Important News and Unimportant Musings

First, for anyone who has been looking to get a personalized sweater but didn't want to shell out over 150 clams for one, shop.nhl.com is having a one day free personalization promotion today. If you've been wanting a Byfuglien, Antropov, Bogosian or (hehe) Rissmiller jersey, now's the time to save off the usual price based on the length of the name.

I attempted to watch the practice of the few Thrashers who will not be participating in tonight's preseason game in Nashville but arrived too late. Apparently the team took the ice a little early and finished before noon. However, I did run into Vivlamore who informed me that Jimmy Slater was not at the rink today and there is still no word on exactly what is injured inside his wrist.

Ben Wright doth tweet earlier that Cormier would start the year in Atlanta but on the Injured Reserve list. So that means that Antropov (hip), Cormier (foot), and Slater (wrist) will likely miss time at the beginning of the year.

**EDIT** A new post from Vivlamore included this little quote from Ramsay about Antropov: "We are going to get [Nik Antropov] back, probably, and want to get in a couple games with him." So apparently he will be back before the season starts and will fill in one gap.

That makes the Thrashers' potential lineup a little thin, as I would expect it to look somewhat like this:

Kane-Little-Bergfors

Modin-Peverly-Petterson

Ladd-Burmistrov-Dawes/Stewart

Eager-Thorburn-Boulton/Stewart

Dawes has not impressed me one bit in his lone pre-season game appearance or in practice. Stewart looks like a reliable NHL third line winger. Boulton normally plays on the left wing, but if Dawes isn't deemed to be servicable, we could see Stewart playing with Burmie and Ladd while either Boults or Eager moves to their off wing.

Once we get those three healthy (assuming for the sake of discussion we don't have more injuries in the meantime) the lineup looks much more stout, though it's still not one that's going to make NHL goaltenders lose sleep at night.

Kane-Antropov-Bergfors

Modin-Little-Peverly

Ladd-Slater/Cormier-Petterson

Eager/Boulton-Slater/Cormier-Thorburn/Stewart

However, if Ramsay's system of offensively minded defensemen really takes hold in Atlanta and everyone contributes to the goal scoring, the skaters might be able to give Mason and Pavelec enough cushion to pull of some wins. I don't expect any one of our forwards to put up more than 20-25 goals, but if our blueliners can average 10 goals each, that might not be a hinderance.