Ok. Don't know how often we're going to have to tell people around here. Murray did NOT go after Cheechoo. Murray wanted NO PART of him, ok?
Cheechoo is a Senator today because that was the only way he could get Michalek out of the Sharks.
And we had to get Michalek out of the Sharks because there was no other market for Heatley. At all. San Jose was the only option, and to get the best player out of them we had to take on Cheechoo's $3mil.
And we had to trade Heatley because he is an effing douche who would have poisoned the team all year with bad attitudes and a full year of half-assed play to push Murray's hand in a deal.
So we're good, ok? Anyone else want to get angry at Murray for Cheechoo? Murray is the best GM we've had since Gauthier, and he is a PHENOMENAL drafter. Can you imagine how bad the Sens would be if Muckler was still holding the reigns?
Does anyone realize just how good a job that Murray has done in re-stocking our farm in such a short time period? That's why he's the GM. Look at his record of some of the teams he's left.
Detroit (3 drafts): Keith Primeau, Slava Kozlov, Jason York, Martin Lapointe, Chris Osgood(in the 3rd), Mike Knuble (4th round), Darren McCarty
Anaheim (2 drafts): Joffrey Lupul, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Pery
The guy basically drafted a TON of VERY key guys to multiple cup runs.He knows what he's doing.
Oh, remember the insane deal that saw the Islanders trade Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha? Probably the most unbalanced, one-sided deals in NHL history? Yeah, that was Bryan Murray's deal. 'Nuff said.
Karlsson really struggling along with Kuba in their defensive zone coverage. Volchenkov was rusty but that's not surprising considering the long layoff.
Surprised that Campoli is out of the lineup to make room for Karlsson. Karlsson has not played well in his first two games back up and Murray gave up a first round pick for Campoli. That's going to be a pretty big waste of a pick if you're gettting a guy who can't even crack the line up. And Murray says his scouts told him that Campoli has the same value as a late first rounder. Guess we can see why our drafting hasn't been very good in the last 5 years.
Not a bad game. Bad penalties though that killed ottawa's momentum early in the game.
So on the powerplay, sens players are more concerned about gcycling the puck than getting in front of the goalie. WHY IS THAT? Need on or two guys in front and someone to just blast shots through. None of this pussy footing around and cycling along the half wall.
Another great performance against the Sharks by our #1 centre Jason Spezza:
0 pts, -1, a whopping 27% on the draws, 2 giveaways, almost 5 minutes of PP time and 3 shots. All for just over $7M a year! I have never seen a player get rewarded for such mediocre play. He always stays out for most of the 2 minutes on the PP giving Fisher and the 2nd unit about 15 seconds of PP time on most penalties. When are Murray and Clouston going to sit this brutal excuse of a hockey player?
He is BRUTAL 5 on 5, NEVER throws a hit or uses his size to forecheck and cycle, is a GIVEAWAY machine, RARELY backchecks and now he can't even win a draw...I am SO dissapointed in this loser!
The only reason Alfie is on his line is to try and help hide his brutal 5 on 5 play. Don't blame Heater for leaving after all, playing with Spezza is like being on the PK for the guys stuck on his line, absolutely NO accountability.
PLEASE Murray just trade him or bench him or try to do something to light a fire under this under-achieving useless piece of crap of an excuse for a hockey player.
Every single night he gets outplayed by the oppositions #1 centres, he NEVER leads his team to a win by stepping up and being the star that he THINKS he is in his warped mind...Olympic Team my A**! Ottawa will NEVER EVER win a championship with that guy as our #1 centre, please wake up Murray and DO something!
Funny, if we only had 5 wins right now the whole world would realize how bad this guy really is. Just a few more games like this and a few more losses and everyone will start to wonder why the hell this TOOLSHED is getting so much ice and so many chances, mark my words.
Typical panic button after a loss. In general I think the Sens played pretty well for our first game in the Western time zone against the best the West has to offer next to Chicago.
If Elliot doesn't give up that softy minus the empty netter this is a 3-2 hockey game and we certainly pressed for the equalizer. The Sens will be fine and will continue to be competitive.
Marleau/Heater/Thornton are effective offensively but they're a disaster without the puck. Loving Michalek more and more.
12:26am - you're as dumb as the other murray hater (or the same one). Campoli DOES have about the same value as a late first, he's good he just hasn't had the right partner. He needs someone like Brian Lee and some time on the pp, and he will be effective. Clouston, for some reason i cant understand, prefers picard... :s Our drafting has been outstanding the last 3 or so years buddy, just wait until you see players like Cowen, Karlsson, silfverberg, hoffman, weircioch, Lehner, etc develop. Why don't you go pray to Brian Burke for some talent you obvious leaf troll. Why Karlsson is playing right now is beyond me, he was really doing well and getting better in Bingo, now he's up here being beat in puck battles constantly again. Also, does anyone else think Spezza has gone too far in the other direction? Like he always took to many chances and now he's taking none at all? You have to take SOME to make things happen...hopefully he finds a happy point per game type medium soon...
I love Spezza but I think we all can see now how the Heatley departure cost us more then just 50 goals, Heatley was a great set up man, I Murray should of kept Heatley until a better deal came up or event some draft picks, dealing with one team (SJ) killed this team,
was not all that bad Kov I think played well. Karlsson was better then the frist game back, Spezza did not play well, and yes they played the best team in the NHL for sure I think down the road we will have a good team 2 more years at the most.. go sens 2011
haha @ SC, i agree completely. a loss and the fan base crumbles. i think having the grit of neil and donovan out of the lineup hurt the team alot more than people realized last night and i have to say that spezza looked pretty dumb losing the puck consistantly last night. you know spezza is having a bad night when he has more turnovers than kovalev, or does that mean kovalev had a good night? overall i thought ottawa played a really solid game, but really clouston/murray why are we playing picard over lee or campoli? put picard on waivers or sit him already. people knock campoli on his offensive game, but i think hes been more noticeable defensively this year (in a positive manner). this team could use a few tweaks, but im still happy with the depth of this squad. i was laughing last night when seeing the stats of the top line in san jose something like 45% of the goals. that sounds so familiar :D ill take depth over one scoring line any day of the week.
