GAME DAY: Ottawa @ Boston , 7:00PM, Tuesday, February 28, 2012

spader wrote:

Precisely.

Michallica wrote:Side note: I was pulling my hair out when contra missed that open net. Can't do that in the playoffs! We need our secondary scoring now

Exactly. When I saw that, and eventually processed what I had just witnessed, my first coherent thought was "Thank god this isn't a playoff game." Goals are hard to come by, especially when playing Timmy T, and you just can't miss those. That was pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime goof though, so hopefully it's out of his system now. It was really ridiculous, and I thought for sure it would cost us.

Get your t-shirts...

Bask in the glory, my friends...just bask....

Sens undefeated with Gilory.

I honestly liked some of the things I saw from him last night, great skater, pretty solid shot... runs around a lot though. He will need to play a more responsible game for the Sens going forward and I think a week or two of practices will help with that.

Lehner is amazing.

NEELY wrote:
Lehner is amazing.

Agreed. Lehner reminded me a little of Timmy T. And I do mean just a little. There were a couple of times when Lehner seemingly overplayed the puck and got out of position, but it never cost him. You can tell he has confidence, and his focus was pretty superb considering the circumstances.

Another guy Lehner reminds me of is Karlsson. Again, with the confidence. Lehner seemed pretty fearless to just play his game, and not worry about the Big Bad Bs. He looked really big in the net (probably a side-effect of being really big), but you could tell he has already convinced himself that he can compete in the NHL.

And then asked afterwards if he outduelled Timmy T, he said that the Sens outduelled the Bs.

And all of this comes after he let in that first weak goal early on against the Islanders. The fact that he recovered so quickly and completely from that just shows what a battler he is, and that he truly does belong in this league. You could also tell that the rest of the team were not concerned about his ability to keep them competitive.

Just fantastic. Who would've thought that would go down and the team wouldn't skip a beat (and maybe play even better?).

tim1_2 wrote:Bask in the glory, my friends...just bask....

Still pleased as punch this morning.

tim1_2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:
Lehner is amazing.

Agreed. Lehner reminded me a little of Timmy T. And I do mean just a little. There were a couple of times when Lehner seemingly overplayed the puck and got out of position, but it never cost him. You can tell he has confidence, and his focus was pretty superb considering the circumstances.

Another guy Lehner reminds me of is Karlsson. Again, with the confidence. Lehner seemed pretty fearless to just play his game, and not worry about the Big Bad Bs. He looked really big in the net (probably a side-effect of being really big), but you could tell he has already convinced himself that he can compete in the NHL.

And then asked afterwards if he outduelled Timmy T, he said that the Sens outduelled the Bs.

And all of this comes after he let in that first weak goal early on against the Islanders. The fact that he recovered so quickly and completely from that just shows what a battler he is, and that he truly does belong in this league. You could also tell that the rest of the team were not concerned about his ability to keep them competitive.

Just fantastic. Who would've thought that would go down and the team wouldn't skip a beat (and maybe play even better?).

Still reminds me of what I believe a young Lundqvist would be like.

My comparable to Lehner right now is Michal Neuvirth. Who also won a Calder Cup (actually 2) and the AHL playoff MVP award.

That was one of the best defensive efforts I seen from the team all year. So many blocked/deflected shots, they went all out to help Lehner.

tim1_2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:
Lehner is amazing.

Agreed. Lehner reminded me a little of Timmy T. And I do mean just a little. There were a couple of times when Lehner seemingly overplayed the puck and got out of position, but it never cost him. You can tell he has confidence, and his focus was pretty superb considering the circumstances.

Another guy Lehner reminds me of is Karlsson. Again, with the confidence. Lehner seemed pretty fearless to just play his game, and not worry about the Big Bad Bs. He looked really big in the net (probably a side-effect of being really big), but you could tell he has already convinced himself that he can compete in the NHL.

And then asked afterwards if he outduelled Timmy T, he said that the Sens outduelled the Bs.

And all of this comes after he let in that first weak goal early on against the Islanders. The fact that he recovered so quickly and completely from that just shows what a battler he is, and that he truly does belong in this league. You could also tell that the rest of the team were not concerned about his ability to keep them competitive.

Just fantastic. Who would've thought that would go down and the team wouldn't skip a beat (and maybe play even better?).

