All Hockey talk all the time

marakh wrote:The Least Sens players in the Olympic the better. With some luck Chara, Markov, Kaberle, Ryan MIller etc all get injured in the tournament

100% agree. I wish the Olympics didn't happen the year we would have won the Cup. Diddling Hasek. Damn.

M_Christopher wrote:Am I alone in thinking that we shouldn't send both Neids and Pronger to the Olympics?

We have so many talented younger, faster and equally strong d-men, that we are better off with taking only one of the two?

No one's better than Pronger. He's about to win his 99th Norris this year, he's disgustingly good. Between he and Chara...I can't think of many who can dominate the game like those two.

So, you have to take Pronger. You'd leave Neidermayer behind? One of the slickest, best passing, clutch guys in recent Canadian history?

Not with you on this one Mark. Especially on NHL ice surfaces (I could be wrong about the ice surface actually).

asq2 wrote:Replace Phaneuf with Keith. And I still think Thornton will make it, for better or for worse.

Fourth line should be:

Morrow - M. Richards - Doan

Toews would be a good pick as an extra guy because he could play on lines 2-4.

Again, I think Mike Fisher is a really solid guy to have as the 12th or 13th forward. Can PK with the best of them, does everything a 4th line guy needs to do, and his speed is an asset.

SpezDispenser wrote:

marakh wrote:The Least Sens players in the Olympic the better. With some luck Chara, Markov, Kaberle, Ryan MIller etc all get injured in the tournament

100% agree. I wish the Olympics didn't happen the year we would have won the Cup. Diddling Hasek. Damn.

way to bring up painful memories

asq2 wrote:Patrick Marleau scores his 12th (more goals than Spezza has points) 43 seconds later. Ex-67 Joslin assists.

Sharks lead the 'Hawks 3-1.

Remember when we thought they'd be terrible and wouldn't have any depth?

As I type this, Danybag rings it off the iron.

Sometimes...I get extremely jealous that Heatley's doing what he's doing in SJ. They're stacked, he's happy, he's back to being one of the best snipers in the business again.

I love Michalek, so I'll always be okay with what went down trade wise, but a part of me feels unbelievably burned by Heatley. Jealous, envious of SJ, bitter with Heatley, but still in awe now that we see him play real hockey instead of floating around.

What an arsehole.

M_Christopher wrote: way to bring up painful memories

I think about it all the time. We try to move on and move forward, but it'll be 5 years before we compete for the Cup again, so sometimes I reflect on what went wrong and why so we don't make the same mistakes next time.

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:Patrick Marleau scores his 12th (more goals than Spezza has points) 43 seconds later. Ex-67 Joslin assists.

Sharks lead the 'Hawks 3-1.

Remember when we thought they'd be terrible and wouldn't have any depth?

As I type this, Danybag rings it off the iron.

Sometimes...I get extremely jealous that Heatley's doing what he's doing in SJ. They're stacked, he's happy, he's back to being one of the best snipers in the business again.

I love Michalek, so I'll always be okay with what went down trade wise, but a part of me feels unbelievably burned by Heatley. Jealous, envious of SJ, bitter with Heatley, but still in awe now that we see him play real hockey instead of floating around.

What an arsehole.

I find focusing the hate on Kovalev helps take the sting out.

SpezDispenser wrote:

M_Christopher wrote:Am I alone in thinking that we shouldn't send both Neids and Pronger to the Olympics?

We have so many talented younger, faster and equally strong d-men, that we are better off with taking only one of the two?

No one's better than Pronger. He's about to win his 99th Norris this year, he's disgustingly good. Between he and Chara...I can't think of many who can dominate the game like those two.

You're overlooking that Swedish guy.

asq2 wrote:
You're overlooking that Swedish guy.

Yeah - and I admire Lidstrom as much as the next guy, but he's starting to get up there.

asq2 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

M_Christopher wrote:Am I alone in thinking that we shouldn't send both Neids and Pronger to the Olympics?

We have so many talented younger, faster and equally strong d-men, that we are better off with taking only one of the two?

No one's better than Pronger. He's about to win his 99th Norris this year, he's disgustingly good. Between he and Chara...I can't think of many who can dominate the game like those two.

You're overlooking that Swedish guy.

Yep, he's so good he doesn't even need to throw the body ... That's what I call domination.

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:
You're overlooking that Swedish guy.

Yeah - and I admire Lidstrom as much as the next guy, but he's starting to get up there.

That's true, I suppose. Part of it is the taxation of having three straight long playoff runs and having a goaltending duo that undermines all defensive systems. Still, +11 in 18 games is nothing to sneeze at.

