Ryan Shannon returns to the press box. Shean Donovan takes his spot in the line up.
Puck drop is at 2. The game can be seen on CBC.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Elliott to Start
According to Brent Wallace at TSN, Brian Elliott will get the call this afternoon when the Senators host the New York Rangers.
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83 comments:
split on the elliot start. but i get it.
about time dono got in. should be a good game. even though i put them down bad after the philly game. i fully expect this team to show up tonight.
go sens go.
wat do do lines look like chirp? any brian campbell rumours?
Both are excellent choices by Clouston, give Leclaire some time to sit and hopefully have him gain some of his confidence back when the Sens play the Leafs.
Shannon has been subpar this season in my opinion and I don't know why it has taken so long for Donovan to get back into the lineup
GO SENS GO!!!!
p.s. No Volchenkov, so I still don't have a good feeling about today
I'll be leaving for the game soon, i hope it is better then the last game.
Glad to see Donovan will be playing atleast you can count on him to give it 100%.
It would be nice to see Clouston move Alfie off the top line and back with Fish and Kovy and pop Cheechoo back to the top line.
It's about time! Shannon Sucks. He's been given EVERY opportunity and has not done anything t o suggest he deserves ice time. The biggest mistake Clousten has made was to take Chum out of the line up when we were winning.
Bench Picard!
So, am I to expect Chummy will win the game for us? I won't hold my breath.
Donovan is in the lineup? Clouston must have made a mistake and written down #10 when he meant someone else... Maybe Murray traded for D Matt Donovan from the Islanders?
It just wouldn't make sense that someone who just plain gets it done every game would play, eh?
Against a physical team like Philly with some youngsters playing in the bottom D pairing, Donovan would have been a great fit. Now, he gets an afternoon game against the Rangers and I bet he's back in the press box on Tuesday against the Truculents. Sigh...
Good move to put Dono in.
game has not started yet: what are we going to be crying about in 2 1/2 hrs? when we cry about players for the most part pick there game.
they seem to take turns I say Kuba, Campoli, Cartner, we will be pissed at, Ruutu and Kov will have a great game.
Anyone happen to have a link to a stream?
Leclaire's no longer a lock for Team Canada, i'd say it's 50/50 at best.
this might not be deserved completely. but alfredsson baubling the puck carelessly on the powerplay while this team is screaming from the depths for a powerplay goal is just unacceptable.
Does Galley have the flu? sounds like he'd rather be shopping for wallpaper than be announcing the game...
absolutely unclassy by senators fans who are booing redden. not at all the right thing to do.
FUCK CAMPOLI.
thats the new chant required in scotiabank place.
why is he still playing. cant we bring someone up from the minors. karlsson was much better man
http://www.justin.tv/furby3
If anyone else is interested
I think the game is being streamed on cbc.com
Campoli and Picard for the NORRIS!!!
Gaston, i don't think Leclaire was ever a lock for team Canada, if anything it's Luongo, Brodeur and Fleury who are the locks. No one else is even close.
Game over within 2 min. What is wrong with this team making SO MANY MISTAKES!!!!!
No excuse for this game, we had our chances on the PP and yet again screwed it up.
This team is no worth shit
and the downward slide continues...
blow this team up now please
Another Garbage effort by our Defense! Murray has got to be thinking of making some changes...just not sure if he can...who wants Picard or Campoli?
NOBODY!!!
Clouston is a fucking joke!
Too many men penalty again...they are easily leading the league in that and its all terrible organization on the bench and nothing more...
then having neil on the PP in OT and sitting Kovalev or better yet, Fisher!!! Are you kidding...
Lastly, Foligno in the shootout...LMAO what a terrible choice...he could have had Michalek, Cheechoo, Campoli, Regin or Phillips....Foligno doesnt have the best of hands...
then on the PP where they gave up the shorty he has the 2nd unit on who is beyond weak, Michalek is on the bench and he has his 2nd unit consisting of Regin, Neil and Cheechoo with Picard and Campoli....Picard and Campoli shouldnt be playing with eachother on the PP, they are too weak and if you let up a SH chance, you're in trouble...
I just dont get it sometimes...absolutely terrible decisions...just terrible!
Elliot played well which was nice to see a goalie playing well, he has been consistant in the little action he has seen...I think we will see him a bit more until Leclaire settles in.
Volchenkov, hurry back!!
Really good game by Elliott; in fact I think all our boys played pretty good today, except for the usual/expected one or two mistakes by Campoli and Picard.
BUT I am most of all upset at Clouston's choices for the shootout. 3 times we had the chance to seal the deal and he puts in Ruutu and Foligno before guys like Michalek????? Granted Michalek didn't score on his chance, but you gotta put up your true skill guys when you have the chance to win. I admit that Ruutu has had success on the SO and Foligno is not a bad choice...but you should only use these guys after you've gone through all the skilled players. Who knows, if Michalek had gone in as the 4th shooter instead of Ruutu (who tried a move waaay beyond his skillset) we probably would have won.