I don't know why you bother to watch the games. You are completely clueless and a tool. Watching obviously does nothing to elevate your very limited understanding of the game.
Hate on Spezza if you want, but your rant makes you look like a complete idiot.
We could have had Michalek and Ehroff earlier though...which would have been amazing.
Not piling on Murray, but no playoffs + swept in 4 in his GM tenure and this team isn't looking like a contender. Picks are great and needed, credit to TIM Murray for that. Murray also has handcuffed this team with ridiculous deals to Neil, Kelly, Fisher et al.
(Sorry SC, I'm not a Murray hater per se but needed to add something).
We controlled the play in their end for large sections of the game. The Citizen is asking whether Mike Brodeur should play and I'm baffled. The only poor goal Elliott can be swaid to have allowed was CLowe's...
It was a good game to watch and if elliot hadnt let in the one soft goal the sens might of done better on the two powerplays at the end.
People really need to stop bashing Spezza it's getting old and tiresome. He backchecks and plays defense now, but gets less points, what do you expect? dont just rip the guy no matter what.
The Sens top line controlled the play for the 2nd and 3rd at even strength. SJ will lose to Anaheim or any team that has a good defensive top line.
I thought it was a good game. A lot of back and forth. I was really happy to see Karlson's offensive game take shape. A few near-big mistakes, but it was still nice to see him create some chances.
Yes people need to realize that Ottawa is not one of the best teams in the league anymore.
Forget about Heatley already. He's a selfish douche and no matter how many points he racks up, he is a loser and a one dimesional hockey player.
Michalek skates better, plays harder, he just loooks like he wants it more. He's younger and cheaper. 15 goals already to Heatley's 18 in 4 less games.
Heatley has no heart, no character, he's a front running POS and will eventually show his defective self to San Jose.
I think they played well as a team Chirp. But the Spezza comments are not panic button material. He's been useless and my personal opinion is that he's addicted to the white stuff. But that's just based on rumours and "where there's smoke there's fire."
Coke or no coke, he's playing like a fourth liner. As fans, it's time we put pressure on the organization to bench his ass and let him watch some games from the press box.
To me, the biggest mistake in last night's game vs the Sharks is "a no brainer" !!
The Sens should have dedicated the line of: Ruutu - Kelly - Cheechoo to shadow the Number One line of: Marleau - Thornton - Heatley !! If Chris Neil was playing, he would replace Cheechoo, cause this is our 3rd line, and our checking line !!
Our line of Michalek - Spezza - Alfredsson, was simply outclassed by this great trio !!
I remember theHabs had a checking line in the 1960's with Claude Provost #14, who shadowed Bobby Hull of the Haks and really got under the skin of Hull !!
Summarizing this contest is pretty clear: Sens are not as good as I thought, and Sharks are much better than I expected !!
Murray and Clouston need to put out our 3rd line vs any top line of any team ,in order to control the power of these top lines ,by constantly sticking to them like Claude Provost did vs Bobby Hull !!
There is still time to correct this huge mistake !!
Stayed up to watch the game, Milan M is fast and just doesn't stop. Volchy will shake of the rust and get back to his usual self next game I'm sure. Not sure why Foligno got the goalie interference penalty he was clearly pushed. I am not sold on Picard he tries to clear the puck along the boards back into traffic, and he did this on more than one occasion and one time it lead to a goal. I hope Kovalev can have this energy in future games.
Chirp is right. Put this in perspective. The Sharks are a pretty damned good team. Top line has 30 points in the last 5 games I think they said? Don't get me wrong, I'm as petty as the next guy and was hoping MEatley would come across with his head down but alas...
A couple goalposts and bounces and this is a different game. Being without some pieces and Volchie's first game back it wasn't so bad.
What concerns me most is the play of Spezza. I didn't care that he wasn't scoring because I think for a while there he was a WAY more complete player than he'd ever been. Now he's doing the stupid no look/no chance passes we all love so much.
Cheech was a throw-in ... Michalek and the pick were the deal and unfortunately is all that was available that his Highness would accept. BM's a great GM, things just take time.
Personally I think that having Karlson back up is a genious move. He will be here for 20 days then go play for the World Juniors and then he will be ready for the spring run. Cowen must be progressing well because you would not want 2 rookie defencemen next year. Sens are planning to deal with the cap rather than hope there will not be a problem. I watched the Habs Leafs game. Wow are they terrible! I am glad there is no panic by the Sens front office. There is no instant cure. It appears that you will need 92 points to make the playoffs and the Sens should do that and that would put them in the playoffs. Keep developing the defence in the new NHL. It is very hard now to play defence with all of the pressure and speed. There is a good chance of injury and you need a ton of defencemen around. Just ask the Penguins. around.
agreed anon 3:47, enough is enough spezza. This is hockey, I dont know what the f**** he is playing but it isnt hockey. Zero energy, urgency, nothing. He hasnt played that bad in a long time. Games like this should bring out the best in the guys touted be stars or high profile. He is having a hard time finding the back of net because he lives on the side wall by the circle throwing the odd snapper on net. get into the tough areas man. Look at milans goals, in the tough area. Spezza cant even get an assist. I have always been a supporter and argued for his side. But this is starting to piss me off. If this keeps up by the deadline and things havent changed then its time for a change. We cant have his no trade kick in next july for 5 or 6 more years stuck with that horse shit soft game of his. We have young draft picks coming up. Future looks bright. If we are not climbing the standings later this season, toss spezz for a very good young prospect plus some early picks. the future is just as important as now. whoever said we should have kept heatley during the season and wait for more offers...... well have you seen milan play this year. I hear hes a pretty good player, all around player. you may wanna check him out.
