The Turn Around
When the Thrashers started the season 0-6 no one really believed they could turn it around. I mean, sure, you could get a couple of wins, but still they thought at the bottom of the league is where they would stay, but NO.
After firing Bob Hartley, a coach that many actually liked, they turned it around. Bob’s style was good, and he pushed his players a lot. I especially liked what he did with Kovalchuk. He didn’t push Kovy to get the most goals, but he pushed him to get the Hart. He pushed to be a more defensive player, to become better in the defensive area’s, and if you look at Kovalchuk now, and Kovalchuk in the past, there is an extreme diffeence, and he owes it to Hartley.
Although, I think Hartley’s style wore off. No one was responding anymore. You had all this offense which wanted to be let loose, but nothing really happened. So, Don Waddell steps in, and things changed.
I’m not sure why thing’s changed, and no one can really answer, but I have a few theories. The best one I believe is just the fact of change. Some coaches can coach for a long time, and dominate with the same team (Bowman), but others cannot. The change was indeed good for Atlanta.
If you all don’t believe they’ve turned it around I urge you to go to NHL.com and go to the standings, and click the conference standings. Atlanta sit’s in 8th place. It’s funny how quickly things can change for the worse, and the better.
And now only has this firing sparked the team doing good, but also two individuals. Marian Hossa, and Ilya Kovalchuk. Hossa had a very slow start, but is now warming up, and has recording 8 multi-point games. And do I need to say anything about Kovalchuk? He leads the lead in goals with 19, and I estimate he will hit 55-62 goals this season, and is second in points.
This team is on fire, and actually looking like they can compete in the Eastern Conference. They turned it around, most definately.
If they could hand out the Hart Trophy right now, I’d have my three candidates. Henrik Zetterbeg, Vinny Lecavalier, and Ilya Kovalchuk.
Do I need to tell you who I think would win it? Probably not.