General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

N4L wrote:Watch the empty net goal, Im not saying he is coasting the enitre game because he's not, but it's starting. The efforts are getting gradually worse and like it or not, he isnt drawing any penalties what so ever... people complian about the refs not calling anything, can anyone recall a play where Spezza was hooked or hauled down? That's how he will turn is luck around, with hard work and effort.

Fisher is the guy drawing all the penalties up front along with Michalek. Why? Because they skate hard and work for their breaks, it just doesnt magically go in for them.

Neither Alfie nor Spezza are drawing penalties. The problem with Spezza is that he lets frustration get the better of him offensively and he begins to force .

Yup, he's mentally weak, always has been. That's an enourmous part of the game.

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:Well, Thomas or not, Boston squeaked out a shoot-out win and are 1 point ahead of us. Can what's left of the Ottawa Senators and whoever can make it up from Bingo in time for tonight's game keep up with the Jackets?

You're kidding, they caught us? Diddle.

meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:Well, Thomas or not, Boston squeaked out a shoot-out win and are 1 point ahead of us. Can what's left of the Ottawa Senators and whoever can make it up from Bingo in time for tonight's game keep up with the Jackets?

You're kidding, they caught us? Diddle.

meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

With Lucic and Savard out for a long period... they are healthy now.

N4L wrote:Yup, he's mentally weak, always has been. That's an enourmous part of the game.

Be honest with yourself. He has improved mentally and maturity wise in the past couple of years.

Now I'll be honest with myself, his game has deteriorated offensively over the past few years. It is pretty much put up or shut up time right now.

N4L wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:Well, Thomas or not, Boston squeaked out a shoot-out win and are 1 point ahead of us. Can what's left of the Ottawa Senators and whoever can make it up from Bingo in time for tonight's game keep up with the Jackets?

You're kidding, they caught us? Diddle.

meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

With Lucic and Savard out for a long period... they are healthy now.

Im pretty sure Lucic will be out for awhile after the way he fall on his ankle in last nights game.

RobbyJ wrote:

N4L wrote:Yup, he's mentally weak, always has been. That's an enourmous part of the game.

Be honest with yourself. He has improved mentally and maturity wise in the past couple of years.

Now I'll be honest with myself, his game has deteriorated offensively over the past few years. It is pretty much put up or shut up time right now.

Maturity wise I think he has in a big way. He wants to do whats needed I think and he wants to be the go to guy. Now, mentally, I think it's at the exact same level, no better, no worse.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Good, we have games in hand, that helps. No, I don't expect us to be there all year, but the longer we cling onto the top of the division, obviously the less time we'll have in the 5-8 spot, fighting with 5 or 6 teams. I want to avoid that when possible.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Good, we have games in hand, that helps. No, I don't expect us to be there all year, but the longer we cling onto the top of the division, obviously the less time we'll have in the 5-8 spot, fighting with 5 or 6 teams. I want to avoid that when possible.

I think we should also avoid losing to piece of Dung teams like New Jersey.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Good, we have games in hand, that helps. No, I don't expect us to be there all year, but the longer we cling onto the top of the division, obviously the less time we'll have in the 5-8 spot, fighting with 5 or 6 teams. I want to avoid that when possible.

Thus why this road trip is huge. They need to go 500 on that trip. So far, The sens are not a very good team on the road.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
I think we should also avoid losing to piece of Dung teams like New Jersey.

They will literally bore you to death. You'll lose because you were doing your 'to do' list the next day.

That said, there's a reason they're in 2nd place in the East - they check super tight - and guys like Spezza have always had an issue with that.

N4L wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Good, we have games in hand, that helps. No, I don't expect us to be there all year, but the longer we cling onto the top of the division, obviously the less time we'll have in the 5-8 spot, fighting with 5 or 6 teams. I want to avoid that when possible.

Thus why this road trip is huge. They need to go 500 on that trip. So far, The sens are not a very good team on the road.

So far they aren't for sure. 3-4-0 ain't good. I have a good feeling about there chances of coming out of this road trip with a overall road record nicely above 500.

Boston should be a good start. If we have Fisher, Kovalev and A-Train all back I feel confident we can win that one for sure. Also Michalek scored on the road finally so I can see that continuing.

It's also been mentioned, by you N4L, that the Sens played a strong game and could just as easily won that game last night and that was without Fisher, Kovie and Volchie.

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:
I think we should also avoid losing to piece of Dung teams like New Jersey.

They will literally bore you to death. You'll lose because you were doing your 'to do' list the next day.

That said, there's a reason they're in 2nd place in the East - they check super tight - and guys like Spezza have always had an issue with that.

Fair enough. But that's predictable and there's enough speed on our team to work around that. Besides, New Jersey played a particularly underwhelming game overall and we failed to exploit that.

The Senators are certainly guilty of falling into Jersey's sleep-inducing strategy. WTF happened to playing "our game"?

I'm not going to defend their style of play, but when you don't have a lot of stars or top scorers on your team you have to adjust your style of play accordingly. What they do, though is back check hard, and any time a forward or defenseman tries a fancy drop pass, or try to pass the puck east/west New Jersey is more often than not going to get the puck and turn it around quickly the other way.

To be New Jersey you need to play 4th line hockey, and every line needs to dump the puck in and then grind and cycle. Eventually you'll wear down their smaller defense and force the forwards to drop down to help thus opening up your point men for shots and in turn deflections. Rarely are you going to beat Brodeur on a shot he can see, so you have to get the dirty goals.

Ottawa proved that point last night, lots of east/west play in the offensive zone, lots of drop passes, and lots of turnovers between the blue line and the hash marks.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

N4L wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:
meh. They're barely ahead of us and we have what 3 or 4 games in hand? Besides which did anyone really think we'd stay at the top of the division for the season? I mean other than the 3 people that voted that in the poll.

Good, we have games in hand, that helps. No, I don't expect us to be there all year, but the longer we cling onto the top of the division, obviously the less time we'll have in the 5-8 spot, fighting with 5 or 6 teams. I want to avoid that when possible.

Thus why this road trip is huge. They need to go 500 on that trip. So far, The sens are not a very good team on the road.

So far they aren't for sure. 3-4-0 ain't good. I have a good feeling about there chances of coming out of this road trip with a overall road record nicely above 500.

Boston should be a good start. If we have Fisher, Kovalev and A-Train all back I feel confident we can win that one for sure. Also Michalek scored on the road finally so I can see that continuing.

It's also been mentioned, by you N4L, that the Sens played a strong game and could just as easily won that game last night and that was without Fisher, Kovie and Volchie.

We'll see, that wst coast swing is a tough, tough, tough trip. Pitts bombed, Philly bombed, Ottawa isnt better then those 2 teams. If they come out of that trip with a better then 500 record The Sens will make the playoffs.

500 would be phenominal.

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:
I think we should also avoid losing to piece of Dung teams like New Jersey.

They will literally bore you to death. You'll lose because you were doing your 'to do' list the next day.

That said, there's a reason they're in 2nd place in the East - they check super tight - and guys like Spezza have always had an issue with that.

That's a HUGE problem in general.

Sharks @ Oilers tonight... Heatley should get a "nice" greeting... the fun starts at 9:30pm ET.

Lucic out 4 weeks with high ankle sprain...

http://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/6114659223

Those can be nagging...