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

SpezDispenser wrote:Thank you for the point Leclaire. Wildest end to a Sens game in a long, long time. Love the point, love the comeback, don't love all the aspects of the game obviously, but we could have given up easily in the first or second, but Clouston and the guys wouldn't - it's very nice to see.

Picard...pffft...wow...what a game.

Picard had a great night two goals!!! You jinxed him big time SD...LOL! LeClaire is absolutely awesome. Game saving saves. The team needs to look hard and fast at the first 40 minutes, because they were brutal. If they showed up to play, that game was not even close. Sure they showed great character and gave us pure excitement, but I have to say they left a point out there.

Now, where was the Diddling call on the Fisher pick near the end of regulation? The refs were once again terrible in this game. Neils penalty was anything but interference, just plain brutal.

Now for the good! What a game from Spezza! He showed last night why I call this kid a superstar. The end to end rushes were electric and he did pretty much everything right. Regin and A train were also very strong. Campoli and Karlsson need to be better too, but showed flashes of good play. We do need a lot more from Kovalev and Cheechoo though.

I'll take the point though. Unreal 3rd period.

PKC wrote:

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.

Yeah, you're somehow right...three own goals by Senators defensemen and that should be squarely on Clouston's shoulders.

The team came out flat, Clouston's fault. Too many men on the ice on a PK with less then a min to go, Clouston's fault (about as unacceptable a penalty is there can be at that point). Refusing to take Shannon off the point on the PP until the 3rd while it hasnt worked all year, Clouston's fault. Taking on DOnovan when they needed a lot of energy in the first two periods last night, that's on CLouston.

Leclaire is not going to be able to stop the other team from scoring 1st every night. This dates back to last year where his teams come out absolutely flat and have to fight thier way back on most nights. This will catch up to The Sens fairly quickly. Clouston better find out a way to fix this... it's not just the NYR, MTL, and Nsh games, it goes back to last year. There have been very few games where The Sens come out strong.

SpezDispenser wrote:

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.

Pretty much agree with everything except the Shannon statements. While he wasn't anything special, he at least did something with Spezza and Michalek unlike Cheechoo who sucked all night, then put the puck on one of the Preds sticks (which was the last time he played on the top line).

Umm, what did Shannon do? He has looked awful EVERY game this year. Starting to worry a bit about Clouston starting to play favorites... Shannon is getting way too many chances right now. If he is on the point on that 1st PP unit Sat night instead of Karlsson, I actually might lose it. IT DOESNT WORK. Shannon is no threat from back there and does a crappy job running that PP.

N4L wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

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.

Pretty much agree with everything except the Shannon statements. While he wasn't anything special, he at least did something with Spezza and Michalek unlike Cheechoo who sucked all night, then put the puck on one of the Preds sticks (which was the last time he played on the top line).

Umm, what did Shannon do? He has looked awful EVERY game this year. Starting to worry a bit about Clouston starting to play favorites... Shannon is getting way too many chances right now. If he is on the point on that 1st PP unit Sat night instead of Karlsson, I actually might lose it. IT DOESNT WORK. Shannon is no threat from back there and does a crappy job running that PP.

I am not sure he has been awful. He scored a beauty in the first game. He skates as fast as any player we have. I wouldn't say awful at all. He is small, sure and I do not want him on my top line (although he was better than Cheechoo last night). But he is a solid third liner, and without Kuba he is better on the power play than the majority of our defense. May not have the shot but he moves the puck well and is not a defensive liability.

beerandsens wrote:

Dash wrote:Picard on for all 3 goals against, and clearly responsible for two of them, one he put into his own net the other he turned over to Ward(?). Poor play by him. I don't see any value for him on the trade market. Don't know why Murray insisted on him as a part of the Meszaros deal, when he was on his 3rd NHL team by then.

But this IS his first bad game IMO. Might be enough to get him out of the line up but I wouldn't hold one game against him when he and Carkner have played so well together up to this point.

Remember Picard was also a healthy scratch. He hasn't had that many good games to overcome this bad game. He had two good games really.

Shannon doesnt have a point this year... when did he score? Shannon doesnt move the puck very well at all and Karlsson proved last night, aganst Tampa, and against MTL he is 100% the better option back on the point.

Shannon has had as much PP time as anyone on that team beside Spezza and Alfi and doesnt have a single point to show for it... WTF is with people and this guy. He's cute out there, that's about it, he brings nothing to this current Sens team. He isnt good enough to play on those top 3 lines, Regin took the spot they had planned for him (3rd line center) and now CLouston is trying to scramble to get him in the lineup.

Taking Donovan out last night was a mistake from the begining and just about everyone in and around The Sens said as much. You can make a point to take oiut two guys, Cheechoo and Shannon and for most of the year Cheechoo has easily been the better player.

I'll said it again, Shannon does not deserve to be in a healthy Sens lineup and Clouston is somehow finding a way to do it.

Man.. what a crazy game last night. Who were those Sens that came out flat and stupid? So many mistakes and turnovers to start the game. Kudos to Leclaire for keeping us in there and letting us crawl back. They better address that sloppy start real quick.

shabbs wrote:Man.. what a crazy game last night. Who were those Sens that came out flat and stupid? So many mistakes and turnovers to start the game. Kudos to Leclaire for keeping us in there and letting us crawl back. They better address that sloppy start real quick.

