GDT: Phoenix Coyotes vs Ottawa Senators - Tuesday Oct. 27, 2K10 @ 7:30 pm ET (SNET)

SpezDispenser wrote:I'm very pleased, but there's still things to clean up.

The Positives:

-Obviously Kovalev. He commanded the walls, he made plays, he made the Yotes' D work hard

-Brian Elliott kept the Sens in the game in the 2nd and early 3rd - big time

-Alfredsson had a tap in from the amazing Kovalev pass, but he worked hard for those two points

-Regin was great, from being right in front of Bryzgalov for the 2nd Kovalev goal to working the boards, to making nice passes

-Foligno - definitely SG11 got pissed at him for missing another open net last night, but he's part of that trio (Regin, Kovalev) that work hard and have the skill to back it up

-Hale - who is this guy? He didn't play like this in the pre-season - keep on keeping on

-Karlsson - snipe and he seems to be getting more comfortable

-Gonchar - ditto, getting there for sure

The Negatives:

-good Lord, Kovalev basically wins the game for us on his own, but man, did he ever try to give it back to the Yotes. 2 of the most astounding giveaways, right in the slot - should have resulted in goals. He owes Elliott a dinner

-Phillips - we're starting to slowly see the real Phillips, but last night he struggled for extended periods of times.

-Too many PKs. Enough with the 8 penalties a game. Against a better oppoenent, we lose last night (not that the Yotes are bad, but they're struggling).

-Michalek - come on man! You can do this, we need you to contribute nightly.

TheAvatar wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:Interesting to hear the "media" downplaying Kovalev's performance from last night. John "The Man of the Fecal" Rodenberg says that the apocalypse is upon us. Lee "Small Time" Versage thinks that the 1st goal was a bad goal and noted Kovalevs 5 giveaways.

They make me sick.

Reminiscent of some of the Dung that I've read here.

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:I don't think it's an accident that Karlsson is looking a LOT better since being paired with Hale.

On the other hand, I think the team is dead set against losing Lee for nothing.

Agreed. Interesting comment too SSF, I think they actually are loathe to waive Lee and have him picked up for nothing.

rooneypoo wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I'm very pleased, but there's still things to clean up.

The Positives:

-Obviously Kovalev. He commanded the walls, he made plays, he made the Yotes' D work hard

-Brian Elliott kept the Sens in the game in the 2nd and early 3rd - big time

-Alfredsson had a tap in from the amazing Kovalev pass, but he worked hard for those two points

-Regin was great, from being right in front of Bryzgalov for the 2nd Kovalev goal to working the boards, to making nice passes

-Foligno - definitely SG11 got pissed at him for missing another open net last night, but he's part of that trio (Regin, Kovalev) that work hard and have the skill to back it up

-Hale - who is this guy? He didn't play like this in the pre-season - keep on keeping on

-Karlsson - snipe and he seems to be getting more comfortable

-Gonchar - ditto, getting there for sure

The Negatives:

-good Lord, Kovalev basically wins the game for us on his own, but man, did he ever try to give it back to the Yotes. 2 of the most astounding giveaways, right in the slot - should have resulted in goals. He owes Elliott a dinner

-Phillips - we're starting to slowly see the real Phillips, but last night he struggled for extended periods of times.

-Too many PKs. Enough with the 8 penalties a game. Against a better oppoenent, we lose last night (not that the Yotes are bad, but they're struggling).

-Michalek - come on man! You can do this, we need you to contribute nightly.

The Michalek comment is bang on. For the first half of last season, you noticed that guy every night -- largely because he had a near breakaway or 3 every game, and was constantly rushing the net. We're not seeing enough of that lately. I hope those injuries haven't slowed him down and/or made him overly tentative.

Michallica wrote:psshhh.....'bout time kovalev laid a whoopin'

sucks that I missed it!

rooneypoo wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:I don't think it's an accident that Karlsson is looking a LOT better since being paired with Hale.

On the other hand, I think the team is dead set against losing Lee for nothing.

Agreed. Interesting comment too SSF, I think they actually are loathe to waive Lee and have him picked up for nothing.

I honestly don't know if any team in the league would pick him up right now. And I feel much more comfortable with Hale as our 7th.

Still, pairing Lee with Karlsson, on his off wing -- we keep setting this guy up to fail. I hate his butter-soft ways and won't miss him when he's gone, but we haven't done much as an organization since, oh, 2008, to help him along, either.

SpezDispenser wrote:-Karlsson - snipe and he seems to be getting more comfortable

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I assume we've already abandoned the three star idea but here are mine anyway.