The Wings are starting to get their mojo, though, so look for his numbers to start going up again. He'll finish with more than 31 points this season.

asq2 wrote:
That's true, I suppose. Part of it is the taxation of having three straight long playoff runs and having a goaltending duo that undermines all defensive systems. Still, +11 in 18 games is nothing to sneeze at.

The Wings are starting to get their mojo, though, so look for his numbers to start going up again. He'll finish with more than 31 points this season.

Fair enough. And he has the ability to slow the game down to his speed, so he has some nice time to rebound even at his age.

Also, Lidstrom? I was talking about Adam Larsson.







Maybe.

asq2 wrote:Also, Lidstrom? I was talking about Adam Larsson.







Maybe.

Yeah, he's gonna be disgustingly good as well.

I couldn't believe it. He was maybe the best skater (definitely the best defenceman) on the ice at the Carleton - Sweden game, at 16.

asq2 wrote:I couldn't believe it. He was maybe the best skater (definitely the best defenceman) on the ice at the Carleton - Sweden game, at 16.

Yeah, people have been talking this kid up for a while. Nice for you to see him up close like that.

Which reminds me....I was a foot away from both Wiercioch and Cowen at the DC and I was trying to watch so closely that I didn't take a picture. Especially when Cowen was messing with Mel (she's a cutie ) and shot a puck at the glass where she was standing. That was the moment because he was kinda standing there smirking for a second. I could have beckoned him over and I'm sure he would have obliged.

According to this Twitter, Forsberg is staying in Sweden this season.

http://twitter.com/sportsnetmurph

I'd make a thread, but I'd prefer a better source.

TSN loves us!

http://www.tsn.ca/fantasy_news/feature/?ID=549

Not.

shabbs wrote:TSN loves us!

http://www.tsn.ca/fantasy_news/feature/?ID=549

Not.

This team hasn't done a whole lot recently to deserve anything.

hemlock wrote:

shabbs wrote:TSN loves us!

http://www.tsn.ca/fantasy_news/feature/?ID=549

Not.

This team hasn't done a whole lot recently to deserve anything.

Agreed.

I just laugh at those rankings...there are a whole bunch of teams...PHILLY for example who are struggling a lot more than we are but get better hype. Really why care? When I coached my hockey team, I love that other teams under estimated us. No one ever sees the Edmonton Oilers going to the Stanley cup, but year after year the top seeds are knocked off and it's normally the unexpected teams going into round 2 and even round 3.

Focus on the other teams and we'll be there at the end.

Devo wrote:I just laugh at those rankings...there are a whole bunch of teams...PHILLY for example who are struggling a lot more than we are but get better hype. Really why care? When I coached my hockey team, I love that other teams under estimated us. No one ever sees the Edmonton Oilers going to the Stanley cup, but year after year the top seeds are knocked off and it's normally the unexpected teams going into round 2 and even round 3.

Focus on the other teams and we'll be there at the end.

Ummm, no we wont, haha. Ottawa is somewhere near the bottom of the middle of the pack, 18-20 range in terms of the league.

Could Ottawa sneek into the playoffs? Absolutely they can if they can play 500 on the road. If they make it can they knock off a top seed? I think they can. Will they be anything more then an upset team that gets knocked out in the 2nd round as an absolute best case scenario, no shot.

really..so only there are only 10 teams in the league who are worse than Ottawa..I'm interested in that list.

Devo wrote:really..so only there are only 10 teams in the league who are worse than Ottawa..I'm interested in that list.

10 teams that are FOR SURE worse then Ottawa, cant come up with 10.

NYI, Carolina, Minnisota, are the only teams Ottawa will for sure finish ahead of... you can throw Anahiem in there although that's debatable in a big way, maybe Edmontom, Toronto and MTL you can kind of make an arguement for... fbut other then those 3 teams, Ottawa is in that group.

Devo wrote:really..so only there are only 10 teams in the league who are worse than Ottawa..I'm interested in that list.

You've got 15 better teams in the West. Maybe not quite, but 12 or 13.

I'd say the Sens would be lucky to slide into 8th in the East when the dust settles - UNLESS Spezza and Kovalev go on a hot streak that lasts all season and Michalek keeps it up, Alfie keeps it up and Fisher keeps it up. The D has to fit like a glove from here on out as well, they all have to know what they're doing at all times. The goaltending is still a question mark. Can Elliott handle it until Leclaire comes back? When Leclaire comes back will it take him time to get back into the rhythm? And on and on and on and on...

All it takes is a stinky road trip and now the Sens will be lucky to make the playoffs?