hey SC. didnt read the comments above your post so won't say anything about that. but im going to disagree with your assessment of the sens playing tough. Fisher had a silent night except for a few shifts. Spezza while instrumental on Michalek's first goal, failed to bury the 2 on Zero he had with michalek before the first goal. they again took too many penalties at all the wrong points in the game. every penalty the sens took came right after they had sustained pressure in the shark's end. while they remarkably killed all the shark's PPs, they gave up precious momentum against the strongest team in the league each time. Marleau's second goal of the game clearly exhibited that, even though the shark's didnt score on the PP, it gave them enough momentum to score. The sens also keep failing to capitalize on most of their PPs. 1 PPG per game seems satisfactory for them. I know sometimes their PP showed flair and looked threatening, but outside of the first PPG, not very impressive. and i think the last powerplay of the game they got sums up the whole game pretty much. They had possession in the shark's zone. they tried getting fancy again. tried one move too many again. gave up the puck in the shark's end and that was the end of it.
to me other key points that lost us the game: not being very physical on the shark's D early on. an interesting thing to note is that the sharks dont have a strong physical punishing D-core outside of Douglas Murray. with all due respect to Rob Blake, the guy is 39 years old, they should have gone after him. Ottawa could have played a strong tight checking forecheck game and punished their D. Didnt see much of that happening until some small amounts of hitting late in the game. I think they really missed their energy guys in Neil and Dono. Also, another key point: outside of Marleau, the game was won by the shark's other three lines. as far as both teams top lines are concerned, they were both even and cancelled each other on the scoresheet, even though spezza was again a no-show on the scoreboard. im just surprised at how fisher's line has just gone quiet over the past three games.
honestly. its the same excuses with every loss. which means that, improvement is not coming collectively. ofcourse, the refs had a hand in the whole affair and volchenkov had his first game back and was clearly rusty. Neil and Dono are not in the lineup. Elliot had a up and down game, there were moments where you can say he kept us close, but at the same time the third goal was very soft. faceoffs also not very good.
i really think clouston needs to do something about the kovalev line and make it viable again in a way that Kovalev scores some goals for us. People keep mentioning how cheechoo and michalek were supposed to make up for lost scoring, I remember Kovalev being signed for that reason too. at the 25 game mark, he is clearly having a down year.
lastly, karlsson made a good play to set up Michalek's PPG. he actually didnt look too bad. and made some good passes.
Road kill. Again. Most of the guys showed up and competed hard. I know many are on the "hail Dominant Dany Heatley" bandwagon again, but I for mone, couldn't be more pleased with Michalek. Cheechoo is what he is. Yeah, they're not going in for him, but he certainly is not a liability out there. And we have another 2nd rd pick. there even more positives in fact: come playoff time the sharks will have not 2, but 3 guys able to pull the "disappearing man" trick when the going gets tough.
Hopefully the 2 who I need not name can start bringing it a little more than we've seen, cause 20 goals, 91 points for these two combined just does not cut it.
I would love to see Cheechoo/Spezza/Kovalev one of these days, might get them all going.
Ross, obviously you're illiterate and well below average intelligence. I stated that the Sens have not been good in drafting in the past five years. This includes picking Brian Lee over Kopitar in 2005. Yes, Brian Murray has made some solid picks in the last two years but our overall drafting in the past 5 years has undeniably been subpar. O'Brien does not look like a good pick. Nor does anyone from his draft so it's only the last two years that have been solid.
Stop making excuses for Campoli. That was a bad trade. We already have enough puck moving defencemen in our organization so it makes him redundant. If Murray was able to grab Silvferberg and Lehner out of the second round, who I believe will both be better than Campoli, why couldn't he have drafted an even better player late in the first?
The only thing you said that makes any sense is agreeing that Karlsson should still be in the AHL. I think it's better for his development and better for the team.
On a more positive note, I though Phillips played a really strong game last night and had a great hit on Heatley. Michalek is looking like a stud and living up to his high draft status. I really like the way Winchester has developed into a physical presence.
How about a Stanley Cup run, followed by 2 nasty years all created by players, not himself. (Emery/Heatley) only to turn it around and have us be competitive again. And I didnt even mention our drafting, which has been excellent since Murray.
so give your head a shake and dont post anthing if you cant even make sense of it.
i dont know. it might be too brave a move, but maybe Clouston should switch alfie and kovalev on the two PP units. its hard to decide who is a bigger threat. i know alfie is more effective, but just in terms of threat and creating space. its interesting, they both play from the half wall, just opposite sides. we have seen countless times alfie walk in from the half wall and snipe a PPG. and kovalev does pretty much the same thing....or atleast tries to haha.
k. to all the people who say spezza's defensive game is rounding out. agreed. given. great.
but the sens are at the 25 game mark. they are paying spezza 7 million dollars. he is the highest paid player on this team now. he is not getting paid to just be a defensive centreman and make sure the puck always stays out of his zone on his shift. they need him to do that AND SCORE. so, the defensive-game-rounding-out excuse well has run dry now. he needs to pick his pace up, because fisher is starting to slowing down. it is just absolutely unaffordable to have a situation where both Spezza and Fisher are starting to slump.
and yes Michalek absolutely owns heatley. just a more complete player and in the long run, he with that second round pick will make the heatley trade a win for us. also, i think cheechoo if he picks any amount of fire between now and the trade deadline, will get traded at the deadline.
while i agree they played the best team in the league. can anyone here with conviction say that the senators don't have the tools to beat the sharks team we played last night IF THEY PLAYED LIKE CLOUSTON REALLY WANTS THEM TO? I certainly believe that if they played honest and to their potential, they can give the sharks a run for the money and beat them on a given night.
Time to end the myth of the Spezza being a give away machine. Through last nights game Spezza had 23 give aways. That ranked him tied for 28th in the league.
Spezza has fewer give aways than Chris Phillips ( 26 ), and has a much better give away to take away ratio than Crosby. Spezza has 23 GVA and 22 TKA, Crosby 32 GVA and 13 TKA.