It's going to be an interesting situation going into the playoffs, provided that Anderson is back before or by then, that's for sure. I can't see any scenario in which Auld is our backup for Game 1 over Lehner at this point. Imagine having not one, but two, goalies you trust?

NEELY wrote:Sens undefeated with Gilory.

I honestly liked some of the things I saw from him last night, great skater, pretty solid shot... runs around a lot though. He will need to play a more responsible game for the Sens going forward and I think a week or two of practices will help with that.

Lehner is amazing.

What I liked was that he kept it simple, didn't try anything crazy and didn't cost the team any goals. He'll get more comfortable as he plays with the team. So far, so good. Let's hope that continues.

Hoags wrote:My comparable to Lehner right now is Michal Neuvirth. Who also won a Calder Cup (actually 2) and the AHL playoff MVP award.

That was one of the best defensive efforts I seen from the team all year. So many blocked/deflected shots, they went all out to help Lehner.

The team had it too good with Anderson and got away from helping the goalies because they didn't need to most nights. If Auld gets the same help as Lehner did last night, he looks a lot better.

This is good news all around because the team was going nowhere in the playoffs with their usual habits.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
The team had it too good with Anderson and got away from helping the goalies because they didn't need to most nights. If Auld gets the same help as Lehner did last night, he looks a lot better.

This is good news all around because the team was going nowhere in the playoffs with their usual habits.

Yeah I think you're right.

They have too much confidence in Anderson and tend to play more sloppy in front of him. They have zero confidence in Auld.

With Lehner, they've banded together to help him as much as they can, although MacLean may finally be tightening up the defence in preparation for the playoffs. We're dead last in shots allowed and our goal differential has been bad most of the year so good to see them tighten up.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
The team had it too good with Anderson and got away from helping the goalies because they didn't need to most nights. If Auld gets the same help as Lehner did last night, he looks a lot better.

This is good news all around because the team was going nowhere in the playoffs with their usual habits.

Yep. Last night was the best defensive effort I've seen from this team all season. If they keep that up, they'll be a force come April.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Hoags wrote:My comparable to Lehner right now is Michal Neuvirth. Who also won a Calder Cup (actually 2) and the AHL playoff MVP award.

That was one of the best defensive efforts I seen from the team all year. So many blocked/deflected shots, they went all out to help Lehner.

The team had it too good with Anderson and got away from helping the goalies because they didn't need to most nights. If Auld gets the same help as Lehner did last night, he looks a lot better.

This is good news all around because the team was going nowhere in the playoffs with their usual habits.

Auld has struggled. Don't see how you cna deny that.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Hoags wrote:My comparable to Lehner right now is Michal Neuvirth. Who also won a Calder Cup (actually 2) and the AHL playoff MVP award.

That was one of the best defensive efforts I seen from the team all year. So many blocked/deflected shots, they went all out to help Lehner.

The team had it too good with Anderson and got away from helping the goalies because they didn't need to most nights. If Auld gets the same help as Lehner did last night, he looks a lot better.

This is good news all around because the team was going nowhere in the playoffs with their usual habits.

This is, in part, the benefit of having the guys play and grow together from the AHL on and up. Lots of guys on that team played and won with Lehner -- Cowen, Smith, Condra, Butler, Daugavins, Greening, even Karlsson for a while. They all want him to succeed, and they are all tighter and stronger for it, battling for one another, but especially for the new guy getting the tough start against the Cup champs. You could tell last night that most of those guys wanted Lehner to get the shutout as badly as Lehner himself did.

That's one advantage of building right -- and one argument for making sure Bingo is a whole lot better next year.

NEELY wrote:Sens undefeated with Gilory.

I honestly liked some of the things I saw from him last night, great skater, pretty solid shot... runs around a lot though. He will need to play a more responsible game for the Sens going forward and I think a week or two of practices will help with that.

Lehner is amazing.

I doubt you can teach him not to run around though. I didn't mind what I saw, but nothing jumped out at me as being overly impressive. He appeared to have a good shot, made a tremendous play that should have resulted in a goal - which I think was Condra's open net where Gilroy pinched and kept the play alive to Foligno - or it could be a different play, can't fully remember.

Good skater, but MacLean didn't play him too much, so we didn't get to see a really solid rush by him. Nothing major yet, but seems like a decent addition. Next 10 games will tell more of a story for sure.