Nevertheless, I hope the boys can draw off the positives from this game and take that into Tuesday vs Toronto.
Another game where the sens stuggle to score goals. I guess we will have to wait until the offseason to see what BM does about our Defense. Oh well, another loss...going to be a long frustrating season...sigh.
Peace
go sens go
Poor Elliott. It's really too bad what happened today. It always seems like the Senators run into a hot goalie every time they get a good goaltending game of their own. They really did deserve to win this game. Even the goal that got past Elliott was a no-chancer for him, and he almost got it at that. Poor guy.
Still, there were a lot of good things in that game. Just an unfortunate ending.
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613-Getthefu&koutoftown-youshitbaga$$hole!
Can someone teach this team how to pass the puck. I mean, tape to tape, it's just basic fundamentals. And please stop with the too many men penalties. Ugly hockey really.
THAT was an entertaining game with a great effort. I have no idea what some of the posters above me are even calling themselves fans for. Wow. Even Kovialev played his 3rd game of the season. I just wish Clouston would stop the Michalek Spezz Alffie experiment and go back to what was working. And, the PP lines were bizaare, you have to have Alffie on the left point for one-timers. And, of course, send Picard down. Heartbreaking loss, but great effort to watch. Much better.
PS:Pascale has officially been challenged by Elliott, which is exactly what this tandem needs.
Chirp, is there some code you think yer following in letting all these fake fans leave silly comments? I don't think I can come here anymore, I have appreciated your work, I am on Dave's side re keep cheering for my team, cause they are my team do or die, but I am way too old to read these goading silly comments and then have actual Chirp followers respond to them. I'll follow you when you do the live blogs, but you have let these fake fans (I don't mean the disgruntled fans, I mean the posing fans) ruin your site.
GO SENS. And go Dave and Sens Chirp for believing in their team, as I believe.
jb
OMG what's up with the hate?!
Sucks we lost, I agree. We should've had on the PP during OT BUT things dont always pan out! This was a great game to watch! Let's rally behind the team, they put an overall offensive effort.
A few remarks:
- We saw the best and the worst of Kovalev today. The Good: He had an awesome shift early in the game which really set the tone offensively. The Bad: More stupid plays in the defensive zone. Cloustong needs to start punishing him for those.
- Shootouts: why is Michalek our 7th shooter?! He should be in our top 3. Give him a shootout goal to get his scoring touch back. C'mon he's an essential part of the team, make him feel like it! At the very least he should've shot ahead of Foligno and Fisher (no offence to Fisher)
- Awesome game by Ruutu, glad Clouston is finally rewarding him.
Thats all i got for now...
i have to agree with the shootout thing , why not try cheech out??? hes got skills man and hes been playing good... oh well it was an awesome game from my viewpoint, entertaining till the last second , so we lost ...big deal we played hard , we have always sucked in shootouts , and i except that as a fan
elliot was pure amazing today!!!!
k first of all this loss can solely be attributed to Campoli being completely bonehead on the PP.
the other thing that bothers me: clouston again saying he is happy with the way the team played. we had a fair share of PP time today, but no bang. you would think a team deprived of PP for so long will cash in as if their lives depended on it. i would say the PP play was just..average. good chances but laziness and non urgency mixed in. the reason im saying this is because the thrashers, who i dont think anyone over here will rate as a better scoring team than us, scored 5 goals on lundqvist. we got only 1.
it just sounds vague and in vain now. i dont know. its the same comments from clouston every other game. "i liked the way we played today/tonight, if we keep playing like that the wins will come" "we ran into a hot goalie" "we generated chances" when is he finally going to push these guys into scoring some goals.
i personally disagree with his line choices and his in game decisions. Campoli's butt should have been glued, welded, and for good measure BOLTED to the bench after that idiotic pinch of his. but no, Campoli was out there in the LAST MINUTE OF THE GAME. i just dont get it. then partly because of penalties, we saw no kovalev in the last 10 minutes of the third, no kovalev in the OT. NO KOVALEV in the OT PP? i mean... give me a fucking break already. you have a team by the throat and you dont put your best PP threat out there? tempting fate with a goalie like lundqvist in the shootout?
if the coach can't make the sound strategic decisions, then what point is there criticizing players? i mean whatever campoli does is excusable because Clouston puts him out there after repeated disappointments.
as a fan i hope this turns around soon. but im having serious doubts about clouston's strategy skills.
what do u mean struggle to score goals lol we were playing against an awesome goalie , of course thertes going to be struggle.....wake up ppl, todays game was awesonme
Frankly I don't get the negativity today from people. I was at the game at ice level. We were all over them. Donovan back in the lineup made our fourth line dominate the other teams for the first time in weeks.
Elliot was steady and has earned himself another start. Especially with back to back games coming up. This should turn the heat up on Leclaire by a good margin.
I've said it many times and I'll say it again.
