Ottawa scored five times in the third period and were able to make a game of it late. Erik Karlsson registered assists on the final three Ottawa goal including a gorgeous feed to Stephane Da Costa that made it a one goal game with just under two minutes to play.
For MacLean and his staff the challenge now becomes cleaning up the opening forty minutes. Ottawa is turning the puck over far too often and on consecutive nights, made life fairly easy for their opponents.
It's hard when the defence is consistently hanging you out to dry but Craig Anderson has to be better for Ottawa and he knows it.
I expect a bounce back game from him on Tuesday night.
Despite the 0-2 start, I see some very promising signs from this young Sens team. They have shown a ton of fight this weekend and that has to be a good sign moving forward. I also really like the way players have been coming to the defence of each other on the ice. It's just two games in but you can already see that this group of guys really care.
Should be interesting to see what the club does with the line up for Tuesday night with both Bobby Butler and David Rundblad ready to draw in. Ottawa has the day off today and will return to the ice on Monday morning.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
The young guys have to play if they're going to develop their skills and chemistry.
Alfie looks good. Scores two while battling a head cold. Most people don't even want to get out of bed when they're sick.
Nothing more frustrating than seeing that the talent and performance is there, but only through 1/3 of the game and oddly enough its been the final third.
This is a frightening pattern for me that we've seen now throughout preseason and now into the regular season. You'd think that this would be long enough to correct the issue if it is a coaching issue considering the general age of the group. Hopefully it is still just everyone still trying to find their regular season form.
GO SENS GO!
Rundblad must have been drooling, watching reruns of his physical play i know he'd want to be playing and getting into the physical gameplay like the toronto matchup.
Its not like we are not scoring or giving up, its been fun to watch.i can only hope for the swede pairing of karlsson/rundbl ad to be paired again soon.
Cheers
This habit of playing in basically 1 period a game goes back several seasons at times.. does it not?
Get these guys playing a full 60 min and maybe they will start winning some games.
I hope both Butler & Rundblad get into the next game. Question is -- who goes once Regin & Winchester are ready to come back into the lineup. Can Carkner come back soon please? At least he gives a damn on D.
B-Sens lost to the Marlies last night. They are also 0 - 2 to start the season. They lost 3 experienced D.. so will take time to get them going.
Apparently Heatley has been playing pretty well. So what D is going to get the responsibility of shutting him down?
I hope Gonchar Kuba are gone soon but I doubt we will do anything based on past, we had to endure Kovy and Leclaire right to the end so it looks like it will be more of the same with Gonchar Kuba, you never know BM might resign Kuba if he cries enough about wanting to stay in Ottawa, it worked for Phillips.
Gonchar is the worst of the three based only on the fact he seems to not care or lacks heart in his play, you get the feeling he only gives 100% 80% of the time and we sure do not want to pass that on to any young guys.
they've played 2 games.... lots of young kids learning.... relax....
Maclean is developping a new system, so results like this are to be expected. Remember 2006-2007? Murray had vowed to change our system, and the early results weren't pretty: a terrible first half. Early in the season, Ottawa would score 4 or more goals in one game, then get shutout the next. We’d often go down 3 or more goals early, then mount a comeback but fall just short. However, when the team finally mastered the system, we were unstoppable; well, until the stanley cup finals.
Overall, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen. With games like Friday and Saturday all season, win or lose, the rebuild will be entertaining. GoSensGo!
THN has Heatley on pace for a Gretzky season...
GP G A Pts +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG Shots PtsPG
2011-12 MINNESOTA 1 1 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 5 2.00
ON PACE 82 82 82 164 0 0 164 0 0 410 2.00
Lol, good one.
... Yeah Give Those Kids Phillips and Gonchar a break, they are still learning the game
LOL
Zibanejad has been one of our best players
Our vets looking sluggish out of the gate.
Someone has to tell foligno that this is pre season since he's so good during that time of year.
Go Sens Go!!!!!
Most useless player. He was never great defensively but at least he contributed offensively in Pitt. He doesn't even do that anymore. I don't know how many times he shot the puck into a Leaf forward or missed the net on the powerplay.
Personally I would like us to go 0-82 while loosing 6-5 every night. Our young players can get experience and points and then we get Nail Yakupov. And screw Anderson. He's just a fill in for a couple years so doesn't matter if we ruin his confidence/career.
On another note...DaCosta is unbelievable! Soo much poise! Aaaand...gets up after huge hits. After Spezza he is by far our most noticeable player.Zibaneja d on the other hand has had a tough time. He clearly is fast enough and can hit well enough. But...he is still in the process of adapting to playing against such good players and simply the difference in style of game the NHL is. He still has flashes of brilliance but isn't quite as noticeable as in pre-season. Hopefully he improves by his 9th game because DaCosta could be good enough for the 2nd line so Zibanjead would be that much more replaceable for the year(aka SEL).
I want to see Rundblad play!!
Lovin' Alfie right now though, although how long can he attempt to carry the team on his back like he always does, he got 20+ minutes TOI last night when we're supposed keeping him around 15...
Excellent analysis !
Nothing else to add, just more wins and less losses !