Ottawa is 10-3-3 at home. If they keep up the stellar home record they only need to hover around 500 on the road. They don't even have to do well in the Western Conference to do that either. Lets see them get 3 of a possible 10 at home before we sink the ship.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:All it takes is a stinky road trip and now the Sens will be lucky to make the playoffs?

Ottawa is 10-3-3 at home. If they keep up the stellar home record they only need to hover around 500 on the road. They don't even have to do well in the Western Conference to do that either. Lets see them get 3 of a possible 10 at home before we sink the ship.

I didn't mean it that way actually, good call there. I meant that the position we're in at this time is a perilous position where there's 6 or 7 teams gunning for that spot. If we slip again, we'll be in deep Dung and we'll be overtaken by more than one team. That's the kiss of death when you get 4 or 5 teams ahead of you and suddenly you're in 12th looking up at the playoffs. A lot of things have to go right - and we have to play hard - to avoid that.

Can it be done? Abso-Diddling-lutely. We WILL do it (I hope).

Cap'n Clutch wrote:All it takes is a stinky road trip and now the Sens will be lucky to make the playoffs?

Ottawa is 10-3-3 at home. If they keep up the stellar home record they only need to hover around 500 on the road. They don't even have to do well in the Western Conference to do that either. Lets see them get 3 of a possible 10 at home before we sink the ship.

Pretty sure I maintained that they would be lucky to make the playoffs since about the begining of November and that West Coast Trip would probably tell the story.

Is there even 10 home points left to get? Pretty sure their entire season has been at home thus far except one road trip where they got murdered.

Ottawa is in the bottom 5 in the league in terms of road teams, they are awful on the road and have gotten lucky 2 times on the road this year to get a win when they only have 4. Leciare was unreal in both Toronto and MTL and stole both those games.

Ottawa is no where near a lock to make the playoffs and absolutely would be lucky to make the playoffs. They wont get in if that road record is less then 500, loooong ways to go in that aspect.

N4L,

I think you are overstating the situation, we have played 12 road games while all but 1 team behind us have played 12-15. Only 3 have a point per game on the road, including the Leafs, who are absolute Dung at home.

We are 3 points under a point per game on the road, it is not that bad. Also, most of those teams are fairly Dung at home too. If we play .500 on the road from here on out, I guarantee we make the playoffs. Remember we have played 4 of our West coast games already.

Sens will make the playoffs. You can come back in April and admit you were WRONG!!!!!

N4L wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:All it takes is a stinky road trip and now the Sens will be lucky to make the playoffs?

Ottawa is 10-3-3 at home. If they keep up the stellar home record they only need to hover around 500 on the road. They don't even have to do well in the Western Conference to do that either. Lets see them get 3 of a possible 10 at home before we sink the ship.

Pretty sure I maintained that they would be lucky to make the playoffs since about the begining of November and that West Coast Trip would probably tell the story.

Is there even 10 home points left to get? Pretty sure their entire season has been at home thus far except one road trip where they got murdered.

Ottawa is in the bottom 5 in the league in terms of road teams, they are awful on the road and have gotten lucky 2 times on the road this year to get a win when they only have 4. Leciare was unreal in both Toronto and MTL and stole both those games.

Ottawa is no where near a lock to make the playoffs and absolutely would be lucky to make the playoffs. They wont get in if that road record is less then 500, loooong ways to go in that aspect.

I didn't mean to start a pissing match. It's pretty hard for me to defend my stance that I believe they are a 5/6 team in the east and overall a top 15 team. With that said I was simply interested in comparing the list of teams N4L believe are below Ottawa to mine. For interest sake here is my list.

EAST
NY Islanders
Montreal
Toronto
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Florida
Atlanta

West
Anaheim
Minnesota
Edmonton
Dallas
Nashville
Phoenix

I realize some of my teams are in the playoffs, but this was my list prior to the start of the season and I still don't see Phoenix and Dallas beating out the likes of Columbus Detroit and St. Louis

RobbyJ wrote:N4L,

I think you are overstating the situation, we have played 12 road games while all but 1 team behind us have played 12-15. Only 3 have a point per game on the road, including the Leafs, who are absolute Dung at home.

We are 3 points under a point per game on the road, it is not that bad. Also, most of those teams are fairly Dung at home too. If we play .500 on the road from here on out, I guarantee we make the playoffs. Remember we have played 4 of our West coast games already.

Sens will make the playoffs. You can come back in April and admit you were WRONG!!!!!

It's not the points they are getting on the road, it's how they are playing on the road. They have been brutal. They have a lot of games coming up and teams behind The Sens are coming on quick. They literally lost 7 in a row on the road, that's brutal.