Michalek-Spezza-Cheech
Alfie-Fisher-Kovalev
Two lines of threat and balance is better than overloading our first line and that first line right now clearly lacks chemistry. No points for Spezza in 4 games and Michalek and Alfie constantly getting in each others way. They are all too similar a playing style. Especially considering Cheechoo and Kovalev aren't the fastest of skaters its better to put them on two separate lines. Clouston needs to make this adjustment immediately.
Picard and Campolli together AGAIN cost us a goal. I have said time and again they should never touch the ice at the same time. Absolutely brutal decision but I can understand when its the PP - it still shouldn't happen again. The next PP it was Picard and Phillips so at least Clouston made the adjustment.
We were the better team tonight. Shoot-outs are a crap-shoot. When we work our buts off and play well like tonight we can compete with anyone. Relax guys this team is gonna get its share of wins. Especially if they swap Alfie and Cheech and fix our first two lines. I expect to go 3-1-1 on this homestand. The regulation loss will be against the Caps if it comes.
I think Clouston should publicly criticize himself for yet again causing a too many men on the ice penalty at a crucial time in the game. Add that to the fact that three times he put out Foligno-Neil-Regin-Picard-Campoli on a PP and Murray has grounds to suspend his ass.
I don't even blame the players for this loss (though I still think Kovalev is a useless bag of asses). The coaching staff needs to smarten up and fast...
Murray said last year he was worried about our D fence. same old story ever year under Murray.
Seriously guys, stfu about Kovalev, he was the same way in Montreal, except Montreal gave him more ice time and put him with high skill guys who can finish. No, he is not skating hard, I live in Montreal and occasionally watched habs and he never does!
He is perfectly fine with sitting back and waiting to get the puck, but come on what he did today with that puck possession against the rangers was INSANE! If Campoli would've gotten his stick on it, it would have been goal. I knew we weren't going to be getting MVP Kovalev, but I'm not going to run him out of town because he's not scoring at a PPG pace.
Chill out
Picard/Campoli need to sit, unfortunately Volchenkov is one person so 1 of those guys will always be in. Hopefully it's Picard out because Campoli with Kuba works out well offensively.
Anyway, here's hoping for a win Tuesday, and a speedy recovery to #24.
GO SENS GO!!!
Another season another so I guess it's time to find scape goat to blame all the ills of the team on. Were Emery, Redden, Heatley to blame for seasons past! Or is it possible this team no longer has the depth to dominate.
Kovalev seems to be taking way more heat then he deserves. He's not producing but neither is Alfie, Spezza and Michalek. Kovlev has been creating scoring chances but Fisher and Cheecho aren't finishers. Tonights game Kovie setup Chechoo for a break away where Chechoo prompty missed the net. Agaist the Devils Kovie was going for a backdoor pass that would have given Picard a wide open net but Fisher deflected the pass, the redirect missed the net. The majority of Fishers goals come from the PP on the door step, Chechoo is washed up. Kovalev is not Malkin he can't carry the entire line on his back, Ottawa's D is useless in the offensive zone, further reducing outlet's for kovalev to setup. Spezza is also suffering from the lack of shooters on this team, does anyone other then Mike Fisher go to the slot. The Sens problems are the same as last season, no offense from the forwards, terrible defense with no offensive potential and suspect goaltending. A rebuild is needed to aquire the talent needed, spending to the cap just drags this process along.
What happens when Volchie returns, maybe we win this game 1-0, but the Rangers were missing Durbisky, the Devils were missing Elias and Martin etc. Personelly I hope the Sens trade Volchie, he's a 1 dimensional player, Murray has defined the core as every player on th 07 team, all these players have been given raises and the team has only gotten worse. No GM will want bad contracts like kelly, we simply must wait them out as we rebuild Bingo and evetually the Sens. In the meantime I while continue to watch and cheer for the team unlike some posters.
'kay, I didn't get to watch the game, so maybe I'm missing something here, but didn't Kotalik get a penalty with less than 2 minutes left in OT?
Why was he eligible to shoot in the shoot-out?
I thought you couldn't participate in the shoot-out if you took a penalty that extended past the end of OT.
Whatever.
After that performance and the coach's decision this afternoon, some of you people wondered why Heatley wanted out of town.
Watched the Toronto/Calgary this evening....this Sens AHL/Junior defence is in for a long and very rough Tuesday nite. This team has no where to go but down.
Bad coaching lost us this game...and bad coaching will continue to result in Kovalev with no point production.
He was the exact same player in Montreal except MTL actually put him with a player that fits his style...no disrespect to his linemates, but this guys can be a force...The alfie, michalek, spezza line has done nothing...try putting the Cheechoo (who has been playing well) with Spez and Michalek...Then move alfie with Kovalev.
Or perhaps another shuffle...
Spezza, Kovalev, Michalek
Fisher, Alfie, Cheechoo...
I was a fan of Clouston and still think he is the right guy but he has to make better decisions, he is making AHL like decision in the NHL. I just dont get it. He has to get his skilled players on the ice more, it seems like he is 'rewarding' the other players a bit too much.
