FanHouse Alexei Zhitnik

The Atlanta Thrashers, currently occupying their familiar spot at the bottom of the NHL's standings, are headed for their ninth non-playoff season in their 10-year existence. The team's best player -- and captain -- Ilya Kovalchuk is an unrestricted free agent following next season, while starting netminder Kari Lehtonen is eligible for restricted free agency. Pretty bleak picture.

That said, Thrashers co-owner Bruce Levenson took part in a Q & A session with beat writer Mike Knobler of the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week, and acknowledges the team has made some big mistakes in the past, but is committed to turning this thing around.

Mark down another former NHL player as trying to make a go of it back home in Russia. According to Sovetsky Sport, defenseman Alexei Zhitnik, who was bought out of the last year of his contract by the Atlanta Thrashers just a few weeks ago, has joined Dynamo Moscow on a tryout contract. Details of the deal were confirmed for FanHouse by Dmitry Chesnokov, Sovetsky's Washington correspondent.

According to Chesnokov, the contract expires at the end of Dynamo's training camp. If at that time Zhitnik opts to stay in Russia, Dynamo will have the right of first refusal on any contract that he's offered.

To say that stock in the veteran defenseman has dropped over the past two seasons would be an understatement. Back at the beginning of the 2006-07 season, Zhitnik started the year as a seemingly important cog on an Islanders team full of veterans.

Despite this, he was traded to Philadelphia in a salary dump for Freddy Meyer IV. Then, at the trade deadline, Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren somehow convinced Atlanta GM Don Waddell to part with Braydon Coburn in exchange for Zhitnik. The deal has since become known as one of the most lopsided in recent NHL history. After a more or less anonymous season in Atlanta where he missed some time due to injury, Waddell was happy to buy out Zhitnik and erase the physical evidence of the biggest mistake in his career as a GM.

"High Fives" is a new regular feature at NHL FanHouse in which we'll count down the Top 5 of anything hockey-related -- and you'll let us know where we're wrong.

I'm not much for Introductions, so let's get right to it. The Rules are simple:

• Must be named Alex, or some derivation thereof
• Have particular personal significance to me
• Fill a niche in the history of the NHL

5. Alexei Yashin: He makes this list simply because he's such good blog fodder, not because he is in any way a superior hockey player to any of the other guys called 'Al' that could have made this list. Married to a former super-model (Carol Alt), and famously dispassionate about anything not related to contract negotiations, he'll only be remembered for how little value he brought to the league's first 10 year contract and how much it cost the Isles to buy him out.

4: Alexei Zhitnik: He makes the list because of Rule #2. Upon my return to NHL fandom back in the mid-90's it was Zhitnik's play during the playoffs that began my descent into the depths of Sabres-fandom. The 25 minor penalties he racked up in the 1997-98 playoffs were a kind of rite of initiation in my household, as was his famously-inaccurate slapper. Looks like David Duchovny's long-lost cousin.

I'll try after each night's action to burp up my observations (fair or otherwise) on the evening's events. Tonight's schedule was dominated by the Eastern Conference, and while all but one of Day One's games were one-goal affairs, on Day Two it was the exact reverse, with two certified blowouts, one team constantly playing catchup and another frantically failing to tie it in the dying seconds.

After 2 days, eight teams are one step closer to the Cup while the others are still on the starting line. While one defenseman celebrated a birthday (not his first) along with his franchise's first playoff game (at home no less), another (see picture at right) celebrated his first two playoff goals and his franchise's first step towards lifting a city's sports curse which spans six decades.

Points of Interest:

• First things first, I watched very little of the Red Wings and the Flames, just enough to see that Calgary was not prepared to play tonight.
• Atlanta and the Rangers came out with a ton of energy, even if they looked like they were skating on mud and not ice. That game had great pace and a ton of hitting, regardless.
  
• The Rangers had a tough time dealing with the Dupuis/Holik/Larsen line. Those guys skated hard, outworked whichever line they played against and hit everything they could get within 0.44 seconds of. They accounted for 2 of the Hotlanta goals.
  
• The last two minutes of that game were certfiably nail-biting, but the Thrash have got to stop trying to pick corners in that scenario. If they had forced Lundqvist to make more saves and they might have sent the game to OT on a garbage rebound.
  
• The Isles had no gameplan for the Vanek/Roy/Afinogenov line, even though the rest of their plan was pretty darn effective. Good news for Sabres fans, Max looks like he's willing to take a hit this season. While this line was not on the score sheet they had at least three completely dominant shifts unlike anything I've seen yet so far.
  
• Chris Drury was in a zone unlike I've seen from him in a Buffalo sweater. For a guy who looked concussed coming down the stretch, tonight was some other kind of animal.
• Bob McKensie noted this week that he doesn't think the Devils have 'another gear.' Their performance tonight was eerily reminiscent of their regular season. Tampa, with even average goaltending, can beat these guys.

Offense: Adding Tkachuk gave the Thrashers a legitimate 2nd scoring line and slightly better top-end talent than the Rangers, but key players lack playoff experience. The Rangers have the far better road power play and guys like Jagr, Cullen and Shanahan who have won it all before. The Thrashers will get their opportunities to score. The question is can the Rangers find seocndary scoring behind the Jagr line 5 on 5. A task that falls to Matt Cullen and Sean Avery. Edge: Neither.

Defense: The Rangers have the edge in the most important category for defense, Goals Allowed, as well as Goal Differential and Penalty Killing. But, in watching the Thrashers since the deadline, the acquisition of Alexei Zhitnik has helped stabilize and give depth to their defense corps. The Rangers defense has been improving steadily and should be healthy when the series starts. The checking unit featuring Holik and Belanger will match up against the Jagr line. If they can contain that line and stay out of the box the Thrash have a good chance. Edge: Rangers, slightly

Goaltending: The difference between Atlanta this season and last is Kari Lehtonen, who has finally provided stable, consistent netminding for the first time in the history of this franchise. Henrik Lundqvist has been one of the top 3 goalies in the league in the past 3 months after a slow start and injury problems. Edge: Rangers

Prediction: Atlanta enters with just 3 more points than the Rangers, who have been getting better game to game since the Trade Deadline. Atlanta still feels like a work in progress, not hitting on all cylinders coming into the playoffs. Fun series to watch, lots of skating and hitting. The Rangers bring more intangibles to the series, while the Thrashers have the better playoff head coach in Bob Hartley. Bottom line: Rangers in 6 because of Lundqvist.

For more on Atlanta check out these blogs here, here and here.
To get a wider perspective on the Rangers look here, here and here.

Ta,