I would be very surprised if The Sens made the playoffs just based on how poorly they play on the road and how mentally weak this team is still.

Devo wrote:

N4L wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:All it takes is a stinky road trip and now the Sens will be lucky to make the playoffs?

Ottawa is 10-3-3 at home. If they keep up the stellar home record they only need to hover around 500 on the road. They don't even have to do well in the Western Conference to do that either. Lets see them get 3 of a possible 10 at home before we sink the ship.

Pretty sure I maintained that they would be lucky to make the playoffs since about the begining of November and that West Coast Trip would probably tell the story.

Is there even 10 home points left to get? Pretty sure their entire season has been at home thus far except one road trip where they got murdered.

Ottawa is in the bottom 5 in the league in terms of road teams, they are awful on the road and have gotten lucky 2 times on the road this year to get a win when they only have 4. Leciare was unreal in both Toronto and MTL and stole both those games.

Ottawa is no where near a lock to make the playoffs and absolutely would be lucky to make the playoffs. They wont get in if that road record is less then 500, loooong ways to go in that aspect.

I didn't mean to start a pissing match. It's pretty hard for me to defend my stance that I believe they are a 5/6 team in the east and overall a top 15 team. With that said I was simply interested in comparing the list of teams N4L believe are below Ottawa to mine. For interest sake here is my list.

EAST
NY Islanders
Montreal
Toronto
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Florida
Atlanta

West
Anaheim
Minnesota
Edmonton
Dallas
Nashville
Phoenix

I realize some of my teams are in the playoffs, but this was my list prior to the start of the season and I still don't see Phoenix and Dallas beating out the likes of Columbus Detroit and St. Louis

Dallas is a pretty solid team man. They have a decent D, a true number 1 in the nets, 2 lines that can score, leadership, grit... they are only 1 year removed from being in the WCF against Detroit. Dallas is a better team then Ottawa, they are just as good, if not better at every position.

Then again, Carolina is no years removed from being in the ECF against Pittsburgh... And Ottawa is only 2 years removed from being in the SCF against Anaheim.

just saying....

I still dont know how Carolina got there last year...

I still don't know how they won the Cup...

people talk about 06-07 as our year to win it...05-06 was our year!
sob

05-06 was 100% The Sens year. Staal was insane as per normal though last year when it came to crunch time. He delivers 100% of the time.

I'm still pissed that Diddling Tampa Bay has a Cup and we don't... GRRRR!!!

Did everyone forget what I posted earlier in another thread? The Sens were 3 for 4 on the road against the East before A-Train went down. The West-coast swing was bad, no doubt, but we still got a point against Boston at the start of the road trip. We are definitely a .500 East-road team or better with a full lineup -- don't forget that we are also without our #1 and fairly important cogs on the third and fourth lines (Neil and Donovan).

It may not have mattered much before, but now that we are getting power play opportunities we need to get something going there. Who is the PP coach? We've got six or seven coaches, so at least one of them needs to be fired because it's not getting done.

Sit Spezza out for a few games because he's definitely not playing to his potential -- injury or not, he's hurting the team. Kovalev, did he really charter a plane to leave Anaheim early to fly to Montreal? They should have given him a night off -- unpaid, of course. It's one thing to miss a few games flying to Russia for your mother-in-law's funeral, but DVD promos should be done off-season or, at least, scheduled on a day when you're actually in town.

Shannon is just not getting anything done. I was a big fan of him on the PP point last year, but enough is enough. When Neil comes back he better sit instead of the likes of Regin or Winchester.

What's up with Regin? Is he in Clouston's doghouse? Why? I know he's not lighting it up, but there have been many games where he'd be benched for the third or even second periods. Why not extend the same courtesy to Spezza and Kovalev?

Do we have too many coaches, perhaps? Maybe too many cooks.

RobbyJ wrote:N4L,

I think you are overstating the situation, we have played 12 road games while all but 1 team behind us have played 12-15. Only 3 have a point per game on the road, including the Leafs, who are absolute Dung at home.

We are 3 points under a point per game on the road, it is not that bad. Also, most of those teams are fairly Dung at home too. If we play .500 on the road from here on out, I guarantee we make the playoffs. Remember we have played 4 of our West coast games already.

Sens will make the playoffs. You can come back in April and admit you were WRONG!!!!!

He can't admit he's wrong. Seriously though he said the Sens would be lucky to make the playoffs. If they make the playoffs he'll just chalk it up to luck and he's not wrong.

wprager wrote:Did everyone forget what I posted earlier in another thread? The Sens were 3 for 4 on the road against the East before A-Train went down. The West-coast swing was bad, no doubt, but we still got a point against Boston at the start of the road trip. We are definitely a .500 East-road team or better with a full lineup -- don't forget that we are also without our #1 and fairly important cogs on the third and fourth lines (Neil and Donovan).