A better 2nd PP unit is a must too, what he had out there was bush league....Michalek was on the bench for gods sake and he paired Picard and Campoli - Brutal...
wow the heat is gone, AK 27 did play much better Picard Campoli are still very week, I dont know if it just me but it looks like other teams are trying to get Cartner off the ice with 5 min missconducts so we have to match Picard and Campoli ? dont think I will be going to any games this year, reading about it the next day in the papers can save a lot of money. we need Murray out and start a rebulid.
Jacob: Kovalev had better finishers in Montreal?? Better than Alfie? or Spezza? Are you fucking insane?!? Even on a bad year, Ottawa players are better finishers than the garbage he had playing with him. I wish I could laugh at you in person for saying stupid shit like that.
If people in Montreal want to pay big bucks for 1 or 2 shifts per game of razzle dazzle, fine with me, buy him back at the trade deadline. All we got for 10 million is a constant lack of effort and major disrespect for the crest and all the players that give it their all game in and game out.
And contrary to Montreal, in Ottawa, players have to EARN the respect of the fans. Players like Alfie, Spezza and Fisher worked hard to earn our respect and I'll be damned if I'm just going to give it to Kovalev for this kind of effort.
Was I watching the same game as most of these posters? I think we played well, goaltending was great on both sides. We were all over them. Puzzled with the shooter's choices but I'll go along with Clouston. Most of our so called "fans" need to go back to cheering for the Leafs by the sounds of it. I can't believe the hate, even before games start. Do these people even watch hockey?
I must admit Ottawa has not played well at all the past few games but they did play very well today and don't know why ppl are bitching ....I'm a very big "get rid of Murray" fan since I think he is destroying this team but come on we played good today....still don't get the obsesion of putting neil on the PP. I thought this experiment died 2 years ago...guess not especially in overtime!!! Clouston hurts my head somethings!!!!
mikep: you said in a few words what i have been trying to say in paragraphs for the past few games. so true man.
the 36 shots these guys took at lundqvist are beyond decieving. most were beachballs for a goalie like lundqvist. secondly, the shots that should beat lundqvist (or any other goalie for that fact), well, the sens dont put it on net. the shot misses the net altogether. moving on..there is just no real traffic. i watched the leafs game and man, the sens are soft. neil is supposed to be physical, but he isnt bothered enough. further moving on, except for fisher and spezza, everyone on this team decides to take a few moments of the game off. be it PP, be it PK, be it 5 on 5, they make careless lousy plays which clearly show the lack of urgency, focus and consistency. alright piling the negativity further: the defense is absolutely atrocious when Campoli and Picard are on ice.
and then you move to the deeper more dangerous problem: the playing style of this team. alright guys, i think 17 games is more than enough, and its not going to change by 20 games thats for sure. maybe by 40 games clouston might learn the lesson the hard way. but the current playing style is just not going to cut it. this team will have a hard time scoring goals for the following reasons:
1) the defense has ZERO mobility and urgency. and furthermore the defense can just not make pressure plays. plain and simple. there is no offense on this team from the back end. end of story. and to further aggravate it, they aren't that great defending either against teams that forecheck hard.
2) not only do these guys dont know how to put shots on net, they cant create any kind of substantial traffic either. they arent overly physical outside of the fourth line either. noone is open at opportune moments to take good shots. then there are people like kelly who cant even decide fast enough to shoot.
3) CLOUSTON IS FUCKING SATISFIED with this performance. i think alfie said it right after the game. no traffic, no shots finding their way through to the net, no quality chances to the net. kinda summed up everything. he clearly looked frustrated. you could tell in his expression that he saw very less positives.
so. moving to the game tuesday. they are well set to get thrashed by the lowly leafs. because if there is one thing the leafs do, they work hard. yes, all of us as sens fans can put the leafs down as much as we want. but if any of us watched their games, to a man we will agree that they work their asses off, and these guys take tanker-loads of shots at the net. they play like all us senators fans thought the senators would play UNDER CLOUSTON.
just.....frustrated. absolutely hate the thought of the leafs coming in and outplaying the senators. just absolutely hate it. i live in sarnia, and i have only been able to go to one sens game. it was a leafs sens game. i drove all the way to ottawa. it was in the midst of that 2007-2008 meltdown. the leafs came into scotiabank place and absolutely smoked the sens 5-0. just hate the feeling of that happening again. and it seems very likely tuesday.
i dont get why people think we owned the rangers.
the rangers were short their two top centremen, no dubinsky, no drury. yet they still managed to hang in the game. and .......WIN IT. while we had a fully healthy team except for volchkie missing, not to mention a plethora of PP time.
be smart sens fans. take the grain with the salt that comes with it. the senators should have absolutely smoked NYR. lundqvist wasnt crazy spectacular either. he just had to be in front of the beachballs the sens threw at him (perimeter shots). and yea, tortorella just had to match against clouston's lousy line choices which have no chemistry.
We played a good game, we lost to an elite goalie, it happens.
As to the 'go back to cheering for the Leafs' comments...I think if the radio and print media were harder ont he team and asking questions all the time, people would be happier.
