GAME DAY:Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - THUR. Oct. 28, 2010

wprager wrote:
Well, they are starting their #1 against us. Remember 2 years ago when everyone would throw their backups and rookies at us?

Well I'm sure they saw the videos of how we lit up Lebarbera on Tuesday.

Losing to the Leafs due to that BS goal by Orr I'm sure deBoer really wants to win the next game, they'll come out flying tonight.

This (posted in another thread) explains why Leclaire is back to 1-2 weeks minimum:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/10/28/sens_leclaire_update

So, this will be Lehner's 6th game as a backup. He's actually been in 2 games -- which number counts toward blowing the first year of his ELC?

shabbs wrote:Sweet Cap'n Clutch-o-licious GDT! GO SENS GO!!!

And that's with no sugar added.

wprager wrote:This (posted in another thread) explains why Leclaire is back to 1-2 weeks minimum:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/10/28/sens_leclaire_update

So, this will be Lehner's 6th game as a backup. He's actually been in 2 games -- which number counts toward blowing the first year of his ELC?

For goalies, they need to play minutes. So 2 is the number you are looking for in regards to his ELC.

Players just need to dress and sit on the bench to count towards the 9 game trial, goalies need to see action.

Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

It's not good enough to be playing better than average, not for 5 million a year, that dude needed to be producing when we were dying for goals at the beginning and he needs to continue to produce now.

Kovalfie wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

And I think having Kuba back will bring a lot of stability to our defensive zone. Our defencemen need time to adjust to the new personnel and different roles. When Kuba's back, he can be paired up with Karlsson, Carkner with Campoli and the Brian Lee experiement can finally come to an end.

Kovalfie wrote:

Kovalfie wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

And I think having Kuba back will bring a lot of stability to our defensive zone. Our defencemen need time to adjust to the new personnel and different roles. When Kuba's back, he can be paired up with Karlsson, Carkner with Campoli and the Brian Lee experiement can finally come to an end.

I think trading him to a team like Atlanta for a 4th is worth it at this point

Kovalfie wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

If you put Mike Fisher with those two, it'll be less than a week before everyone starts saying he's not carrying his weight on the team and start pointing to his $4.2 million cap hit. Any way you slice it, someone on the team is going to get miscast. The question is do you take cap hit into consideration or do you put the best lines together and defend the guy(s) who's gonna take all the heat for not putting up the numbers?

Kovalfie wrote:
And I think having Kuba back will bring a lot of stability to our defensive zone. Our defencemen need time to adjust to the new personnel and different roles. When Kuba's back, he can be paired up with Karlsson, Carkner with Campoli and the Brian Lee experiement can finally come to an end.

Not to mention it takes minutes off of Phillips and Gonchar - which will help them to be more effective and hopefully maintain good health. Kuba might have his off nights, but man, do I ever miss that guy. Such a stabilizing force for our back end.

PKC wrote:

Kovalfie wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

If you put Mike Fisher with those two, it'll be less than a week before everyone starts saying he's not carrying his weight on the team and start pointing to his $4.2 million cap hit. Any way you slice it, someone on the team is going to get miscast. The question is do you take cap hit into consideration or do you put the best lines together and defend the guy(s) who's gonna take all the heat for not putting up the numbers?

Fisher and Kovalev have different expectations. Kovalev's are strictly to score whereas Fisher's are to hit, kill penalties, and create problems around the net. I think having Fisher on the 3rd line will be fine as long as he does what he's meant to do.

SpezDispenser wrote:It's not good enough to be playing better than average, not for 5 million a year, that dude needed to be producing when we were dying for goals at the beginning and he needs to continue to produce now.

+1! Perfectly stated! He could have won us games at the beginning on his own, had he wanted to. There was 0 passion in his game until about 2 games ago.

Kovalfie wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:

Amnesia021 wrote:Can we start the Kovalev 641K watch?

We can start the watch but what are we looking for ?!?

He's been playing better than most give him credit for though. I think somewhere on here Regin talked about him today.

Again, this is what I've been saying for weeks, against a flood of comments to the contrary.

I agree with you both. He has been playing much better. However, we're not paying him to play better, we're paying him to put up points and that's why the media (not me) is on him.

I think the new Foligno-Regin-Kovalev line is going to start lighting it up more. Kovalev likes being a playmaker, Regin likes shooting the puck, and Foligno likes the goals in front of the net. I'm more than alrigh moving Fisher to the third line with Shannon and Winchester and rolling all four lines.

I think the worst is behind us and we're going to start seeing the exciting brand of hockey that we're all expecting.

That would be fair if people here were only attacking him on his lack of production. But that wasn't the case. Kovalev was accused again and again of being indifferent and of playing poorly. The former is a result of him not being Mike Fisher (whom he's never been and never will be); the latter is the result of bad hockey judgment on the part of the people who were condemning him.

This is basically what's been said about Kovalev's goals v. Phoenix:

"Labarbera was terrible on that goal. Kovalev was lucky on a weak shot"

"Kovalev missed an open net and he was lucky that Bryzgalov didn't smother it."

Fisher scores the EXACT same goals and this is what we'd hear:

"It's never a bad play to put the puck on net. Fisher must have eyes in the back of his head."

"Bryzgalov made the first save but Fisher stayed with it and jumped ALL OVER that loose puck and buried it!!! Boomshakalaka!!!"

True story.