Players who have more give aways than Spezza include:
Hamrlik 41 Crosby 32 Mike Green 27 John Tavares 26 Joe Thornton 26 Penner 25
Just to name a few. Spezza is tied with Alfie on the Sens for takeaways.
A player who is on the ice as much and handles the puck as much as guys like Spezza are going to have plenty of giveaways. In the NHL last season the leader was Alex Ovechkin.
Last night's game was great. OK, so the result, a 5-2 loss, sucked. But I thought the Sens could have easily won that game -- a few missed chances buried in the net, and if Elliott had played better on the 1st and 4th goals, and the result would have been a great win for the Sens.
The game last night showed me that San Jose is a very beatable team. We were beating them to the puck, we had long stretches of cycle time, and lots of chances to score.
For those still concerned about the Heatley trade, let it go. Michalek totally outplayed Heatley last night. And showed me why I'd much rather have Michalek on the Sens than Heatley. Michalek thrives in tight checking, is always in front of the net, driving for the puck.
Heatley just stands in the slot, stick up in the air, waiting for a one-timer. In the playoffs, where the checking is a lot tighter, that play disappears.
I am so glad Murray made the trade. I'd like to say "See you in the finals" to SJ, but they're getting knocked out in the first round (again). That's a team with a lot of defensive liabilities.
anon 12:00, good stats, i never knew that. those are credible so good on you. That doesnt change the fact that spezz playing f'n terrible. Hope he turns up 5 gears or were done. I fhe aint going to bury close to 30 goals i dont see us lucking out in enough games to make the playoffs.
Oscar - very lame to toss out the "white stuff" rumor with absolutely no proof. Take a 50 goal scorer away from any center and he'll need time to adjust.
Robert - ever heard of "last change"? As in the home team gets to put their line out last?
Didn't read the rest of the negativity so if I missed anyone else's silly comment - apologies.
To the anon poster who refuses to give a name for me to address and decided to toss around low intelligence remarks, let me address your remarks: Our drafts have been just fine, considering we never picked high enough to be choosing obvious talent. You want to complain about brian lee, fine, but you can go through any draft ever and do the same thing for any team. The fact is success rates for drafting servicable NHLers are only about 20%, so the fact that we've drafted Lee, Foligno, Bass, Weircioch, and Karlsson, who all at minimum can be full time servicable NHLers, isnt bad considering we were a powerful team from 2005-2007ish and traded away many of our picks to improve. And O'Brien's draft year was weak all around besides some random gems.
Second, Campoli trade = par. Not bad, not great, just par. We traded an aging 4th liner and a late first for a legit second line center and a young pmd. We had two second rounders, one of which was only 11 picks away from where SJ's ended up, and chances are none of those players drafted are better than silfverberg will be anyhow.
So you might disagree with my opinion, and thats fine, but you certainly cant call me unintelligent, i know my stuff and I'm just callin it like i see it. Did we draft like masters? no, but we did ok.
On a sidenote, Spezza seems like he's lost the will to dazzle. Personally, I'd rather have 90 point spezza with some reckless passes than girind it out on the wall Spezza. Especially now that he can afford to do it more with Fast skating Michalek on his line instead of dany floatabout heatley. Just an opinion.
Just pointing out that it's very difficult to play the match-up game when on the road. You don't have last change, and SJ can easily pull Thorton's line off until Kelly's line is finished their shift.
I agree a good shut-down line can be effective against a one-line team like the Sharks, but it's not easy on the road. I think the Spezza line is strong enough in a "two-way" sense though.
If we played in Ottawa, yeah I'd love to see Kelly's line against them or maybe put Ruutu, Fisher and Alfie together for that game to shut down Thorton's line.
It seemed every time Spezza touched the puck last night, the next player to touch it was on the Sharks. That's all I needed to see to pass judgement. He played terrible with the exception of the first goal and HAS to turn it around soon! He plays at his potential and the Sens are a contender.
Michalek played great. Kovalev, Karlsson and Shannon did good things out there. But all and all, the team NEVER SHOWED UP!
There was MAYBE 25 minutes of good play, with hard forecheck and good defensive play. The other 35 were higlighted by old Spezza shananagans and wasted PP opportunities.
We're capable of putting a 60 minute effort which will match any team in the league. We've done it a few times this year and hiding behind the fact that San Jose is the best team in the league is complete BS.
65 comments:
Ryan Keller in, Peter Regin out (Healthy scratch) per Team 1200 radio
why? regin out/
not playing well? needs to sit and watch
Any truth to the filatov/ahler for lee/winchester/2nd rd pick rumour?
pg
For one night at least, Murray will not be able to hide the fact that he went after Cheechoo in the Heatley trade.
10:11
You're an idiot.
I see the idiot anon Murray hater is back.
@Anon 10:11
Ok. Don't know how often we're going to have to tell people around here. Murray did NOT go after Cheechoo. Murray wanted NO PART of him, ok?
Cheechoo is a Senator today because that was the only way he could get Michalek out of the Sharks.
And we had to get Michalek out of the Sharks because there was no other market for Heatley. At all. San Jose was the only option, and to get the best player out of them we had to take on Cheechoo's $3mil.
And we had to trade Heatley because he is an effing douche who would have poisoned the team all year with bad attitudes and a full year of half-assed play to push Murray's hand in a deal.
So we're good, ok? Anyone else want to get angry at Murray for Cheechoo? Murray is the best GM we've had since Gauthier, and he is a PHENOMENAL drafter. Can you imagine how bad the Sens would be if Muckler was still holding the reigns?
Does anyone realize just how good a job that Murray has done in re-stocking our farm in such a short time period? That's why he's the GM. Look at his record of some of the teams he's left.
Detroit (3 drafts): Keith Primeau, Slava Kozlov, Jason York, Martin Lapointe, Chris Osgood(in the 3rd), Mike Knuble (4th round), Darren McCarty
Anaheim (2 drafts): Joffrey Lupul, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Pery
The guy basically drafted a TON of VERY key guys to multiple cup runs.He knows what he's doing.