As it is, we rely on bloggers like JC (thanks!) and others for an objective, unbiased opinion. It's unfortunate really...last Friday Mendes was on and while I like his Sportsnet columns, he was all like: "Don't criticize this, don't say anything bad here."
That stuff is terrible...the longer this team gets coddled by management and the media the longer it will take for them to grow their own wings and become winners with a hard edge. As a sports org, you need to be able to take constant criticism, deserved or no, and thrive on it.
CHeers!
Mikep smells like a troll to me. Trade Volchenkov? Are you nuts! Your main point was to trade him because he is one dimensional, and that with him in the lineup we would have (maybe) won the game 1-0... I didn't realize there was a difference between winning 1-0 and 8-0, with exception to the implication of a team getting steamrolled in one case. A win is a win, and if Volchenkov can single handedly win us games, as opposed to sending them to OT / SO, then why trade him?
I fail to see your logic. In case you didn't know, most defensemen, if not all, are one dimensional, either defensive or offensive. Volchenkov is easily top 10 in the league as far as defensive defensemen go, top shot blocker, shuts people down (which swings momentum), clears the crease, etc. He may not get on the score sheet as much as Del Zotto, but that's not his role.
Dave
Mat.... Spezza is not a finisher (though he has a nice shot he wont be waiting around for passes_) and Alfie is not finishing atm nor is he really know as a "finisher" more like an all around talent....
I think this needs another top 6 finisher
-HSF
Dear Jeffrey,
You're an idiot....I have been a season ticket holder for 4 years and sorry if I dont settle for just being a 'fan'. I pay good money to see my team produce and play well, and when they dont, I am one of the people who participates in the chat here and voices my opinion about what I think should be different...does that mean I am right, probably not -- but that doesnt make me any less of a 'fan', definetely not. I get so sick and tired of everyone implying that anyone who has a beef with the team is a 'bandwagon fan' when in actuality its probably the complete opposite.
And by the way, the people who you should all be really criticizing is the people who make comments along the lines of "Im not going to any games, because the lose"....win or lose, good play or bad play you should still go support your team, especially ig you can afford to once and awhile....embarrasing!
Dear Mr. Anonymous,
I'm so glad you took that comment to heart. You speak as if it was directed towards you, personally. If you took the time to read alot of these comments, you would agree with me. Alot of the people who comment, are not true fans. I understand talking about how they played, but there has been posts before games complaining. Then we have the good ol' fans who are "Fire such and such" or "Trade such and such". Yes, you can be disappointed, but to continuously bash "your team", doesn't really seem like something a true fan would do. Aside from you taking it personally, I agree with your post. I live in Nova Scotia, very hard for me to support my team via going to the games. But I sure as hell throw my jersey on and watch every game that is on television or streamed. Win or lose. I am a Sens fan.
Hopefully next time, you won't take my post personally.
Anon 1:02 (HSF):
I see your point that neither Alfie or Spezza are true finishers, in the sense that players like Heatley, Kovalchuk and Oveckin are. But as far as "the ability to put the puck in the net" is concerned, and we can use statistics in this case, who in Montreal would you have qualified as BETTER than those two in the time that Kovalev was there? Michael Ryder? He is the only player besides Kovalev to reach 30 goals in the years Kovy was there.
There is no way that I will admit Ryder is a better finisher than Spez or Alfie...
No way.
Kovalev is dishing out awesome passes that no one is finishing. Alfie needs to play with Kovalev. Shows that you don't have to be a north southplayer to be effective. I don't get all the fans that are whining about him. Actually, I do. Ottawa hockey fans don't know nearly as much about hockey as they think they do. The majority of them, when they hear a complaint from someone, they just keep repeating it to pretend they know what they are talking about. Its the same thing with politics in this city, people have an opinion about everything but when you ask them what the actual issues are, they're clueless.
Was at the game and this time I decided to focus on Cheechoo when he was on the ice. The guys works hard. He should be on a line with Donnovan and Kelly and that line should be getting 2nd and 3rd line ice time. I bet there would be some chemistry there.
HQ the Rangers won the game in a shoot-out. Shoot-outs are crap-shoots. They have lots of forward depth. Drury has been lousy the past 3 years and Duby is a 40-50 point player at best. Prospal is actually their #1 center by the way. He plays with Gaborik every shift. He's the #1 Center on that team. Yes they were short a couple depth forwards. Ottawa was short its best shut-down guy and shot-blocker. Screws up all of our D pairings. I'd say that's about an equal loss on both sides.
We owned them because they barely had a scoring chance for most of the game. We were out-shooting them 29-12 until the refs decided to give them 5 power-plays in the second half of the game, and 3 in the last ten minutes of the third. They also ignored two solid hits from behind, cross-checks on the numbers during that time.
We were far and away the better team. If they didn't have that big ogre in net we would have won 3-4 to 1. We created a hell of a lot more scoring chances than they did. I don't know what game you were watching, but we dominated them for 95% of the game including killing off every single one of their 5 PP's.