The same team that has come out flat about 1/2 the time this year and most of last year (with Clouston).

This team has a lot of character but it has to change in a big way. That's the only real concerning thing in Ottawa right now for the most part.

Coming out flat is one thing... but flat and that stupid was something I've never seen. It was unbelievable. Like the whole team had a lobotomy or something.

Shannon also has 4 shots in 5 games played... for a guy getting that much time on the PP and time on the ice in general, that's garbage. Cheechoo had that in 1 game.

There is enoguh depth in Ottawa that they do not need Shannon unless injuries occure. He is actually the most useless forward to The Sens right now and probably their team in general.

Too small to be a 4th line player, not good enough to play on the top line, and there are better players all around him. Seriously, besides a 20 games stretch last year during a crappy season where he and about 2 other things were little bright spots, what has he done?

He earned his one way deal last year, great, he doesnt deserve to be in that lineup. He brings nothing. No scoring, no energy, nothing.

shabbs wrote:Coming out flat is one thing... but flat and that stupid was something I've never seen. It was unbelievable. Like the whole team had a lobotomy or something.

I seriosuly put a lot of that on CLouston and taking out Donovan. That guy did everything to get back into the lineup and more than needed to stay in, then he gets taken out and a guy like Shannon (whos done Diddle all) gets top PP mins and top line duty... are you kidding?

Players notice this kind of stuff and this absoutely effected thier play, no doubt in my mind about that. Clouston has to be held accountable just as much as everyone else on that team.

N4L wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Dono gets the short end of the stick all the time. He'll be fine. He'll suck it up and wait for his turn again. It's too bad because everyone loved that 4th line. What is Shannon gonna do down there anyway right?

Shannon better get a friggin hat trick tonight because he doesnt deserve to stay in over Donovan.

That's still 100% the case. Said that before the game even started so this isnt 2nd guessing on my part.

That third period was the most entertaining period of hockey I have ever seen. To tie it up with less than 2 seconds on the clock. Priceless!

You really saw the Ottawa Senators last night. Their capacity for absolute stinkers, as well as their resiliency to come back.

Full value last night. Thanks for the duckets Clutchie. Have any more furniture to move?

Donovan is even out producing the guy with about 50% less ice time while playing an very important role on that 4th line. Im actually really pissed about this especially after last night and how poorly the team came out.

I would say that Donovan is doubling Shannon's production but you cant double nothing.

They better be ready for Boston on Saturday... cuz that kind of humpy bumpy is gonna get us slaughtered.

beedub wrote:That third period was the most entertaining period of hockey I have ever seen. To tie it up with less than 2 seconds on the clock. Priceless!

You really saw the Ottawa Senators last night. Their capacity for absolute stinkers, as well as their resiliency to come back.

Full value last night. Thanks for the duckets Clutchie. Have any more furniture to move?

Unreal to watch. Full value for the price of that ticket last night.

shabbs wrote:They better be ready for Boston on Saturday... cuz that kind of humpy bumpy is gonna get us slaughtered.

I think they will be ready for sure because that is another team playing desperate hockey. Nothing tougher to be prepared for then a hard working team that is going to come at ya with everything they have.

With the call ups and guys trying to find and keep a spot in Boston like Marchand and Paille, you can bet they give The Sens everything they can handle.

shabbs wrote:Man.. what a crazy game last night. Who were those Sens that came out flat and stupid? So many mistakes and turnovers to start the game. Kudos to Leclaire for keeping us in there and letting us crawl back. They better address that sloppy start real quick.

Every single game that we've played this year the Sens have come out looking god awful in the first 5 minutes of the game. Yesterday, they come out looking ok in the first 3 minutes and then just completely lose it. I don't know when the last time was that we played a bad game like that, everything was just going horribly horribly wrong. Picard is a detriment to this team. I can't believe after the 2nd horrible turnover he had right in front of our net (the first resulting in the 1st goal) that Clouston kept him out there, it was only after his 4th blatant turnover that he took him out of the game for good. I've never seen anyone have such a horrible game, and not learn from his mistakes. He wasn't being cautious at all, he just kept giving the puck away, very very odd.

Seriously though, I didn't think we'd even score in that game, I couldn't watch anymore, it was too painful. Then I turn the TV back on at 17:10 of the 3rd and see that we've scored. I couldn't believe it and then BOOM! Bring it on! The boys were just flying out there. That was a heroic comeback from them, especially to do it all in the 3rd period, I was just stunned. It's been a long time since we've seen our boys come together like that and nearly win the game after being down and out for so long. I have to give them props for that. I went through every emotion possible last night, as we all did I'm sure. It's really too bad we took that penalty in OT because I'm sure we could have put it away.

Volchenkov and Phillips are superstars again this year, I'm so happy to see them back to their old selves again. Even better then they have ever been. Very exciting stuff.

Spezza was just unbelievable in the 3rd yesterday! WOW! I can't say enough about his play, he's really turning the corner.

I hope we can bring the momentum of the 3rd period of last night into Saturday's game.