Oh, remember the insane deal that saw the Islanders trade Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha? Probably the most unbalanced, one-sided deals in NHL history? Yeah, that was Bryan Murray's deal. 'Nuff said.
The Filatov deal could go down as early as tomorrow. It's unclear when Filatov could/would join the Sens.
this is an embarassing game.. we suck
Karlsson really struggling along with Kuba in their defensive zone coverage. Volchenkov was rusty but that's not surprising considering the long layoff.
Surprised that Campoli is out of the lineup to make room for Karlsson. Karlsson has not played well in his first two games back up and Murray gave up a first round pick for Campoli. That's going to be a pretty big waste of a pick if you're gettting a guy who can't even crack the line up. And Murray says his scouts told him that Campoli has the same value as a late first rounder. Guess we can see why our drafting hasn't been very good in the last 5 years.
wow, spezza is becoming a liability out there, not only is he not scoring but he is a turnover machine. Clouston needs to call him out!
Not a bad game. Bad penalties though that killed ottawa's momentum early in the game.
So on the powerplay, sens players are more concerned about gcycling the puck than getting in front of the goalie. WHY IS THAT? Need on or two guys in front and someone to just blast shots through. None of this pussy footing around and cycling along the half wall.
Another great performance against the Sharks by our #1 centre Jason Spezza:
0 pts, -1, a whopping 27% on the draws, 2 giveaways, almost 5 minutes of PP time and 3 shots. All for just over $7M a year!
I have never seen a player get rewarded for such mediocre play.
He always stays out for most of the 2 minutes on the PP giving Fisher and the 2nd unit about 15 seconds of PP time on most penalties. When are Murray and Clouston going to sit this brutal excuse of a hockey player?
He is BRUTAL 5 on 5, NEVER throws a hit or uses his size to forecheck and cycle, is a GIVEAWAY machine, RARELY backchecks and now he can't even win a draw...I am SO dissapointed in this loser!
The only reason Alfie is on his line is to try and help hide his brutal 5 on 5 play. Don't blame Heater for leaving after all, playing with Spezza is like being on the PK for the guys stuck on his line, absolutely NO accountability.
PLEASE Murray just trade him or bench him or try to do something to light a fire under this under-achieving useless piece of crap of an excuse for a hockey player.
Every single night he gets outplayed by the oppositions #1 centres, he NEVER leads his team to a win by stepping up and being the star that he THINKS he is in his warped mind...Olympic Team my A**! Ottawa will NEVER EVER win a championship with that guy as our #1 centre, please wake up Murray and DO something!
Funny, if we only had 5 wins right now the whole world would realize how bad this guy really is. Just a few more games like this and a few more losses and everyone will start to wonder why the hell this TOOLSHED is getting so much ice and so many chances, mark my words.
Well looks like Heatley got the last laugh. An easy victory over his former club must feel pretty good and will also shut people up!
Elliot does not have what it takes to be a #1.
SM
So, it appears the Spezzz Dispenser is back. Common Jason get your shit together already.
Typical panic button after a loss. In general I think the Sens played pretty well for our first game in the Western time zone against the best the West has to offer next to Chicago.
If Elliot doesn't give up that softy minus the empty netter this is a 3-2 hockey game and we certainly pressed for the equalizer. The Sens will be fine and will continue to be competitive.
Marleau/Heater/Thornton are effective offensively but they're a disaster without the puck. Loving Michalek more and more.
Bejamin1
please what good did Murray do for this team, I am not a Murray hater but come on get real.
12:26am - you're as dumb as the other murray hater (or the same one). Campoli DOES have about the same value as a late first, he's good he just hasn't had the right partner. He needs someone like Brian Lee and some time on the pp, and he will be effective. Clouston, for some reason i cant understand, prefers picard... :s
Our drafting has been outstanding the last 3 or so years buddy, just wait until you see players like Cowen, Karlsson, silfverberg, hoffman, weircioch, Lehner, etc develop. Why don't you go pray to Brian Burke for some talent you obvious leaf troll.
Why Karlsson is playing right now is beyond me, he was really doing well and getting better in Bingo, now he's up here being beat in puck battles constantly again.
Also, does anyone else think Spezza has gone too far in the other direction? Like he always took to many chances and now he's taking none at all? You have to take SOME to make things happen...hopefully he finds a happy point per game type medium soon...
I love Spezza but I think we all can see now how the Heatley departure cost us more then just 50 goals, Heatley was a great set up man, I Murray should of kept Heatley until a better deal came up or event some draft picks, dealing with one team (SJ) killed this team,
Filatov is not coming to the SENS Friend of the Family and all the other idiot anon's predictions.
Ah how lovely. The usual ridiculous post loss comments.
Some of the comments on here are embarassing...
They played the best team in the league and played them tough. Wake up...
Chirp, stop posting those... most people just skip them anyways... let these losers sob alone!
was not all that bad Kov I think played well. Karlsson was better then the frist game back, Spezza did not play well, and yes they played the best team in the NHL for sure I think down the road we will have a good team 2 more years at the most.. go sens 2011
haha @ SC, i agree completely. a loss and the fan base crumbles. i think having the grit of neil and donovan out of the lineup hurt the team alot more than people realized last night and i have to say that spezza looked pretty dumb losing the puck consistantly last night. you know spezza is having a bad night when he has more turnovers than kovalev, or does that mean kovalev had a good night? overall i thought ottawa played a really solid game, but really clouston/murray why are we playing picard over lee or campoli? put picard on waivers or sit him already. people knock campoli on his offensive game, but i think hes been more noticeable defensively this year (in a positive manner). this team could use a few tweaks, but im still happy with the depth of this squad. i was laughing last night when seeing the stats of the top line in san jose something like 45% of the goals. that sounds so familiar :D ill take depth over one scoring line any day of the week.
@ Bobby Jones
I don't know why you bother to watch the games. You are completely clueless and a tool. Watching obviously does nothing to elevate your very limited understanding of the game.
