Tampa Bay Lightning v Atlanta Thrashers Live

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After missing the post-season two years in a row, the Atlanta Trashers were ready to make some moves during this year’s off-season and are hoping for a turn-around in 2009-10. Similarly, the Lightning also realized their need for change after a disappointing 14^th place finish in the Eastern Conference with only 24 wins last year. In the first game of this year’s NHL campaign, the Lightning will head to Atlanta where they will face the Trashers at Philips Arena on Saturday at midnight GMT.

Given the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning ranked among the worst teams in the league allowing 280 goals last year, it was no surprise that the franchise from Florida focused on strengthening their defense during the off-season. More specifically, GM Brian Lawton selected Swedish defender Victor Hedman with Tampa’s valuable second overall draft pick as well as signing veteran defenseman and former All-Star Mattias Ohlund to a seven-year contract worth approximately $26 million. Over the course of his career, Ohlund appeared in 770 NHL games where he scored 93 goals and added 232 assists for a total of 325 career points. Moreover, the Lightning signed Matt Walker from the Chicago Blackhawks to a four year deal worth $7 million as well as acquiring a handful of role players on the free agent market.

In contrast, the Atlanta Trashers identified their scoring output as major problem for their recent slump. Thus, the Trashers picked center Evander Kane with their fourth overall pick and were able to make the highest bid for Kazakh forward Nik Antropov. During his eight years in the league, Antropov scored 132 goals and 177 assists for a total of 304 points in 528 NHL games. Most likely being paired up with Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta could very well have put together a dynamic scoring duo. Other off-season moves involved picking up defender Pavel Kubina and losing Garnet Excelby to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Taking everything into consideration, the audience could get to see a fairly entertaining match-up between two franchises who have constantly struggled in the recent past. While the Trashers will be trying to put pressure on Tampa’s goal, the Lightning are hoping that their re-organized defensive lines can provide more resistance than last year. Even though the game could go either way, Atlanta certainly has a slight edge since they have more talent on their team and will be enthusiastically supported by their home crowd.

You can watch all games of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Atlanta Trashers right here on www.watchlivenhl.com, the home of NHL live streaming.