead of spending the money on a 19-4-5 guy who, as we know too well struggles in the brightest lights, the $16,000,000 could have been used to surround Al Horford and Josh Smith with a high quality supporting cast and make them the stars. Smith has put up 16-8.8-3.5 this year which are career numbers while Horford is at 16-9.8-3.5, if you surrounded these two with another big man, Chris Kaman from the Clippers has been mentioned, and another pure facilitator, think Rajon Rondo but a convenience store version and suddenly that becomes potentially shut down D and explosive offence. As it is Al and Smoove are shrunk to be supporting players to Johnson who, as a side note, scored 15 points with 2 rebounds and 1 assist. The Hawks fell flat in crunch time in what Larry Drew called a “total collapse”, hardly a ringing endorsement of the team ahead of the Knicks coming into the ATL Friday night.

I never intended this to turn into an anti-Joe piece, it just happens at times. Save my seat on the Johnson shaped bandwagon though, just in case he lights it up Friday.