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Thrasher Defense Is Downright Offensive

November 9, 2009, 9:12 AM ET [ Comments]

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The play of the Atlanta Thrashers defense is simply and unquestionably offensive…and this time I’m not talking about the ungodly amount of shots on goal they tend to allow.

Nope…I’m speaking of their offensive prowess on the ice as they continue to rack up the points.

In beating the St. Louis Blues Sunday 3-2 in a shootout, both goals scored for Atlanta came from defenders…Toby Enstrom and Ron Hainsey. This came one night after all three goals scored in a 6-3 loss on Long Island all came from blueliners as well…Zach Bogosian, Pavel Kubina and Christoph Schubert with the honors there.

In fact, dating back to last Thursday’s game against Columbus, the Thrashers defensive corps has account for seven consecutive goals as the last pair of goals scored in the 4-3 loss to the Blue Jackets came from Enstrom and Kubina. Heck, the other goal in that game… which was credited to Bryan Little… came about as Enstrom’s blast from the left point ticked off of Bryan’s stick on it’s way into the net.

When Captain Ilya Kovalchuk went down with a foot injury early on during a 4-3 loss to San Jose on Oct. 24, many in Thrasherville were left looking around to see where the goals were going to come from. At that time, Kovy had knocked home 9 of the Thrashers 25 going into that game…that’s 36% of the offensive production. Only four goals had been provided by the blueline…16%.

Since that game, the Thrashers have played six times scoring a total of 19 goals. 12 of them have come courtesy of their defenders…63.1%.

For the season, the defense has scored 16 of the 47 total goals scored…not counting the gimmick third goal awarded via the shoot win Sunday… 34% of all goals.

That’s a lot of offensive production coming from defensive players…and Thrashers fans are glad to have it.

John Anderson’s style of play does call for his defenders to step up into the attack, so none of this really comes as too much of a shock…but still, in the past several games they have pretty much provided the attack…which is nice, but at the same time can be a bit troubling when one considers where the team would be right now without it.

Every member of the Thrashers’ defense has scored a goal so far…Bogosian with 6, Kubina with 3… Hainsey and Enstrom both have a pair… Salmela, Popovic and Schubert each have netted one. However, four forwards are yet to light the lamp…Marty Reasoner, Slava Kozlov, Jim Slater and Nik Antropov.

Now, I do temper all this with the fact that Antropov has a team-high 13 assists, which makes him second on the team in overall scoring behind Rich Peverley with 17. Also, Marty Reasoner has chipped in with a half dozen. Kozlov has contributed with 5 helpers while Slater is still seeking his first point after 7 games played. Antropov is also a +3 player while Reasoner is a +4.

But still…no goals.

Then there is Todd White, who has been MIA of late. For the season he’s amassed only 6 points after 14 games played and is a team-low -6. He has but three goals on the season and last tickled the twine six games ago during a loss to the Capitals…this on the heels of coming off a career year in which he scored 22 goals and 73 overall points while playing in all 82 games.

I never expected White to duplicate those loft numbers, but so far he’s on pace for only about 17 goals and 35 points.

But again, the positive news is that the Thrashers D-men have been a very offensive presence of the ice for Atlanta…and I mean that in a good way.
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