To the surprise of very few people, the Thrashers' newest goaltender, Chris Mason, is scheduled to be the starting goaltender and to play the entire game tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes. It's a home game, which usually means the NHL goaltenders play - and after Pavelec's game on Tuesday it's Mason's turn to fight for the position of starter. Mason was 1-0 last season against Carolina with a 2.00 GAA and a .944 SV%. The lack of experience should do him some favors, since Carolina shouldn't be as used to his tendencies as they were to Hedberg's and are to Pavelec's (2-2 against the Canes with a 3.77 GAA and a .877 SV%).
Ben Wright of the Blueland Blog continues to spoil us with line-ups. The Thrasher submitted a full 23 man roster for the game tonight, so the scratches for tonight will be forthcoming. One of them will probably be Jim Slater, whose wrist is still bothering him.
Thrashers Line-Up:
10 Bryan Little
12 Patrick Rissmiller
16 Andrew Ladd
18 Niclas Bergfors
19 Fredrik Modin
20 Enver Lisin
21 Ben Eager
22 Anthony Stewart
27 Chris Thorburn
43 Riley Holzapfel
46 Spencer Machacek
47 Rich Peverley
49 Alex Burmistrov
56 Fredrik Pettersson
Defense
3 Brent Sopel
4 Zach Bogosian
5 Boris Valabik
26 Noah Welch
29 Johnny Oduya
33 Dustin Byfuglien
39 Tobias Enstrom
Goaltenders
50 Chris Mason
31 Ondrej Pavelec
As previously noted, tonight marks the premiere of Big Buff, Brent Sopel, and Andrew Ladd as well as Chris Mason. There will be no TV or radio broadcast, so if you want to see the newest Thrashers in action, you're going to have to come down to the game. Puck drops at 7:00.