OTTAWA @ DETROIT - GAME DAY #1!!!

If they play like this tomorrow -- and by that I mean come out like they did in the 1st -- they should beat the Leafs. They go schooled a bit in the second, hopefully they learned something from that that'll help them in the long run.

wprager wrote:If they play like this tomorrow -- and by that I mean come out like they did in the 1st -- they should beat the Leafs. They go schooled a bit in the second, hopefully they learned something from that that'll help them in the long run.

Will be interesting to watch them learn and grow over the season.

Got a bad feeling about tomorrow's game, they'll be tired after this one and the refs always give the Laffs a break or two or three at the ACC.

wprager wrote:If they play like this tomorrow -- and by that I mean come out like they did in the 1st -- they should beat the Leafs. They go schooled a bit in the second, hopefully they learned something from that that'll help them in the long run.

Yeah for sure, one step at a time. Keep attacking, but definitely don't give the puck up up the middle. Try to stop giving the puck away period, they did this in the pre-season too and it's lethal.

Have to give some credit to Kuba as well - he didn't suck noticeably, and even got a goal.

Anderson's stats suffered. He got hung out to dry a number of times, but 5 goals is 5 goals. A few were stoppable.

Kuba was very solid all game. Kept things simple and for the most part, he was the reason Karlsson's game didn't look worse than it actually was.

Tomorrow night should be a better test of where Ottawa stands in terms of their place in the East. If they play like they did for 45-50 mins of that game, Ottawa can win for sure.

Fearless prediction for tonight's game (wait, is there a GDT? .... nope, not yet) Zenon Konopka will be in the lineup; Anderson will play back-to-back (hey, it's just the start of the season) and will be lights out, there will be fighting.

Oh, and the Leafs still suck, current standings notwithstanding.

Nice to see the team play until the very end... no quit this time... I'll take that any day over some of the crap we've seen before.

Checking the stats, I see that the Sens were 50% on faceoffs. Not bad, considering they had two rookie centers in the lineup.

Spezza's line was +3, Alfie's was -7 (Alfie himself was -3).

Spezza's line had 9 shots (MM with 6); Filatov led that line in hits with 2.

Alfie's line had 5 shots (ZBad has 0); Greening and Zibanejad each had 4 hits.

Lee had twice as many hits as Neil (6 to 3).

Some encouraging stats, for sure, and some that we hope will change. Alfie may be babysitting, but he'll still want to do better than a -3.

Sounds like a lot of the goals were pure brain farts and miscommunication between players... something that can be worked on at least.

Seriously, if it wasn't for a 10-15 min break down Ottawa would have been right in that game. That's the problem though, those 10-15 min breakdowns are going to happen a lot this year and probably next as well, the better teams will take advantage of that to be sure.

Anderson needs to be a little better IMO, he wasn't bad though.

NEELY wrote:Kuba was very solid all game. Kept things simple and for the most part, he was the reason Karlsson's game didn't look worse than it actually was.

Tomorrow night should be a better test of where Ottawa stands in terms of their place in the East. If they play like they did for 45-50 mins of that game, Ottawa can win for sure.

Yeah, I think tonight will tell a better tale. I would expect the turnovers to be curved a little. I'm looking forward to it.

Curved turnovers? Is that sone new pastry? Mmmm ... turnovers

Da lil Guy wrote:Have to give some credit to Kuba as well - he didn't suck noticeably, and even got a goal.

Anderson's stats suffered. He got hung out to dry a number of times, but 5 goals is 5 goals. A few were stoppable.

He is already halfway to tying last years goal production

As per ScottyMac: Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson is battling a nasty head cold but will play tonight.

shabbs wrote:As per ScottyMac: Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson is battling a nasty head cold but will play tonight.

Zetterberg must have sneezed on him.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:As per ScottyMac: Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson is battling a nasty head cold but will play tonight.

Zetterberg must have sneezed on him.

Heh heh. Oops.

wprager wrote:Checking the stats, I see that the Sens were 50% on faceoffs. Not bad, considering they had two rookie centers in the lineup.

Spezza's line was +3, Alfie's was -7 (Alfie himself was -3).

Spezza's line had 9 shots (MM with 6); Filatov led that line in hits with 2.

Alfie's line had 5 shots (ZBad has 0); Greening and Zibanejad each had 4 hits.

Lee had twice as many hits as Neil (6 to 3).

Some encouraging stats, for sure, and some that we hope will change. Alfie may be babysitting, but he'll still want to do better than a -3.

That can't be right - I remember and they showed it on TSN, he had a backhander go right on target that Howard saved easily.

shabbs wrote:As per ScottyMac: Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson is battling a nasty head cold but will play tonight.

I would sit him out... have him better for the season opener at home. Leaving him in the lineup gives Colby Armstrong the opportunity to try to hit Alfie in the back as often as he can...