Official GMHockey.com recommended line-up for the Sens.

Nice Shabbs.

You will see I don't have Heatley in the shootout lineup. 2 reasons come to mind for this:
1. He can't score on shootouts
2. Punishment

Given the lack of a conclusion to the Heatley saga, I'll refrain from posting my lineup.

Couple comments though:
-It drove me mad last year not having Winchester on the 2nd PP.
-Alfie should not be PKing anymore. I felt that way last year, but imagine following up every PK with Alfie-Spezza-Kovalev...
-The PK tandems should therefore be Ruutu-Fisher (reminiscent of Ruutu-Malone) and Kelly-Winchester, with Bass, Donovan, Shannon, and Foligno as the secondary Pkers.
-Ruutu and Spezza should be 1-2 in shootouts on everyones lineup Imo.
-The first PK (with Heatley) is a BEAST!!

cas wrote:Given the lack of a conclusion to the Heatley saga, I'll refrain from posting my lineup.

Couple comments though:
-It drove me mad last year not having Winchester on the 2nd PP.
-Alfie should not be PKing anymore. I felt that way last year, but imagine following up every PK with Alfie-Spezza-Kovalev...
-The PK tandems should therefore be Ruutu-Fisher (reminiscent of Ruutu-Malone) and Kelly-Winchester, with Bass, Donovan, Shannon, and Foligno as the secondary Pkers.
-Ruutu and Spezza should be 1-2 in shootouts on everyones lineup Imo.
-The first PK (with Heatley) is a BEAST!!

I agree with Alfie not PKing, but he is so good at it. I would love to cut his injury risk in half and save some of his energy by taking him off there as well.

I take it you mean 1st PP with Heatley and not PK?

I think everybody so far has Ruutu in the shootout...nice.

notch4077 wrote:How do I delete my posts on this thread. I sort of want this to be just posters lineups. I that a good idea or no?

You should be able to by clicking on the "X" in your posts near the "Edit" button.

What I'd like to see at the end of this, if it's even possible, is a general consensus on a single line-up... but that may be impossible given everyone's different ideas/opinions.

I'm not going to post a lineup -- too much work

But I'll comment on some trends.

1. Love Shannon on the point for the PP; not so much with Alfie.
2. Love the PP unit with both Spezza and Kovalev; not so sure about rounding out out with Heatley, though. Goes along with #1 above -- move Alfie in from point and then you still have Heatley on unit 2.
3. Resting Alfie during the PK gets my thumbs up. We have Fisher, Ruutu, Winchester and Kelly; plus Kovaleve is supposedly superb as a penalty killer.

Here's what I would do, with or without Heatley.

Alfredsson-Spezza-Kovalev
Foligno-Fisher-Shannon
Winchester-Kelly-Donovan
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

I hate our defence - we have no top 4 PMD and only one right handed player, IF Smith is healthy, and assuming Lee is in the minors.

I'd take the Leafs defence in a second.

Alfie and Kovalev are both right-wingers, although I am more than willing to try that line to see how one of them adjusts to playing his off-wing.

I like the idea of keeping FFS together.

That third line, though, ugh. They certainly won't score too many goals, but at least the wingers have some size and speed, so they could work well as s checking line.

Our defense is a great, big unknown at this point. First, all those rumors of a career-ending injury to Smith have been neither confirmed nor denied. This meas that we don't know where Less starts the year. And Lee did show signs of improvement toward the end, plus some spunk as well. Other than Lee playing better, the other changes to our D from last year include Campoli playing full time from the start, Picard not being injured half the year, and Clouston's game plan including aggressive fore-checking.

However Picard and Lee's place in the lineup is predicated on Smith not playing. So, unless we assume that the lack of definitive reports means Smith's injury recovery is going as expected, we really don't have any idea what our starting 6 will be come October.

This and the Heatley situation is really making any prognostications difficult.

wprager wrote:This and the Heatley situation is really making any prognostications difficult.

Thank God for the "edit" button.

notch4077 wrote:

wprager wrote:This and the Heatley situation is really making any prognostications difficult.

Thank God for the "edit" button.

Exactly... as things change... we can edit and update.

Besides, what else is there to do? Fluff?

Dash wrote:Here's what I would do, with or without Heatley.

Alfredsson-Spezza-Kovalev
Foligno-Fisher-Shannon
Winchester-Kelly-Donovan
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

I hate our defence - we have no top 4 PMD and only one right handed player, IF Smith is healthy, and assuming Lee is in the minors.

I'd take the Leafs defence in a second.

The Leafs defence would put us at about $75 million though. :^^^^: