GAME DAY: Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators - 7:30pm Dec. 8th, 2008

asq2 wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:We dont have a shot against the Hawks. That is going to be an ugly, ugly game. If the Sens keep it close I will be shocked.

That's the spirit! :D

They are playing a complete team, with a good offense, good defense, in a better conferance. I'm realistic, I dont expect the Sens to even be close on Wed night.

Neely4Life wrote:We dont have a shot against the Hawks. That is going to be an ugly, ugly game. If the Sens keep it close I will be shocked.

I'll take that bet, any day.

That's a porous D, with shaky goaltending at best, in CHI. Toews and Kane are going, I admit, but they don't have me overly concerned. Someone's got to keep our big line in check, and I don't see any impressive checkers on that team, let alone any great shutdowns D after Keith.

I expect another close game in CHI, to be honest, especially after the sloppy game we played tonight.

rooneypoo wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:We dont have a shot against the Hawks. That is going to be an ugly, ugly game. If the Sens keep it close I will be shocked.

I'll take that bet, any day.

That's a porous D, with shaky goaltending at best, in CHI. Toews and Kane are going, I admit, but they don't have me overly concerned. Someone's got to keep our big line in check, and I don't see any impressive checkers on that team, let alone any great shutdowns D after Keith.

I expect another close game in CHI, to be honest, especially after the sloppy game we played tonight.

They get last change and have two lines who can score, a 3rd who can put it in too, and a solid 4th line. I watch Chicago as much as I watch Ottawa aside from being there, Ottawa will be lucky to be in the game after the first the way they are playing, and Auld being so tired. Wed night could be an extremely long night for the Sens, especially since Chicago is still stinging from that Detroit game.

I can basically tell you exactly what is going on inside that Chicago locker room and right now this might be the worst possible time for the Sens to play them.

If they have two successful lines, why are they rumoured to be so frantically looking for a second-line centre?

Campbell is not great defensively.

It's unlikely that they'll win, but it's not impossible.

asq2 wrote:If they have two successful lines, why are they rumoured to be so frantically looking for a second-line centre?

Campbell is not great defensively.

It's unlikely that they'll win, but it's not impossible.

Not impossible and if I was a betting man, depending on the odds, I would put a lot on Chicago here. Everything is adding up to a blow out IMO. The Sens are walking in with no secondary scoring and Chicago is playing some of the best hockey in the league.

DOnt be shocked if its a 5-1, 6-1 game. Auld looks exhausted too.

Frustrating game. We didn't deserve to win and we didn't really deserve to lose, but this game went against pretty much everything Hartsburg is trying to do here. End to end rushes, open ice, D caught out of position, F caught back in the offensive zone, too many icings. And to top it all off we couldn't win a faceoff unless Vermette was there.

Average effort, really strong third until we took all those penalties. It felt to me like the D was off as a unit tonight. Smith was good, but he just has zero offensive skills, the rest of the guys like Bell and Picard for sure seemed to be nervous, as if for the first time it sinks in that they can't compete with a Bouwmeester - and if there's a trade, one of them sits. They were timid, lost their men a lot, made soft plays.

Throw it away, be thankful for the point, regroup and get ready to play a much more physical and grit game against the Hawks, or they will kill us.

I don't really like even bothering complaining about refs anymore, because it's really pretty rare that a ref is the root of your problems - and the refs weren't the root of our problems tonight, but how the Diddle do you possibly miss two straight blatant calls when you've just handed out 3 in a row to the Sens? What are you watching? The slash on Alfie is textbook and the trip on Volchenkov is so bloody obvious you'd have to be mentally challenged to miss it.

If Auld is exhausted, start Gerber. It's really not that bad.

This is the first game that I can remember hearing a lot of referee complaints. They should never be the story, but if the first time it's a major issue is game 25, then it's not the end of the world.

Move forward, take 2 of the next 3.

Boy, we could sure use a Bouwmeester right now though.

asq2 wrote:Boy, we could sure use a Bouwmeester right now though.

Yep, he was the game's first star.

He made a couple of nice defensive plays. I want him even more now. His skating is ridiculously smooth for a guy his size.

Ballard looked great tonight too. He'll lessen the blow to Florida when J-Bo is moved.

hemlock34 wrote:

asq2 wrote:Boy, we could sure use a Bouwmeester right now though.

Yep, he was the game's first star.

He made a couple of nice defensive plays. I want him even more now. His skating is ridiculously smooth for a guy his size.

Ballard looked great tonight too. He'll lessen the blow to Florida when J-Bo is moved.

I won't pretend that I watch Florida very often, but I don't understand why they are/have been this bad.

They had/have a great blue-line with guys like Bouwmeester, Ballard, Allen, McCabe, Skrastins (like him tonight, too), MVR, Boynton etc., have obviously received good goaltending from Anderson and Vokoun over the years. On paper haven't had terrible offensive line-ups with guys like Jokinen, Horton, Weiss, Zednick, Stillman, Kreps, Frolik, Matthias etc.

The South-east isn't exactly a killer division, either.

Why have they been so terrible?

asq2 wrote:

hemlock34 wrote:

asq2 wrote:Boy, we could sure use a Bouwmeester right now though.

Yep, he was the game's first star.

He made a couple of nice defensive plays. I want him even more now. His skating is ridiculously smooth for a guy his size.

Ballard looked great tonight too. He'll lessen the blow to Florida when J-Bo is moved.

I won't pretend that I watch Florida very often, but I don't understand why they are/have been this bad.