Hate on Spezza if you want, but your rant makes you look like a complete idiot.
- Jalen
We could have had Michalek and Ehroff earlier though...which would have been amazing.
Not piling on Murray, but no playoffs + swept in 4 in his GM tenure and this team isn't looking like a contender. Picks are great and needed, credit to TIM Murray for that. Murray also has handcuffed this team with ridiculous deals to Neil, Kelly, Fisher et al.
(Sorry SC, I'm not a Murray hater per se but needed to add something).
We controlled the play in their end for large sections of the game. The Citizen is asking whether Mike Brodeur should play and I'm baffled. The only poor goal Elliott can be swaid to have allowed was CLowe's...
It was a good game to watch and if elliot hadnt let in the one soft goal the sens might of done better on the two powerplays at the end.
People really need to stop bashing Spezza it's getting old and tiresome. He backchecks and plays defense now, but gets less points, what do you expect? dont just rip the guy no matter what.
The Sens top line controlled the play for the 2nd and 3rd at even strength. SJ will lose to Anaheim or any team that has a good defensive top line.
I thought it was a good game. A lot of back and forth. I was really happy to see Karlson's offensive game take shape. A few near-big mistakes, but it was still nice to see him create some chances.
Yes people need to realize that Ottawa is not one of the best teams in the league anymore.
Forget about Heatley already. He's a selfish douche and no matter how many points he racks up, he is a loser and a one dimesional hockey player.
Michalek skates better, plays harder, he just loooks like he wants it more. He's younger and cheaper. 15 goals already to Heatley's 18 in 4 less games.
Heatley has no heart, no character, he's a front running POS and will eventually show his defective self to San Jose.
Good riddance.
I think they played well as a team Chirp. But the Spezza comments are not panic button material. He's been useless and my personal opinion is that he's addicted to the white stuff. But that's just based on rumours and "where there's smoke there's fire."
Coke or no coke, he's playing like a fourth liner. As fans, it's time we put pressure on the organization to bench his ass and let him watch some games from the press box.
Oscar
I think we had a few defensive lapses and allowed one weak goal, but it was not that bad for playing the best team in the league.
The Sens played with great pressure at times and are getting some good chances. I think we will come out on fire our next game.
I think we really need Neil in the lineup. We just were not that tough last night and we let the big three get some open space and they punished us.
Riaz
To me, the biggest mistake in last night's game vs the Sharks is "a no brainer" !!
The Sens should have dedicated the line of: Ruutu - Kelly - Cheechoo to shadow the Number One line of:
Marleau - Thornton - Heatley !!
If Chris Neil was playing, he would replace Cheechoo, cause this is our 3rd line, and our checking line !!
Our line of Michalek - Spezza - Alfredsson, was simply outclassed by this great trio !!
I remember theHabs had a checking line in the 1960's with Claude Provost #14, who shadowed Bobby Hull of the Haks and really got under the skin of Hull !!
Summarizing this contest is pretty clear:
Sens are not as good as I thought, and Sharks are much better than I expected !!
Murray and Clouston need to put out our 3rd line vs any top line of any team ,in order to control the power of these top lines ,by constantly sticking to them like Claude Provost did vs Bobby Hull !!
There is still time to correct this huge mistake !!
Robert Cyr
If you had a choice between the Edmonton Trade and the San Jose trade which one would you make now ?
Sens are not an elite team....but they are better then most people thought....get some perspective people.
That being said....Spezza does need to man up....we NEED him to get going for us to get maximum performance from this team.
Stayed up to watch the game, Milan M is fast and just doesn't stop. Volchy will shake of the rust and get back to his usual self next game I'm sure.
Not sure why Foligno got the goalie interference penalty he was clearly pushed. I am not sold on Picard he tries to clear the puck along the boards back into traffic, and he did this on more than one occasion and one time it lead to a goal.
I hope Kovalev can have this energy in future games.
Chirp is right. Put this in perspective. The Sharks are a pretty damned good team. Top line has 30 points in the last 5 games I think they said? Don't get me wrong, I'm as petty as the next guy and was hoping MEatley would come across with his head down but alas...
A couple goalposts and bounces and this is a different game. Being without some pieces and Volchie's first game back it wasn't so bad.
What concerns me most is the play of Spezza. I didn't care that he wasn't scoring because I think for a while there he was a WAY more complete player than he'd ever been. Now he's doing the stupid no look/no chance passes we all love so much.
Cheech was a throw-in ... Michalek and the pick were the deal and unfortunately is all that was available that his Highness would accept. BM's a great GM, things just take time.
Personally I think that having Karlson back up is a genious move. He will be here for 20 days then go play for the World Juniors and then he will be ready for the spring run. Cowen must be progressing well because you would not want 2 rookie defencemen next year. Sens are planning to deal with the cap rather than hope there will not be a problem. I watched the Habs Leafs game. Wow are they terrible!
I am glad there is no panic by the Sens front office. There is no instant cure. It appears that you will need 92 points to make the playoffs and the Sens should do that and that would put them in the playoffs. Keep developing the defence in the new NHL. It is very hard now to play defence with all of the pressure and speed. There is a good chance of injury and you need a ton of defencemen around. Just ask the Penguins. around.
If it wasn't for Spezza, Michalek wouldn't have gotten that first goal.
