GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Buffalo Sabres - 7:00pm - Fri. Oct. 4th, 2013

Yeah Mac, Turris and Conacher seemed to have something going on.

SpezDispenser wrote:Yeah Mac, Turris and Conacher seemed to have something going on.  

Conacher is kind of Foligno+. He gets right in the middle of things, pisses people off, but he can score.

That line has excellent potential.

spader wrote:How sweet is it that Anderson leads off with a SO, that Karlsson scored the GWG, and that Turris and Mac have chemistry right away?

That's all good and well, but it's the same thing we've seen for years and years. Only this time we made a Vezina-calibre goalie look like a Vezina nominee. First two periods, lots of shots, not that many good chances. Conacher and Neil the only ones crashing the net (once each).

Not that I think we need another A-Train, but I don't believe the Sens have out-blocked another team in several years. What's up with that?

#FearlesslyPeskyInRed

I'm tired, should go to bed.

OK, *again*, why is Fleury at the top of the short list?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20142ALLGAGAll&sort=savePercentage&viewName=savePercentageLeaders

Three goalies with 1.000 SV%, all with a single game. Scrivens only faced 5 shots and doesn't have a win, while Fleury and Anderson have one each. Fleury's SO comes on 27 saves while Anderson's on 35. Alphabetically "Craig" is before "Marc-Andre", "Anderson" is before "Fleury", "Ottawa" is before "Pittsburgh". Only "Penguins" comes before "Senators" -- can't believe that would be why Fleury's ugly mug is on the leaderboard instead of Anderson's ugly mug.

We looked Cussing good.

MacArthur/Turris/Conacher was our best line. The Spezza line looked good too, but they still have some work to do.

Really, this game could've gone either way, both goalies were ridiculous. is the man, that is all. If Quick continues to be shaky, should be in nets for Team USA in the Olympics....not that that would be a good thing for the Sens.

Said it before and I'll say it again, MacArthur being signed was a huge deal. That's a guy, if he has 2 good season in Ottawa I would look to resign vs keeping Michalek. He and Turris along with Conacher looked fantastic all night.

Karlsson was Karlsson, Anderson was Anderson. Top line needs to be a lot better, especially Michalek.

NEELY wrote:Said it before and I'll say it again, MacArthur being signed was a huge deal.  That's a guy, if he has 2 good season in Ottawa I would look to resign vs keeping Michalek.  He and Turris along with Conacher looked fantastic all night.

Karlsson was Karlsson, Anderson was Anderson. Top line needs to be a lot better, especially Michalek.

Spezza with 7 SOG, Ryan with 5 -- those are positives. Michalek with 1 -- WTH is that? Maybe Spezza had 7 because he couldn't find Michalek in a shooting position? As for 13 shots and no goals from the top line, I can live with that given how Miller was playing; most other goalies in the league that's a couple goals, or more. What's a bit troubling is that 7-5-1 was their shot counts after 2 periods, and didn't change after the third. Our entire top line was held without a shot in the third period of a 0-0 game. They have a long way to go, yet.

MacArthur has speed and a lot of smarts. Really good signing for Turris to have a veteran presence there now that Alfies gone.

I think Mac could be a player who moved up to the too line from time to time as well. Very solid looking so far.

Our 4 centers were just spectacular offensively.

Karlsson has scored 7 goals in his last 10 games against Buffalo

 

LeKing wrote:Karlsson has scored 7 goals in his last 10 games against Buffalo

 

5 in his last 4 is even more impressive.

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:Said it before and I'll say it again, MacArthur being signed was a huge deal.  That's a guy, if he has 2 good season in Ottawa I would look to resign vs keeping Michalek.  He and Turris along with Conacher looked fantastic all night.

Karlsson was Karlsson, Anderson was Anderson. Top line needs to be a lot better, especially Michalek.

Spezza with 7 SOG, Ryan with 5 -- those are positives.  Michalek with 1 -- WTH is that?  Maybe Spezza had 7 because he couldn't find Michalek in a shooting position?  As for 13 shots and no goals from the top line, I can live with that given how Miller was playing; most other goalies in the league that's a couple goals, or more.  What's a bit troubling is that 7-5-1 was their shot counts after 2 periods, and didn't change after the third.  Our entire top line was held without a shot in the third period of a 0-0 game.  They have a long way to go, yet.

False, Michalek had 3. SOG is misleading.

They didn't have shots in the third because the Turris line played more minutes. The Spezza line will need time to gel and form chemistry.

True, Michalek had 2 SOG in the third (I thought the Event Summary page would auto-refresh, but it seems to update only portions -- like the score and game time/status, but not the stats without a manual refresh).

Also true that SOG can be misleading.

However two players combining for 12 SOG through two periods and their linemate getting just 1 is, at the very least, curious. And those two players getting *zero* shots in the third, well, curious as well.

Bottom line, I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say Michalek was less than inspiring, and Spezza-Ryan are still working to build some chemistry (understandable, given their lack of playing together).

We broke Miller, a little:

Bill Hoppe ‏@BillHoppeNHL

Ryan Miller (lower body) is questionable for tonight. #Sabres used goalie exemption for Hackett. Not serious, Regier said.

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:Spezza and Ryan have 7 and 5 SOG (respectively) through 40 minutes; Michalek had 1.  Plasma failure?  Line shuffling in the  3rd?

The top line ended up with 15 shots. I don't care who had how many, that's a nice little shot count.

How many from in close vs outside? (Didn't see the entire game.. but heard a lot of shots by the Sens from the outside). They need to get to the net for rebounds..