Kuba doesn't have a NMC, he only had one in his first year of his current contract, which makes it all the more frustrating that he's still here. Just put him on waivers already and eat half his salary for the year if you wanna win a few more games!
And to all the critics who thought we'd lack offense, apparently that's not the issue. Nice to see the front end really connecting with one another and creating great opportunities. Let's see if we can do it for a full 60 and not just playing catch up at the end.
when did i say he was or was not one of the best players? i said he looks pretty ready just inconsistent. plus, doing this would give us a chance to really make our final decision on regin, dacosta and foligno
Didnt bother showing Da Costa's beauty....
thank god I have a PVR, I did not have to watch Cherry, "fast forward".
listening to him is worse that watching comercials, time watching him you will never get back.
YAAAAAAAAAAAA (ill be starting some heatley sucks chants)
you praise Swedes and yet after watching Gonchar not try at all through 2 games and seeing Filatov yawn during our timeout, you still want to draft a Russian? I don't doubt Yakupov's skill and commitment to the NHL; but given the drafting history of this team in the last 4 years I strongly believe Filip Forsberg will be at the top of our list unless he REALLY drops off the radar.
Still these are questions and concerns that are meant to be brought up 6 months from now and only if we do as poorly as genius' like Ray Ferarro and Keith Jones are predicting we will.
NY so far:
6GP - 5G, 8A 13pts +3
kovalev and gonchar are a differnt story, we signed them at the end of their careers..
all the other russian drafted players that we drafted never made the sens mainly because most came from 3rd round or later, and how many players make it as NHLers when drafted later than the 2nd or 3rd round even?
filatov also can not count to the list since we took him for a 3rd rounder
With devils drafting Larsson ..Atrain has been playing less of all there dmen a night ..and with getting his contract off the books always them to re sign Parise ...
Volchenkov-Karlsson pairing would be amazing
The organization would be trementously pressured to take Yakupov 1st overall though.
Went to 67's game today to check out Noeson. He looked okay not spectacular. A few Sens fans there and apparently our beloved Mika was in attendance.
All I know is Sean Monahan will probably be a top pick in the 2013 draft. On the player lineup handed out today.. the kid was shown to have 14 pts in 6 games. How much more will he get when Prince is back? Got into a fight today as well.. He's a good young player.
Kuba does not have a NMC... only for the 1st year.
http://whl.ca/stats/show/type/skaters
Also I would still like to see Murray sign Dustin Penner next summer.
Why? They should be adding Silfverberg and whoever else they select with a top pick next year. Will Mark Stone be given a chance next season? No room for Penner.
There will be enough room for Murray to sign someone what if Filatov does not workout and Butler and Mark Stone is two years away from making Stone will most likely spend a year in the minors and whoever Murray drafts next summer will not make the team next year. So that leaves room for Murray to sign a vetern player and sign Dustin Penner.
I would even be willing to spot the opposing team 1 goal per period skipped so it will be like NHL 12 and we can Simulate the first 2 and go into the 3rd down 2-0
We would win a lot more games that way
LOL
I Kid of course. While I love seeing the fight back, we cannot keep shooting ourselves in the foot like that. makes for an entertaining 3rd but painful to watch the 1st and 2nd.
Dacosta has been great, Greening has been decent. Love watching Alfie and Spezz.
Our D needs some serious help... they just look nervous with the puck all the time and are making stupid low percentage plays with the puck all the time. Anderson needs to be better as well but you can see he is trying to do too much and I am sure some of that is due to the weak D we have been putting on the ice. Yes the D have to have confidence in the goalie in order to make plays but that goes the other way too. get the guy some help. I was really hoping one of Kuba or Gonch would have a bounce back. Whil I still have ope for gonch, Kuba is just garbage
Can we trade Phillips for Chara too?
But it is really early and anything can happen.
Why it appears Zibanejad made it this year. Almost all of the top 10 picks are still with their NHL teams except for Huberdeau.
The Sens will pick in the top 5 again... and there are better skilled players this draft.
They have too many now forwards and D... Butler will be okay.. just going through a funk. What about Winchester & Regin... we have 3 forwards too many if you count Konopka.. then again he only signed for one year.
Murray may go after Penner.. but he will be in a dogfight with ol' Burkie in Toronto.
Do you really think NJ would take Gonchar? I certainly don't... NO ONE would take him now. Sens are stuck. Unless he agrees to waive his NTC.. they put him on waivers so he can go back to Russia.
Where aging former Russian superstars take it easy before KHL retirement.
Not because he's played poorly, but because he's just not there yet. There is already a logjam of forwards, I'd like to see Zib improve back in Sweden and give the shot to either Da Costa, or Regin, or both.
Going back will only help. We've seen it with Silfverberg. I think it's the best case scenario. There isn't any real "need" to have him in NA just yet.
not that it matters but its Djurgarden not Farjestad, but yes i also agree (as ive posted above) that zib can really use 1 more year in the SEL
Gonchar sucks!
You know if you think about it this makes a lot of sense. Ottawa's winters are a great way for older Russian players to ease themselves back into the chilly weather of Russia. Canada and Russia are pretty much across from each other and have similar climates. We need to start getting the young Russian's who want to ease themselves into North America instead of leaving our fair soil.