Are the Atlanta Thrashers for real?

If you were to ask me which team would have a great start to the season, the Atlanta Thrashers would not have been at the top of my list.

Not because of lack of talent, they are owners of the most talented pure goal scorer in the league, in my opinion. However, as talented as he is, Ilya Kovalchuk has more or less been a bright spot in a pretty low point in the franchise's short history. Two seasons in a row, the Thrashers have posted records below .500 and spent both seasons in 4th in their division.

That's what makes their 4-1-1 start so impressive, in a division which has more struggling teams than winning teams at the start of the season. The Thrashers are poised to be the only team to really put any sort of pressure on the Washington Capitals, who are the hands down favorite to run away with the division. Three out of four of the Thrashers' wins have come on the road, which is even more impressive.

The big story from tonight's game vs. the Montreal Canadiens is Ondrej Pavelec's absolutely awesome performance in goal. Pavelec stopped 34 of 35 Canadiens' shots on goal, which forced the game to a shootout, which is where the love for Pavelec ends. Not that I even allow your performance in a shootout effect the way you play, especially as a goaltender, there are some goalies who are better suited for shootouts, Pavelec being more of a positional goaltender, his style falls on it's face in shootouts, apparently. He DID blank Mike Cammaleri in the SO, if you wanted to find something to be happy about in the shootout, there ya go. His play through 65 minutes though was absolutely awesome. Halak made the start for the Habs and he didn't look bad in net either, it was a good change of pace taking the whining Carey Price out of net, AND the Habs ended their five game skid, without baby Carey Price in net.

Kovy and crew have their work cut out for them on Thursday, hosting Ovi and HIS crew, and while I highly doubt there's ever been bad blood between the two, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ovi gunning for Kovy. While the Habs host what should be an easier victory than tonight's against the New York Islanders. Now that I said that, the Isles will probably win their first game on Thursday, sorry Habs fans.

This is probably shorter and less descriptive than I wanted, but the baseball playoffs have been drawing a lot of my attention.