10th???

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I think Neil, especially at his salary, needs to be more of a Ruutu type player that backs it up with the odd fight. He's shown he can get between 8 and 12 goals when he's not the resident tough guy. Carkner will take on the role of tough guy if he can stick with the team. If Neil has to be our fighter then it's a waste of money compared to what he can potentially bring to the team.

Also, as to the topic. I agree that putting Toronto ahead of us seems unlikely but to be honest 10th really isn't far off of what could happen. I personally had the Sens at 7th in my prediction and later in the prediction thread I admitted that they could fall to 9th.

I like our toughness. We have enough without going overboard and sacrificing talent for toughness. We have Neil who is the best middleweight in the League and can play a regular shift, plus throw game changing hits and irritate as good as anyone. We have Ruutu who is a very under-estimated fighter, he rarely loses and ties up people till they are tired and then throws 'em. Ruutu is also a top ten pest on anyone's list, although he got away from that a bit last year. Then we have Carkner who is a true heavyweight. He has the size, heart and has seemed to do okay in the few boughts he has had. I would like to see how he fairs against Laraque, Orr and the rest of the meatheads in our division.

N4L wrote:They key to everything for Ottawa is a good start. I said this a month ago or when ever the schedual came out, if The Sens cant start the year at least 5 games over 500 in their first 15, no way do they make the playoffs. They might have the easiest schedual in the league to start the year so they need to click fast and really get some momentum going and carry that forward throughout the year.

If that doesnt happen, doesnt matter what goes down the rest of the way, they alreayd dug a whole almost impossible to come out of.

That said I 100% believe they will get off to that hot start and challenge for the division with Bosotn.

None of the panel nerds would ever go out on a limb to say a team would do well, unless they are a lock. It is easier to say teams will fail and them call them a surprise....

Personally I agree with you, potentially coloured by being a fan but I think they are heading in the right direction.

The ranking is less offensive than the prediction that the Leafs would finish ahead of us. Absurd.

MurderOnIce wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I think Neil, especially at his salary, needs to be more of a Ruutu type player that backs it up with the odd fight. He's shown he can get between 8 and 12 goals when he's not the resident tough guy. Carkner will take on the role of tough guy if he can stick with the team. If Neil has to be our fighter then it's a waste of money compared to what he can potentially bring to the team.

Also, as to the topic. I agree that putting Toronto ahead of us seems unlikely but to be honest 10th really isn't far off of what could happen. I personally had the Sens at 7th in my prediction and later in the prediction thread I admitted that they could fall to 9th.

I like our toughness. We have enough without going overboard and sacrificing talent for toughness. We have Neil who is the best middleweight in the League and can play a regular shift, plus throw game changing hits and irritate as good as anyone. We have Ruutu who is a very under-estimated fighter, he rarely loses and ties up people till they are tired and then throws 'em. Ruutu is also a top ten pest on anyone's list, although he got away from that a bit last year. Then we have Carkner who is a true heavyweight. He has the size, heart and has seemed to do okay in the few boughts he has had. I would like to see how he fairs against Laraque, Orr and the rest of the meatheads in our division.

I agree with all that. My point was that if Neil has to be our tough guy, if Carkner can't play at the NHL level regularly, then we are wasting money having Neil take on the enforcer role full-time like he was forced to do last season.

To be honest, there's an easy to way to look at this:

We've lost: Heatley, Comrie, Lee, and Alex Auld.
We've replaced them with : Michalek, Cheechoo, Kovalev, Karlsson, Regin and Leclaire.

I think 9/10 people would say they'd prefer the latter, so one would argue that in a conference where the majority of the teams haven't gotten significantly better- that the Sens couldn't possibly do worse than what they did last year. Throw in a little extra hate for underperforming so many years, plus another year's experience for Coach Clouston and this number goes higher.

In my opinion the other teams that have gotten better over the post season are Philly, Toronto, Atlanta, Tampa, and Washington. Pittsburgh and Boston are obviously going to be a force.