They were awful the last 2-3 games, like the whole team they had the flu. Last night was a lot more like the hard-working team we had been used to seeing when they were 6-2-2.
maybe they should try volchenkov on the PP along with kuba. ofcourse then the margin of error at the point position goes to zero, but volchenkov does have a heavy shot. the only other thing is that his shots aren't accurate either sometimes. but im sure they can fix that in practice.
i take some of my negative comments back. but all around, the level of play needs to go up. it needs to get more uptempo, more intense, more dominating. they just need to pile on the shots. more and more and more shots.
and they need to get a PP specialist, may it be a coach or a specialist PMD. please and thank you. also, kelly again, needs to go, campoli should be sat/scratched/waived instantly. and call either of Karlsson or Derek Smith.
i dont get something really. Campoli is no good. Picard mostly suffers from laziness and just lack of intensity at times, but he isnt as bad as campoli is trust me. Campoli is just a faster pylon. they should really give Karlsson that spot and let the kid grow in the NHL or give it to Derek Smith. btw Karlsson has 7 assists in 8 games down there. not too bad.
BTW, the sens didn't play well and Lundqvist didn't steal anything...the sens just dont know how to get proper traffic and set themselves up for better chances...
They didnt do it against the rangers, but often they will get 30-40 shots a game and people will say "we ran into a hot goalie" when in fact we just made him look good most of the time with traffic-less shots and distance shots, which a goalie will save 98% of the time.
Sometimes I wonder what you guys are actually watching out there...such homers...
Sorry Anon 12:38pm.
Scoring Chances - Ottawa had at least twice as many, maybe three times as many.
Shots - Until the refs gave the Rangers three PP's in the last 10 minutes of the game we were out-shooting them 29-12.
Battles - We won the majority by far.
Face-Offs - We won 70% in the second period and something like 60% throughout the game.
Net Presence - We had far more net presence and traffic in front of the net than the NYR all night long. A good 10 pucks bounced through traffic a half foot wide of the posts. Plenty of jam plays in the crease by Spezza and crew.
We may not have created as many A-Quality scoring chances as I'd like but we did dominate the Rangers. I have been lobbying to no end for the Cheechoo - Alfie swap so we can get back to two lines of threat. That will help that situation. As will the return of A-Train to balance the D pairings.
I can understand your point about getting lots of shots without having a high number of A-Quality scoring chances to match. It's accurate enough. We did however create a lot more than the other team last night. That's domination.
ALL HAIL THE GREAT ANDRE!! Prophet and demi-god sent from the heavens to educate us on "all that is hockey"...
Since YOU confirm I know nothing about hockey, from now on I will love Kovalev unconditionally and without question.
Thank you for showing me the way O great one.
p.s. Let me know when you plan on starting your political career, I'll distribute flyers for you.
How could you say they didn't play well? They dominated the Rangers but yes, Lundqvist is an elite goaltender. We didn't run into a hot goalie, we ran into an always outstanding goaltender (Pavelec was a hot goalie).
Wtf was with Alffy teeing off on Rangers when Kuba is wide open in OT that is something I would expect from Campoli but not Alffy where is the hockey sens to steal monday night footballs line Common MAN !!
Ottawa was TERRIBLE last night, how can anyone defend that game??? there is NO WAY this team is making the playoffs...maybe they will be good next year, but definitely not this year.
Andre I think you have to understand fans get frustrated with Kovalev because he would be unreal if he actually worked his tail off.
However I haven't been mad about his play at all. He is what he is. He's a guy who plays the game with his skill and his head. The only time he uses his feet is when he has the puck or when he's kicking it to his stick. This is what you get with him. I'm happy to have another elite level finisher on our top-6 and a guy that dramatically improves our 5 on 3 and PP.
I think if people accept him for the style of player that he is and encourage him to do his best by cheering him on we'll benefit more than if we chirp him. Also for those who think he doesn't care, he slammed the door of the Sens bench when he was taken off the 4 on 3 in overtime after a hardworking half-shift. He wants to be the difference, he just wants to do it his way. Plain and simple.
bejamin: all your points are correct, but again. i don't think lundqvist was all that great.
they created tons of chances yea, but i dont get why clouston who can see this can obviously be a better product on ice doesnt make it so. he should put cheechoo back with spezza. he should alfie back with kovalev. and i dont know...but he needs to do something about campoli/picard costing us wins. the rangers simply do NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT WIN THAT GAME if the campoli gaffe doesnt happen. Brian Lee's goal was a back breaker for them and then we got a 5on4 leading to 5on3 leading to 5on4 again. but Campoli's gaffe was just as much of a backbreaker for us as it was for them. we completely wasted our PP once that happened.
again, they fix their 5on5 stupidities and their pk, but then their PP goes bust.
and im not just saying this because i want to put the sens down or i want to bitch about a close game that we lost. you can see other teams' games and you can compare. at most our forwards get quality (but no A-quality) second chances, and after that the puck somehow finds its way to the neutral zone. our D has ZERO skill in keeping the puck in the zone. Maybe Kuba and Phillips are good at it, but Picard and Campoli are like butter on ice when they are on the blue line and the puck comes at them. also, there is very less slot presence from our forwards.
