Penguins/Thrashers Preview

The Penguins will look to get back on the winning track tonight on the road in Atlanta against the Thrashers (7 PM EST).

Atlanta has been playing reasonably well of late. They had been winners of 5 in a row until recently falling to the Flyers earlier this week, and a big reason why has been the play of their centers. And I'm not talking about Erik Christensen, the former Penguin who the Thrashers tried to start the season in that position centering star LW Ilya Kovalchuk.

The centers that have actually done the job for Atlanta this year are David Little and Todd White.

Who?

Little has been a prospect in the Thrashers system for a few years. He's finally validating their patience this year. He's done a great job on the #1 line.

White is a veteran who knows his way around the league, but I think it's fair to say he, too, has overachieved a bit this year.

Besides those two and Kovalchuk, Atlanta is getting typically solid play from a guy who I think is one of the more underappreciated players in the league -- Vyacheslav Kozlov. He, not Kovalchuk, leads the team in goal scoring with 10.

Ron Hainsey, a free agent signee from Columbus, also has done a good job for them on the blueline. He's got 12 points in 17 games. He's helped offset the poor play of veteran Mathieu Schneider, who was traded from Anaheim earlier this year. Schneider is minus 11 in 12 games with Atlanta.

All of these guys have done a good job keeping the Thrashers competitive, especially more recently.

For the Penguins, Dany Sabourin is going to get the call in the net again tonight. Fleury isn't ready to practice, let alone play, making it even more likely we won't see him until next week, at the earliest.

The Penguins are going to look to dial up the offense after being on lockdown against the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night. Hopefully they can get their struggling power play going. Atlanta is next to last in the league on the PK, so going on the man advantage tonight will be like night and day when compared to what the Penguins saw on Tuesday.

I'm hopeful that Miroslav Satan can get going again tonight. He's been quiet for about 5 games now and it would be nice for him to get on the board again. He's always been a streaky scorer, but the Penguins don't need him to go into a long goal scoring slump. If Sidney Crosby can create a little more offense tonight -- it looks as if he's continuing to labor a little bit out there due to whatever ongoing injury he's dealing with -- it will help.

Recap tomorrow. Go Pens.