Buffalo hasn't improved, neither has Jersey, and neither have the Rangers. In my opinion they've all made lateral moves that could be a toss-up, but by no means are shoo-ins for playoffs.

I'm thinking it'll shake down like this:

Philadelphia
Washington
Boston
Pittsburgh

after that, it's a crap shoot. Those are your top 4- without a doubt.

In my opinion the other four playoff teams will be Ottawa, the Rangers, the Devils, and Carolina. The latter three due to goaltending. All four could easily lose spots to hot seasons from ATL and TB though- as stupid as it sounds- they have the pieces to make it work. MTL doesn't have a hope.

As I said before, seeding Toronto ahead of Ottawa is legitimate cause for griping.

Well, Jersey may have improved just by having Brodeur play his usual 77 games, especially with an improved (albeit boring) defensive play under Lemaire's tutelage.

Boston will obviously slip a bit. There's no way that losing 36 goals will not be felt -- that's nearly a half a goal per game difference.

Philly has just a single question mark, albeit a fairly significant one -- Emery. That said, I think they'll do fine.

Pittsburgh will not have a coaching dilemma or start the season with two of their top-four D-men on the IR. They will improve.

I think Ottawa has a legitimate chance to hang in tough with Boston.

Here is how I look at it...

2006-2007 Stanley Cup Finals roster

Heatley - Spezza - Alfie
Schaefer - Fisher - Neil
Vermette - Comrie - Eaves
Schubert - Kelly - Saprykin

Volchenkov - Redden
Meszaros - Phillips
Priessing - Corvo

Emery
Gerber

2009-2010 Roster

Michalek - Spezza - Alfie
Kovalev - Regin - Fisher
Foligno - Shannon - Cheechoo
Ruutu - Kelly - Neil

Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Campoli - Carkner

Leclaire
Elliot

Is that team six spots worse than the 06-07 team...not likely

wprager wrote:Well, Jersey may have improved just by having Brodeur play his usual 77 games, especially with an improved (albeit boring) defensive play under Lemaire's tutelage.

Jersey was successful last year because their game was predicated on a more offensive style that suited Zajac and Parise. This was done in the absence of Fraudeur. He spoiled their season because they had to change the whole team game to suit him. More of the same this year. Jersey will be a bubble team at best.

mickbud wrote:Here is how I look at it...

2006-2007 Stanley Cup Finals roster

Heatley - Spezza - Alfie
Schaefer - Fisher - Neil
Vermette - Comrie - Eaves
Schubert - Kelly - Saprykin

Volchenkov - Redden
Meszaros - Phillips
Priessing - Corvo

Emery
Gerber

2009-2010 Roster

Michalek - Spezza - Alfie
Kovalev - Regin - Fisher
Foligno - Shannon - Cheechoo
Ruutu - Kelly - Neil

Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Campoli - Carkner

Leclaire
Elliot

Is that team six spots worse than the 06-07 team...not likely

No. In fact we are a lot better. What's different is the teams around us are a lot better than they were in 2006-07

The 06-07 Eastern conferance was absolutely brutal. The Sens were the biggest fish in a really small pond. That was a championshp team.

I think we've all gone down this road before, but reading this page, it's what Jordo said that echoes the sentiments that I think the majority of us feel.

The top 4 spaces in the East are locked. Get out of the way, let them duel and fight tooth and nail for positions 4-8. You're not taking out Philly, Boston, Washington or Pittsburgh (mind you, if anyone falls, it's Pittsburgh IMO). So possibly you can make it into 4th if Pittsburgh falters, but realistically it's New Jersey, Carolina (a little overrated IMO), Ottawa, Montreal, the Rangers (not a fan), Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Florida and Toronto all slap-fighting for the final 4 spots.

So 9 teams battling for 4 spots. You can guess how much each game means and each point means.

