GOALIE STILL HOSPITALIZED, THRASHERS STAY STRONG
Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay said he had never before seen a player on the ice collapse, unconscious, for no apparent reason.
So after his goaltender, Ondrej Pavelec, after 10 minutes and still not awake, was taken off the ice Friday night in Atlanta, Ramsay knew he had to address his stunned squad.
"Do you want to do what's best for all of us, including the player who is hurt or ill?" Ramsay said Saturday, recounting his speech. "They would not want you to fold it up and go home. They want you to play hard. They wouldn't want to feel bad enough that they're hurt or sick, and now you guys gave up. And we didn't.
"We were proud of the guys in the way they listened and decided, 'Let's go play.' "
The Thrashers beat the Capitals 4-2, with G Chris Mason, who entered 2:25 into the first period, stopping 29 of 31 shots.
"He gave us a chance and kept us in the game until we got our feet under us," Ramsay said.
As for Pavelec, Ramsay said he was "awake and alert" at an Atlanta hospital and has a concussion. He said it was unknown if the concussion was caused by the fall or if Pavelec had it previously. "They just don't know," said Ramsay, an assistant on the Lightning's 2004 Stanley Cup team. "They're still trying to figure out what happened."
"It's one thing if he gets hit," Thrashers and former Lightning LW Fredrik Modin said, "but when someone is just lying there and no one knows why, it's scary."
FREDDIE MO RETURNS: Modin faced the Lightning for the first time since he was sent in June 2006 to the Blue Jackets in the Marc Denis deal. Modin said he hasn't even been to his Tampa house, which is rented.
"It's my first time back," said Modin, who had eight goals, 19 points in 23 games during the Cup run. "It's a lot of fun to come back. ... It will be good to get on that ice again and get those feelings back from our years here."
Modin, 36 - with 116 goals for Tampa Bay from 1999-2006, including 29 in 2003-04 - has struggled with injuries since he left and only in 2006-07 played more than 50 games.
"Tampa always is going to be a special place for me and my family," he said. "This was home for us for seven years. A lot of good things happened here."
KEEP IT CLEAN: The Lightning last season led the league with an average 16.8 penalty minutes and was second with 492 infractions. Coach Guy Boucher said that cannot happen again: "We addressed it the first day. That's something we want to bear down on, getting better at not slashing and taking stupid stick penalties. There are going to be some - this is hockey - but we're going to trim it to the least possible. The players who have a tendency to take too much of these get a little less ice time, that's for sure."
EASING THEIR PAIN: Centers Dominic Moore and Nate Thompson played. Both were bothered by groin injuries. "Opening night, a sold-out crowd, I won't feel anything," Thompson said.
ODDS AND ENDS: The Lightning entered Saturday 9-6-0 with two ties in season openers. ... D Matt Smaby and LW Mattias Ritola were scratched.
