GAME DAY: Nashville Predators @ Ottawa Senators - 7:30pm ET - Thu. Oct. 22nd, 2009

Cheechoo was pretty much benched this game, definately was in the 3rd. I only started watching halfway through but I never saw him on the ice.

N4L wrote:The good.

Leclaire. Let in 6 but none were on him. He is the only reason that game wasnt a total blow out.

Spezza, AMAZING. Even in the 1st he was making defensive plays and really competing. Tried to do a little too much at times but in the 3rd he took over. Great game.

Phillips and A Train. Dominate again.

Regin. Looked good his first game back.

Campoli. Best game yet, something to build on.

The Bad.

Picard. Perhaps the single worst game I have ever seen from a defenseman, ever. He was that bad. He single handedly cost his team 3 goals. A little bad luck but he was aweful. He didnt see the ice in the 3rd. Hopefully he can bounce back but WOW.

Shannon. Why did Donovan come out? Shannon is useless and was taken off that top PP unit for Karlsson by the end of the game. He's been garbage all year and he didnt do anything to change that tonight.

Cheechoo. Uhhh, he played? Awful.

Carkner. Doesnt help that his partner was the worst player in the NHL tonight and perhaps the AHL, but he has to be better.

Missed Spezza in my recap. Ya, he was ridiculous tonight. Fantastic game from him. Who cares if he doesn't score? His game has improved dramatically.

N4L wrote:Refs had nothing to do with The Sens losing that game. The only people on the ice that should be blammed are The Sens (not Leciare).

Seriously though, Shannon was useless tonight and Cheechoo was invisable. I have a little easier time giving Cheechoo the benifit of the doubt because he has played fairly well up until tonight but Shannon... really? He should be no where near that PP. The best the PP has looked all year when Karlsson is manning the point.

Yeah, I thought Karlsson looked a lot more comfortable on the PP tonight (I only saw the third period) than he has since the pre-season.

Kovalev and Fisher should be skated hard for taking two of the stupidest penalties I've seen in a long time in the third.

Good on the Sens for scoring five goals in one period. Clouston will be fuming at the poor discipline showed by his team all night.

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:Refs had nothing to do with The Sens losing that game. The only people on the ice that should be blammed are The Sens (not Leciare).

Seriously though, Shannon was useless tonight and Cheechoo was invisable. I have a little easier time giving Cheechoo the benifit of the doubt because he has played fairly well up until tonight but Shannon... really? He should be no where near that PP. The best the PP has looked all year when Karlsson is manning the point.

Yeah, I thought Karlsson looked a lot more comfortable on the PP tonight (I only saw the third period) than he has since the pre-season.

Karlsson is playing better every game and he should be getting that PP time to build his confidence. Shannon should be no where near that first unit and if he isnt on the PP he should be in the stands, not Donovan.

dennycrane wrote:Kovalev and Fisher should be skated hard for taking two of the stupidest penalties I've seen in a long time in the third.

Good on the Sens for scoring five goals in one period. Clouston will be fuming at the poor discipline showed by his team all night.

Fisher's wasnt too bad, Kovalev's 100% was. It was a brutal game from about 90% of The Sens. Spezza, Phillips, A Train, and most of all Leciare kept that teams head above water.

Yeah, Volchenkov had a great game as well. It seemed like he was always out there for us, especially on the PK. Nice to see him get a goal.

Who'd have thought he'd be outscoring Spezza?

cloverleaf wrote:How invisible was cheechoo? On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being Dr. Invisible. You can't say 11.
Good comeback by Ottawa, Spezza looked good, Leclaire not so much. Great effort in the third. That is something Ottawa has lacked during their 18 month slump. I see good things brewing.

Pretty sure Cheechoo was benched after the 1st period, or early in the 2nd. He only played 7 minutes tonight -- pretty sure none of that was in the 3rd period.

Im still a little pissed at Clouston too. That too many men penalty cant happen on a PK with a min left in the game. He also kepy putting Shannon out there trying to get him going, didnt work and it wont. Shannon is not an top 6 forward and he isnt effective on the 4th line playing minimal mins. Basically a 3rd line player and guess what, no spot on the 3rd line. It was like watching someone trying to put the sqaure peg in the round hole.

That TMM penalty cost the team the game even if they did tie it up. The effect of that penalty were felt throughout that OT.

N4L wrote:

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:Refs had nothing to do with The Sens losing that game. The only people on the ice that should be blammed are The Sens (not Leciare).

Seriously though, Shannon was useless tonight and Cheechoo was invisable. I have a little easier time giving Cheechoo the benifit of the doubt because he has played fairly well up until tonight but Shannon... really? He should be no where near that PP. The best the PP has looked all year when Karlsson is manning the point.

Yeah, I thought Karlsson looked a lot more comfortable on the PP tonight (I only saw the third period) than he has since the pre-season.

Karlsson is playing better every game and he should be getting that PP time to build his confidence. Shannon should be no where near that first unit and if he isnt on the PP he should be in the stands, not Donovan.

I dunno. Clearly Clouston isn't seeing it like that. Shannon started
the night on the 4th line and ended up on the 1st, replacing Cheechoo
for well over half of the game.

The thing about Shannon is you either
put him in the top 9 or you leave him out. He will absolutely wither on
the 4th line -- or get injured. So, yes, if it's down to him or Donovan on the 4th, you bench Shannon. But when you bring him back in, it has to be at the expense of someone in the top 9.