EDIT: While I feel the Sens will land in 7th or 8th, saying they'll make the top 4 in the East is an equal disservice to the other teams. We need to understand that this year almost everyone has a chance - and the slogan that Clutch came up with means a lot (now I can't remember what than was :^^^^: )

Why do you think the top 4 are a lock? I think we'll give Boston a run for their money. If Boston's big-Z or Tim-Thom get injured they are in trouble. Even with those two in the lineup, once our new guys develop some chemistry we can go toe-to-toe with them. While I still think Boston will win the division, I certainly hope that, like you, they think it's already locked up.

wprager wrote:Why do you think the top 4 are a lock? I think we'll give Boston a run for their money. If Boston's big-Z or Tim-Thom get injured they are in trouble. Even with those two in the lineup, once our new guys develop some chemistry we can go toe-to-toe with them. While I still think Boston will win the division, I certainly hope that, like you, they think it's already locked up.

The long and the short for me is the talent level of Boston, Washington, Philly and Pittsburgh are so strong that it'll be a little while before the Sens can be 100% confident that they can play and beat these teams night in and night out. Remember Prags, that these teams all went through deep, dark times where they were last (or close to it) in the conference and were rewarded with the Ovechkins, Semins, Crosbys, Malkins, Richards, Carters, Lucics etc. etc. etc. so that now, they've made their off-season moves and are as strong a team as you can find. There are still holes for sure in all of their teams, but they're as close to being complete as I can see personally in the East. It's not a knock against the Sens, our draft picks are in the process of maturing (Karlsson, Cowen, Wiercioch, Lehner, Regin etc.), so in 2 or 3 years, we'll be there and the cycle will change again.

For now, they're the top dogs of the conference - without really taking injuries into account. If injuries happen - and they do of course - the landscape may change, but for now, I believe the top 4 are set in stone.

SeawaySensFan wrote:As I said before, seeding Toronto ahead of Ottawa is legitimate cause for griping.

Toronto Sports Network...

I'm not disputing Washington, Pittsburgh and Philly. Although what happens to the Caps if Varlamov comes back to Earth?

Boston lost a 36 goal scorer, and their game relies a great deal on two single individuals. If not for Thomas, we would have won that game last Friday night. And if Chara is injured (he sometimes fights when he shouldn't) then the job for Thomas (both to keep out goals and to stay healthy) becomes that much more difficult.

Everyone will be gunning for the Bruins. Less so for the Sens.

Anyhow, even discounting injuries, I believe we can give them a run for their money.

wprager wrote:I'm not disputing Washington, Pittsburgh and Philly. Although what happens to the Caps if Varlamov comes back to Earth?

Boston lost a 36 goal scorer, and their game relies a great deal on two single individuals. If not for Thomas, we would have won that game last Friday night. And if Chara is injured (he sometimes fights when he shouldn't) then the job for Thomas (both to keep out goals and to stay healthy) becomes that much more difficult.

Everyone will be gunning for the Bruins. Less so for the Sens.

Anyhow, even discounting injuries, I believe we can give them a run for their money.

I will forever remain an optimist - and I hope you're right. But as of right now, all I want to do is have some fun, gain some chemistry and sneak into the playoffs. Because if any of these 'top seeded' teams are gonna fall, it'll be to the little hot team in the playoffs (ie Carolina).

wprager wrote:I'm not disputing Washington, Pittsburgh and Philly. Although what happens to the Caps if Varlamov comes back to Earth?

Boston lost a 36 goal scorer, and their game relies a great deal on two single individuals. If not for Thomas, we would have won that game last Friday night. And if Chara is injured (he sometimes fights when he shouldn't) then the job for Thomas (both to keep out goals and to stay healthy) becomes that much more difficult.

Everyone will be gunning for the Bruins. Less so for the Sens.

Anyhow, even discounting injuries, I believe we can give them a run for their money.

I don't see everyone gunning for the Bruins personally. The PENS are the champs and the ones that teams will use as a measuring stick. Sure Boston was first in the Conference but no one cares. The Bruins aren't the team that others will be gunning for IMO.