1st Star - Alex Kovalev
2nd Star - Brian Elliott
3rd Star - Eric Karlsson

Forgot hardest working Senator - In this case it goes to Michallica for putting together a shabberific GDT that not only looked good and was thorough but it had that magic winning touch.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

marakh wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

marakh wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Very pleased.

That wasn't all pretty though. THat 2nd period was bad, and there are still some defensive breakdowns, trying to be too fancy at times then getting tired in the defensive zone, taking some penalties. I saw Philips make 2 horrific plays.
At least he's playing around 21 min now, and Gonchar is back down to 23. At least Hale can play bottom 2 D.
Karlsson is getting better but his poise is not back yet, still forcing some plays on the PP.

OVerall, the transition was pretty good.

Think about your damned glass half empty. They just won the game 5-2 and you're complaining that they didn't play a perfect game? Honestly.

So what?
Sorry if I have more objectivity than you do.
Maybe you should lilsten to the coach, because he agrees with me.

There are two teams on the ice. Phoenix brought it rather than wilt after a very bad first period and Ottawa wasn't ready for it. Keep in mind they have two rookies and a softmore on D and are still missing Kuba. They're also missing Spezza and still performed superbly on the PP. Sure there's things to work on but it's not as bad as you're suggesting.

marakh wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

marakh wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

marakh wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Very pleased.

That wasn't all pretty though. THat 2nd period was bad, and there are still some defensive breakdowns, trying to be too fancy at times then getting tired in the defensive zone, taking some penalties. I saw Philips make 2 horrific plays.
At least he's playing around 21 min now, and Gonchar is back down to 23. At least Hale can play bottom 2 D.
Karlsson is getting better but his poise is not back yet, still forcing some plays on the PP.

OVerall, the transition was pretty good.

Think about your damned glass half empty. They just won the game 5-2 and you're complaining that they didn't play a perfect game? Honestly.

So what?
Sorry if I have more objectivity than you do.
Maybe you should lilsten to the coach, because he agrees with me.

There are two teams on the ice. Phoenix brought it rather than wilt after a very bad first period and Ottawa wasn't ready for it. Keep in mind they have two rookies and a softmore on D and are still missing Kuba. They're also missing Spezza and still performed superbly on the PP. Sure there's things to work on but it's not as bad as you're suggesting.

So I just point out some things to work on and it looks like I think the team is bad.

Here's the thing I don't get. When the team loses, people think they're pretty bad. When they win, people think they're awesome.
If that's the only thing we can discuss here, I can just go read HFBoards.

marakh wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

marakh wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

marakh wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Very pleased.

That wasn't all pretty though. THat 2nd period was bad, and there are still some defensive breakdowns, trying to be too fancy at times then getting tired in the defensive zone, taking some penalties. I saw Philips make 2 horrific plays.
At least he's playing around 21 min now, and Gonchar is back down to 23. At least Hale can play bottom 2 D.
Karlsson is getting better but his poise is not back yet, still forcing some plays on the PP.

OVerall, the transition was pretty good.

Think about your damned glass half empty. They just won the game 5-2 and you're complaining that they didn't play a perfect game? Honestly.

So what?
Sorry if I have more objectivity than you do.
Maybe you should lilsten to the coach, because he agrees with me.

There are two teams on the ice. Phoenix brought it rather than wilt after a very bad first period and Ottawa wasn't ready for it. Keep in mind they have two rookies and a softmore on D and are still missing Kuba. They're also missing Spezza and still performed superbly on the PP. Sure there's things to work on but it's not as bad as you're suggesting.

So I just point out some things to work on and it looks like I think the team is bad.

Here's the thing I don't get. When the team loses, people think they're pretty bad. When they win, people think they're awesome.
If that's the only thing we can discuss here, I can just go read HFBoards.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
That's a pretty bold and blanket statement. I never said you can't discuss it nor did I say you thought the team was bad. I agreed there were things to work on.

All I said was it wasn't AS bad as you made it out to be.

Here's the funny thing. If the rolls had been reversed and Ottawa lost that game 5-2 and Ottawa brought it for half the game some people would be saying the "The Coyotes BENT but didn't BREAK. Now THAT's a sign of a good team".

Just insert any SENS opponent into that quote in place of Coyotes. It drives me crazy.

Is it NOT fair to say the SENS bent but didn't break? That the goalie gave them a chance to win. Absolutely they had some long stretches of bad play and that definitely needs work but, I don't think you're going to get a tonne more out of this group based on what I already pointed out in my previous post.