As SC/Dave said, Ottawa played great.
agreed anon 3:47, enough is enough spezza. This is hockey, I dont know what the f**** he is playing but it isnt hockey. Zero energy, urgency, nothing. He hasnt played that bad in a long time. Games like this should bring out the best in the guys touted be stars or high profile. He is having a hard time finding the back of net because he lives on the side wall by the circle throwing the odd snapper on net. get into the tough areas man. Look at milans goals, in the tough area. Spezza cant even get an assist. I have always been a supporter and argued for his side. But this is starting to piss me off. If this keeps up by the deadline and things havent changed then its time for a change. We cant have his no trade kick in next july for 5 or 6 more years stuck with that horse shit soft game of his. We have young draft picks coming up. Future looks bright. If we are not climbing the standings later this season, toss spezz for a very good young prospect plus some early picks. the future is just as important as now. whoever said we should have kept heatley during the season and wait for more offers...... well have you seen milan play this year. I hear hes a pretty good player, all around player. you may wanna check him out.
hey chirp, some are embarrasing. but you have to admit, spezza was brutal.
hey SC. didnt read the comments above your post so won't say anything about that. but im going to disagree with your assessment of the sens playing tough. Fisher had a silent night except for a few shifts. Spezza while instrumental on Michalek's first goal, failed to bury the 2 on Zero he had with michalek before the first goal. they again took too many penalties at all the wrong points in the game. every penalty the sens took came right after they had sustained pressure in the shark's end. while they remarkably killed all the shark's PPs, they gave up precious momentum against the strongest team in the league each time. Marleau's second goal of the game clearly exhibited that, even though the shark's didnt score on the PP, it gave them enough momentum to score. The sens also keep failing to capitalize on most of their PPs. 1 PPG per game seems satisfactory for them. I know sometimes their PP showed flair and looked threatening, but outside of the first PPG, not very impressive. and i think the last powerplay of the game they got sums up the whole game pretty much. They had possession in the shark's zone. they tried getting fancy again. tried one move too many again. gave up the puck in the shark's end and that was the end of it.
to me other key points that lost us the game: not being very physical on the shark's D early on. an interesting thing to note is that the sharks dont have a strong physical punishing D-core outside of Douglas Murray. with all due respect to Rob Blake, the guy is 39 years old, they should have gone after him. Ottawa could have played a strong tight checking forecheck game and punished their D. Didnt see much of that happening until some small amounts of hitting late in the game. I think they really missed their energy guys in Neil and Dono. Also, another key point: outside of Marleau, the game was won by the shark's other three lines. as far as both teams top lines are concerned, they were both even and cancelled each other on the scoresheet, even though spezza was again a no-show on the scoreboard. im just surprised at how fisher's line has just gone quiet over the past three games.
honestly. its the same excuses with every loss. which means that, improvement is not coming collectively. ofcourse, the refs had a hand in the whole affair and volchenkov had his first game back and was clearly rusty. Neil and Dono are not in the lineup. Elliot had a up and down game, there were moments where you can say he kept us close, but at the same time the third goal was very soft. faceoffs also not very good.
i really think clouston needs to do something about the kovalev line and make it viable again in a way that Kovalev scores some goals for us. People keep mentioning how cheechoo and michalek were supposed to make up for lost scoring, I remember Kovalev being signed for that reason too. at the 25 game mark, he is clearly having a down year.
lastly, karlsson made a good play to set up Michalek's PPG. he actually didnt look too bad. and made some good passes.
They did play well. Nothing went the Sens way at all. I'm DEFINITELY convinced we'd beat this team in a 7-game series.
Road kill. Again. Most of the guys showed up and competed hard. I know many are on the "hail Dominant Dany Heatley" bandwagon again, but I for mone, couldn't be more pleased with Michalek. Cheechoo is what he is. Yeah, they're not going in for him, but he certainly is not a liability out there. And we have another 2nd rd pick. there even more positives in fact: come playoff time the sharks will have not 2, but 3 guys able to pull the "disappearing man" trick when the going gets tough.
Hopefully the 2 who I need not name can start bringing it a little more than we've seen, cause 20 goals, 91 points for these two combined just does not cut it.
I would love to see Cheechoo/Spezza/Kovalev one of these days, might get them all going.
pg
pg
Ross, obviously you're illiterate and well below average intelligence. I stated that the Sens have not been good in drafting in the past five years. This includes picking Brian Lee over Kopitar in 2005. Yes, Brian Murray has made some solid picks in the last two years but our overall drafting in the past 5 years has undeniably been subpar. O'Brien does not look like a good pick. Nor does anyone from his draft so it's only the last two years that have been solid.
Stop making excuses for Campoli. That was a bad trade. We already have enough puck moving defencemen in our organization so it makes him redundant. If Murray was able to grab Silvferberg and Lehner out of the second round, who I believe will both be better than Campoli, why couldn't he have drafted an even better player late in the first?
The only thing you said that makes any sense is agreeing that Karlsson should still be in the AHL. I think it's better for his development and better for the team.
On a more positive note, I though Phillips played a really strong game last night and had a great hit on Heatley. Michalek is looking like a stud and living up to his high draft status. I really like the way Winchester has developed into a physical presence.
What did Murray do for this club?!!?!!?
Are you kidding me?!??!
How about a Stanley Cup run, followed by 2 nasty years all created by players, not himself. (Emery/Heatley) only to turn it around and have us be competitive again. And I didnt even mention our drafting, which has been excellent since Murray.
so give your head a shake and dont post anthing if you cant even make sense of it.
SM
i dont know. it might be too brave a move, but maybe Clouston should switch alfie and kovalev on the two PP units. its hard to decide who is a bigger threat. i know alfie is more effective, but just in terms of threat and creating space. its interesting, they both play from the half wall, just opposite sides. we have seen countless times alfie walk in from the half wall and snipe a PPG. and kovalev does pretty much the same thing....or atleast tries to haha.
so we lost to the best team in the NHL, on the road. Cant win them all, but have to win most. Relax folks, nothing to see here.
everyone is going to start coming down on Spezza now, we have to remmber he does not have Heatley anymore so keep it real guys.
k. to all the people who say spezza's defensive game is rounding out. agreed. given. great.
but the sens are at the 25 game mark. they are paying spezza 7 million dollars. he is the highest paid player on this team now. he is not getting paid to just be a defensive centreman and make sure the puck always stays out of his zone on his shift. they need him to do that AND SCORE. so, the defensive-game-rounding-out excuse well has run dry now. he needs to pick his pace up, because fisher is starting to slowing down. it is just absolutely unaffordable to have a situation where both Spezza and Fisher are starting to slump.
and yes Michalek absolutely owns heatley. just a more complete player and in the long run, he with that second round pick will make the heatley trade a win for us. also, i think cheechoo if he picks any amount of fire between now and the trade deadline, will get traded at the deadline.
while i agree they played the best team in the league. can anyone here with conviction say that the senators don't have the tools to beat the sharks team we played last night IF THEY PLAYED LIKE CLOUSTON REALLY WANTS THEM TO? I certainly believe that if they played honest and to their potential, they can give the sharks a run for the money and beat them on a given night.