then im going to repeat, let alone disagreeing with clouston's line choices, his ingame decisions arent that spectacular either. FOR EXAMPLE: no kovalev in the OT, let alone the OT PP. just dont see why why why. the guy is a game changer on the PP. put him out there let him work his magic. alfie just kept putting mini dents in that monster staal. that is not how you seal a team. you look at what brent sutter did with the leafs when they were charging at calgary last nightm and you will see what im talking about. he knew he had to seal the leafs ASAP or the game would be done. and he overused iginla on the PP to get it done.
i guess the frustration that me and most of the ppl complaining here have is that when it was 6-2-2 you could see major positives and very very small negatives. but since then its been a downward spiral and the positives seemed to be at a bare minimum and the negatives are too many. is it because the sens have slowed down getting their chemistry together and other teams are faster at adapting? i dont know. but i find it hard to pin all the troubles on volchenkov being out. a team should be resilient enough to survive the injury of one defensive defenseman. sure he is a big part of our D but i dont see how missing him brings our scoring down or how it should.
puzzling.
BeJamin is 100% correct. Sorry to say that to the nay' sayers. Ottawa DOMINATED most parts of the game. I don't even have to list the ways we out played them, as BeJamin already has done that. Coming onto these discussions feels like I'm signing into a Leafs/Sens board that is woven together. EVERY GOD DAMN GAME, COMPLAIN... COMPLAIN... COMPLAIN! Let me just remind everyone one more time.
WE... ARE... NOT... EXPECTED... TO... MAKE... THE... PLAYOFFS!
We are 2nd in the division and have played less games than Boston, Montreal and Toronto. Since when is everyone expecting us to go all the way this year. Your incompetence and ignorance is quite annoying. It boggles my mind to even wonder how you all think the shit that you write on here. "Trade A-Train?" Yeah, that'll solve our defensive problems. Trading away THE best shot blocker in the NHL. One of the best Defensive minded defenceman in the NHL. TO SOLVE OUR D ISSUES?!
My God...
Thank you for the reality check hq,
Some of these people need to take the Sens Pom Poms out of their eyes and see things for what they really are!
Fire that prick Murray, he's responsible for this mess. The teams sucks!
I printed this post, if the Sens make the playoffs, I will pour some salt on it and eat it....
its not hard to figure out dude 6-2-2 with volchenkov in the line-up...see where im going with this??
Dave, I can assure you I am not a troll, I am a Sens fan. My argument, is as follows the Sens cannot compete at the elite level currently. The Sens should rebuild. The Sens are spending almost to the cap yet they are not a top tier team, rebuilding requires you give up valuable assets to obtain youth for the future this is why trading Volchie could help pave the way to a rebuild. Look what the Ducks got for Pronger!
Against the Philly, Rangers, Altanta, Pittsburgh, Tampa and Jersey(unless you include the gift Brian Lee got) the Sens scored only one goal. Our D prospects include D-men like Cowen(great potential shut down) and Karlson (great offensive upside). Our future offensive stars are non-exsistent. Our current offensive stars include an aging Alfie, Spezza and Michalek. The Sens need to replenish their offense for the future. Volchie is great, but he plays a high-milage game, in a few years he could become like Jason Smith. I want the Sens to win but I would prefer a cup down the road then the a single playoffs series now.
All Kovies problem is he's not playing with a centre he has chemistry with. Fish is playing great but doesnt think the game @ Kovie's level.
I'd like to see (barring getting another centre via trade):
CheeChoo Spezza Kovalev
Michalek Fish Alfie
Foligno Regin Ruutu
Dono Kelly Neil
as our forward group.
Ruutu deserves the thhird line minutes @ the moment..he's having a wonderful year, and is a smart positional player who'd work well with Regin...he has more finish (no pun intended) than Neil does, which is also a bonus.
mikep: no the sens should not trade volchenkov. i would much rather ship phillips out. but neither of them should go unless sens prospects in the next 2-3 years absolutely outplay them.
ducks trading pronger is different. they have the pieces to compensate for him and plus they are still competetive without him. he was a big piece of their team, but not the piece the team was built around.
i dont see why it is wrong to expect this team to make the playoffs. i thought thats what Bryan Murray was himself expecting out of this group? didn't he say that once he was done and over with heatley? i remember him saying that was his expectation. he certainly wouldnt be talking about adding to the forward core at this point if that wasn't his expectation.
re: against the rangers: again, take the domination with a grain of salt guys. its a game they should have won in regulation. blame campoli or blame the PP. take your pick. that game was the sens to win and they did not elevate their game enough to win it. 36 shots is all great and sundry, but 1 goal to show for it doesn't cut it. not to mention, the ranger's defence looked suspect all game, they were missing their defensive centermen in dubinsky and drury.
again, i see the campoli mistake, the PP not working out, and bad decision making in the OT (re:kovalev), and the OT PP as the main reasons we lost the game. that game should have been over in the 2nd when they had the 5on3 and the 5on4 back to back.
the lack of urgency that plagues this team at key points in a game is contagious over the years unfortunately.
