GAME DAY: Washington @ Ottawa , 7:00PM, Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Yep, he's tired. In the immortal words of Michael "Mickey" Goldmill, "Women weaken legs!"

Wanted to read some comments after the game on hfboards but then I noticed that CJam613 is posting

I'll just stay here

Hoags wrote:Wanted to read some comments after the game on hfboards but then I noticed that CJam613 is posting

I'll just stay here

Him and billy Madison are just awful.....

Michallica wrote:

Hoags wrote:Wanted to read some comments after the game on hfboards but then I noticed that CJam613 is posting

I'll just stay here

Him and billy Madison are just awful.....

Well that's just not very nice at all, haha.

I have that CJam guy on block along with everyone else I think... either way.

As for the Greening on the top line thing, he has been fine there all year. If people are expecting a 30 goal season from him then I don't know what to tell yah. He will get anywhere from 15-20 goals on that top line and that should be good enough with the production that everyone else is giving aside from Spezza.

Butler being on that top line is hurting though, no denying it. It's tough for Spezza to find him and I won't deny that. He needs some help out there along with Greening but Spezza still hasn't done much on the PP with all of his weapons either.

Michallica wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I agree, Mac got so caught up in protecting Spezza with a decent 2nd line, that he stripped the top line of Michalek. Greening's a great player, but you can't expect him to generate things on his own with Spezza at his point. Greening with Foligno and Alfredsson/Regin will be best.

Thinking maybe they'll try:

Foligno - Spezza - Michalek
Greening - Regin - Alfredsson

Either way, Regin's return can't come quick enough.

Keep foligno with alfie. Either way, at least we now know that Michalek carried spezza earlier this season and not the other way around.

Also, bad couple of games for karlsson. Injured? Burnt out?

I don't see any reason to break up Foligno and Alfi at this point either. Give them Regin and we'll see what they do... hell, if they pick up Brassard or another 2nd line center we'll see what they do with those 2.

Spezza needs help on that top line for sure. Teams are not even focusing in on him anymore, they are focusing in on Michalek and that's a little concerning. You will get a ton more out of Spezza with the leading NHL goal scorer on his wing. It's pretty clear that Michalek is making who ever he is with better as he is indeed the best forward on this Sens team.

A couple minor miscues (Rundblad on the 4th goal), and a couple missed chances (Michalek's break-away, Alfie had a couple great looks), and we lose. That's all the differnce was.

Washington is never a great matchup for us, with our young d-men, and their speedy, talented forwards.

NEXT!

Big Ev wrote:and I don't understand why people are complaining about Ovechkins "spear" on Neal (even the coach). Looks like he barely touches him. Neil looks right at the ref as he is falling.

The replays show him looking at the ref before he goes down... it's hard to tell if it was just a tap or a real spear. PMac did defend Neil and said it was a spear job on him and hoped Shanny takes a look. I don't expect Shanny to do anything about it.

tim1_2 wrote:A couple minor miscues (Rundblad on the 4th goal), and a couple missed chances (Michalek's break-away, Alfie had a couple great looks), and we lose. That's all the differnce was.

Washington is never a great matchup for us, with our young d-men, and their speedy, talented forwards.

NEXT!

I would say aside from the second period the Sens were pretty bad all game.

That Rundblad play was just unreal though. How a player can be that soft in the NHL is beyond me, at least a D man. He's young, he will make mistakes, but that has to be dealt with.

shabbs wrote:

Big Ev wrote:and I don't understand why people are complaining about Ovechkins "spear" on Neal (even the coach). Looks like he barely touches him. Neil looks right at the ref as he is falling.

The replays show him looking at the ref before he goes down... it's hard to tell if it was just a tap or a real spear. PMac did defend Neil and said it was a spear job on him and hoped Shanny takes a look. I don't expect Shanny to do anything about it.

Neil does have a tendency to try to sell penalties, and this looked like one of those cases. That said, it was dirty on Ovechkin's part. Certainly not suspension-worthy, although Ovie probably should have received a penalty on the play as well.

NEELY wrote:
I would say aside from the second period the Sens were pretty bad all game.

That Rundblad play was just unreal though. How a player can be that soft in the NHL is beyond me, at least a D man. He's young, he will make mistakes, but that has to be dealt with.

I wouldn't blow that one play out of proportion. He lost track of the guy for two seconds, and the pass was pretty good. It wasn't because he was "soft", he just didn't recognize the play shaping up.

NEELY wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:A couple minor miscues (Rundblad on the 4th goal), and a couple missed chances (Michalek's break-away, Alfie had a couple great looks), and we lose. That's all the differnce was.

Washington is never a great matchup for us, with our young d-men, and their speedy, talented forwards.

NEXT!

I would say aside from the second period the Sens were pretty bad all game.

That Rundblad play was just unreal though. How a player can be that soft in the NHL is beyond me, at least a D man. He's young, he will make mistakes, but that has to be dealt with.

he just lost his man. I'm sure if he didn't lose him he wouldn't have been so soft.

It was 4 on 4, you can't lose your man 4 on 4. That said, he did see him at the last minute and even then he didn't even put a stick on him. It was soft, it was mental, it was an awful play. Take a penalty, jump on his back, eat the guys stick, do something.

Plays like that piss me off to no end because they shouldn't happen.

I also put blame on whoever decided to put Kaspars Daugavins and Jesse Winchester out 4 on 4 against Ovechkin and Backstrom. C'mon man.

Big Ev wrote:I also put blame on whoever decided to put Kaspars Daugavins and Jesse Winchester out 4 on 4 against Ovechkin and Backstrom. C'mon man.

Meh, it wasn't either of them that lost their man. Karlsson just got out played there, it happens. It was a nice goal, not much you can say about it.

Big Ev wrote:I also put blame on whoever decided to put Kaspars Daugavins and Jesse Winchester out 4 on 4 against Ovechkin and Backstrom. C'mon man.

I thought it was kinda smart. Who else would you put out against them? 4 on 4 against those guys is kinda like killing a penalty, so why not use Winchester and Daugavins?

tim1_2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:
I would say aside from the second period the Sens were pretty bad all game.

That Rundblad play was just unreal though. How a player can be that soft in the NHL is beyond me, at least a D man. He's young, he will make mistakes, but that has to be dealt with.

I wouldn't blow that one play out of proportion. He lost track of the guy for two seconds, and the pass was pretty good. It wasn't because he was "soft", he just didn't recognize the play shaping up.

Not getting a stick on him, a hand, or w/e else is what makes it soft. A d man has to know when a guy is driving to the net, 5 on 5, and especially 4 on 4 where there is more ice and you have to be more aware of whats going on.

I saw that as a very soft play because he let him walk right in after seeing him again. The game in on the line, take a penalty there, kill him if he has to save a goal. That's the difference betwen NA and Sweden.