Clouston saw it that way by the end of the night. Shannon was useless on the 4th line, he saw that and tried him on the top line, where he was once again, useless. He was then taken off that line.

The second he changed Shannon for Karlsson on that top PP it looked amazing.

Hopefully Cluston takes Shannon out next game because that 4th line is 1000 times better with Donovan then it was with Shannon. Ruutu and Kelly did nothing without Dono. Clouston screwed with the chemistry and looked what happend. Hopefully it's a lesson lerned.

The PP is awful with Shannon on the point, they might as well be at even strength.

Based on what happened in the last half of the game, Cheechoo may well find himself in the press box. Which I don't really get -- he made two bad turnovers, but so did everyone in the Sens' lineup, basically -- but there you have it.

One of Cheechoo or Shannon will sit for Donovan, tho', for sure. Clouston seems to have a lot of faith in Shannon -- perhaps based on what he did for him last year, in both Bingo and OTT. Based on that, I don't think we'll see Shannon sit for long.

And LOL Picard is not off to Bingo, as someone mentioned above. A brutal game for him (and Carkner), but that's gonna happen when you have your 5/6 guys playing 3/4. I'm soooo excited for when Kuba returns and all of a sudden we have options.

rooneypoo wrote:Based on what happened in the last half of the game, Cheechoo may well find himself in the press box. Which I don't really get -- he made two bad turnovers, but so did everyone in the Sens' lineup, basically -- but there you have it.

One of Cheechoo or Shannon will sit for Donovan, tho', for sure. Clouston seems to have a lot of faith in Shannon -- perhaps based on what he did for him last year, in both Bingo and OTT. Based on that, I don't think we'll see Shannon sit for long.

And LOL Picard is not off to Bingo, as someone mentioned above. A brutal game for him (and Carkner), but that's gonna happen when you have your 5/6 guys playing 3/4. I'm soooo excited for when Kuba returns and all of a sudden we have options.

Ya, I was gonna say that about Cheechoo and Shannon. When it comes down to it Shannon can do no wrong and it looks like Cheechoo is a guy that can do no right... too bad too because Cheechoo was getting the chances and playing well.

If they lose on Saturday nigth with Cheechoo out and Shannon in... that's going to be on Clouston. I 100% put tonights game on Clouston's shoulders. He broke the first rule of any team, you dont mess with success and you dont fix what's not broken... he did.

I don't really care about the outcome, I htink the fact we didn't play for 5 days kinda rusted a few players, Picard and Carkner had off nights and if that happens once or twice in a season I don't really mind.
The team is a WIProgress and it;'s nice to see Spezza climbing the ladder of eliteness and having a goalie who is elite in my books.

N4L wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:Based on what happened in the last half of the game, Cheechoo may well find himself in the press box. Which I don't really get -- he made two bad turnovers, but so did everyone in the Sens' lineup, basically -- but there you have it.

One of Cheechoo or Shannon will sit for Donovan, tho', for sure. Clouston seems to have a lot of faith in Shannon -- perhaps based on what he did for him last year, in both Bingo and OTT. Based on that, I don't think we'll see Shannon sit for long.

And LOL Picard is not off to Bingo, as someone mentioned above. A brutal game for him (and Carkner), but that's gonna happen when you have your 5/6 guys playing 3/4. I'm soooo excited for when Kuba returns and all of a sudden we have options.

Ya, I was gonna say that about Cheechoo and Shannon. When it comes down to it Shannon can do no wrong and it looks like Cheechoo is a guy that can do no right... too bad too because Cheechoo was getting the chances and playing well.

If they lose on Saturday nigth with Cheechoo out and Shannon in... that's going to be on Clouston. I 100% put tonights game on Clouston's shoulders. He broke the first rule of any team, you dont mess with success and you dont fix what's not broken... he did.

Possibly, Shannon was playing instead of DOnovan because Spezza could have left that game with that injury. Shannon can play center, Donovan can't. Only reason I see.

N4L wrote:

Ya, I was gonna say that about Cheechoo and Shannon. When it comes down to it Shannon can do no wrong and it looks like Cheechoo is a guy that can do no right... too bad too because Cheechoo was getting the chances and playing well.

If they lose on Saturday nigth with Cheechoo out and Shannon in... that's going to be on Clouston. I 100% put tonights game on Clouston's shoulders. He broke the first rule of any team, you dont mess with success and you dont fix what's not broken... he did.

Don't know if that's fair, either. How pissed would you (and 20 others) have been if Clouston announced that Regin was ready to go but he didn't want to mess with chemistry so he was sitting him? I'm pretty sure I saw you earlier in this thread, before the game started, saying that Regin draws back in for sure. I think it's one of those scenarios were Clouston was screwed either way.

Anyway, I'd say sit Shannon over Cheechoo (and I'm a Shannon booster), if only because you have more invested in terms of having to get Cheechoo going. We've got him at $3 mil for this year and the next, and you don't want that turning into anymore of an anchor than it already is. He might never do anything for us if we mishandle him -- and I don't think he's done anything so bad as to warrant a benching. He's busting his butt off every shift; the chances are there.

PS: anyone seeing Penner, Hemsky, and Gagner taking on the Jackets right now? 5-point nights for Penner and Hemsky, each. Insane. Maybe Penner will finally start living up to that contract...

rooneypoo wrote:PS: anyone seeing Penner, Hemsky, and Gagner taking on the Jackets right now? 5-point nights for Penner and Hemsky, each. Insane. Maybe Penner will finally start living up to that contract...

14 pts now for PEnner.