Time to end the myth of the Spezza being a give away machine. Through last nights game Spezza had 23 give aways. That ranked him tied for 28th in the league.
Spezza has fewer give aways than Chris Phillips ( 26 ), and has a much better give away to take away ratio than Crosby. Spezza has 23 GVA and 22 TKA, Crosby 32 GVA and 13 TKA.
Players who have more give aways than Spezza include:
Hamrlik 41
Crosby 32
Mike Green 27
John Tavares 26
Joe Thornton 26
Penner 25
Just to name a few.
Spezza is tied with Alfie on the Sens for takeaways.
A player who is on the ice as much and handles the puck as much as guys like Spezza are going to have plenty of giveaways. In the NHL last season the leader was Alex Ovechkin.
Last night's game was great. OK, so the result, a 5-2 loss, sucked. But I thought the Sens could have easily won that game -- a few missed chances buried in the net, and if Elliott had played better on the 1st and 4th goals, and the result would have been a great win for the Sens.
The game last night showed me that San Jose is a very beatable team. We were beating them to the puck, we had long stretches of cycle time, and lots of chances to score.
For those still concerned about the Heatley trade, let it go. Michalek totally outplayed Heatley last night. And showed me why I'd much rather have Michalek on the Sens than Heatley. Michalek thrives in tight checking, is always in front of the net, driving for the puck.
Heatley just stands in the slot, stick up in the air, waiting for a one-timer. In the playoffs, where the checking is a lot tighter, that play disappears.
I am so glad Murray made the trade. I'd like to say "See you in the finals" to SJ, but they're getting knocked out in the first round (again). That's a team with a lot of defensive liabilities.
anon 12:00, good stats, i never knew that. those are credible so good on you. That doesnt change the fact that spezz playing f'n terrible. Hope he turns up 5 gears or were done. I fhe aint going to bury close to 30 goals i dont see us lucking out in enough games to make the playoffs.
Oscar - very lame to toss out the "white stuff" rumor with absolutely no proof. Take a 50 goal scorer away from any center and he'll need time to adjust.
Robert - ever heard of "last change"? As in the home team gets to put their line out last?
Didn't read the rest of the negativity so if I missed anyone else's silly comment - apologies.
Oh and what the hell is up with these too many men penalties, we get one EVERY game!!
What the hell is Clouston doing!?!??!
To Hax,
I understand "last change" when at home !1
Still, the Sens could change to Ruutu - Kelly - Neil (when he returns)"on the fly "" !!
How about that Hax !!
Sorry, but your argument does not cut it whatsoever !!
Robert Cyr on
To the anon poster who refuses to give a name for me to address and decided to toss around low intelligence remarks, let me address your remarks:
Our drafts have been just fine, considering we never picked high enough to be choosing obvious talent. You want to complain about brian lee, fine, but you can go through any draft ever and do the same thing for any team. The fact is success rates for drafting servicable NHLers are only about 20%, so the fact that we've drafted Lee, Foligno, Bass, Weircioch, and Karlsson, who all at minimum can be full time servicable NHLers, isnt bad considering we were a powerful team from 2005-2007ish and traded away many of our picks to improve. And O'Brien's draft year was weak all around besides some random gems.
Second, Campoli trade = par. Not bad, not great, just par. We traded an aging 4th liner and a late first for a legit second line center and a young pmd. We had two second rounders, one of which was only 11 picks away from where SJ's ended up, and chances are none of those players drafted are better than silfverberg will be anyhow.
So you might disagree with my opinion, and thats fine, but you certainly cant call me unintelligent, i know my stuff and I'm just callin it like i see it. Did we draft like masters? no, but we did ok.
On a sidenote, Spezza seems like he's lost the will to dazzle. Personally, I'd rather have 90 point spezza with some reckless passes than girind it out on the wall Spezza. Especially now that he can afford to do it more with Fast skating Michalek on his line instead of dany floatabout heatley. Just an opinion.
Another too many men on the ice penalty! We're getting one per game. What the fuck! That's just embarrassing.
Robert !! Cyr !!
Just pointing out that it's very difficult to play the match-up game when on the road. You don't have last change, and SJ can easily pull Thorton's line off until Kelly's line is finished their shift.
I agree a good shut-down line can be effective against a one-line team like the Sharks, but it's not easy on the road. I think the Spezza line is strong enough in a "two-way" sense though.
If we played in Ottawa, yeah I'd love to see Kelly's line against them or maybe put Ruutu, Fisher and Alfie together for that game to shut down Thorton's line.
It seemed every time Spezza touched the puck last night, the next player to touch it was on the Sharks. That's all I needed to see to pass judgement. He played terrible with the exception of the first goal and HAS to turn it around soon! He plays at his potential and the Sens are a contender.
Ottawa played great?? Are you guys f-ing nuts??
Michalek played great. Kovalev, Karlsson and Shannon did good things out there. But all and all, the team NEVER SHOWED UP!
There was MAYBE 25 minutes of good play, with hard forecheck and good defensive play. The other 35 were higlighted by old Spezza shananagans and wasted PP opportunities.
We're capable of putting a 60 minute effort which will match any team in the league. We've done it a few times this year and hiding behind the fact that San Jose is the best team in the league is complete BS.
I have no reason to cheer last nights efforts...
Well said Hax !!
End of discussion or tirade !!
Robert Cyr
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