Thanks Mat, glad I can count on your vote.
I maintain that the reason we lost the game is because of poor coaching decisions.
Regin, Foligno, Neil, Picard and Campoli do not constitute a second PP unit, in fact, I wouldn't consider them a 5th PP unit. That group was out two or three times and did not even manage to cycle the puck in the offensive zone.
Add the too many men on the ice penalty at a crucial time and immediately after the Matt Carkner penalty, and you end up with a tired crew going into OT.
It's a miracle we didn't lose in regulation or even in OT, but all and all, the effort was there (except #27 of course). And I agree with the whoever said we need to generate better quality shots and more traffic. That's always been an issue with Ottawa and it's definitely the reason WE didn't score.
The opportunity lost on the PP in OT could be attributed to:
1) Lack of practice on the PP
2) Henrik Lundqvist
3) Good ol' Senators lack of confidence in key times. No one chokes like us!
re: derrick
bang on about Ruutu. he definitely needs to be put on the third line. hell i'd even put him in cheechoo's place once in a while. no offense at all to cheechoo because he is an amazing guy. but ruutu has some sweet hands. clouston needs to use him on a line where he is compelled to not do just troublemaking (haha ok maybe sometimes because its just priceless) and use his hands!!
As much as I hate to say it we all know the way this season is going to end, we will be battling if we play well for the bottom spot of the playoffs, and if we get in we will not make it to far, with that said I would rather a rebuild the problem with the senators is the core they run the team and don’t make it easy on new comers that can help this team this was always the problem. Time to rebuild Murray stay part of the team but not the GM more as an adviser teams are looking to fine tune their teams I love Alif but he would not be able to help this team 2 yrs down the road I sure we can get them 2 first rounder’s from Boston and this way he could retire with a cup or a very good shoot at one, trade Neil, Kelly Phipps Ruutu all of them over 25 yrs old, trade for young players and draft picks in 2 years we would have a great team again we would have to start now only because we have something to offer now. Lets do this stay away from the home games then they will have no choice… it hurts but it works… go sens 2012
HQ, I don't think Anheim can compete, without Pronger. They are in last place in the west without him. He was pretty important playing big minutes and key situations he was at least as important as Volchie is to us, top 1-2 defensemen. Instead the Ducks decide to rebuild, with the exception of Pitsburgh and Detriot, most teams after winning or going to the finals end up in this position Edmonton, Tampa and Carolina all come to mind. With Volchie's game, he will start to show his age, particularly if Murray gives him term at which point moving him maybe difficult, if injuries have slowed him down. The Sens shot total is deceptive, mainly perimeter shots with no one in the slot to take advantage of the rebounds. Look at the number of games where the Sens only scored one goal this season, you can't credit the goalie everytime. This team as-is can squeak in the playoffs but beat teams like pittsburgh and philly in a 7 game series, I don't think so. Murray entered the last 2 seasons with a shopping list, usually involving key deficines ie top 6 forward, PMD the results speak for them selves. Murray simply can't afford to overpay at the dealine, the cupboard is fairly empty at Bingo, and Murray for the most part, hasn't wasted 1st round draft picks(the exception being San Jose's for Campoli, ouch) I would like to see this team with a war chest of talent, where the team still wins when one or two players get injured. When Spezza went down our offense disappeared, even with Spezza in the line up goals are still hard to come by. When Volchie went down, our weak D really started to show along with the PK, we had been taking a lot of dumb penalties before but our PK had hidden the extent of the problem, combined with a light shedule. With the Sens cap space issues entering a biding war for top tier talent such as Kolchuk, isn't an option, drafting them is our only option look at how quickly Kane,Tavares and Duchene have made an impact, last seasons winning streak a Season end cost us. With Murray's track record of resigning everyone I don't doubt a Volchie extension is on the way. Unlike Kelly, Heatley and Emery at least Volchie will earn everyone penny.
I'm sure everyone agrees that the Sens D is lacking depth & Murray must make a trade.
But have some of you forgotten that this team has played almost every game this season WITHOUT either Kuba or Volchenkov ?
Hopefully by the 25 game mark, we'll see how good this team can be since we can finally sit an underachieving D-man like Picard/Lee/Campoli.
hey man nobody chokes better then us , lol we do a dam good job at it too, so dont u forget that :)
If the Ottawa Senators fan didn't criticize the team for losses, and attendance didn't go down when the team was slumping... we'd be the Montreal Canadians or the Toronto Maple Leafs; a pair of brutal teams with no incentive to spend money to make the team better.
The fans are the reason Management has to make changes when the team is doing poorly. The Leaf fans and the Canadian fans will sell out all their games regardless of how the team does.. hence the reason they suck and will continue to suck until the fans decide to take a stand and force management to ACTUALLY make an effort to put a Stanley Cup Contending team together
Thank you
Dizzle 4 shizzle
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