It may not have mattered much before, but now that we are getting power play opportunities we need to get something going there. Who is the PP coach? We've got six or seven coaches, so at least one of them needs to be fired because it's not getting done.

Sit Spezza out for a few games because he's definitely not playing to his potential -- injury or not, he's hurting the team. Kovalev, did he really charter a plane to leave Anaheim early to fly to Montreal? They should have given him a night off -- unpaid, of course. It's one thing to miss a few games flying to Russia for your mother-in-law's funeral, but DVD promos should be done off-season or, at least, scheduled on a day when you're actually in town.

Shannon is just not getting anything done. I was a big fan of him on the PP point last year, but enough is enough. When Neil comes back he better sit instead of the likes of Regin or Winchester.

What's up with Regin? Is he in Clouston's doghouse? Why? I know he's not lighting it up, but there have been many games where he'd be benched for the third or even second periods. Why not extend the same courtesy to Spezza and Kovalev?

Do we have too many coaches, perhaps? Maybe too many cooks.

Too many cooks. Fire one of the cooks.

wprager wrote:Did everyone forget what I posted earlier in another thread? The Sens were 3 for 4 on the road against the East before A-Train went down. The West-coast swing was bad, no doubt, but we still got a point against Boston at the start of the road trip. We are definitely a .500 East-road team or better with a full lineup -- don't forget that we are also without our #1 and fairly important cogs on the third and fourth lines (Neil and Donovan).

It may not have mattered much before, but now that we are getting power play opportunities we need to get something going there. Who is the PP coach? We've got six or seven coaches, so at least one of them needs to be fired because it's not getting done.

Sit Spezza out for a few games because he's definitely not playing to his potential -- injury or not, he's hurting the team. Kovalev, did he really charter a plane to leave Anaheim early to fly to Montreal? They should have given him a night off -- unpaid, of course. It's one thing to miss a few games flying to Russia for your mother-in-law's funeral, but DVD promos should be done off-season or, at least, scheduled on a day when you're actually in town.

Shannon is just not getting anything done. I was a big fan of him on the PP point last year, but enough is enough. When Neil comes back he better sit instead of the likes of Regin or Winchester.

What's up with Regin? Is he in Clouston's doghouse? Why? I know he's not lighting it up, but there have been many games where he'd be benched for the third or even second periods. Why not extend the same courtesy to Spezza and Kovalev?

Do we have too many coaches, perhaps? Maybe too many cooks.

Beat Toronto on a high stick and a penalty shot, totally outplayed against MTL and Leciare stole 2 points, Forida they barly got by and then got hammered the next night in Tampa.

They might have got 3 wins but they were not the best team on the ice on those 3 nights.

N4L wrote:

wprager wrote:Did everyone forget what I posted earlier in another thread? The Sens were 3 for 4 on the road against the East before A-Train went down. The West-coast swing was bad, no doubt, but we still got a point against Boston at the start of the road trip. We are definitely a .500 East-road team or better with a full lineup -- don't forget that we are also without our #1 and fairly important cogs on the third and fourth lines (Neil and Donovan).

It may not have mattered much before, but now that we are getting power play opportunities we need to get something going there. Who is the PP coach? We've got six or seven coaches, so at least one of them needs to be fired because it's not getting done.

Sit Spezza out for a few games because he's definitely not playing to his potential -- injury or not, he's hurting the team. Kovalev, did he really charter a plane to leave Anaheim early to fly to Montreal? They should have given him a night off -- unpaid, of course. It's one thing to miss a few games flying to Russia for your mother-in-law's funeral, but DVD promos should be done off-season or, at least, scheduled on a day when you're actually in town.

Shannon is just not getting anything done. I was a big fan of him on the PP point last year, but enough is enough. When Neil comes back he better sit instead of the likes of Regin or Winchester.

What's up with Regin? Is he in Clouston's doghouse? Why? I know he's not lighting it up, but there have been many games where he'd be benched for the third or even second periods. Why not extend the same courtesy to Spezza and Kovalev?

Do we have too many coaches, perhaps? Maybe too many cooks.

Beat Toronto on a high stick and a penalty shot, totally outplayed against MTL and Leciare stole 2 points, Forida they barly got by and then got hammered the next night in Tampa.

They might have got 3 wins but they were not the best team on the ice on those 3 nights.

And if ifs and buts were candy and nuts...

Just saying, dont tell me The Sens have were playing fine on the road before that west coast trip, becuase they wernt.