They had/have a great blue-line with guys like Bouwmeester, Ballard, Allen, McCabe, Skrastins (like him tonight, too), MVR, Boynton etc., have obviously received good goaltending from Anderson and Vokoun over the years. On paper haven't had terrible offensive line-ups with guys like Jokinen, Horton, Weiss, Zednick, Stillman, Kreps, Frolik, Matthias etc.

The South-east isn't exactly a killer division, either.

Why have they been so terrible?

Who knows. Their blueline right now, looks as good as it's ever been, or at least that I've seen it. They've got a nice mix of toughness and skill. Losing Bouwmeester will hurt them, but I bet Ballard steps up into the number one role and they keep on keeping on.

Upfront they've had talent, and until recently, it seems that guys like Jokinen, Horton and Weiss haven't had alot to work with. I'd also say that Weiss hasn't lived up to his pre draft potential. Horton is a freak of nature and has put up some nice stats on some bad teams there.

The future is bright, should they not decide to rebuild *again*.

Repik got his first tonight and looks like he'll be a contributor. Frolik is looking like a nice talent and Mathias is a heart and soul guy. Add in a healthy Booth and vets like Stillman and they SHOULD be a good club.

You are right though, they've certainly haven't lived up to the potential they've had on paper in recent years, particularly with how average the SE has been. This year their PP is 23rd, which explains the lack of goals to a certain extent, but their PK has been somewhat decent sitting at 13th.

They've also made some stupid moves in the past (Luongo), that haven't panned out. Considering that Allen is the only roster guy still in Florida from that trade, calling that move a disaster would be an understatement.

Like you, I'm stumped. They've gotten some quality goaltending, but when your goals for (2.44)is a full 1/3 of a goal less per game than your goals against (2.74), you're going to lose more often than not. The burning question is why????

I guess after all that, I have no answer for your question lol.

Deep down, I always felt it was Martin's lack of aggressive hockey; however, since he's been moved to the GM position, that's no longer a point, so what's left?

With DeBoer being highly touted upon his arrival in Florida, one has to wonder if the switch from the minors to the "Big Show" is hitting more than it's share of bumps along the way? Is DeBoer overrated as a coach? Who knows?! But for whatever reason, Florida can't seem to get any kind of flow going (except last night...when down, they come back and tie it...LOL).

As it's been pointed out, Florida's blue-line looks quite nice, and even though they're knee-deep in Injury hell right now in regards to their forwards, they still have some decent prowess there.
Maybe it's the weather... LOL

dirtydirtynorth wrote:There goes Picard's no PIM streak. And our undefeated in black streak. damn.

OK, they can wash them now.

rooneypoo wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:We dont have a shot against the Hawks. That is going to be an ugly, ugly game. If the Sens keep it close I will be shocked.

I'll take that bet, any day.

That's a porous D, with shaky goaltending at best, in CHI. Toews and Kane are going, I admit, but they don't have me overly concerned. Someone's got to keep our big line in check, and I don't see any impressive checkers on that team, let alone any great shutdowns D after Keith.

I expect another close game in CHI, to be honest, especially after the sloppy game we played tonight.

I'm with you, Rooney. Crosby was "going" also and they kept him to zero shots on goal. The Sens weren't outplayed by a better team last night, they were done in by piss-poor effort, bad breaks (Alfie with two posts) and horrible reffing. Note the order I put those in -- make no mistakes about it, that was not a good effort, but they've repeatedly shown the penchant to play down to the (expected?) level of the opposition.

Auld had his first bad game and the writing was on the wall all night to lose in OT. They were getting every bounce and call their way. I have to say though the line of Fisher-Vermette-Neil were useless.

agreed. Why did Hartsburg break up the Donovan, Fisher and Verme line?

And were the Refs blatant Panther lovers!?!? Seriously, this isn't a sore-loser blaming the refs, but last night, I saw at least 3-4 blatant penalties that went unnoticed or perhaps purposely ignored... What the hell!??! And it wasn't Van Masenhoven reffing either?!?!

I just hope this is one step back and the team can follow it up with a step forward. I think we all had a feeling they were going to let off the gas for this game and now that it is done, they need to make sure they put it behind them and make forward progress in the next game.

It seems like we've had an issue with letting up after we score all season. For some reason, we can't keep the petal to the metal after we get a lead. There's just no excuse for giving up 3 leads to an injury depleted lineup like the one faced last night. Auld didn't make the timely saves last night but Anderson certainly didn't bring his "A" game either. If not for the big 3, we would have been completely dominated through 40 minutes.

A little heart-breaking to lose it in OT like that after some inspired penalty killing due to some weak calls and lack of calls going our way. How there was no call on the hook on Volch stepping out of the box is beyond me.

One last thought- although it sounds like it's going to be at least until January, seeing Jaybo last night, I'm willing to up my offer of Vermette, Lee, and SJ's first!

Vandelay wrote:I just hope this is one step back and the team can follow it up with a step forward. I think we all had a feeling they were going to let off the gas for this game and now that it is done, they need to make sure they put it behind them and make forward progress in the next game.

It seems like we've had an issue with letting up after we score all season. For some reason, we can't keep the petal to the metal after we get a lead. There's just no excuse for giving up 3 leads to an injury depleted lineup like the one faced last night. Auld didn't make the timely saves last night but Anderson certainly didn't bring his "A" game either. If not for the big 3, we would have been completely dominated through 40 minutes.

A little heart-breaking to lose it in OT like that after some inspired penalty killing due to some weak calls and lack of calls going our way. How there was no call on the hook on Volch stepping out of the box is beyond me.

One last thought- although it sounds like it's going to be at least until January, seeing Jaybo last night, I'm willing to up my offer of Vermette, Lee, and SJ's first!

Or the slash on Alfie... wasn't the reason we lose last night, but I think it's the reason we don't win...