Good, Bad and Ugly on Opening night...

shabbs wrote:While not encouraging, I'm not ready to throw Gerber under the bus yet... let's give it 20 games and then see. Does he get the start today?

I am.....

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Number Twenty Nine wrote:

shabbs wrote:While not encouraging, I'm not ready to throw Gerber under the bus yet... let's give it 20 games and then see. Does he get the start today?

I am.....

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http://www.octranspo.com/[/quote[/url]]

Fair enough, I guess your moving Spezza as well for his regular antics and not clueing in.

Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Yup, Auld looked like a back up for sure...

He played well, tough break losing the shutout, but superstition can be credited for that. The commentators said the "S" word.

DashRiprock wrote:Yup, Auld looked like a back up for sure...

He played well, tough break losing the shutout, but superstition can be credited for that. The commentators said the "S" word.

Gotta love it when the announcers do that.. They should know better! LOL

wow. I thought Auld played well, all things considered.
Quite frankly, I think he should start the next couple of games and see if Gerber shows ANY drive or emotion and makes an attempt to reclaim #1.

However, as it stands, I wouldn't be opposed to getting a better goalie, without selling the farm that is...

What a friggin whirlwind 2 days that felt like. Wow...

Game one I was really upset with Gerber - and I thought Kuba had a really average game despite his points.

Game 2 is what I'm hoping from a Hartsburg run team. I think we're Diddle demons to play against, hitting, blocking, getting in ahead of other plays to get to pucks in corners - what has the world come to!

Auld was very good and deserved the SO, the top guys were the top guys and the guys that are playing roles played them really well.

Not to start singling guys out this early...but (all from Game 2)

-Winchester gets into a vicious board battle with two Pens and wins the battle and draws a PP

-Winchester goes back - unloads on some Pen and then outlets a beauty of a pass

-Kuba. He was awesome. We may be in for some consistency issues here, one night great, one night average, but he was excellent tonight.

Ruutu - LOL. This guy is gold.

Smith - Diddle (in) gold. This guy is the real deal.

And anyone bashing Spezza for game one...if it wasn't for him we wouldn't be anywhere near an OT. So what if he overplayed the puck and the proper people weren't covering for him and Gerber lets in a 40 foot wrister.

I knew he was going for it, couldn't the rest of the Sens on the ice have identified it. Don't get caught watching him guys! He made the right play with 30 seconds to go, low risk/high reward.

I am super impressed by Winchester. This kid is more of a bull than I could have ever imagined. Not to mention he seems to have some really slick hands. I think about 20 games into the season, we will see this guy contributing on a more regular basis on the score sheet.

Smith is exactly as advertised. The man is a warrior, and is as tenacious as any man or animal I've ever seen.

Ruutu is just brilliant. To think that Neil has a friend to agitate with now, AND that Bass is hanging around somewhere waiting to join that line makes me wet my pants.

Heatley is definitely elevating his Dung. Backcheck, forecheck, PP, PK, 5 on 5, responsible with the puck, sniping better than ever, hanging around the net for garbage goals - wow, so impressed.

And finally, Auld. He did a great job tonight. He really did. He made the first save, he played his net well and he got the job done. I know its only the second game of the year, but a lot of us Sens fans have been saying that we expect to see a tandem of Auld/Elliott at some point this year. And I think with the way we have built a defense first team, that it might not be a bad option at all.

Also, I have to say, our PK is sick. Its just absolutely ridiculous. I am going to predict a top rated penalty kill for the Sens this year.

Man, the PK are animals right now. Just awesome to watch (still nerve-wracking but awesome).

I think Winchester might be the real deal as well. I agree with the 20 game prediction, he's gonna turn into a really great 2 way guy who'll score.

PKC wrote:Also, I have to say, our PK is sick. Its just absolutely ridiculous. I am going to predict a top rated penalty kill for the Sens this year.

If you watched the world juniors at all, you know that this was a strength of Team Canada's as well: hard-working, aggressive PK -- pressure the points hard, overload the puck down low on dumps, and really frustrate entry into the zone in general.

I'm not at all surprised to see that that's translating into the kind of results we're starting to see already. I've maintained all year that people have underestimated (and even wrongfully pooh-poohed) the hiring of Hartsburg. The guy preaches a nasty game -- an aggressive, hard-hitting forwards attack, and an equally aggressive defensive, tight style. As long as we have someone who can make ordinary, expected saves -- and I wouldn't be surprised in that man were Auld come Christmas, he was great in Boston last year -- I see lots of 1- or 2-goals-against games for the Sens.

rooneypoo wrote:

If you watched the world juniors at all, you know that this was a strength of Team Canada's as well: hard-working, aggressive PK -- pressure the points hard, overload the puck down low on dumps, and really frustrate entry into the zone in general.

I'm not at all surprised to see that that's translating into the kind of results we're starting to see already. I've maintained all year that people have underestimated (and even wrongfully pooh-poohed) the hiring of Hartsburg. The guy preaches a nasty game -- an aggressive, hard-hitting forwards attack, and an equally aggressive defensive, tight style. As long as we have someone who can make ordinary, expected saves -- and I wouldn't be surprised in that man were Auld come Christmas, he was great in Boston last year -- I see lots of 1- or 2-goals-against games for the Sens.

Great stuff. Bad for the ticker, but good for what we want to accomplish.

Nasty - we are.

504Heater wrote:What a friggin whirlwind 2 days that felt like. Wow...

Game one I was really upset with Gerber - and I thought Kuba had a really average game despite his points.

Game 2 is what I'm hoping from a Hartsburg run team. I think we're Diddle demons to play against, hitting, blocking, getting in ahead of other plays to get to pucks in corners - what has the world come to!

Auld was very good and deserved the SO, the top guys were the top guys and the guys that are playing roles played them really well.

Not to start singling guys out this early...but (all from Game 2)

-Winchester gets into a vicious board battle with two Pens and wins the battle and draws a PP

-Winchester goes back - unloads on some Pen and then outlets a beauty of a pass

-Kuba. He was awesome. We may be in for some consistency issues here, one night great, one night average, but he was excellent tonight.

Ruutu - LOL. This guy is gold.

Smith - Diddle (in) gold. This guy is the real deal.

And anyone bashing Spezza for game one...if it wasn't for him we wouldn't be anywhere near an OT. So what if he overplayed the puck and the proper people weren't covering for him and Gerber lets in a 40 foot wrister.

I knew he was going for it, couldn't the rest of the Sens on the ice have identified it. Don't get caught watching him guys! He made the right play with 30 seconds to go, low risk/high reward.

Sorry Heater I have to disagree with you on Spezza last night. He is at the point now he needs to make the smart moves. Hartsburg was right in the post comments a simple dump in where you can get it would have been better instead of getting fancy. Spezza wants more leadership and start making this team he needs to start making more sound decision. 4 on 1 isnt. His hard work throughout the game is negated by one mistake. I'm all for the high risk High reward but not in OT.

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Your right if Spezza who is 4 years older and played 2 more seasons than Crosby had the same work ethic of Crosby he would be that much better....So why hasnt he corrected his problems by now and man would I love to see what Spezza can do if that were the case. I just find it frustrating that after the start of one game people are willing to throw the Gerber under the bus. I truely believe that this team will rise from the ashes from the disaster season of a year ago but I do believe they need to be given some time.

I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

Acrobat wrote:I think that part of the frustration is that the "excuse" has always been that Gerber was distracted by Emery's antics. Emery is a bit too far to distract him now, so he should be back to form, right?

One thing that I hadn't considered until now is that he may have been playing in front of a significant amount of family - it can't be that hard to fly family up from Switzerland, and he would have been allocated tickets, and maybe scrounged a few from teammates.

Or is this just another excuse?

He may have had a few family/friends watching (although Alfie may have grabbed all the tickets allocated to players), but it's a bit of a poor excuse, don't you think? When you're getting $3.7M/year you are expected to be more of a professional than that. If you can't hack the pressure, be a solid backup and get by on $1M.

All that talk aside, though, let's hold off on our evaluations until 15-20 games into the season. Like saying Heatley is on pace for 123 goals and 164 points, Spezza on pace for 164 points and 41 short-handed goals, evaluation of Gerber's season is a bit premature.

But he'd have a pretty short leash if it were me, and I wouldn't go making excuses for him by blaming the loss on one of the best players on the ice during the game.

Phoenix30 wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Your right if Spezza who is 4 years older and played 2 more seasons than Crosby had the same work ethic of Crosby he would be that much better....So why hasnt he corrected his problems by now and man would I love to see what Spezza can do if that were the case. I just find it frustrating that after the start of one game people are willing to throw the Gerber under the bus. I truely believe that this team will rise from the ashes from the disaster season of a year ago but I do believe they need to be given some time.

I hope to be proven wrong by Gerber, but my gut tells me nope.

Number Twenty Nine wrote:

Phoenix30 wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Spezza's antics are correctable. For Gerbs, you can send him to a shrink, but in the end, he's at the tail end of his career, where Spezza is on the cusp.

If Spezza had 1/2 the work ethic as Crosby, he'd be much greater than he is right now. The puck through the legs thing was cute a few years ago, but they're onto it now.

Crosby is a big baby (and I hate him), but I'll give it to him that he loves the game and goes above and beyond to hone his skills...

Auld is in net. Watch Auld's play and you'll agree that him and Gerber are the same - back up goalies at best. My nick is homage to Gerber, so it pains me to say this....

Your right if Spezza who is 4 years older and played 2 more seasons than Crosby had the same work ethic of Crosby he would be that much better....So why hasnt he corrected his problems by now and man would I love to see what Spezza can do if that were the case. I just find it frustrating that after the start of one game people are willing to throw the Gerber under the bus. I truely believe that this team will rise from the ashes from the disaster season of a year ago but I do believe they need to be given some time.

I hope to be proven wrong by Gerber, but my gut tells me nope.

Gerber will never be a solid goaltender.. It's just too bad his stock is so low, we'll never be able to get rid of him..